Tag: Space
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Rocket Report: Next Starship flight to reuse booster; FAA clears New Glenn
Welcome to Edition 7.38 of the Rocket Report! SpaceX test fired a Super Heavy booster that launched in January on Thursday, in South Texas. This sets up the possibility of a reused Super Heavy rocket launching within the next several weeks, and would be an important step forward in the Starship launch program. It’s also…
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Starliner’s flight to the space station was far wilder than most of us thought
As it flew up toward the International Space Station last summer, the Starliner spacecraft lost four thrusters. A NASA astronaut, Butch Wilmore, had to take manual control of the vehicle. But as Starliner’s thrusters failed, Wilmore lost the ability to move the spacecraft in the direction he wanted to go. He and his fellow astronaut,…
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Europe’s quest to finally land on Mars takes another turn
Oh, ExoMars, what a long, strange trip it has been. Are you ever going to go to space? The ExoMars mission represents Europe’s third attempt to land successfully on Mars, and at a cost of more than $1.3 billion. there is a lot riding on its success. But success is far from assured for a…
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Europe’s quest to finally land on Mars takes another turn
Oh, ExoMars, what a long, strange trip it has been. Are you ever going to go to space? The ExoMars mission represents Europe’s third attempt to land successfully on Mars, and at a cost of more than $1.3 billion. there is a lot riding on its success. But success is far from assured for a…
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Tuesday Telescope: A close-up of the magical camera at the end of a robotic arm
Welcome to the Tuesday Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light—a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We’ll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we’ll take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is…
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NASA to put Starliner’s thrusters through an extensive workout before next launch
More than half a year after an empty Starliner spacecraft safely landed in a New Mexico desert, NASA and Boeing still have not decided whether the vehicle’s next flight will carry any astronauts. In an update this week, the US space agency said it is still working through the process to certify Starliner for human…
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As NASA faces cuts, China reveals ambitious plans for planetary exploration
China created a new entity called the “Deep Space Exploration Laboratory” three years ago to strengthen the country’s approach to exploring the Solar System. Located in eastern China, not far from Shanghai, the new laboratory represented a partnership between China’s national space agency and a local public college, the University of Science and Technology of…
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After a spacecraft was damaged en route to launch, NASA says it won’t launch
Three weeks ago, NASA revealed that a shipping container protecting a Cygnus spacecraft sustained “damage” while traveling to the launch site in Florida. Built by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus is one of two Western spacecraft currently capable of delivering food, water, experiments, and other supplies to the International Space Station. This particular Cygnus mission, NG-22, had…
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Firm wins Space Force funding to provide an “aircraft carrier” in orbit
In recent years, the US military has made much of a concept known as tactically responsive launch. This essentially means that if there is some rapidly developing threat in space—say an adversary takes out a key national defense satellite—the military would like the capability to rapidly fuel a satellite on Earth, mate it to a…
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Momentum seems to be building for Jared Isaacman to become NASA administrator
With the vast majority of President Donald Trump’s cabinet members now approved by the US Senate, focus is turning to senior positions within the administration that are just below the cabinet level. The administrator of NASA is among the most high-profile of these positions. Nearly four months ago Trump nominated private astronaut Jared Isaacman to…