There is no funding for future launches of the Air Force’s Super Strypi rocket, placing the launch vehicle’s future in doubt following a launch failure Tuesday evening.

Air Force spokesman James Spellman said Wednesday evening the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office funded the launch vehicle and its associated costs. The total cost, he said, is $47 million, including development and build of the launch vehicle, launch pad, launch rail, and range costs. Spacecraft costs are borne by the payload provider, he said. The University of Hawaii’s HiakaSat flew as the primary payload on the integrated payload stack with an additional 12 CubeSats flying as secondary payloads.

A Super Strypi launch vehicle model. Photo: Air Force.
A Super Strypi launch vehicle model. Photo: Air Force.

Spellman said the ORS office funded development of the launch system and its first launch. The Super Strypi launch system, he said, includes the three-stage launch vehicle, launch pad, rail launcher and associated ground support equipment. Spellman said follow-on efforts and launches are currently undefined and unfunded.

The Super Strypi mission, officially known as Operationally Responsive Space-4 (ORS-4), failed in midflight after liftoff from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii. Spellman said it is too early in the investigative process to speculate into why the rocket failed after liftoff. ORS-4 is an Air Force mission designed to cut launch range operations costs to below $2 million with its simplified, rail-guided, small launch vehicle.

An Air Force official in July called Super Strypi a throwback to the 1960s, a simpler time for launch vehicles. Spellman said the rocket is composed of three solid rocket motor stages, all designed by Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD]. The rocket motors, called LEO-1, LEO-7 and LEO-7, are brand new, according to Aerojet Rocketdyne. The launch vehicle was developed by Sandia National Laboratories, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin [LMT].

The rocket weighs just over 62,000 pounds when fully integrated and is approximately 60 feet long. The rail launcher weighs nearly 125 tons, including a base unit. The entire launch system is about 135 feet long.

Air Force Col. John Anttonen, director of the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office, said in July the rail-guided, fixed-trajectory approach would save money and engineering hours by changing the flight termination system and reducing the termination, or risk, area of launch. It also simplified rocket assembly, he said, as putting stages together on a traditional vertical launch stand can take a long time. Anttonen also said the rail-guided launch approach spin stabilizes the launch vehicle upon liftoff, which he said reduces the cost of the avionics system.

Super Strypi is to deliver payloads in the range of 300 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), or 475 km, according to the Air Force (Defense Daily, July 10).