#WASHINGTON — A new version of a 60-year-old rocket engine, with performance and cost improvements, is expected to make its debut in 2025 on the Vulcan Centaur rocket.

At a Nov. 27 briefing, executives with United Launch Alliance and Aerojet Rocketdyne, an #L3Harris Technologies company, said they expected that the RL10C-X engine, the latest upgrade to the RL10, to make its first flight on a Vulcan launch some time in 2025.

A major change for the RL10C-X is how it is manufactured. “It relies heavily on additive manufacturing,” said Jim Maus, vice president of program execution and integration at Aerojet. The current RL10 uses additive manufacturing to produce its injector, but the RL10C-X will use additive manufacturing to produce the entire thrust chamber.

#WASHINGTON — Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who has spearheaded #Pentagon efforts to bring cutting-edge technology into defense programs, is overseeing the military’s first commercial space integration strategy.

The new strategy comes as the #Pentagon seeks to tap into advancements in commercial space technology to maintain an advantage over China, now seen as America’s top military competitor.

“At Deputy Secretary Hicks’ direction, the Department is currently developing our first DoD Commercial Space Integration Strategy in order to drive integration and ensure the availability of commercial space solutions during competition, crisis and conflict,” Pentagon Spokesman Eric Pahon said Nov. 27 in a statement to #SpaceNews

#WASHINGTON — Lunar rover developer #Astrolab announced eight customers have signed contracts worth more than $160 million for its first mission to the moon in 2026.

The company, formally known as Venturi Astrolab Inc., announced Nov. 21 that it signed the customers to fly payloads on Mission 1, a flight of the company’s Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover slated for as soon as mid-2026. Astrolab announced a contract with SpaceX in March to launch FLEX on that mission on a Starship commercial lander.

“Our entire Astrolab team is excited to welcome these businesses to Mission 1,” Jaret Matthews, chief executive and founder of Astrolab, said in a statement. “Together, they represent a cross-section of the emerging lunar economy.”

#BERLIN — As #SpaceX prepares for its next Starship test flight, a #NASA official said that the use of that vehicle for Artemis lunar landings will require “in the high teens” of launches, a much higher number than what the company’s leadership has previously claimed.

In a presentation at a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee Nov. 17, Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy associate administrator in NASA’s Moon to Mars Program Office, said the company will have to perform Starship launches from both its current pad in Texas and one it is constructing at the Kennedy Space Center in order send a lander to the moon for Artemis 3.

SpaceX’s concept of operations for the Starship lunar lander it is developing for the Human Landing System (HLS) program requires multiple launches of the Starship/Super Heavy system. One launch will place a propellant depot into orbit, followed by multiple other launches of tanker versions of Starship, transferring methane and liquid oxygen propellants into the depot. That will be followed by the lander version of Starship, which will rendezvous with the depot and fill its tanks before going to the #moon.

#BERLIN — A year after the launch of the Artemis 1 mission, #NASA is continuing to study the performance of the heat shield on the Orion spacecraft, a review that may take several more months to complete.

Jim Free, #NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, said at a Nov. 17 meeting of the #NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee that #Artemis 2 remained on schedule for launch on the Orion spacecraft’s first crewed mission late next year, but that #NASA would not proceed until it was sure it understood the problem and made any changes. #spacenews