Enlarge / The H3 rocket launches from Tanegashima, Japan, on Tuesday. (credit: JAXA)

The launch of Japan's H3 rocket on Tuesday morning, local time in Tanegashima, failed after the vehicle's second stage engine did not ignite.

In a terse statement on the failure, Japanese space agency JAXA said , "A destruct command has been transmitted to H3 around 10:52 a.m. (Japan Standard Time), because there was no possibility of achieving the mission. We are confirming the situation."

The Japanese space agency, in concert with the rocket's manufacturer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has spent about $1.5 billion developing the H3 rocket over the last decade. Much of the challenge in building the new rocket involved development of a new LE-9 engine, which is fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, to power the first stage. This appeared to perform flawlessly. The second-stage engine that failed, the LE-5B, was a more established engine.

Enlarge / A Falcon Heavy rocket launches the USSF-67 mission for the US Space Force in January 2023. (credit: SpaceX)

The US military recently released a rather mundane-sounding document titled "National Security Space Launch Phase 3 DRAFT Request for Proposals #1." That may be a mouthful of jargon, but it's still a rather consequential document. Effectively, its release is the starting gun for the next round of launch contracts for US spy satellites, secure communications satellites, and more.

There is a pile of money at stake. Up for grabs are launch contracts worth billions of dollars—substantially more than $10 billion—as the military seeks to secure launch deals for the late 2020s and early 2030s. The document itself is pretty bland, but in a follow-up teleconference with reporters, two US colonels overseeing space acquisition, Douglas Pentecost and Chad Melone, provided a trove of information.

Wait! I know this sounds dreadfully boring, but it's really not. Based on the document and this hour-long call, it's possible to get a good sense of where the US military believes the country's launch industry is headed. And that matters because in many cases, the contracts offered by the military can make or break launch companies. For example, after the last round of bidding for national security launches ended, Northrop Grumman ended its efforts to develop the Omega rocket.

Enlarge / Radio observatories like the Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, are in radio quiet zones that protect them from interference. (credit: The Washington Post via Getty Images )

Visible light is just one part of the electromagnetic spectrum that astronomers use to study the Universe. The James Webb Space Telescope was built to see infrared light, other space telescopes capture X-ray images , and observatories like the Green Bank Telescope , the Very Large Array , the Atacama Large Millimeter Array , and dozens of other observatories around the world work at radio wavelengths.

Radio telescopes are facing a problem. All satellites, whatever their function, use radio waves to transmit information to the surface of the Earth. Just as light pollution can hide a starry night sky , radio transmissions can swamp out the radio waves astronomers use to learn about black holes, newly forming stars, and the evolution of galaxies.

We are three scientists who work in astronomy and wireless technology . With tens of thousands of satellites expected to go into orbit in the coming years and increasing use on the ground, the radio spectrum is getting crowded. Radio quiet zones—regions, usually located in remote areas, where ground-based radio transmissions are limited or prohibited—have protected radio astronomy in the past.

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 / The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew-6 mission streaks into orbit on Thursday morning. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)

A Falcon 9 rocket blasted into the starry sky above Florida early on Thursday morning, sending four astronauts safely on their way into low-Earth orbit.

This mission, flown by SpaceX for NASA, will deliver the astronauts to the International Space Station after a 24.5-hour flight to synch up with the orbiting laboratory. During this time, under nominal operations, Dragon will fly entirely autonomously.

SpaceX is conducting its sixth operational human spaceflight for NASA, and accordingly this mission is named Crew-6. The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, shiny and clean on the launch pad, was actually flying its very first mission, but the Dragon spacecraft is making its fourth overall flight, the most times that any Crew Dragon vehicle has flown into space. Previously this Dragon, named Endeavour , flew NASA's Demo-2 and Crew-2 missions, as well as Axiom Space’s Ax-1 private spaceflight to and from the International Space Station.

Enlarge / Tory Bruno (L), CEO of United Launch Alliance, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at a news conference in 2014. (credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

One of the world's most important rocket companies, United Launch Alliance, may be sold later this year.

The potential sale has not been disclosed publicly, but three sources confirmed to Ars that potential buyers have been contacted about the opportunity. These sources said a deal is expected to be closed before the end of this year and that investment firm Morgan Stanley and consulting firm Bain & Company are managing the transaction.

The sale of United Launch Alliance, or ULA as it is known within the industry, would mark the end of an era that has lasted for nearly two decades. The company was officially formed in 2005 as part of a deal brokered by the US government, ensuring the military had access to both Atlas and Delta rockets to put national security satellites into space. To form ULA, Lockheed Martin and Boeing merged their launch businesses into a single company, each taking a 50 percent stake.

Enlarge / An artist's concept of a Vast space station with artificial gravity. (credit: Vast)

There's a new space billionaire, and this one is not interested in launching rockets. His name is Jed McCaleb, a US software developer who made his fortune in blockchain development and cryptocurrency. With an acquisition last week of a small space company named Launcher, McCaleb has shown he is serious about building a space station in low-Earth orbit.

McCaleb's space habitation company, Vast, emerged publicly last fall with a plan to build space stations that featured artificial gravity. This was significant because NASA and most other space agencies around the world have devoted little time to developing systems for artificial gravity in space, which may be important for long-term human habitation due to the deleterious effects of microgravity experienced by astronauts on the International Space Station. Vast boasted three technical advisers who were major players in the success of SpaceX—Hans Koenigsmann, Will Heltsley, and Yang Li—but did not offer too much information about its plans.

Now it seems clear that McCaleb is genuinely interested in making a run at this. An early pioneer in blockchain technology, McCaleb created Mt. Gox, the first major Bitcoin exchange. He is estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.5 billion and has vowed to invest at least $300 million into Vast Space as it seeks to develop space stations.

Enlarge / SpaceX's Crew-6 mission is seen this weekend before leaving planet Earth. (credit: NASA)

At just over two minutes to go before SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was due to launch a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station early on Monday, the mission was scrubbed due to an issue with igniter fluid.

NASA's Crew-6 mission had been due to take off at 1:45 am ET from Launch Complex 39-A in Florida, at Kennedy Space Center. During the space agency's webcast, the host first mentioned the issue with the TEA-TEB igniter fluid about five minutes before the anticipated liftoff time. Mission operators were not able to clear the technical issue before the instantaneous launch window opened.

The crew was safe on board the Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, the mission commander, and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, its pilot, along with United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, both mission specialists, will egress the vehicle later on Monday morning after propellant is off-loaded from the rocket.

Enlarge / Relativity Space's Terran 1 rocket may be less than two weeks away from its debut launch. (credit: Relativity Space)

Welcome to Edition 5.27 of the Rocket Report! The big news this week is that Relativity Space got its launch license for a debut flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida. In less than two weeks, I'm excited to see how far this methalox rocket makes it on its first foray off the planet.

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.

Terran 1 gets a launch date . On Wednesday Relativity Space announced that it had secured a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration for the debut launch of its Terran 1 rocket. The mission, called GLHF (good luck, have fun), will take flight from Launch Complex 16 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch window opens at 1 pm ET (18:00 UTC) on March 8. Because this is a test flight, the mission will not include a customer payload. It will be streamed live .