Tag: Space Launch System
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Rocket Report: Rocket Lab to demo cargo delivery; America’s new ICBM in trouble
Welcome to Edition 7.43 of the Rocket Report! There’s been a lot of recent news in hypersonic testing. We cover some of that in this week’s newsletter, which is just a taste of the US military’s appetite for fielding its own hypersonic weapons, and conversely, the Pentagon’s emphasis on the detection and destruction of an…
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Proposed 24 percent cut to NASA budget eliminates key Artemis architecture, climate research
The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. Image: NASA Update May 3, 5:22 p.m. EDT: Corrected the location of Northrop Grumman’s facility housing the HALO module for the Gateway. The White House released its proposed federal spending budget for Fiscal Year 2026 on Friday and with it a series of deep cuts to…
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NASA just swapped a 10-year-old Artemis II engine with one nearly twice its age
A couple of weeks ago, ground teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida removed one of the four main engines from the Space Launch System rocket slated to send four astronauts on a voyage around the Moon next year. NASA officials ordered the removal of one of the massive rocket’s RS-25 main engines after…
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Rocket Report: “No man’s land” in rocket wars; Isaacman lukewarm on SLS
Welcome to Edition 7.39 of the Rocket Report! Not getting your launch fix? Buckle up. We’re on the cusp of a boom in rocket launches as three new megaconstellations have either just begun or will soon begin deploying thousands of satellites to enable broadband connectivity from space. If the megaconstellations come to fruition, this will…
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Rocket Report: Stoke is stoked; sovereignty is the buzzword in Europe
Welcome to Edition 7.37 of the Rocket Report! It’s been interesting to watch how quickly European officials have embraced ensuring they have a space launch capability independent of other countries. A few years ago, European government satellites regularly launched on Russian Soyuz rockets, and more recently on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets from the United States.…
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As preps continue, it’s looking more likely that NASA will fly the Artemis II mission
Late Saturday night, technicians at Kennedy Space Center in Florida moved the core stage for NASA’s second Space Launch System rocket into position between the vehicle’s two solid-fueled boosters. Working inside the iconic 52-story-tall Vehicle Assembly Building, ground teams used heavy-duty cranes to first lift the butterscotch orange core stage from its cradle in the…
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Rocket Report: Rocket Lab’s news blitz; Starship mishap blamed on vibrations
Welcome to Edition 7.33 of the Rocket Report! Phew, what a week for Rocket Lab! The company released a bevy of announcements in conjunction with its quarterly earnings report Thursday. Rocket Lab is spending a lot of money to develop the medium-lift Neutron rocket, and as we’ll discuss below, a rocket landing platform and a new…
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Rocket Report: SpaceX lands in the Bahamas; ULA tests modified booster
Welcome to Edition 7.32 of the Rocket Report! It’s true that the US space program has always been political. Domestic and global politics have driven nearly all of the US government’s decisions on major space issues, most notably President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to land astronauts on the Moon amid intense Cold War competition with…
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NASA is stacking the Artemis II rocket, implying a simple heat shield fix
The Space Launch System rocket that will dispatch four astronauts on the first Moon mission in more than 50 years passed a major milestone Wednesday. NASA said ground teams inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida lifted the aft assembly of the rocket’s left booster onto the mobile launch platform.…