ABL Space Systems
TypePrivate
IndustryAerospace
FoundedAugust 2017
Founder
  • Dan Piemont
  • Harry O'Hanley
Headquarters
El Segundo, California
,
United States
Key people
  • Dan Piemont (CFO)
  • Harry O'Hanley (CEO)
  • Matthew Becker (Chief Engineer)
  • Josh Hathaway (GNC Director)
Number of employees
100 (2021)
Websiteablspacesystems.com

ABL Space Systems is an American aerospace and launch service provider, based in El Segundo, California, that manufactures deployable launch vehicles and infrastructure for sending commercial small satellites into orbit. The company manufactures its components in the United States.[1]

ABL Space Systems manufactures the RS1, a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle, and GS0, a deployable launch pad. Harry O'Hanley is the chief executive officer (CEO) and Dan Piemont is the chief financial officer (CFO) of ABL Space Systems.[1]

History

ABL Space Systems was founded in 2017 by Harry O'Hanley and Dan Piemont, former SpaceX and Morgan Stanley employees. Their RS-1 rocket has two stages. It offers a maximum capacity of 1,350 kg (2,980 lb) to low Earth orbit (LEO).[2]

In 2018, ABL Space Systems signed a lease with Camden County, Georgia, for future operations in Spaceport Camden.[3]

In 2019, the company signed with Spaceport America in New Mexico to locate some ABL testing operations and facilities there.[4] As of October 2022, the company makes no mention of this location on their facility list.[5]

As of 2023, ABL is working on a larger rocket to compete for National Security Space Launch contracts.[6]

Testing

In 2019, ABL Space conducted testing of the E2 rocket engine at the company's test facilities at Spaceport America, New Mexico, which "provided the perfect location and support staff for us to test the E2 rocket engine". The test was considered a success.[4]

In early 2020, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) joined with ABL Space Systems to test and develop rocket-propulsion components.[7] In October 2020, the second stage with E2 engine was tested at Edwards Air Force Base.[8]

On 19 January 2022, an anomaly during testing at Mojave Air and Space Port resulted in the destruction of the second stage of the RS1 rocket.[9] On 27 January, the source of the anomaly was publicly identified by ABL's CEO Harry O'Hanley as being one of the second stage's E2 Vacuum engine's turbopumps suffering a hard start, which led to a "substantial fire on the aft end of the vehicle, resulting in a complete failure about 20 seconds later".[10]

After three earlier attempts to launch their RS1 rocket in December 2022, ABL shifted the launch attempt to January 2023.[11] The maiden flight on January 10, 2023, failed.[12]

Planned launches sites

St. Marys, Georgia – launch site

In 2018, ABL contracted with the city of St. Marys, Georgia, in Camden County to use the former St. Marys Airport (FAA LID: 4J6) as a launch site.[13] The former airport is about 7 km (4.3 mi) from the East Coast at Cumberland Island, Georgia, and would be part of the Spaceport Camden range.

Pacific Spaceport Complex

The first RS1 flight was planned for 2022 from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island,[14] but the launch attempt failed with no rocket actually launched. After two additional launch attempt failures (no rockets launched), the first launch occurred on January 10, 2023.[12] The maiden flight also failed and did not reach orbit.

Cape Canaveral

On 1 November 2021, Amazon announced that the first two prototype satellites of the Kuiper constellation, KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, would be launched using RS1 in the fourth quarter of 2022 from Launch Complex 48 at the Kennedy Space Center.[15] Amazon subsequently shifted these satellites to Vulcan Centaur.[16] Which were then subsequently launched on and Atlas V on October 6th, 2023.[17]

SaxaVord Spaceport

On 7 February 2021, Lockheed Martin and the United Kingdom announced a contract with ABL to launch the UK Pathfinder mission (6 CubeSats) in 2022, from the Shetland Space Centre on the island of Unst, Scotland.[18][19] As of September 2023, the UK Pathfinder launch is scheduled to take place in late 2023.[20]

Launches

Flight No. Name Date and

time (UTC)

 Launch site Payload Payload mass Orbit Customer Launch outcome
1 DEMO-1 10 January 2023[21] Kodiak, LP-3C[22] VariSat 1A & 1B[23] Polar (200 x 350 km x 87°)[22] OmniTeq[24] Failure
First flight of the RS1 launch vehicle. The vehicle suffered an anomaly shortly after liftoff and was destroyed. Failure was attributed to an overly restrictive launch mount and flame diverter causing plume recirculation and overloading of headshield causing fire. Fire subsequently caused damage to key harnesses causing loss of power and simultaneous loss of thrust in all engines due to de-energization of valves.[25]
2 DEMO-2 January 2024[26] Kodiak, LP-3C[27] Unknown Polar (200 x 275 km x 87°)[27] Unknown Planned
Second flight of the RS1 launch vehicle.
– 2024[14] NASA Cryogenic Demonstration Mission LEO NASA Planned
Contract for a technology demonstration of cryogenic propellant transfer in orbit.

RS1 rocket

Both stages are powered by ABL's E2 rocket engine, with nine in the first stage, and one in the second stage. They are powered by RP-1 kerosene as propellant and liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer. [2]

The containerized launch system and rocket can be deployed to and launched from a suitably flat site, the main requirements being access for trucks capable of carrying up to 16 m (52 ft)-long ISO containers (for the RS-1 first stage), and a flat concrete pad 46 m (151 ft) x 15 m (49 ft).

As of April 2020 ABL Space Systems was planning the first orbital launch of its RS1 rocket in 2022. The firm received contracts worth US$44.5 million from the United States Air Force, as well as private funding equaling US$49 million. According to Dan Piemont, the US$44.5 million Air Force contracts[28] include a one-year deal from the tech incubator AFWERX to demonstrate launch technology and an agreement with Space and Missile Systems Center's Space Enterprise Consortium to conduct three demonstrations of a RS1 vehicle variant and deployable ground infrastructure in 2022.[29]

The RS1 is capable of carrying a payload of 1,350 kg (2,980 lb) to low Earth orbit.[29] It is 27 m (89 ft) tall. Launches are planned to be sold for US$12 million per flight.[8][30]

The maiden flight on January 10, 2023, failed after a fire in the aft cavity damaged key harnessing, causing the engines to shut down 11 seconds into flight.[12] RS1 crashed down near the launch pad, damaging infrastructure at the Pacific Spaceport Complex.[31]

ABL has sold over 70 launches so far.[32]

Previous design

In 2019, RS-1 was planned to have three E1 engines, each producing 190,000 N (42,000 lbf) of thrust to power the rocket's first stage. A single E2 engine, with 58,000 N (13,000 lbf) of thrust, was planned for the rocket's second stage. Both engines would use liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellants. The first development build of the vehicle has been completed.[33]

See also

  • Rocket Lab – New Zealand and American private spaceflight company
  • Relativity Space – Private American launch vehicle manufacturer, of Terran-1 and future Terran-R
  • Firefly Aerospace – American private aerospace company
    • Firefly Alpha – Two-stage operational orbital rocket, about 1,070 kg to LEO

References

  1. 1 2 "ABL Space Systems Company". ABL Space Systems. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Even Rockets Can Be Simple". ABL Space Systems. 2020. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  3. ↑ "ABL Space Systems Signs Lease with JDA to Begin Operations in Camden County". Business Wire. 17 September 2018. Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  4. 1 2 Clark, Carol A. (29 December 2019). "Spaceport America announces test operations of ABL Space Systems". Los Alamos Daily Post. Archived from the original on 16 November 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  5. ↑ "Company—ABL Space Systems : Site Map". ABL. Archived from the original on 17 September 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
  6. ↑ Eric Berger. "Col. Douglas Pentecost of the Air Force has referred to companies including Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, Blue Origin, and ABL Space as "Lane 1" entrants for national security launch. He revealed that ABL is also working on larger rocket, which the company hasn't talked about". Twitter. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  7. ↑ "Rocket Report". Ars Technica. 7 January 2020. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  8. 1 2 "ABL Space Systems tests launch vehicle stage". SpaceNews. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  9. ↑ "ABL Space Systems rocket stage destroyed in test accident". SpaceNews. 20 January 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  10. ↑ "ABL Space Systems test accident to delay first launch by three months". SpaceNews. 27 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  11. ↑ Wall, Mike (16 December 2022). "Rocket startup ABL Space Systems pushes debut launch to Jan. 9". space.com. Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  12. 1 2 3 Wattles, Jackie (11 January 2023). "Start-up fails first launch as rocket explodes off Alaska's coast". CNN. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  13. ↑ "ABL Space Systems". Parabolic Arc. 19 September 2018. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  14. 1 2 Foust, Jeff (16 September 2021). "ABL Space Systems to launch NASA technology demonstration mission". SpaceNews. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  15. ↑ "Amazon's satellite launch schedule puts it nearly 4 years behind Starlink". 1 November 2021. Archived from the original on 31 January 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  16. ↑ "Amazon's Project Kuiper satellites will fly on the new Vulcan Centaur rocket in early 2023". US About Amazon. 12 October 2022. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  17. ↑ Mike, Wall (6 October 2023). "Atlas V rocket launches Amazon's 1st 2 internet satellites to orbit (video)". Space.com. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  18. ↑ "Lockheed Martin selects ABL Space Systems for UK launch". SpaceNews. 7 February 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  19. ↑ "British military's space campaign picks up steam with "Skynet" upgrade". C4ISRNET. 8 February 2021. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  20. ↑ https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/6974
  21. ↑ "ABL Space Systems' rocket fails on maiden launch". Reuters. 11 January 2023. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  22. 1 2 "OET Special Temporary Authority Report". FCC. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  23. ↑ "RS1". Gunter's Space Page. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  24. ↑ "VariSat 1A, 1B, 1C". Gunter's Space Page. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  25. ↑ "FAA Closes RS1 Mishap Investigation". ablspacesystems.com. ABL. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  26. ↑ "RS1 - Flight 2". Next Spaceflight. 19 December 2023. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  27. 1 2 "OET Special Temporary Authority Report". FCC. 21 September 2022. Archived from the original on 22 September 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  28. ↑ "AFRL awards agreements under Aerospike Rocket Integration and Sub-orbital Experiment (ARISE) Program". Wright-Patterson AFB. 13 April 2020. Archived from the original on 1 November 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  29. 1 2 Erwin, Sandra (3 August 2020). "Small launch startup ABL secures over US$90 million in new funding and Air Force contracts". SpaceNews. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  30. ↑ Foust, Jeff (1 February 2019). "ABL Space Systems increases performance and cuts price of its small launch vehicle". SpaceNews. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  31. ↑ "FAA Closes RS1 Mishap Investigation". ABL Space Systems. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  32. ↑ "The Road to Flight 2, with Dan Piemont (ABL Space)" (video). 31 October 2023.
  33. ↑ Foust, Jeff (1 February 2019). "ABL Space Systems increases performance and cuts price of its small launch vehicle". SpaceNews. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
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