Report on Rockets: Russia’s rocket engine dilemma; the 300th ISS launch

Welcome to the Rocket Report’s Edition 8.10! Readers, if all goes as planned, four astronauts will be leaving low-Earth orbit for the first time in over 53 years and circumnavigating the far side of the Moon in less than six months. Indeed, the exorbitant cost of the Space Launch System rocket, the intricacy of new commercial landers, and a dire budget outlook are valid reasons to doubt NASA’s long-term plans for the Artemis lunar program. But for many of us born after the Apollo moon landings, this is the moment we have been waiting for all our lives. It will be here soon.

North Korean solid rocket motors are fired. The Associated Press reports that North Korea announced Tuesday that it had successfully completed the last ground test of a solid-fuel rocket engine for a long-range ballistic missile as part of its most recent development toward an arsenal that could seriously threaten the continental United States. According to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, the test that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un witnessed on Monday was the ninth of the solid rocket motor’s carbon fiber construction. It was able to generate 1,971 kilonewtons (443,000 pounds) of thrust, which was more powerful than previous models.

Flexibility and mobility are dots. Liquid-fueled missiles, which have traditionally made up the majority of North Korea’s stockpile, are inferior to solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. Solid rocket motors are simpler to hide, move, and launch when needed. They can also be kept in storage for longer. According to North Korean state media, the Hwasong-20 missile will use the new solid rocket motor. According to the AP, some experts predict that North Korea will test another ICBM early this year to demonstrate its military might before a significant ruling party congress in early 2026.

An analysis of the Ars Technica Rocket.

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Andøya’s astrobiotic eyes. According to European Spaceflight, a term sheet detailing the parameters of a Launch Site Agreement has been signed by Norwegian spaceport operator Andøya Space and US-based lunar logistics company Astrobotic. When the deal is finalized, it will make it easier for Astrobotic to fly its Xodiac lander testbed from the Andøya Space facilities. Masten Space Systems first created the Xodiac vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket to mimic landings on Mars and the Moon. Astrobotic purchased Masten’s assets and intellectual property, including the Xodiac vehicle, when it declared bankruptcy in 2022.

On the other side of the pond. From Mojave, California, the tiny Xodiac rocket has so far operated low-altitude atmospheric hops, ascending as high as 500 meters (1,640 feet). “Several” Xodiac flight campaigns from Andøya Space facilities on the Norwegian coast are made possible by the agreement between Astrobotic and Andøya. Astrobotic CEO John Thornton stated, “Xodiac’s presence at Andøya represents a meaningful step toward delivering dependable, rapid, and cost-effective testing and demonstration capabilities to the European space market.”.

Construction on Ursa Major begins in Colorado. The Navy’s Standard Missile fleet is among the large-scale solid rocket motors that Ursa Major announced it has begun testing and qualifying on a new 400-acre site on Wednesday, according to Defense Daily. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the new location in Weld County, Colorado, north of Denver, will be prepared for testing. For both present and future missile systems, Ursa Major will be able to perform full-scale static firings as well as drop and temperature storage tests.

SRM options are being sought. The new facility will support national and missile defense programs, according to Ursa Major. The company offers solid rocket motors (SRMs) for missiles such as the Stinger, Javelin, and air-defense interceptors with diameters ranging from 2 to 22 inches. Ursa Major wants to become one of the government’s main suppliers of SRMs, joining industry heavyweights Northrop Grumman, L3Harris, and recent arrival Anduril. Ursa Major CEO Dan Jablonsky said in a statement, “This facility represents a major step forward in our ability to deliver qualified SRMs that are scalable, flexible, and ready to meet the evolving threat environment.”. Warfighters will have the quality and quantity of SRMs required to meet mission demands thanks to this blatant demonstration of our dedication and capacity to quickly develop and grow the nation’s solid rocket motor industrial base. “,”.

The first satellites in a military megaconstellation are launched by the Falcon 9. On a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the first 21 satellites in a constellation that might serve as the foundation for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile-defense shield were successfully launched from California on Wednesday, according to Ars. Before releasing the 21 military-owned satellites to start a weeks-long process of activations and checkouts, the Falcon 9 departed from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and traveled south over the Pacific Ocean until it reached an orbit over the poles.

The first of many dots. At an altitude of about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers), these 21 satellites will propel themselves into their final orbit. The Space Development Agency’s first-generation, or Tranche 1, constellation of missile-tracking and data-relay satellites will be fully built out by the Pentagon with the launch of 133 additional satellites over the course of the next nine months. For six years, military officials have strived to get to this point. During the first Trump administration, the Space Development Agency (SDA) was founded and plans were made for the first set of demonstration satellites, which launched a few years ago. The first 154 spacecraft to be put into service, including the ones launched Wednesday, were contracted for by the Pentagon in 2022. “The SDA had two goals when it was established in 2019.”. First, we needed to ensure that we could target beyond line of sight. Secondly, we needed to pace the threat, the new threat, in the missile-warning and missile-tracking domain. That has been the main focus,” stated Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo, acting director of the SDA.

Three delays occurred with another Falcon 9. For the third day in a row, SpaceX postponed Wednesday’s launch of a communications satellite from an Indonesian company, according to Spaceflight Now. Following consecutive days of weather delays at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, a launch attempt was thwarted by potential technical difficulties. A geosynchronous transfer orbit was the final destination of the Falcon 9’s Thursday night launch, which included the Boeing-built Nusantara Lima communications satellite. It’s the newest satellite from Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, an Indonesian company.

a market . that is declining. SpaceX has launched five geosynchronous communications satellites on commercial rockets this year, including this one. In 2015, 21 of these satellites—including SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Europe’s Ariane 5, Russia’s Proton, ULA’s Atlas V, and Japan’s H-IIA—were launched aboard commercial aircraft. Smaller communications satellites are today launched into low-Earth orbit using a large portion of the world’s launch capacity, mostly for broadband connectivity rather than the video broadcast market that was previously controlled by higher-altitude geosynchronous satellites.

Russia is urged by Putin to produce more rocket engines. According to Reuters, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged leaders of the aerospace sector on September 5 to continue working on the development of booster rocket engines for space launch vehicles in order to advance Russia’s longstanding standing as a space technology leader. Following days spent in China and the Russian far-eastern port of Vladivostok, Putin took a plane to Samara in southern Russia, where he visited the Kuznetsov design bureau engine manufacturing plant and spoke with industry experts.

A . that is a shell of its former self. During the visit, Russian news agencies reported that Putin stated, “It is important to consistently renew production capacity in terms of engines for booster rockets.”. And in doing so, we have to be successful competitors and actively participate in global markets in addition to meeting our own present and future needs. “Russia’s Soyuz-2 rockets, which carry Russian military satellites, crew, and cargo to the International Space Station, are powered by medium-class RD-107 and RD-108 engines manufactured at the Kuznetsov plant in Samara. Nearly 70 years ago, at the beginning of the Space Age, their designs were created. The future of Russian rocket engines with greater capacity is, at best, uncertain. After sales to the United States ended, the RD-180, Russia’s most-flown large rocket engine in the post-Cold War era, which was manufactured by Energomash, is no longer in production.

India secures a significant launch deal. A Japanese company called Astroscale, which specializes in space debris mitigation and satellite maintenance, has chosen India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to launch the small satellite ISSA-J1 into orbit in 2027. This mission is intriguing. Two sizable fragments of satellite debris will be approached by the ISSA-J1 spacecraft in orbit for imaging and inspection. The ISSA-J1 is one of several Astroscale missions that were created in collaboration with the Japanese government to test various approaches to approaching, observing, capturing, and refueling other objects in space. Astroscale and NewSpace India Limited, the commercial division of India’s space agency, signed the launch agreement.

No, ridesharing is not an option. “After carefully evaluating over ten launch service providers over the course of the previous year, taking into account technical capabilities, track record, cost, and other factors, we chose NSIL,” stated Eddie Kato, president and managing director of Astroscale Japan. For a mission like this, India’s PSLV is the ideal size. In order to align with the pieces of space debris it will approach and examine, ISSA-J1 must reach a specific orbit, which makes it unique in that it must launch on a dedicated rocket. Although rideshare launches, like those frequently carried by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, are less expensive, they travel to standard orbits that are used for a variety of satellite missions. A flight on India’s smaller PSLV would have likely been less expensive than a dedicated Falcon 9 launch. Another well-liked rocket for dedicated small satellite launches, Rocket Lab’s Electron, is not capable of meeting Astroscale’s mission requirements.

cargo from Russia headed to the ISS. Russia’s Progress MS-32 supply freighter successfully launched Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, marking the beginning of another cargo ship’s journey to humanity’s orbital outpost, according to NASASpaceflight.com. After launching on a Soyuz-2.1a rocket, the supply ship began a two-day pursuit of the ISS, reaching orbit approximately nine minutes later. Except for a few flights that failed because of rocket or spacecraft malfunctions, this was the 300th launch of an assembly, crew, or cargo mission to the ISS since 1998.

Important information, .. The Russian Zvezda service module of the space station’s aft port will receive the Progress MS-32 cargo craft on Saturday. Food, experiments, clothes, water, air, and propellant to be pumped into the space station’s onboard tanks are among the payloads on the Progress mission. Additionally, the lab’s orbit will be reboosted by the spacecraft.

Tiles made of metal? Meh. Two weeks have passed since SpaceX’s most recent Starship test flight, and engineers have identified improvements, identified problems with the ship’s heat shield, and created a draft plan for when the ship will launch again, according to Ars. The results were presented Monday at the American Astronautical Society’s Glenn Space Technology Symposium in Cleveland by Bill Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX executive responsible for build and flight reliability. The test flight proceeded “very well,” according to Gerstenmaier, but he did point out some crucial takeaways regarding the ship’s heat shield.

To this day, crunch wrap is the best. Since they would be easier to make and more resilient than ceramic tiles, we installed three metal tiles on the ship’s side to see if they would provide sufficient heat control. In essence, we were testing whether we could get by with non-ceramic tiles. They’re not, as it turns out,” Gerstenmaier remarked. “The metal tiles. wasn’t very successful. One positive aspect of the heat shield was how well a novel experimental substance worked beneath and around the tiles. “Crunch wrap,” Gerstenmaier remarked. Each tile is surrounded by what resembles wrapping paper. SpaceX is expected to use this crunch wrap material to cover additional areas of the heat shield during the upcoming Starship flight. The first flight of Starship Version 3, which will have more fuel and better engines, is now scheduled for next year, according to Gerstenmaier.

In DC, there may be an SLS compromise underway. Following two additional flights, the Trump administration is attempting to cancel NASA’s Space Launch System rocket; however, Senate Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is unwilling to comply. Is this a deadlock, then? According to some sources, the White House and Congress may not be that different on how to proceed. According to Ars, the answer is to cancel some, but not all, of the SLS rocket.

EUS, good-bye? It may be decided to forego the Exploration Upper Stage, a sizable new upper stage for the SLS rocket. NASA would be able to save billions of dollars by using commercial upper stages, like those produced by Blue Origin or United Launch Alliance, to fly on SLS rockets following NASA’s Artemis III mission. The need for NASA to complete the construction of a costly new launch tower at Kennedy Space Center in Florida would also be eliminated. There is no longer any production of the upper stage flying used on the first three SLS missions. Blue Origin has already started developing a modified New Glenn upper stage that would fit inside the SLS rocket’s shroud, according to sources who spoke to Ars.

the following three launches.

Sept. 13: Glonass-K1 No. Soyuz-2.1b. 18L | Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome | 2:30 UTC.

Sept. 13: Starlink 17-10 | Falcon 9 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 15:41 UTC.

September. 14: Falcon 9 | Cygnus NG-23 | 22:11 UTC | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, France.