Rocket Report: Lightning strikes in China; Starship launch on deck
Rocket Report: Lightning strikes in China; Starship launch on deck
火箭报告：中国遭遇雷击；星舰发射在即
Welcome to Edition 9.04 of the Rocket Report! We’ve had to wait an extra week for SpaceX to get its 13th Starship test flight off the ground. A last-second abort on July 16 led engineers to roll the booster back to its hangar in South Texas to swap out engines. Starship is now back on the launch pad. Liftoff is set for Friday evening. A flawless launch and reentry will put SpaceX on the cusp of an orbital flight later this year. 欢迎阅读第 9.04 期《火箭报告》！为了让 SpaceX 的第 13 次星舰（Starship）试飞顺利升空，我们多等了一周。7 月 16 日最后一刻的发射中止，导致工程师不得不将助推器运回南德克萨斯州的机库更换引擎。目前，星舰已重返发射台，定于周五晚间升空。如果此次发射和重返大气层过程完美无缺，SpaceX 将有望在今年晚些时候实现轨道飞行。
India’s first private rocket reaches orbit. Indian space officials celebrated the debut flight of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket, India’s first fully commercial satellite launcher, as a “grand success” Saturday after an on-target climb into a 280-mile-high orbit following liftoff from an island spaceport in the Bay of Bengal, Ars reports. The Vikram-1 lifted off from India’s primary spaceport on Sriharikota Island around midday local time. The launch was delayed more than a half-hour to resolve a last-minute technical problem. The countdown resumed, culminating in the command to ignite Vikram-1’s solid-fueled first stage booster to propel the rocket off the launch pad. 印度首枚私营火箭进入轨道。据 Ars 报道，印度航天官员周六庆祝了 Skyroot Aerospace 公司 Vikram-1 火箭的首飞，这是印度首枚完全商业化的卫星运载火箭。该火箭从孟加拉湾的一个岛屿航天港升空，并精准进入了 280 英里（约 450 公里）高的轨道，官员们称此次发射为“巨大的成功”。Vikram-1 于当地时间中午左右从印度主要的斯里赫里戈达岛航天港升空。发射曾因解决最后一刻的技术问题而推迟了半个多小时。随后倒计时恢复，最终点燃了 Vikram-1 的固体燃料一级助推器，将火箭推离发射台。
Right on the money… Vikram-1 is modest in size compared to India’s larger workhorse rockets. Skyroot’s rocket stands about 72 feet (22 meters) tall, with the capability to place payloads of up to 770 pounds (350 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit. This makes Vikram-1 somewhat larger than the Electron launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, the world’s most successful dedicated small satellite launcher. The flight on Saturday went off without any major problems. Three solid-fueled rocket motors fired in succession to reach space, then a small liquid-fueled fourth stage ignited and accelerated to orbital velocity, some 17,000 mph. The rocket reached an orbit approximately 280 miles (450 kilometers) high at an inclination of 60 degrees to the equator, quite close to preflight predictions. 精准入轨……与印度的大型主力火箭相比，Vikram-1 的体型较为小巧。Skyroot 的这枚火箭高约 72 英尺（22 米），能够将重达 770 磅（350 公斤）的载荷送入近地轨道。这使得 Vikram-1 比 Rocket Lab 开发的 Electron 运载火箭（全球最成功的专用小型卫星运载火箭）略大一些。周六的飞行没有出现任何重大问题。三台固体燃料火箭发动机依次点火进入太空，随后小型液体燃料第四级点火并加速至轨道速度，即每小时约 17,000 英里。火箭最终到达了高度约 280 英里（450 公里）、倾角为赤道 60 度的轨道，与飞行前的预测非常接近。
US seeks ideas on offshore launch. The Interior Department wants the public to weigh in on one idea for what to do with hundreds of inactive offshore oil platforms, The Washington Post reports. Could they be turned into launch pads for rockets to space? The department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a request for public comment earlier this month, “intended to inform BOEM’s understanding of technical, environmental, operational, legal, regulatory, and interagency considerations,” without proposing any specific policy action. The government is looking for ideas on how to ease congestion at the nation’s spaceports while also developing additional launch sites to make the country’s space transport infrastructure more resilient to potential attack. 美国寻求海上发射方案。据《华盛顿邮报》报道，美国内政部希望公众就如何处理数百个闲置海上石油平台的问题提供建议。它们能被改造成太空火箭的发射台吗？该部门的海洋能源管理局（BOEM）本月初发布了公众意见征询，旨在“了解技术、环境、运营、法律、监管及跨部门考量”，但并未提出具体的政策行动。政府正在寻求方案，以缓解国内航天港的拥堵，同时开发额外的发射场，使国家的太空运输基础设施更能抵御潜在攻击。
Not a crazy idea… “It’s actually not as crazy of an idea as you might think,” said George Nield, a consultant and former Federal Aviation Administration official who oversaw commercial space transportation. “We’re running out of space and places to be able to fly from.” Rockets have launched from a converted oil platform before. The most successful offshore launch venture was Sea Launch, which used a modified oil-drilling rig as the departure point for 36 satellite launches from 1999 through 2014. 这并非异想天开……曾负责商业航天运输的前美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）官员、现任顾问 George Nield 表示：“这实际上并没有你想象的那么疯狂。我们可供发射的空间和地点正在耗尽。”火箭此前曾有过从改装石油平台发射的先例。最成功的海上发射项目是“海上发射”（Sea Launch），它在 1999 年至 2014 年间，利用一个改装的石油钻井平台完成了 36 次卫星发射。
Lockheed interested in RDREs. Venus Aerospace and Lockheed Martin have entered a collaboration agreement for the evaluation of Houston-based Venus’s rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) technology, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. The companies hope to achieve “precision fire” capabilities with efficiencies that translate into longer flight ranges and higher speeds. Lockheed Martin is the Pentagon’s largest contractor, responsible for supplying the military with thousands of tactical and strategic missiles. Venus Aerospace’s RDRE tech works by generating thrust as a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel, sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer to produce a supersonic shockwave. The company completed a low-altitude flight test of the RDRE last year. 洛克希德·马丁对旋转爆震火箭发动机（RDRE）感兴趣。据《航空周刊与空间技术》报道，Venus Aerospace 与洛克希德·马丁公司已达成合作协议，旨在评估这家总部位于休斯顿的 Venus 公司所研发的旋转爆震火箭发动机（RDRE）技术。两家公司希望通过提高效率来实现“精确打击”能力，从而转化为更远的飞行距离和更高的速度。洛克希德·马丁是五角大楼最大的承包商，负责为军方提供数千枚战术和战略导弹。Venus Aerospace 的 RDRE 技术原理是：通过燃料和氧化剂的注入，在环形通道内产生持续的爆震波，从而产生超音速冲击波并提供推力。该公司去年完成了 RDRE 的低空飞行测试。
Improved efficiency… The agreement with Venus Aerospace “enables Lockheed Martin to evaluate RDRE technology within the context of operational military requirements to transition the advanced propulsion concept from a subsystem demonstration environment into practical missile applications,” Lockheed Martin said in a statement. The RDRE architecture has the potential to improve propulsion efficiency while reducing complexity. There’s a lot of work to do to scale Venus’s engine from an experimental prototype to a combat-ready missile platform. 效率提升……洛克希德·马丁在一份声明中表示，与 Venus Aerospace 的协议“使洛克希德·马丁能够在军事作战需求的背景下评估 RDRE 技术，从而将这一先进的推进概念从子系统演示环境转化为实际的导弹应用”。RDRE 架构有潜力在提高推进效率的同时降低复杂性。要将 Venus 的发动机从实验原型机扩展为可投入实战的导弹平台，还有大量工作要做。
Will Amur ever fly? Nearly six years have passed since the state-backed Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, unveiled plans to develop a reusable rocket called “Amur-LNG.” Clearly designed in response to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, Amur was intended to have a reusable first stage, methane-powered engines, and the capability to deliver 10.5 metric tons to low-Earth orbit in reusable mode. At the time, Russian space officials said they planned to debut the rocket in 2026, so basically right about now. The latest update from Roscosmos suggests the Amur rocket won’t begin flight tests until 2031, Ars reports. “阿穆尔”（Amur）火箭还能飞吗？自俄罗斯国家航天集团（Roscosmos）公布开发名为“阿穆尔-LNG”（Amur-LNG）的可重复使用火箭计划以来，已经过去了近六年。阿穆尔火箭显然是为了应对 SpaceX 的猎鹰 9 号火箭而设计的，旨在拥有可重复使用的一级助推器、甲烷动力发动机，并具备在可重复使用模式下将 10.5 吨载荷送入近地轨道的能力。当时，俄罗斯航天官员表示计划在 2026 年首飞，也就是现在这个时间点。据 Ars 报道，Roscosmos 的最新消息显示，阿穆尔火箭要到 2031 年才会开始飞行测试。