GoKawiilWelcome to Edition 9.03 of the Rocket Report! SpaceX counted down all the way to T-0 on Thursday evening in South Texas before a handful of Raptor engines decided not to light at ignition of the rocket. It is not clear whether the vehicle can be worked on at the pad, or whether Starship will need to be de-stacked before this can occur. In any case, a few days delay beats a significant issue in flight.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Vikram-1 rocket gets a launch date. The debut launch attempt by Skyroot Aerospace of its Vikram-1 rocket is now set for July 18, at 11:30 am local time in India. This will be the first time a commercial rocket developed in India attempts to reach orbit. Designed to carry small satellites weighing up to 350 kg to low-Earth orbit, Vikram-1 is targeting a 450 km orbit at a 60-degree inclination.
A major step for India … The new rocket will carry technology demonstration payloads from Grahaa Space, Cosmoserve, DCubed, and Skyroot’s own SCOPE, along with Cosmos Diamonds’ artwork “Cosmic Bloom” and a micro-art piece. “We have done everything that could be done to test Vikram-1 on ground,” said Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder and chief executive of Skyroot, in an emailed news release. “We are eager to see how Vikram-1 performs in real flight environment for the first time. This is our first test flight, and we will be getting valuable data from it.”
Japan conducts rocket landing test. Japan’s space agency has conducted a test flight of its experimental reusable rocket in a northern part of the country, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation reports. JAXA said the rocket took off and landed as planned after reaching a height of about 11 meters. The flight lasted about 40 seconds and included a 16-meter horizontal translation relative to the ground before landing.