Small Space News Story Roundup 77

Because small news is better than no news. Or something like that

SpaceX Pauses Falcon 9 Missions 

This isn't even big news here on the Space Coast but showed up on some of the space news sites earlier in the week. 

On Monday, February 2nd, SpaceX had their first launch of the year from Vandenberg Space Force Base, a rather common Starlink satellite launch, but the upper stage had a malfunction after a nominal deployment of the 25 satellites payload into the right orbit.

After liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:47:11 a.m. PST (10:47:11 a.m. EST / 1547:11 UTC), the rocket flew on a south-southwesterly trajectory to deliver 25 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit.
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“During today’s Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites, the second stage experienced an off-nominal condition during preparation for the deorbit burn,” SpaceX wrote in a social media post. “The vehicle then performed as designed to successfully passivate the stage. The first two [Merlin vacuum engine] burns were nominal and safely deployed all 25 Starlink satellites to their intended orbit.”

The issue is that the upper stage was supposed to make a guided, destructive reentry into an unoccupied area (probably open ocean) and not having the second stage operating properly put that into question. Instead, the second stage remained in a low-altitude orbit and made an unguided reentry later in the week.

SpaceX took the prudent step of putting coming launches on hold until the conditions are well understood. As SpaceX said in a statement, “Teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight.” 

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 team in Florida is now focusing on preparations for launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station, targeted for no earlier than February 11. The schedule for Crew-12 will hinge on how quickly SpaceX can complete the investigation into Monday’s upper stage malfunction. You can bet that NASA will be rather interested in seeing that data before they'll allow that launch. 

A interesting side note is that this Booster 1071 on its 31st launch. Nearly 8-1/2 minutes after launch B1071 successfully landed on drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” or OCISLY.

Amazon books another ten launches with SpaceX

... so that they can keep their FCC approval to complete their satellite constellation. 

Back in mid-January, in a post about Amazon booking an Ariane 64 launch to put up a batch of their Leo satellites, Commenter jeff d posted a reminder of the way the FCC regulates these efforts:

Amazon LEO (Kuipier) is required by FCC to have 50% of their 3,200 satellites deployed by July 2026. Doable (by SpaceX production and launch) but the Amazon team / pace does not seem up to it. Likey get an extension. Still, would love to see them actually do it (or even just try) and additionally give some competition to SpaceX above what the Viasat Marketing department dreams of. 

That's what this is all about. Amazon is demonstrating to the FCC, "we're trying as hard as we can" to get that 50% into orbit.

The deal, which neither Amazon nor SpaceX previously announced, was disclosed in an Amazon filing with the Federal Communications Commission on January 30, seeking an extension of a July deadline to deploy half of its Amazon Leo constellation. Amazon has launched only 180 satellites of its planned 3,232-satellite constellation, rendering the July deadline unattainable. Amazon asked the FCC to extend the July deadline by two years or waive it entirely, but did not request an extension to the 2029 deadline for full deployment of the constellation.

“Near-term shortage in launch capacity”… In the filing with the FCC, Amazon said it faces a “near-term shortage of launch capacity” and is securing additional launch options “wherever available.” That effort includes working with SpaceX, whose Starlink constellation directly competes with Amazon Leo. Amazon bypassed SpaceX entirely when it made its initial orders for more than 80 Amazon Leo launches with United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. But Amazon later reserved three launches with SpaceX that flew last year and has now added 10 more SpaceX launches to its manifest. So far, Amazon has only launched satellites on ULA’s soon-to-retire Atlas V rocket and SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Amazon has not started flying on the new Vulcan, Ariane 6, or New Glenn rockets, which comprise the bulk of the constellation’s launch bookings. That could change next week with the first launch of Amazon Leo satellites on Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket.

At the risk of sounding too much like a SpaceX Fanboi, whenever I hear about Starlink competitors doing things like this I kind of shake my head and say, "who you gonna call?" As I pointed out in the early January post, "The 10 biggest rocket companies," SpaceX not only has more launches than any other American launch provider, they had more launches than every company in every country combined. You need to get some satellites up ASAP for some emergency need. Who you gonna call? There's a lot of companies I like and that I think are good, who are pushing at getting even better, but, seriously, who has the best track record? Who you gonna call? 

Obligatory pretty picture of a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, SLC-4E. Same launch pad, different mission, different time of day. Image credit: SpaceX