Rocket Lab

Welcome to Terminal Count, the official weekly rundown of spaceflight news by Space Explored. This week, the story is once again about SpaceX and its Starship rocket. The company is gearing up for not just its sixth flight, but also for three other Falcon 9 launches this week.

SpaceX is making its quickest turnaround yet for the Starship rocket, hopefully launching some five weeks after Flight 5. This mission will have more big milestones for the company while other companies still work towards competing with its older Falcon 9 rocket.

New photos and planning documents show potential Starship-sized expansions at SpaceX‘s Roberts Road facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The company is also planning four Falcon 9 launches this week. Meanwhile, its closest thing to a near-term competitor, Blue Origin, is gearing up to debut its New Glenn rocket.

NASA is moving forward with critical decisions on its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, aiming to reduce costs and expedite the return of samples from the Red Planet. On October 15, NASA received the final reports from 12 studies commissioned to explore alternative architectures.

China is leading this week in launches, but SpaceX is set (already has by publishing this) to launch yet another major ESA mission over using domestic options. Rocket Lab will also make a showing this week with a… family-specific mission name.

Rocket Lab, under the leadership of its founder and CEO Peter Beck, continues to expand its influence and capabilities in the global space industry. Known for its Electron rocket, a leading small satellite launch vehicle, the company is now venturing into more ambitious territories with the development of the Neutron rocket and the upcoming Venus Life Finder mission. 

Capella Space, a U.S. company established in 2016, has played a role advancing Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR, satellite technology. SAR is widely regarded for its capability to provide high-resolution Earth observation even under challenging conditions such as cloud cover or darkness, where traditional optical satellites may struggle. The company’s focus on this technology looks to position it as a leader in the growing market for continuous, all-weather Earth monitoring.

This week we have a total of four launches on the schedule as of right now. Two of the missions are coming from SpaceX with the remaining two coming from Rocket Lab and ULA. The highlight for the week will be the Atlas V launch, as it will be ULA’s final Atlas launch for national security missions.

In contrast to weeks past, we only have a single mission scheduled to launch this week, an Electron from New Zealand. Due to SpaceX’s anomaly mid-flight last week, its Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded until an investigation is completed.

Thursday night Rocket Lab hit a major milestone for any rocket launch provider, 50 launches. The little rocket that could, did, and has become one of the most flown rockets in the world right now.

This week is a big week for Rocket Lab as it plans to launch its 50th Electron rocket, faster than any other company to date. SpaceX will also have a double header on Tuesday with a third mission on Thursday.

Spoiler alert: This is looking to be a very busy week for rocket launches and not a single one is coming from a company outside the US (Rocket Lab is an exception). Starship, Starliner, and Virgin Galactic all have big missions this week.

This week will be the third week in a row the headline launch is supposed to be Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test. SpaceX is also planning another banger of a week with three launches and Rocket Lab shows up again.

This week we’re looking to be a rather busy one with a launch everyday from either SpaceX, China, and Rocket Lab up to Friday. China will be launching its next crew rotation to their space station and SpaceX might have a four launch week.

We’ve seen a lot of changes to the space launch market over the last decade, from hopeful underdogs to defacto monopolies. Now we’re going through another large shift in the companies launching rockets, not launching rockets. Payload spoke with the top executives about the change and here’s what they said.

On Thursday of this week we have a total of four planned launches from around the world from the biggest players in the space launch market. They include Rocket Lab’s first LC-2 mission in 2024, a crew rotation to the ISS by Russia, and a cargo resupply mission to the ISS by SpaceX.

Varda Space Industries accomplished a significant feat by safely returning a capsule to Earth, marking a pivotal moment in space material production for the company. The successful touchdown occurred at the Utah Test and Training Range, located west of Salt Lake City. 

This week Varda Space received the nations first ever Part 450 reentry license from the FAA, green lighting its W-1 mission for touchdown in the Utah desert. After eight months in space the Varda Space built capsule and Rocket Lab built spacecraft bus will finally get its chance to return its crystal experiment to Earth.

After an end of month rally by SpaceX to get to 10 launches in January, the company will have only one launch this week but it will be a big one. With the retirement of its primary rocket, Northrop Grumman will fly its Cygnus spacecraft on a Falcon 9 this week to the ISS.

This week Rocket Lab will reattempt its first launch of 2024 and possibly Virgin Galactic will fly Friday on one of its final missions before it goes quiet. For SpaceX however, this month has been far below its 13 launches a month goal, although this year’s start looks to be stronger than last year’s.