Tag: reentry
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SpaceX tests upcoming Starfall reentry vehicle with demonstration mission on Tuesday
Early Tuesday morning, SpaceX launched a demonstration mission for its Starfall reentry vehicle. Falcon 9 lifted off at 6:53 AM EDT (10:53 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Weather was 95% “go” for launch, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule. Riding within…
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Varda lands third capsule with hypersonic flight data
Varda Space Industries has successfully recovered its third reentry capsule, marking a critical milestone for both commercial in-space manufacturing and defense applications. The W-3 mission capsule landed May 8, 2026, carrying hypersonic flight test data that could accelerate development of next-generation defense systems. The recovery validates Varda’s manufacturing-to-Earth return capability at 120 kg payload capacity…
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Here’s what to expect from the fiery, 14-minute return of Artemis II
Death, taxes, and the gravitationally bound return of the Artemis II mission on Friday evening. These are the only certainties in life. Even if the four astronauts on board the Orion spacecraft discovered a serious flaw in their spacecraft today—and to be clear, from recent images reviewed by NASA experts, everything looks just fine—there is…
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Artemis II returns to Earth after historic 10-day mission around the Moon
After 10 days, over 800,000 km traveled, and a historic flyby of the Moon, Artemis II returned to Earth on Friday evening. Orion CM-003 Integrity, which served as the home for the mission’s four-person crew since April 1, reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean before ultimately splashing down off the coast of San Diego,…
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The inside story of SpaceX’s historic rocket landing that changed launch forever
On Dec. 21, 2015, SpaceX launched the Orbcomm-2 mission on an upgraded version of its Falcon 9 rocket. That night, just days before Christmas, the company successfully landed the first stage for the first time. The story behind this remarkable achievement is nowhere more fully told than in the book Reentry, authored by Ars Technica…
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How ATMOS Space Cargo is shaping Europe’s spaceflight future through reentry capsules
As space-based research and manufacturing ramp up, a market is emerging for returning payloads to Earth affordably and reliably. European startup ATMOS Space Cargo is meeting that need with a new generation of reentry vehicles built around an inflatable heat shield. Already flight-tested, the novel system positions Europe as a serious contender in the field…
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In the room where it happened: When NASA nearly gave Boeing all the crew funding
This is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of the book REENTRY: SpaceX, Elon Musk and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age by our own Eric Berger. The book will be published on September 24, 2024. This excerpt describes a fateful meeting 10 years ago at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, where the…
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Permission denied for reentry of Varda’s orbiting experiment capsule
A first-of-its-kind commercial spacecraft owned by an in-space manufacturing startup called Varda Space Industries has been in orbit two months longer than originally planned, waiting for government approval to return to Earth with a cache of pharmaceutical specimens. Varda’s satellite launched on June 12 for what was originally supposed to be a monthlong mission to…
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Out-of-this-world coffee? Company generates buzz with plan to roast beans using heat from reentry
Perhaps you’ve heard someone refer to a strong cup of coffee as “rocket fuel.” That terminology could have especially fun relevance for a company called Space Roasters, which wants to use space technology to roast coffee beans. A new story in Ars Technica points to a previous Room magazine interview, which describes the out-of-this-world plan to…