Tag: commercial-space
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SpaceX will try some new tricks on Starship’s sixth test flight
The sixth flight of SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket, set for takeoff on Tuesday from South Texas, will test the vehicle’s limits in new ways. Most importantly, SpaceX will attempt to briefly reignite one of Starship’s six Raptor engines in space. SpaceX tried this on Starship’s third launch in March but aborted the engine restart after…
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Firefly Aerospace rakes in more cash as competitors struggle for footing
Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company resurrected from bankruptcy, is riding high these days. In a few months, Firefly will attempt to become the second company to safely place a commercial lander on the Moon. Firefly’s Alpha rocket has reached orbit four times, and engineers are developing a larger medium-class rocket in partnership with Northrop Grumman,…
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Firefly Aerospace rakes in more cash as competitors struggle for footing
Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company resurrected from bankruptcy, is riding high these days. In a few months, Firefly will attempt to become the second company to safely place a commercial lander on the Moon. Firefly’s Alpha rocket has reached orbit four times, and engineers are developing a larger medium-class rocket in partnership with Northrop Grumman,…
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NRO chief: “You can’t hide” from our new swarm of SpaceX-built spy satellites
The director of the National Reconnaissance Office has a message for US adversaries around the world. “You can’t hide, because we’re constantly looking,” said Chris Scolese, a longtime NASA engineer who took the helm of the US government’s spy satellite agency in 2019. The NRO is taking advantage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite assembly line to…
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NRO chief: “You can’t hide” from our new swarm of SpaceX-built spy satellites
The director of the National Reconnaissance Office has a message for US adversaries around the world. “You can’t hide, because we’re constantly looking,” said Chris Scolese, a longtime NASA engineer who took the helm of the US government’s spy satellite agency in 2019. The NRO is taking advantage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite assembly line to…
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Finally, a sign of life for Europe’s sovereign satellite Internet constellation
The European Commission announced Thursday it plans to sign a contract with the continent’s leading space companies before the end of the year to begin development of a 290-satellite broadband Internet network estimated to cost more than 10 billion euros (about $10.9 billion). The press release announcing the contract award to IRIS²—known as Infrastructure for…
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Rocket Report: Sneak peek at the business end of New Glenn; France to fly FROG
Welcome to Edition 7.17 of the Rocket Report! Next week marks 10 years since one of the more spectacular launch failures of this century. On October 28, 2014, an Antares rocket, then operated by Orbital Sciences, suffered an engine failure six seconds after liftoff from Virginia and crashed back onto the pad in a fiery…
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Boeing is still bleeding money on the Starliner commercial crew program
Sometimes, it’s worth noting when something goes unsaid. On Wednesday, Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, participated in his first quarterly conference call with investment analysts. Under fire from labor groups and regulators, Boeing logged a nearly $6.2 billion loss for the last three months, while the new boss pledged a turnaround for the troubled aerospace…
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After seeing hundreds of launches, SpaceX’s rocket catch was a new thrill
BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas—I’ve taken some time to process what happened on the mudflats of South Texas a little more than a week ago and relived the scene in my mind countless times. With each replay, it’s still as astonishing as it was when I saw it on October 13, standing on an elevated platform…
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Biden administration curtails controls on some space-related exports
The US Commerce Department announced Thursday it is easing restrictions on exports of space-related technology, answering a yearslong call from space companies to reform regulations governing international trade. This is the most significant update to space-related export regulations in a decade and opens more opportunities for US companies to sell their satellite hardware abroad. “We…