Tag: rocket-report
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Rocket Report: Iran reaches orbit; Chinese firm achieves impressive landing test
Welcome to Edition 6.28 of the Rocket Report! There’s a lot going on in the world of launch as always, but this week I want to take this space for a personal message. I have just announced the forthcoming publication of my second book, REENTRY, on the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft, and development of…
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Rocket Report: A Chinese launch you must see; Vulcan’s stunning debut
Welcome to Edition 6.26 of the Rocket Report! We’re just 11 days into the new year, and we’ve already had two stunning rocket debuts. Vulcan soared into space on Monday morning, and then a medium-lift rocket from China, Gravity-1, made a picture-perfect launch from a mobile pad in the Yellow Sea. It feels like this…
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Rocket Report: The final space shuttle stack; SpaceX may extend booster lifetimes
Welcome to Edition 6.22 of the Rocket Report! We’re nearing the end of 2023, and it’s been an incredible year for rocket debuts. Early in the year we saw small lift vehicles from Relativity Space and ABL, and in the spring Japan’s H3 and SpaceX’s Starship rocket. There’s one big one left: United Launch Alliance’s…
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Rocket Report: Beyond Gravity to study fairing reuse; North Korea launches satellite
Welcome to Edition 6.20 of the Rocket Report! We apologize for missing last week, but both Stephen and I were in transit to South Texas for the Starship launch. To make up for it this week’s report is extra long, and a day early due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. But that…
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Rocket Report: ICBM test aborted after “anomaly”; FAA wraps Starship safety review
Welcome to Edition 6.18 of the Rocket Report! In this newsletter we have a double dose of news from China, where there are two separate efforts to duplicate SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. On the American side of the pond we also have two stories about United Launch Alliance and its effort to get Vulcan flying,…
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Rocket Report: China launches 3-man crew; SpaceX adds to busy manifest
Welcome to Edition 6.17 of the Rocket Report! Two Asian powers notched achievements in their human spaceflight programs this week. In China, three astronauts launched to begin a six-month expedition on the Tiangong space station. With this mission, China is settling into a routine of operations on the Tiangong complex. Elsewhere in Asia, India took…
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Rocket Report: Key Ariane 6 test delayed; NASA urged to look at SLS alternatives
Welcome to Edition 6.16 of the Rocket Report! Lots of news here today about big rockets, including a push by SpaceX to speed up launch licensing by the Federal Aviation Administration. The full-court press in Washington, DC, comes as the company says its Starship rocket is ready for a second flight test but still awaiting…
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Rocket Report: European rockets finally fly; Artemis II core stage issues
Welcome to Edition 6.15 of the Rocket Report! We’re now more than three-quarters of the way through the year, and as of Thursday, there have been 156 orbital launches since January 1. Last year, which set a record for global launch activity, we didn’t reach 156 orbital launches until mid-November. At the cadence set so…
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Rocket Report: NASA to test new RS-25 engines; Russia’s phantom rockets
Welcome to Edition 6.14 of the Rocket Report! The big news this week is that Stoke Space, which is seeking to build a fully reusable rocket, has secured a significant amount of funding that should help it get closer to a debut launch within a couple of years. I also like the name they’ve chosen…
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Rocket Report: NASA to test new RS-25 engines; Russia’s phantom rockets
Welcome to Edition 6.14 of the Rocket Report! The big news this week is that Stoke Space, which is seeking to build a fully reusable rocket, has secured a significant amount of funding that should help it get closer to a debut launch within a couple of years. I also like the name they’ve chosen…