Small Space News Story Roundup 21

Just a couple of smallish stories, as nothing big seems to be going on. 

Rocket Lab opens facility bought from Virgin Orbit

Remember when Virgin Orbit had their out-of-business, closeout sale back in the May/June timeframe?  There's a photo I included in a post as the closeout sale was ending that showed Virgin Orbit's main production facility.  While the products and parts in that photo were bought by Firefly Aerospace, the building itself was bought by Rocket Lab.  Today, SpaceNews reports that Rocket Lab opens this facility as an engine development center. Compare the photo in that first link to this one and with the exception of it being taken from 90 degrees to the left of the older photo, there's at least a few instantly recognizable things between the two pictures.

They state that this building will be used to produce the Rutherford and Archimedes engines used on the Electron booster.  Image credit: Rocket Lab/Austin Adams

Rocket Lab acquired the lease on the building, along with the machinery and equipment inside, for $16.1 million in a bankruptcy auction in May.  

Rocket Lab previously estimated the value of the facility and its contents at about $100 million. However, Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer, said in an interview that the biggest impact of the purchase is “de-risking” the schedule for scaling up engine production.

“Things that we were thinking we could probably get done in 12 to 18 months, well, it’s done. So really it was more of a timeline and uncertainty shrinker, if you will,” he said. “Getting stuff for 16 cents on the dollar didn’t hurt as well.”

An interesting, "I had no idea" side story here is that the City of Long Beach, CA, south of  El Lay, has made a concerted effort in recent years to attract space companies to the city, including Rocket Lab as well as Relativity Space, SpinLaunch and Vast, under an initiative called “Space Beach”.  Rex Richardson, mayor of Long Beach, thanked Rocket Lab for taking over the facility and working with the city on job fairs for former Virgin Orbit employees. “What that means is that this burgeoning space cluster we have in Long Beach is resilient,” he said.

Will the next Starship test flight be in October?

The FAA and SpaceX are apparently in agreement that SpaceX has met the 57 corrective actions that were required before a launch could happen, but that's not the holdup.  According to Reuters, quoting acting FAA Administrator Polly Trottenberg, this launch requires a blessing from the Fish and Wildlife Service.  From the FAA's standpoint, Trottenberg says a launch this month might be possible but she didn't or couldn't speak for the FWS.  

The problem is that the FWS and the FAA are getting into conflict with NASA.  Starship has been tasked by NASA to land the Artemis 3 crew on the moon in 2025 or 2026, a critical part of NASA's mission.

Delays in getting Starship ready in recent months caused NASA officials to say multiple times that they are keeping an eye on SpaceX's progress. Jim Free, the agency's associate administrator of the exploration systems development mission directorate, said in early August there is still time for SpaceX to meet NASA's Artemis 3 guidelines. But if not, he said, the agency is prepared to fly a non-landing mission for Artemis 3 and to delay the lunar touchdown to at least Artemis 4.

For his part, Elon Musk said that he thinks the chances of success in the second flight are pretty good if it doesn't blow up.  No, seriously.  

“If the engines light and the ship doesn't blow itself up … I think we've got a decent chance of reaching orbit.”

Musk said that in a keynote address on Thursday (Oct. 5) at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Baku, Azerbaijan.  He added that SpaceX does not want to "set expectations too high."

Isn't that like saying, "if it doesn't fail spectacularly, it just might work?"