Record pace continues in space launch
By DALE ARNEY|December 2024
The Space Transportation Technical Committee works to foster continuous improvements to civil, commercial and military launch vehicles.
In April, SpaceX completed the 300th successful landing of a Falcon booster. In late October, SpaceX conducted the 100th Falcon launch this year, surpassing its 96 launches in 2023. Despite these milestones, it wasn’t a flawless year for Falcon. The design was grounded briefly in July and August as SpaceX investigated two mishaps. The first, in July, stemmed from an oxygen leak in the Falcon 9 upper stage during a launch from Vandenberg, California. The stage’s engine didn’t complete its second firing, so the Starlink satellites it carried didn’t reach their target altitude. This ended a streak of some 300 successful launches dating back to 2016, approximately three times longer than any other rocket. The second grounding came in late August, when a booster tipped over shortly after landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship. That booster had flown 23 times.
In mid-November, SpaceX launched its six Starship-Super Heavy rocket. During the fourth flight test in June, controlled splashdowns with both stages were achieved for the first time. During the fifth flight in, a Super Heavy returned to the launch site into the mechanical arms of the launch tower, and Starship made a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
In May, Blue Origin resumed crewed flights with its suborbital New Shepard rocket and capsule after a nearly two-year hiatus. The company also progressed toward the first flight of a New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, conducting cryogenic testing in March with a flight-capable booster and upper stage test article.
In April, United Launch Alliance launched the 16th and final Delta IV Heavy, culminating a 64-year program that comprised 389 launches. In July, ULA completed its final national security launch with an Atlas V. In January, ULA launched its inaugural Vulcan Centaur from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The second Vulcan was launched in October, clearing the design to begin national security launches pending a Space Force review.
Europe also debuted a new rocket. In July, the first Ariane 6 was launched from French Guiana.
In June, Rocket Lab launched its 50th Electron rocket from its New Zealand facility. In August, Rocket Lab test-fired its new Archimedes engine at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, a step toward developing its medium-lift Neutron, scheduled to debut in 2025.
In human spaceflight, NASA continued preparations for its Artemis II crewed lunar flyby, scheduled for 2025. In July, the second Space Launch System core stage arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA also conducted a 500-second test fire of an RS-25 engine in January, the design that is to propel a more powerful version of SLS rockets starting with the Artemis V lunar landing in 2029.
In March, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule delivered its eighth astronaut crew to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. In June, two astronauts launched in a Boeing Starliner capsule for the design’s crewed flight test. While en route to the International Space Station, Starliner experienced helium leaks and thruster degradation, so NASA decided to return the unoccupied capsule in September. The astronauts will return in February aboard a Crew Dragon.
In June, Virgin Galactic conducted its final suborbital flight with the VSS Unity spaceplane, flying four passengers in the Galactic 07 mission.
In May, the Indian Space Research Organisation hot fired a PS4 engine with 3D-printed parts, intended for use on its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. In August, India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle achieved its third launch, lofting an experimental Earth-observation satellite. And in February, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, conducted the first successful launch of an H3 rocket, after the second stage engine failure that occurred during the design’s inaugural flight test last year.
