Enlarge / The European robotic arm is seen investigating Soyuz MS-22 after a leak occurred in mid-December. (credit: NASA TV)

Russia's main space corporation, Roscosmos, provided updates on Tuesday about its two spacecraft that recently suffered failures to their cooling systems while attached to the International Space Station.

Although there were several items of note in these updates—which are not readily available to Western audiences due to Russian Internet restrictions—perhaps the most surprising claim is that both the Soyuz MS-22 and Progress MS-21 spacecraft were damaged near their heat radiators by "external impacts." This seems highly improbable, to say the least.

For those who haven't been paying attention to the Russian roulette in space in recent months, here's a summary of what has happened since mid-December:

Enlarge / SpaceX has built a site to launch the world's largest rocket in South Texas. (credit: SpaceX)

Everything is bigger in Texas, or so the saying goes. When it comes to investing in commercial space, it just might be true.

As part of the state's biennial budget process, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called on the state legislature to provide $350 million to create and fund a Texas Space Commission for the next two years.

"With companies seeking to expand space travel in coming years, continued development of the space industry in the state will ensure Texas remains at the forefront not only in the United States, but the entire world," Abbott stated in his budget document for the 88th Legislature. "Further investment will cement Texas as the preeminent location for innovation and development in this rapidly growing industry. Due to increased competition from other states and internationally, further planning and coordination is needed to keep Texas at the cutting edge."

Enlarge / Lance Bass attends the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. (credit: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)

At the height of his fame as a member of the internationally famous boy band NSYNC, Lance Bass came within about two weeks of going to space in 2002.

Bass had completed four months of rigorous training in Russia's Star City during the spring and summer of that year, learning Russian and passing several challenging pre-launch tests. The plan was to fly up to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft alongside two cosmonauts and spend about 10 days in orbit.

This was not a well-trodden path, especially for a 23-year-old musician who would have been by far the youngest person to fly into space. By mid-2002, only two wealthy businessmen, Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth, had ever taken privately paid trips to space.

Enlarge / India's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle takes flight on Feb. 10 2023. (credit: ISRO)

Welcome to Edition 5.26 of the Rocket Report! This week, I would like to congratulate the Indian space agency ISRO on the successful second flight of the SSLV rocket, which adds a new micro-launch capability to the nation's growing fleet of rockets. This is a difficult business, and success should definitely be celebrated when it is finally attained.

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.

India's SSLV soars on second launch . The second test flight of India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle was successful last Friday, delivering Indian and US-owned payloads into orbit, Spaceflight Now reports . The mission followed the first SSLV test flight in August, which failed during separation of the second stage about six minutes after liftoff, when vibrations threw off the vehicle’s inertial navigation system.

Enlarge / Japan's H3 rocket is seen inside its hangar in Tanegashima. (credit: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)

Japan has a long history of launching orbital rockets, dating back about half a century. During much of this time, its launch industry has focused largely on orbiting national payloads, such as communications, global positioning, and Earth-observation satellites for sovereign purposes.

However, with the H2-A rocket introduced in 2001, the country's launch industry sought to tap into the commercial launch market and send satellites into space for other countries and private companies. With this medium-lift rocket, which is about on par in lift capacity with SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster, Japan had some commercial successes, including the notable launch of the Emirates Mars Mission in 2020.

But the H2-A rocket, which is manufactured by the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has never really broken through. One reason is cost. At a launch price of approximately $90 million, the H2A rocket is about 50 percent more expensive than SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. As a result, Japan's H2A booster only launches a handful of times per year, primarily serving the Japanese government.

Enlarge / A Progress spacecraft is seen departing the space station earlier this month. (credit: NASA)

Russia's state-owned space corporation, Roscosmos, reported Saturday that a Progress supply ship attached to the International Space Station has lost pressure in its external cooling system.

In its statement , Roscosmos said there was no threat to the seven crew members on board the orbiting laboratory. NASA, too, said the hatch between the Progress MS-21 vehicle and the space station was open. Notably, the incident with the supply ship came within hours of the safe docking of another Progress ship, MS-22, which is in good health.

Although the initial Roscosmos statement was vague about the depressurization event, Dmitry Strugovets, a former head of space agency Roscosmos' press service, later clarified it was a coolant leak. "All of the coolant has leaked out," he said via Telegram .

Enlarge / NASA conducts an RS-25 hot fire on the Fred Haise Test Stand at Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi on Feb. 8, 2023 (credit: NASA)

Welcome to Edition 5.25 of the Rocket Report! On Thursday afternoon much of the space world was tuned into South Texas, where SpaceX conducted what appeared to be a successful static fire test of its Super Heavy rocket. This was a critical step on the pathway to a much anticipated orbital flight test of Starship this spring. It looks like this is really happening.

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.

Georgia spaceport effort appears doomed . The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled Tuesday that Camden County must abide by a March 2022 referendum in which nearly three-quarters of local voters cast ballots against a proposed vertical launch spaceport, the Georgia Recorder reports . Since 2015 the Camden County Board of Commissioners has spent more than $11 million trying to get the project going, which has been opposed by some residents and environmental groups.