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Space, Rockets, Satellites, oh my!

Chinese startup Cosmoleap has received funding for a chopstick system to catch reusable rockets:

spacenews.com

Chinese launch startup Cosmoleap secures funding for rocket featuring chopstick recovery system

HELSINKI — Chinese launch firm Cosmoleap has secured more than 100 million yuan for the development of its Yueqian reusable rocket and a recovery system inspired by SpaceX. Cosmoleap announced more…
spacenews.com spacenews.com
Article:
Cosmoleap, full name Beijing Dahang Transition Technology Co., Ltd., announced its existence and start of operations in March 2024. The company focuses on developing a low-cost, high-reliability, reusable launch vehicle. The goal is to "support satellite Internet construction," likely referring to China's megaconstellation plans.

It aims to hold a test flight of the "Yueqian" or "Leap" rocket in either 2025 or 2026. An animated video with the funding announcement indicates that the company is following a tower and "chopstick" landing method recently demonstrated for the first time by SpaceX with its Starship system.

[ . . . ]

The Yueqian methane-fueled rocket will, however, be much smaller. It will have a 4.0 meter diameter and length of 75 meters. Its payload capacity to a 1,000 km altitude orbit for constellation purposes will be 10,460 kilograms when expendable, or 6,280 kg when the first stage is recovered.

The company also plans a 126-meter-long rocket, capable of carrying 100 tons to the same orbit when expended, or 36 tons when reused. The first launch is targeted for around 2030.

Promotional video from earlier this year:


View: https://x.com/cnspaceflight/status/1813533851651891284
COSMOLEAP

<video>
 
Last edited:
mistakenot said:
Chinese startup Cosmoleap has received funding for a chopstick system to catch reusable rockets:

spacenews.com

Chinese launch startup Cosmoleap secures funding for rocket featuring chopstick recovery system

HELSINKI — Chinese launch firm Cosmoleap has secured more than 100 million yuan for the development of its Yueqian reusable rocket and a recovery system inspired by SpaceX. Cosmoleap announced more…
spacenews.com spacenews.com
Article:
Cosmoleap, full name Beijing Dahang Transition Technology Co., Ltd., announced its existence and start of operations in March 2024. The company focuses on developing a low-cost, high-reliability, reusable launch vehicle. The goal is to "support satellite Internet construction," likely referring to China's megaconstellation plans.

It aims to hold a test flight of the "Yueqian" or "Leap" rocket in either 2025 or 2026. An animated video with the funding announcement indicates that the company is following a tower and "chopstick" landing method recently demonstrated for the first time by SpaceX with its Starship system.

[ . . . ]

The Yueqian methane-fueled rocket will, however, be much smaller. It will have a 4.0 meter diameter and length of 75 meters. Its payload capacity to a 1,000 km altitude orbit for constellation purposes will be 10,460 kilograms when expendable, or 6,280 kg when the first stage is recovered.

The company also plans a 126-meter-long rocket, capable of carrying 100 tons to the same orbit when expended, or 36 tons when reused. The first launch is targeted for around 2030.

Promotional video from earlier this year:


View: https://x.com/cnspaceflight/status/1813533851651891284
COSMOLEAP

<video>
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Even as Chinese space sector optimist I am still not sold on this company. Them arriving so late on to the scene as well as requiring a lot of infrastructure for rocket with capacity beaten by their more early player.
 
It's kind of interesting how at times it feels like China is pretty aggressively copying every rocket idea from elsewhere that shows any particular success. It feels a bit scattershot with them following current front runners, rather then trying to settle on particular setups that they think would work best.
 
Quickshot0 said:
It's kind of interesting how at times it feels like China is pretty aggressively copying every rocket idea from elsewhere that shows any particular success. It feels a bit scattershot with them following current front runners, rather then trying to settle on particular setups that they think would work best.
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For whatever it is worth, it is what allow them to probably be the closest nation after USA to potentially launch reusable rocket. China immediately get to work on trying to follow Falcon-9 success. Europe, Japan, etc take a long time and only seems to come to conclusion that Falcon-9 like architecture is a way to go while taking a lot longer to accept and commit to it.

Also there is weird thing when raising fund for company in Chinese space sector that CGI imitating SpaceX product seems to be able to convince investor to invest more easily. Once they get the money the product may be radically different. For example Space Epoch release model of what look like Starship clone, but now that many years have past their product evolve to relatively unique methalox resuable rocket that do propulsive controlled splash down into ocean for recovery.

The state space program is messing around with tethered catch system rather than tower catch. That seems like the method beyond landing leg state invested into researching. I wonder if once state space program have success with this will private Space program adopt their approach?

View: https://youtu.be/XkZ2K5mX0YE?feature=shared
 
The private sector will probably go with what ever in the end seems the most reliable and reusable. So how more things are tried in that sense, the better.

And a good point that their final versions can turn out pretty different, that certainly indicates they consider their own best ideas to things as well.
 
Tasrill said:
www.scmp.com

Japanese firm aims to put wooden satellite in orbit

Sumitomo Forestry has teamed up with Kyoto University for the space project, with hopes to launch it in 2023.
www.scmp.com www.scmp.com

The future of satellites is wood. Well only maybe. It is a forestry company and a university working together to minimize the amount of metals that would be burned up in earth's upper atmosphere for pollution reasons. Though outside of the obvious question of making wood joinery that can withstand rapid hot an cold cycles, I actually wonder if that would be just trading one issue for another. Wood after all is actually better at holding up to flames then aluminum thanks to developing a char on the outside and might end up letting more of a satellite survive to hit the ocean. Though if that is even possible will depends on things we simply can't know about the wood for several years when they give specs.
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Update.
www.theverge.com

The first wooden satellite launched into space

Can wood survive space?
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
Called LignoSat, after the Latin word for wood, the satellite launched Monday night and arrived at the International Space Station Tuesday aboard a Space X Dragon cargo capsule.

...

About a month from now, the cubesat will be deployed into orbit from the ISS' Kibo module. If all goes according to plan, its onboard electronics will record and beam home key health data for the next six months.

...

Kyoto University researchers and timber company Sumitomo Forestry started working together on the space wood project in 2020. They conducted space exposure tests from the International Space Station over more than 240 days in 2022. They settled on using Hoonoki, a type of Magnolia wood, for its "high workability, dimensional stability, and overall strength."

The lack of water or oxygen in space protects the wood satellite from fire or decay, according to the team from Kyoto University. They'll also test how effective the wood is at protecting semiconductors from space radiation, according to Reuters.
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An update on something else too.
silentorphan said:
How's this going? Well...
spacenews.com

Asteroid mining startup AstroForge to launch first missions this year

WASHINGTON — A startup with plans to mine asteroids for metals says it will launch its first two missions this year, including one that will fly by a near Earth asteroid. AstroForge announced Jan. …
spacenews.com spacenews.com
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Now licensed!
www.space.com

Asteroid-mining company AstroForge gets 1st-ever FCC license for commercial deep-space mission

The license covers the Odin mission, which will launch in early 2025 on board the next Intuitive Machines moon launch.
www.space.com www.space.com
Asteroid prospecting company AstroForge has been awarded the first-ever commercial license for operating and communicating with a spacecraft in deep space, ahead of its Odin mission that's set to launch and rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid in early 2025.

The license, granted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Oct. 18, pertains specifically to setting up a communication network with radio ground stations on Earth, to enable commands to be sent up to Odin and data to be transmitted back to Earth.

...

The company's first space mission, Brokkr-1, was a cubesat that launched in April 2023 and successfully reached Earth orbit. However, AstroForge mission control was unable to successfully activate the prototype refinery technology on board to demonstrate that it works in microgravity.

...

AstroForge has not yet said which asteroid Odin will be heading to, but the plan is for the probe to orbit the asteroid and image its surface, ahead of [its third mission] Vestri ... which will land on the asteroid.

Neither Odin nor Vestri will conduct any actual asteroid mining, but should they succeed, they will have demonstrated the key stages of reaching an asteroid and getting in position to begin mining. The actual mining and refining technology would then be demonstrated on subsequent missions.
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www.space.com

Australian company Gilmour Space gets country's 1st orbital launch license

They launch from a land down under.
www.space.com www.space.com
Aussie-based company Gilmour Space received the country's first orbital launch license [last] week, as it prepares for the first test flight of its Eris rocket.

A specific launch date is expected within the next few weeks, according to a Gilmour Space press release, with a liftoff from the company's Bowen Orbital Spaceport, in northern Queensland.
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spacenews.com

Roman Space Telescope reaches assembly milestone

All the major elements of NASA’s next flagship space telescope are now under one roof as NASA says its development remains on cost and schedule.
spacenews.com spacenews.com
In presentations at two advisory committee meetings last week, Mark Clampin, astrophysics director at NASA Headquarters, said the telescope assembly for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now at the Goddard Space Flight Center, joining other components of the spacecraft there.

...

"Building 29 now hosts the whole of the Roman Space Telescope. This is a real achievement," he said at a Nov. 8 meeting of the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Academies' Space Studies Board.

NASA is working to a launch readiness date of no later than May 2027 for Roman and a development cost cap, set by Congress, of $3.5 billion.

...

Clampin has repeatedly emphasized the importance of keeping Roman on cost and schedule, listing it as one of his top priorities in the agency's portfolio of astrophysics programs. That emphasis on cost and schedule is intended to help build credibility about plans for future missions, like the Habitable Worlds Observatory, after the severe delays and overruns with JWST.
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If Starship is big enough that the Habitable Worlds Observatory's mirror does not need too much folding, the construction costs can drop a lot.
 
I guess their rocket burning down was the last straw.
spacenews.com

ABL Space exits commercial launch market, shifts focus to missile defense

‘We have made the decision to focus our efforts on national defense, and specifically on missile defense technologies’
spacenews.com spacenews.com
ABL Space Systems, a six-year-old launch startup, announced it is exiting the commercial launch market to focus on missile defense programs for the Pentagon. The move comes after a string of setbacks and mounting challenges in gaining traction against dominant players like SpaceX and Rocket Lab.

...

Based in El Segundo, California, ABL plans to repurpose its RS1 rocket, originally designed to carry small satellites into orbit, for military applications. The company aims to position its launch technology as a cost-effective solution for missile defense programs, for example, as target vehicles in weapons testing.

...

The Pentagon is expected to increase development and testing of missile interceptors, a sector that grew during Donald Trump's first term as president and analysts believe will see increased investment under his second term amid tensions with nations like China, North Korea and Iran.
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The window to be a space launcher might have closed with that, so they moved on to missile defense I guess, something which still gives them opportunities. Orbital class rocket technology would come in useful for modern missile threats.
 
Somebody said:
If Starship is big enough that the Habitable Worlds Observatory's mirror does not need too much folding, the construction costs can drop a lot.
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That greatly depends on what you mean by a lot. If you think it will drop costs by 10% then sure. If you think it will drop it by 50% then that is very unlikely. The really expensive part of the folding mirror and folding solar shade on JWT was inventing the various mechanical, electrical, and procedural things needed to make a folding space mirror (and solar shade) for the first time in human history. Now that people have working examples of how to do it with detailed notes doing it a second time will be much less expensive. Still not cheap but also not in the same ballpark as it was the first time.
 
Tasrill said:
That greatly depends on what you mean by a lot. If you think it will drop costs by 10% then sure. If you think it will drop it by 50% then that is very unlikely. The really expensive part of the folding mirror and folding solar shade on JWT was inventing the various mechanical, electrical, and procedural things needed to make a folding space mirror (and solar shade) for the first time in human history. Now that people have working examples of how to do it with detailed notes doing it a second time will be much less expensive. Still not cheap but also not in the same ballpark as it was the first time.
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The other problem with the JWT was that delays caused cost overruns, which caused investigations that pauzed the project, which caused more delays, which caused more cost overruns.
 
Tasrill said:
That greatly depends on what you mean by a lot. If you think it will drop costs by 10% then sure. If you think it will drop it by 50% then that is very unlikely. The really expensive part of the folding mirror and folding solar shade on JWT was inventing the various mechanical, electrical, and procedural things needed to make a folding space mirror (and solar shade) for the first time in human history. Now that people have working examples of how to do it with detailed notes doing it a second time will be much less expensive. Still not cheap but also not in the same ballpark as it was the first time.
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The really expensive part I heard was having to engineer the telescope to ridiculous degrees to save enough weight to be able to fit and not be to heavy for the launch vehicle. These very high demands also caused substantial delays and thus further cost over runs, test failures when the components couldn't quite manage as easily when made so light or compactly stored, requiring yet more engineering efforts.

Well basically it's a loop that wildly spirals the costs out of control.

With Starship you could probably launch a JWST scale replacement for a literal fraction of the price, I doubt it would even be half or even a third of the price tag. Just because you wouldn't need a folding mirror at all and your mass budget was so broad you'd just be able to mostly use standard components.


Now for the habitable world telescope, it needs to be bigger by quite a bit. So that will be more expensive, heavier, etc. So that will make it harder. But it is for certain that something like Starship or New Glenn would make it far more doable in a some what reasonable budget then if you had to use a smaller less capable launch vehicle. Basically capacity for things this big really matters quite a bit, the launch costs are quite possibly entirely secondary to that in impact.
 
I don't think I heard of them before this. Well, that's on me. :redface:
www.euronews.com

Europe's rival to Musk's SpaceX raises millions in new funding

The Exploration Company, the European rival of SpaceX, has achieved another milestone in funding to develop its space cargo capsule, Nyx. Government-backed funds from both Germany and France are among the major investors.
www.euronews.com www.euronews.com
The funds will primarily be used to further develop TEC's flagship product, Nyx, a reusable spacecraft similar to SpaceX's Dragon. Nyx is designed to transport passengers and cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS) in low Earth orbit. The second version of Nyx is expected to be launched in 2025, with the first full mission scheduled for 2028.

TEC is the first privately funded reusable space capsule capable of flying to space stations, [co-founder and CEO of TEC, Hélène Huby] emphasised, unlike SpaceX's Dragon, which was largely funded by NASA.

...

The Exploration Company has already secured approximately $770m (€730m) in contract backlogs from private space station developers. In May, TEC signed an agreement with Starlab Space, a LEO commercial space station, for three pre-booked cargo transport missions. In September 2023, the company also reached a pre-booking agreement with Axiom Space, an American privately funded space infrastructure developer.

Huby highlighted Nyx's unique advantage in its ability to launch from space launchers in different countries, unlike SpaceX's Dragon, which is specifically designed to launch on SpaceX rockets.
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silentorphan said:
I don't think I heard of them before this. Well, that's on me. :redface:
www.euronews.com

Europe's rival to Musk's SpaceX raises millions in new funding

The Exploration Company, the European rival of SpaceX, has achieved another milestone in funding to develop its space cargo capsule, Nyx. Government-backed funds from both Germany and France are among the major investors.
www.euronews.com www.euronews.com
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To be fair, that's because they're not all that important?

They're a tiny startup only a few years old, with no rocket and a capsule that exists solely on paper. They're not a rival to SpaceX in any form.
The article reads more like a PR piece than anything else, and contains several inaccuracies.

TEC is the first privately funded reusable space capsule capable of flying to space stations, [co-founder and CEO of TEC, Hélène Huby] emphasised, unlike SpaceX's Dragon, which was largely funded by NASA.
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ESA's paying them for commercial cargo, which is the same kind of program under which SpaceX developped Dragon.

spacenews.com

ESA selects Thales Alenia Space and The Exploration Company for commercial cargo program

ESA has selected one of the continent’s largest space companies and one of its best-funded startups for study contracts that could lead to commercial cargo and crew vehicles.
spacenews.com spacenews.com

Huby highlighted Nyx's unique advantage in its ability to launch from space launchers in different countries, unlike SpaceX's Dragon, which is specifically designed to launch on SpaceX rockets.
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Another bit of spin. Turns "we don't have our own launcher" into a positive, not a negative.
The reason Dragon always launches on Falcon 9's isn't because it has to, it's because the Falcon 9 is far cheaper than any alternative, so why would SpaceX ever contract out the launch and spend additional money on an adaptor and integration?
 
mistakenot said:
Chinese startup Cosmoleap has received funding for a chopstick system to catch reusable rockets:

spacenews.com

Chinese launch startup Cosmoleap secures funding for rocket featuring chopstick recovery system

HELSINKI — Chinese launch firm Cosmoleap has secured more than 100 million yuan for the development of its Yueqian reusable rocket and a recovery system inspired by SpaceX. Cosmoleap announced more…
spacenews.com spacenews.com
Article:
Cosmoleap, full name Beijing Dahang Transition Technology Co., Ltd., announced its existence and start of operations in March 2024. The company focuses on developing a low-cost, high-reliability, reusable launch vehicle. The goal is to "support satellite Internet construction," likely referring to China's megaconstellation plans.

It aims to hold a test flight of the "Yueqian" or "Leap" rocket in either 2025 or 2026. An animated video with the funding announcement indicates that the company is following a tower and "chopstick" landing method recently demonstrated for the first time by SpaceX with its Starship system.

[ . . . ]

The Yueqian methane-fueled rocket will, however, be much smaller. It will have a 4.0 meter diameter and length of 75 meters. Its payload capacity to a 1,000 km altitude orbit for constellation purposes will be 10,460 kilograms when expendable, or 6,280 kg when the first stage is recovered.

The company also plans a 126-meter-long rocket, capable of carrying 100 tons to the same orbit when expended, or 36 tons when reused. The first launch is targeted for around 2030.

Promotional video from earlier this year:


View: https://x.com/cnspaceflight/status/1813533851651891284
COSMOLEAP

<video>
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I forgot to add update to this here. It seems I underestimate them and they already at the stage where they have built prototype catch tower.

View: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1855632798826324127
look at this
COSMOLEAP
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They sure aren't wasting any time with replicating the rocket ideas over there in China. I guess effectively that means as a country China is probably in second place in developing the most advanced of rocket designs.
 
spacenews.com

Blue Origin launches ninth crewed New Shepard suborbital mission

Blue Origin flew six people, including a pair of repeat customers and a science communicator, on the latest New Shepard suborbital spaceflight mission Nov. 22.
spacenews.com spacenews.com
The New Shepard vehicle lifted off from Blue Origin's Launch Site One in West Texas at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. The flight lifted off on schedule without any of the countdown holds common during previous flights.

The New Shepard capsule R.S.S. First Step, making its 11th​ flight, landed about 10 minutes after liftoff, two and a half minutes after the booster landed, completing its 12th​ flight. The capsule reached a peak altitude of 107 kilometers above sea level, Blue Origin reported after the flight.

...

The ninth human spaceflight in Blue Origin's history, NS-28's crew included Marc and Sharon Hagle, a married couple on their second Blue Origin launch after flying on the NS-20 mission in 2022; Austin Litteral, whose seat was sponsored by the livestream shopping platform Whatnot; J.D. Russell, an entrepreneur and former federal marine, fish and wildlife game warden; and Hank Wolfond, the CEO of a Canadian investment firm and a private pilot.

Also on board was Emily Calandrelli, an author, television show host and online science communicator. In a social media post, she said she would become the 100th​ woman to go to space. That number, however, includes nine women who have flown on Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceflights that passed the 50-mile (80.5-kilometer) altitude used by U.S. government agencies for awarding astronaut wings but fell short of the 100-kilometer Kármán Line used by Blue Origin as the demarcation of space.
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www.japantimes.co.jp

Japan's space agency halts Epsilon S rocket engine test after fire

Footage showed a blaze breaking out shortly after the ground combustion test started at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture.
www.japantimes.co.jp www.japantimes.co.jp
Japan's space agency aborted an engine test for the Epsilon S rocket on Tuesday after it exploded and caught fire, a repeated failure that will likely push the rocket's debut launch beyond the March-end target and delay the national space programme.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the combustion test resulted in an explosion of the second-stage motor 49 seconds after the ignition, causing fire at the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan.

While no one was injured and the fire was put out within an hour, the blast damaged the facility, and the cause remains unclear, JAXA's Epsilon project manager Takayuki Imoto told a media briefing.

...

JAXA partnered with the aerospace unit of heavy machinery maker IHI to develop Epsilon S, the next generation in the Epsilon solid-fuel small rocket series.

In July last year, an Epsilon S engine test failed due to thermal damage to its ignition systems. That followed a launch failure of a previous-generation Epsilon rocket in 2022.
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Yes, I guess you could call a solid rocket engine unexpectedly disintegrating in an explosion and setting the area ablaze, as a fire. Well fortunately it was on the testing stand so the only damage is to equipment.
 
Didn't the last Episolon engine test explode before, as well? I wonder what make developing this particular SRM difficult
...
On another news

View: https://youtu.be/XFWwDTp1QZA?feature=shared

Zhuque-2E just have it maiden launch. Main different from Zhuque-2 is the usage of TQ-15A (vacuum optimized TQ-12A with gimbaled nozzle) and not TQ-12 engine with vernier thruster. The rocket is also shorter than it earlier version, since common bulkhead is now implemented.

In specification Zhuque-2E first stage should be powered by TQ-12A engine, but it seems this first one still use TQ-12 engine.

Perhaps they still have TQ-12 stockpile they need to used up.

During this test the upperstage engine TQ-15A apparently also did 3 (or 2) shutdown and reignition as a test.
 
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