Spaceflight’s chemically powered space tug heads for launch

Spaceflight shipped its Sherpa-LTC2 orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) Aug. 10 to Cape Canaveral in Florida, where it will make a second attempt to debut the chemically powered space tug on a SpaceX launch. The Seattle-based company’s first Sherpa-LTC, which has more powerful thrusters for dropping satellites off in specific orbits post-launch faster than the other tugs it has deployed, leaked propellant in December after integrating with SpaceX equipment at Cape Canaveral. That led to SpaceX dropping the OTV from a Falcon 9 rideshare mission in January, forcing Spaceflight to find alternative launches for 10 cubesats set to hitch a ride on it. Benchmark Space Systems provided the non-toxic propulsion subsystems for both OTVs. The upcoming SpaceX launch will be the first time Benchmark’s Halcyon Avant bi-propellant thrusters have flown in space. Spaceflight CEO Curt Blake said Sherpa-LTC2 has “gone through all kinds of checks to get things right” ahead of its launch in September. Ahead of its four-to-five-day journey via truck from Seattle to Cape Canaveral, the OTV was integrated with a payload for Boeing’s Varuna Technology Demonstration Mission (Varuna-TDM). The demonstrator aims to test V-band communications for a proposed constellation of 147 non-geostationary broadband satellites.

“Potential customers and industry partners will have the opportunity to participate in preliminary evaluations of this service, which is intended to provide unprecedented levels of connectivity across the globe to government and commercial customers,” a Boeing spokesperson said.

California-based Astro Digital designed and built the payload, and booked the launch from Spaceflight on behalf of Boeing for what will be a dedicated mission. Astro Digital also provided the command and control system for Spaceflight’s Sherpa-LTC2.

SpaceX is slated to launch the OTV as part of a mission to deploy a batch of Starlink broadband satellites that Spaceflight expects will launch to low Earth orbit this fall.

If the mission goes according to plan, the Sherpa-LTC2 will deploy from Falcon 9 around 310 kilometers above the Earth, from where the OTV will ignite and transport its customer payload to a 1,000-kilometer low Earth orbit.

Frayed SpaceX relationship

Spaceflight has relied on SpaceX launches to deploy its expanding line of next-generation space tugs.

The first of these was a Sherpa-FX, which has no propulsion, that made its debut as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-1’s rideshare mission in January 2021

SpaceX’s Transporter-2 mission then deployed a Sherpa-FX2 and a Sherpa-LTE — Spaceflight’s first OTV with electric propulsion — later that year in June.

After the Sherpa-LTC was removed from SpaceX’s Transporter 3 flight in January 2022, Spaceflight had planned to launch a Sherpa-FX on its next rideshare flight in April.

However, SpaceX decided to remove the tug from its Transporter 4 mission following concerns about environmental factors affecting the satellites installed on the OTV.

About a week later, SpaceX said it would no longer work with Spaceflight after currently manifested missions.

Blake declined to discuss Spaceflight’s relationship with SpaceX, or what would be its last OTV to fly with the company.

To broaden its options, Spaceflight announced Aug. 8 an agreement to launch future space tugs on Arianespace’s Vega launch vehicles, including its next-generation Vega C rocket.
Spaceflight said it signed a deal to access Vega with Italy’s SAB Launch Services — which also provides launch services on other European launchers — to cover launches starting as soon as next year.

Blake said Spaceflight is “very close to identifying specifics” for the customers and Vega missions that would use Sherpa, with the first launch likely around the end of 2023 or early 2024.

Spaceflight and SAB are also partnering to offer customers access to shared integration and storage facilities across Europe and the United States.

Blake said Spaceflight is talking to “a number of” other launch providers, and “getting close to finalizing deals to launch OTVs on various launch vehicles.”

Growing space tug family

Meanwhile, Spaceflight has been working through its remaining manifest with SpaceX to develop its space tug product line.

In May 2022, the company debuted Sherpa-AC (attitude control), a version for hosting payloads, on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 mission.

SpaceX is slated to launch a Spaceflight space tug in mid-2023 when it is set to deploy a Sherpa EScape (Sherpa-ES), which is designed to swing around the moon to deliver payloads in geostationary orbit.

According to Blake, its next OTV to fly could be the initial Sherpa-LTC that is under refurbishment.

“It’s a possibility,” he said, “we’ve got some customers that want to go, and we’re trying to find the capacity right now.”

A large portion of those are new vehicles, he added.

China could shift to fully reusable super heavy-launcher in wake of Starship

China’s launch vehicle makers appear to be designing a fully reusable version of the Long March 9 super heavy-lift rocket needed for future megaprojects. The emergence of plans for new reusable methane-liquid oxygen launch vehicles to be ready for 2035 suggests that China is looking to make significant changes to its space transportation plans. China’s government last year signaled approval for the continued development of a super heavy-lift launcher, known as the Long March 9. The long-planned, expendable launcher is planned to be operational by 2030, in time to facilitate Chinese megaprojects including the International Lunar Research Station. The giant rocket will consist of three stages and four side boosters, with the first stage and boosters using a kerosene and liquid oxygen propellant mix. However, a new concept for a fully reusable two-stage launcher has now been presented in a recent public lecture (viewable here) by Long Lehao, a veteran chief designer of the Long March rocket series. The first stage of the 10.6-meter-diameter launcher would be powered by 26 clustered 200-ton-thrust methalox engines. It would be capable of carrying 150 tons of payload to Low Earth orbit, 65 tons to geosynchronous transfer orbit, or 50 tons to trans-lunar injection. Long, a senior official who frequently presented updates on China’s space activities, revealed that the new launches are to be ready by 2035, and likely developed in parallel to the expendable version.

A Long March 5, currently China's largest rocket, launches the Chang'e-5 lunar sample return mission Nov. 23, 2020. Credit: CNSA

The largest variant, apparently including a third stage, would have a length of 110 meters and a takeoff mass of 4,122 tons.

The concepts would be a dramatic departure from both the expendable model of the Long March 9 and a version with a reusable first stage presented last year, with fully reusability now a goal. The frequent change in concepts however also suggests China’s plans are somewhat in flux.

The presentation, made in July, comes shortly ahead of first orbital test flights for the expendable Space Launch System and SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship.

Methane-liquid oxygen offers advantages in performance and reduces issues of soot formation and coking for purposes of reusability. The plans follow the trend of SpaceX, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance in switching to the fuel.

It also follows a smaller two-stage methane-liquid oxygen launcher concept, apparently drawing on SpaceX’s Starship, presented by Wang Xiaojun, president of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).

The apparent switch to methalox appears sudden. China’s propulsion institutes, under the state-owned conglomerate the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), have however long been working on methane engines, making a change of plans somewhat feasible.

A smaller five-meter-diameter reusable rocket presented by Long could potentially be intended to replace a number of aging hypergolic rockets, as well as more recent kerosene-fueled Long March rockets which have become operational over the last decade.

Chinese commercial launch companies Landspace and iSpace have been developing methane-liquid oxygen launchers in recent years, possibly with help of military-civil fusion national strategy which facilitates transfer of restricted technologies.

Landspace is set to attempt its first launch on the methalox Zhuque-2 in the near future from Jiuquan spaceport. Competitor iSpace is also preparing to conduct hop tests with a methalox first stage test article for its reusable Hyperbola-2 rocket at Jiuquan.
Long March 9 evolution

While various figures have been published, the original, expendable Long March 9 is expected to be around 103 meters long, feature a 10-meter-diameter core and have a mass at liftoff of 4,140 metric tons, and be capable of lifting 140 tons to Low Earth orbit or 50 tons to trans-lunar injection.

Dual nozzle 500 ton-thrust kerosene-liquid oxygen (YF-130) engines will power the first stage and boosters, 220-ton-thrust liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen staged combustion cycle (YF-90) engines for the second stage, with significant progress already made on both. Vacuum-optimized hydrolox engines would power the third stage.

The reusable first stage version presented in 2021 would switch to a first stage using 16 clustered 360-ton-thrust kerolox engines and no side boosters. 120-ton-thrust hydrolox engines would be used for the second and third stages.

The largest variant of the Long March 9 in Long’s new lecture featuring the fully reusable concepts would have a 10.6-meter-diameter, a length of 110 meters and takeoff mass of 4,122 tons, matching the capabilities of the earlier plans.

A more economical, reusable version of the Long March 9 could be ready to support a proposed space-based solar power program in geostationary orbit.

China is also developing a three-stage heavy-lift rocket designed to be capable of sending Chinese astronauts to the moon. A two-stage version for low Earth orbit could have its first flight in 2026.

NASA releases first color image from James Webb Space Telescope

A deep field of distant galaxies, some dating back to the first billion years after the Big Bang, is the first full-color image to come from the James Webb Space Telescope. The image, released at a White House event July 11 and called “Webb’s First Deep Field,” is a sneak preview of a broader set of early release observations that NASA and its European and Canadian partners on JWST plan to publish July 12. The White House event, attended by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, was announced with less than 24 hours’ notice. The image shows a galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723 about 4.5 billion light-years away. The cluster acts as a gravitational lens, bringing into view far more distant galaxies, some of which appear in the image as arcs. “We’re looking back more than 13 billion years,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at the event. The NASA statement accompanying the image release didn’t give specifics on the more distant galaxies visible in the image, which involved 12.5 hours of images taken at several wavelengths. The Big Bang took place an estimated 13.8 billion years ago, meaning those distant galaxies date back to when the universe was less than a billion years old. The detail in the image comes from a very tiny part of the sky. “If you held a grain of sand on the tip of your finger at arm’s length, that is the part of the universe you’re seeing. Just one little speck of the universe,” Nelson said.

Biden appeared pleased by what he saw and by the performance of JWST. “It symbolizes the relentless spirit of American ingenuity and it shows what we can achieve, what more we can discover,” he said of the space telescope, which finally launched last December after billions of dollars of cost overruns and years of schedule delays. JWST is now working better than expected at the Earth-sun L-2 point 1.5 million kilometers away. “These images are going to remind the world that America can do big things.”

“This telescope is one of humanity’s great engineering achievements,” added Harris. Both she and Biden emphasized the role of international cooperation in JWST’s development, including how, according to Harris, “a scientific endeavor can build upon the international rules and norms that govern our cooperation in space.”

The White House event started more than an hour later because, Biden said, he was busy preparing for an upcoming trip to the Middle East. Media were ushered out of the room and the webcast ended after only about 10 minutes.

Scientists and others were immediately impressed, though, with the image. “This is just a first glimpse of what Webb can do,” said Macarena Garcia Marin, ESA instrument scientist for a mid-infrared instrument on JWST called MIRI, in an ESA statement. “While we are truly in awe today of Webb’s first deep field, I can’t help but think of what images and science results are just around the corner in the many years to come.”

“The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope unveiled this evening is an incredible preview of its remarkable technology and scientific power,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), chair of the House Science Committee, in a statement that featured bipartisan praise of the spacecraft from the committee’s leadership. “As a steadfast supporter of Webb and its mission, I am elated to see this image today — an image that has been 20 years of hard work in the making.”

The deep field image was originally scheduled to be released July 12 with the other early release observations. NASA and its partners will still release those other observations at that event. The other observations, announced by NASA July 8, include the Carina Nebula and Southern Ring Nebula within our own galaxy and the galaxy group Stephan’s Quintet about 290 million light-years away. NASA will also release spectra of the exoplanet WASP-96b, a “hot Jupiter” planet orbiting close to its star.

OneWeb to resume launches in fourth quarter

OneWeb, the broadband megaconstellation company whose launch plans were disrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, expects to resume launches late this year, an executive said June 23. Speaking at the Fourth Summit for Space Sustainability by the Secure World Foundation and the U.K. Space Agency, Maurizio Vanotti, vice president of space infrastructure development and partnerships at OneWeb, said new launch agreements with SpaceX and NewSpace India Ltd. (NSIL) would allow the company to launch the remaining satellites of its first-generation system by the second quarter of 2023. “Our plan is to be back on the launch pad in quarter four, after the summer, and to complete deployment of the constellation by quarter two next year,” he said. It will take several months after that final launch for the satellites to move to their operational orbits, he added. “We’re going to be in service with global coverage, 24/7, by the end of next year,” he said. OneWeb once expected to have its constellation complete by the end of this year using Soyuz rockets. Its plans were upended, though, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions. OneWeb formally suspended launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome after rejecting conditions imposed by Roscosmos that included no military use of the satellites and divestment of the British government’s stake in the company.

OneWeb will use India's GSLV Mark 3 and SpaceX's Falcon 9 to resume launches of its broadband satellites in the fourth quarter this year, a company executive said June 23. Credit: ISRO

OneWeb announced less than three weeks later a launch agreement with SpaceX, but neither company disclosed details about the agreement. Notably, Vanotti said that the agreement, negotiated over less than three days, is for a “few Falcon 9 launches.” The companies had previously declined to say even how many launches were included in the agreement.

OneWeb announced April 20 that it signed an agreement with NSIL, the commercial arm of the Indian space agency ISRO, for launches of OneWeb satellites. Vanotti confirmed that NSIL will launch those satellites on the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark 3, the most powerful version of the GSLV but one that has not launched since 2019. He did not disclose how many launches that contract includes.

“Considering the geopolitical situation, I would say that we’ve had an incredible turnaround with great support from both SpaceX and the Indian space agency,” he said.

Commitment to space sustainability

Vanotti appeared on a panel with Julie Zoller, head of global regulatory affairs for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband constellation, where both emphasized their commitment to space sustainability.

“Space sustainability is critical for Project Kuiper. It’s been a priority from day one,” Zoller said, citing as examples the company’s plans to use narrow tolerances for the orbits of the satellites and to actively deorbit them at the end of their lives.

“We take our responsibility for the space commons extremely seriously,” Vanotti said, emphasizing the company’s commitment to reliability for its satellites to ensure they can deorbit at the end of their lives. The high orbit of the OneWeb satellites means they will not reenter within 25 years, as recommended by current orbital debris mitigation guidelines, with atmospheric drag alone.

OneWeb has also worked to ensure its satellites can be removed from orbit by other spacecraft should their onboard propulsion fail. However, Zoller said there were no similar plans for Project Kuiper satellites, in part because those satellites are in lower orbits of between 590 and 630 kilometers. “We’re not using a third party to do active debris removal. We are the active debris remover,” she said, claiming the satellites can deorbit within 10 years even without propulsion.

Both also said they were working on another element of space sustainability, reducing the brightness of their satellites to limit their interference to astronomy. For Amazon, that includes a test with two prototype satellites that the company plans to launch as soon as late this year on an ABL Space Systems RS1 rocket. Zoller said one of the two satellites will be equipped with a sunshade to block sunlight from reflecting off parts of the satellite, similar to the “VisorSat” concept SpaceX used for some of its Starlink satellites.

“We can compare and contrast the difference between a shielded and an unshielded satellite in our very first launch,” she said. “We’re excited to get data on that and to find out what we can do next.”

Vanotti said OneWeb keeps in contact with astronomical groups in the United States and United Kingdom, and in the last year started an “active observation campaign” to monitor the brightness of its satellites. Those observations help refine a model of the satellites. “We’re going to be using this tool in order to optimize the design of the future generation of our satellites,” he said, “to have a lower impact on dark skies.”

NASA audit reveals massive overruns in SLS mobile launch platform

A new mobile launch platform that Bechtel is building for NASA will cost up to four times as much as originally planned and could push back the first launch of an upgraded version of the Space Launch System to the late 2020s, a NASA audit concluded. The audit by NASA’s Office of Inspector General, published June 9, was sharply critical of both Bechtel and, to a lesser extent, NASA for cost overruns and delays in work on Mobile Launcher (ML) 2, which will be used for launches of the Block 1B version of the SLS starting with the Artemis 4 mission. The larger Block 1B cannot be accommodated on the existing mobile launch platform for SLS. NASA awarded Bechtel a $383 million cost-plus contract in June 2019 to both design and build ML-2 for delivery to NASA in March 2023. That contract grew to $460.3 million by March because of “government-driven changes” that also pushed back delivery of the platform to January 2024. The project has since suffered significant overruns and delays, though, revealed in the audit. As of February, Bechtel’s estimate of the cost at completion of ML-2 has increased to $960.1 million, or 2.5 times the original contract value. That estimate projects completing ML-2 in October 2025, after which more than a year of testing and other preparations is expected before it is ready for the Artemis 4 launch.

An illustration of the Mobile Launcher (ML) 2, designed to accommodate the Block 1B version of SLS. A NASA audit found serious cost overruns and schedule delays in the development of ML-2 by Bechtel. Credit: NASA/David Zeiters

However, the audit noted that a joint confidence level analysis, which NASA uses to estimate the probability of completing a project at a set cost and schedule, projected only a 3.9% chance of completing ML-2 at the revised budget and schedule. Using the 70% confidence level that is the NASA standard for project estimates, an independent review team commissioned by the Kennedy Space Center concluded ML-2 would cost nearly $1.5 billion and not be delivered until November 2027. That would push the launch of Artemis 4, tentatively projected for 2027, to no earlier than the end of 2028.

The audit placed much of the blame for the overruns on Bechtel. More than 70% of the cost increase and 60% of the schedule delay “is related to poor contractor performance,” the audit stated.

“According to both NASA and Bechtel management, Bechtel underestimated the overall scope and complexity of designing and building the ML-2 at the onset of the project,” the report stated, significantly underestimating costs for equipment and supplies as well as labor hours. Bechtel also struggled with the weight of ML-2, with the original target weight of about 5.4 million kilograms exceeded by more than 400,000 kilograms as of January.

NASA also contributed to a lesser extent, the audit found. A lack of finalized requirements for the Exploration Upper Stage, used by the SLS Block 1B, contributed to some of the initial cost growth. NASA also “struggled to motivate and improve Bechtel’s performance using the award fee structure,” giving Bechtel nearly half of the $16.8 million in award fees it was eligible for through September 2021 despite problems with ML-2’s development.

Bechtel took issue with the audit’s conclusions. “Unfortunately, the Inspector General’s report does not provide a complete picture of what led to the current situation, and we strongly disagree with the report’s overarching conclusions on the primary causes of the cost increases,” a Bechtel spokesperson said in a statement to SpaceNews. The company had previously declined to comment on the project.

The company argued the audit “does not appreciate the significance of the impacts of necessary design changes” needed to support SLS Block 1B or the effects of the pandemic. It also claimed that the audit “wrongly attributes significant cost increases to poor project performance, including management of the mobile launcher weight,” which the company says it has resolved with NASA. The audit stated that NASA found additional margin in the crawler-transporter that carries the mobile launch platform, increasing its maximum capacity to just above the revised ML-2 weight.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson expressed his frustration with ML-2 at a Senate hearing May 3. “Because Bechtel underbid on a cost-plus contract in order to, what appears, to get it,” he said, “they couldn’t perform. And NASA is stuck.”

Nelson said at the hearing that while he met with the chief executive of Bechtel, there was little the agency could do about the costs because of the nature of the cost-plus contract. “There’s no way, under the contract, since it’s a cost-plus contract, that we can do anything but eat it,” he said. “And that’s not right.”

Nelson used the agency’s experience with ML-2 to advocate for greater use of fixed-price contracts. The audit stated that NASA is investigating what parts of the ML-2 contract can be converted to a fixed-price structure.

“At this stage, it is too early to tell what impact these efforts will have on the ML-2 project’s cost and schedule,” the audit stated of overall recovery efforts for the contract. “In particular, while converting portions of the ML-2 contract to a fixed-price would reduce NASA’s risk and increase transparency, it is unclear whether Bechtel would agree to this approach nor is it clear if NASA could afford the high costs associated with this contract structure.”