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.
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.
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.
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.