Enlarge / Japan's next generation "H3" rocket, carrying the advanced optical satellite "Daichi 3", leaves the launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan on March 7, 2023. (credit: STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)

Welcome to Edition 5.29 of the Rocket Report! It was a big week for new rockets, with the failure of Japan's new H3 booster and then the near-launch of Relativity Space's Terran 1. Speaking of the H3, I guess I didn't quite realize that Japan put a satellite valued at more than a quarter of a billion dollars on the debut flight of the rocket. That was, umm, bold.

Please note: There will no newsletter next week because I'll be enjoying a Spring Break respite with my family

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.

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket launched a Starlink mission near sunset on Tuesday, and yeah, the result was gorgeous. (credit: SpaceX)

Welcome to Edition 5.28 of the Rocket Report! We have had a big week for news about United Launch Alliance. All three items in the "Heavy Rockets" section concern the company, which may only be two months away from the much-anticipated debut of its Vulcan booster. Let's go!

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.

Rocket Lab may abandon helicopter recoveries. In comments during a February 28 earnings call, Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said the company was weighing recovering stages from the ocean and refurbishing them for launch rather than catching a stage with a helicopter, Space News reports. During a second "catch" attempt last November, Rocket Lab called off the helicopter's approach because of a momentary loss of telemetry from the booster. The company instead allowed the stage to splash down in the ocean, where a boat recovered it and returned it to Rocket Lab’s facilities.

Enlarge / India's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle takes flight on Feb. 10 2023. (credit: ISRO)

Welcome to Edition 5.26 of the Rocket Report! This week, I would like to congratulate the Indian space agency ISRO on the successful second flight of the SSLV rocket, which adds a new micro-launch capability to the nation's growing fleet of rockets. This is a difficult business, and success should definitely be celebrated when it is finally attained.

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.

India's SSLV soars on second launch. The second test flight of India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle was successful last Friday, delivering Indian and US-owned payloads into orbit, Spaceflight Now reports. The mission followed the first SSLV test flight in August, which failed during separation of the second stage about six minutes after liftoff, when vibrations threw off the vehicle’s inertial navigation system.

Enlarge / United Launch Alliance hoists its Vulcan Cert-1 booster into the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral. (credit: United Launch Alliance)

Welcome to Edition 5.23 of the Rocket Report! This has been a really fun week for US rockets: Electron made a smashing debut in a launch from Virginia, Vulcan went vertical in Florida, and Starship passed a key test en route to its first orbital launch. I'm looking forward to more great leaps in launch later this year.

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.

Rocket Lab makes successful US debut. For years, the Electron rocket and the company behind it had been stuck in limbo at the Virginia launch site, waiting on various approvals—for regulatory agencies to share enough paperwork with each other to convince everyone that the launch was safe. Then weather and the end-of-year holidays kept pushing the launch back. But on Tuesday, everything went as smoothly as it is possible to imagine, and the Electron shot to orbit almost as soon as the launch window opened, Ars reports.

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket launches on Wednesday morning carrying a GPS III satellite into orbit. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)

Welcome to Edition 5.24 of the Rocket Report! I have a blurb about this below, but for me the news of the week is that SpaceX not only launched a Falcon Heavy rocket, but two other Falcon 9 missions on separate coasts as well in just five days. The operational challenges of this are immense and, I think, underappreciated outside of people directly involved in this kind of work.

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.

ABL updates on RS1 failure. On Wednesday ABL Space Systems provided an update on the January 10 failure of its RS1 launch vehicle. Long story short, the first stage of the vehicle suffered a "complete loss of power" at 10.87 seconds into flight, leading to a simultaneous shutdown of all nine of the vehicle's main engines. The rocket impacted the ground about 20 meters from the launch site. "Approximately 95 percent of the vehicle total propellant mass was still onboard, creating an energetic explosion and over-pressure wave that caused damage to nearby equipment and facilities," the company said.