Stacking of ULA's third Vulcan rocket is underway at Cape Canaveral SFS.
Blue Origin debuted a second New Shepard (NS) reusable launch system to send people and payloads into suborbital space, while the company continues to prepare its New Glenn rocket for an orbital debut.
A new reusable suborbital booster, powered by a single BE-3 engine, carrying Blue Origin’s second human-rated crew capsule—the RSS Karman Line—lifted off at 11:27 a.m. EDT/10:27 a.m. local time Oct. 23 from the company’s East Texas launch site near Van Horn, Texas.
The mission, known as NS-27, flew with a dozen payloads as part of a shakedown run ahead of passenger flights. Blue Origin is looking to step up the frequency of its suborbital flight service, which began in April 2015. The company has flown New Shepard vehicles 27 times, eight of which carried crews.
Meanwhile in Florida, Blue Origin is working toward launch of its partly reusable heavy-lift New Glenn rocket before year’s end. The company has not yet said when it plans to conduct a static hot-fire of the rocket’s seven BE-4 main engines, a test that will precede launch.
Also in Florida, United Launch Alliance began stacking its third Vulcan rocket as it completes certification and prepares for the first operational mission for the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch program aboard the new booster. The Vulcan’s Centaur upper stage is due to deliver the USSF-106 payload directly into geosynchronous orbit. The payloads include the experimental Navigation Technology Satellite 3 navigation satellite.
Meanwhile, Florida’s dynamic weather seems to have cleared enough for the NASA-SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts to depart the International Space Station. Crew-8 launched on March 8 and were due to fly back in August. NASA delayed launch of their replacements, however, while managers mulled options for returning Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft from its crewed flight test amid safety concerns.
Crew-9 launched on Sept. 28 with just two astronauts to free up seats for the Starliner crew’s ride home. The planned weeklong handover between Crew-8 and Crew-9 grew to three weeks by the time Crew-8 astronauts undocked on Oct. 23 undocking. Splashdown off the Florida coast is planned for no earlier than Oct. 25 at about 3:29 a.m., EDT.
—Irene Klotz
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