Rocket Report: SpaceX makes its mark on the Moon; ULA names new boss
Rocket Report: SpaceX makes its mark on the Moon; ULA names new boss
火箭报告：SpaceX 在月球留下印记；ULA 任命新老板
Welcome to Edition 9.07 of the Rocket Report! China’s workhorse Long March rocket family appears to be rebounding quickly from a rare launch failure August 10. Chinese officials have not publicly released any information on what may have caused the Long March 7A rocket to break apart less than 90 seconds after liftoff, but the rocket’s use of YF-100 engines initially raised questions about the failure’s impact on other Chinese rockets that use the same type of engines. But no biggie. YF-100 engines returned to flight six days later with the successful flight of a Long March 12 rocket, and the heavy-lift Long March 5—also with YF-100 engines—is set to launch in a few days with one of China’s most important space missions of the decade: the Chang’e 7 lunar lander en route to the Moon’s south pole.
欢迎阅读第 9.07 期《火箭报告》！中国的主力长征火箭系列似乎已从 8 月 10 日罕见的发射失败中迅速恢复。中国官方尚未公开披露长征七号甲火箭在升空不到 90 秒后解体的原因，但由于该火箭使用了 YF-100 发动机，最初引发了人们对此次故障是否会影响其他使用同类发动机的中国火箭的担忧。不过，问题不大。六天后，长征十二号火箭的成功飞行标志着 YF-100 发动机重返蓝天。同样搭载 YF-100 发动机的重型运载火箭长征五号，也即将在几天后执行中国本十年最重要的太空任务之一：将嫦娥七号月球着陆器送往月球南极。
Trouble in Taiwan. A prototype for a future satellite launch vehicle developed by Taiwan’s top weapons manufacturer veered off course shortly after liftoff Wednesday, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reports. The “trajectory anomaly” prompted the activation of the rocket’s self-destruct mechanism. The government agency responsible for the test flight, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), reported no injuries or property damage. Debris from the rocket fell into a planned safety control zone near the southern tip of Taiwan.
台湾地区出现状况。据台湾“中央社”报道，由台湾顶级武器制造商开发的一款未来卫星运载火箭原型机周三在升空后不久偏离航道。此次“轨道异常”触发了火箭的自毁机制。负责此次试飞的政府机构——“中山科学研究院”（NCSIST）报告称，未造成人员伤亡或财产损失。火箭残骸落入了台湾南端附近预定的安全管控区内。
Parallel paths… Details about Wednesday’s rocket test are scarce, but the flight likely involved a sub-scale suborbital version of NCSIST’s planned military satellite launcher. The launch was the first test flight for the military’s satellite launch program, which focuses on developing a solid-fueled rocket to place small payloads into low-Earth orbit. At the same time, the civilian Taiwan Space Agency is developing a liquid-fueled satellite launcher that could be ready for orbital missions in the early 2030s.
并行路径……关于周三火箭测试的细节尚不明确，但此次飞行很可能涉及 NCSIST 计划中的军用卫星运载火箭的缩比亚轨道版本。此次发射是该军事卫星发射计划的首次试飞，该计划旨在开发一种固体燃料火箭，将小型载荷送入近地轨道。与此同时，民间的台湾太空中心正在开发一种液体燃料卫星运载火箭，预计可在 2030 年代初准备好执行轨道任务。
Second failure for South Korea’s Innospace. A small suborbital rocket owned by South Korean startup Innospace lost control Thursday seconds into a test flight from Brazil’s Alcântara Space Center, the company said in a statement. The Brazilian Air Force, which runs the spaceport, activated the Sebit rocket’s flight termination system after it deviated from the planned trajectory. Innospace said there were no injuries or property damage. “While we regret that the planned flight could not be fully completed, the test flight provided valuable flight data from key systems, including the launch pad, propulsion system, and guidance, navigation and control (GNC),” Innospace said.
韩国 Innospace 公司遭遇第二次失败。韩国初创公司 Innospace 在一份声明中表示，其拥有的一枚小型亚轨道火箭周四在巴西阿尔坎塔拉航天中心进行试飞时，升空数秒后失控。运营该航天中心的巴西空军在火箭偏离预定轨道后，启动了 Sebit 火箭的飞行终止系统。Innospace 表示未造成人员伤亡或财产损失。Innospace 称：“虽然我们对未能圆满完成预定飞行感到遗憾，但此次试飞为包括发射台、推进系统以及制导、导航与控制（GNC）在内的关键系统提供了宝贵的飞行数据。”
Hard times… Sebit is a “multipurpose suborbital rocket” designed to carry payloads up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) altitude, the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space. This was the second consecutive failure for Innospace, which attempted its first orbital launch from the same Brazilian spaceport in December. In a similar outcome to this week’s launch, Innospace’s Hanbit-Nano orbital rocket spun out of control seconds after liftoff.
艰难时刻……Sebit 是一款“多用途亚轨道火箭”，旨在将载荷运送到 100 公里（62 英里）的高度，即地球大气层与太空的边界。这是 Innospace 连续第二次失败，该公司去年 12 月曾在同一巴西航天中心尝试首次轨道发射。与本周发射的结果类似，Innospace 的 Hanbit-Nano 轨道火箭在升空数秒后便失控旋转。
Satellite operators fear launch crisis. SpaceX’s success with the Falcon 9 rocket helped open new avenues to orbit for a host of satellite startups. But the Falcon 9 may soon go away. SpaceX is eager to retire it in favor of the much larger, still unproven Starship rocket. This has led to consternation in the commercial satellite industry, Ars reports. There are growing concerns that SpaceX will largely focus on its own payloads—Starlink V3 satellites and orbital data centers—because of their potential to drive far greater profits. The Starship rocket’s Pez satellite dispenser, optimized for Starlink, is an indication of the company’s priorities.
卫星运营商担忧发射危机。SpaceX 凭借猎鹰 9 号火箭的成功，为众多卫星初创公司开辟了进入轨道的新途径。但猎鹰 9 号可能很快就会退出历史舞台。据 Ars 报道，SpaceX 急于让其退役，转而使用更大、但尚未经过验证的星舰（Starship）火箭，这引起了商业卫星行业的恐慌。人们越来越担心，SpaceX 将主要专注于其自身的载荷——星链 V3 卫星和轨道数据中心，因为这些项目具有带来更高利润的潜力。星舰火箭为星链优化的“Pez”卫星分配器，正是该公司优先事项的体现。
Coming soon… SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell has previously said the operational lifetime of the Falcon 9 may end in 2030 or 2032. However, more recently, commercial satellite customers have been running into difficulties when trying to purchase a launch after 2028. One source said SpaceX has told the US government that it intends to end commercial launches after 2028 but will continue flying the Falcon 9 rocket for a limited number of federally contracted missions after that. Whether or not these dates stick, it has become clear to commercial satellite operators that they can no longer reliably plan their future around the workhorse Falcon 9.
即将到来……SpaceX 的格温·肖特韦尔（Gwynne Shotwell）此前曾表示，猎鹰 9 号的服役寿命可能在 2030 年或 2032 年结束。然而，最近商业卫星客户在尝试购买 2028 年之后的发射服务时遇到了困难。一位消息人士称，SpaceX 已告知美国政府，计划在 2028 年后停止商业发射，但之后仍将继续为有限数量的联邦合同任务执行猎鹰 9 号的飞行。无论这些日期是否最终确定，商业卫星运营商都已经清楚，他们不能再将未来的规划可靠地建立在主力火箭猎鹰 9 号之上了。
Ukraine strikes Russian rocket factory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Saturday that his country struck the Progress Rocket Space Center deep within Russia using ground-launched cruise missiles, Ars reports. “In Russia’s Samara region, one of the key enterprises within Roscosmos—the Progress Center, which was involved, among other things, in electronics production–was hit,” Zelenskyy said on X. “Flamingo missiles were used. A good achievement.”
乌克兰袭击俄罗斯火箭工厂。据 Ars 报道，乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基周六证实，乌克兰使用地对地巡航导弹袭击了位于俄罗斯境内的进步火箭航天中心（Progress Rocket Space Center）。泽连斯基在 X 上表示：“在俄罗斯萨马拉地区，俄罗斯国家航天集团旗下的关键企业之一——进步中心（该中心除其他业务外，还参与电子产品生产）遭到了打击。使用了‘火烈鸟’导弹。这是一项不错的成就。”
Soyuz in the crosshairs… The largest city in the Samara Oblast, about 900 km from the Ukrainian border, Samara is home to Russia’s most important manufacturer of rockets. The Progress Center assembles the workhorse vehicle for Russia, the Soyuz-2 vehicle, as well as the newer Soyuz-5 rocket. The facility also builds military satellites. Russia uses the Soyuz-2 rocket, which has a lift capacity of about 8 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, for various civil and military purposes.
联盟号成为目标……萨马拉是萨马拉州最大的城市，距离乌克兰边境约 900 公里，是俄罗斯最重要的火箭制造商所在地。进步中心负责组装俄罗斯的主力运载工具——联盟-2 号火箭，以及较新的联盟-5 号火箭。该设施还制造军用卫星。俄罗斯使用联盟-2 号火箭（其近地轨道运载能力约为 8 公吨）执行各种民用和军事任务。