Tag: Space
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Rocket Report: SpaceX tosses away a Falcon 9; a Somalian spaceport?
Welcome to Edition 7.29 of the Rocket Report! It may be difficult to believe, but we are already one full month into the new year. It will be hard to top this month in launch, however, given the historic debut of New Glenn, and fiery end of the seventh Starship flight test. And in truth,…
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AstroForge selects target for “high risk, seat of the pants” asteroid mission
The concept of flying out to distant asteroids and mining them for precious metals is going to seem preposterous right up until the moment that someone actually does it. It’s a terrible business model because it requires years and years of up-front investment and solving myriad technical problems before there’s any hope of a financial…
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Why did Elon Musk just say Trump wants to bring two stranded astronauts home?
For reasons that were not immediately clear, SpaceX founder Elon Musk took to his social media site X on Tuesday evening to make a perplexing space-based pronouncement. “The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so,” Musk wrote. “Terrible that the…
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With successful New Glenn flight, Blue Origin may finally be turning the corner
If one were to observe that I have written critically about Blue Origin over the last half-decade, they would not be wrong. The reality is that the space company founded by Jeff Bezos has underperformed. Its chief executive for most of this time, Bob Smith, was poorly regarded by his employees. He brought the worst…
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NASA moves swiftly to end DEI programs, asks employees to “report” violations
NASA’s acting administrator is moving swiftly to remove diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility—or DEIA—programs from the space agency. In an email sent to agency employees on Wednesday afternoon, acting administrator Janet Petro wrote, “We are taking steps to close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders…
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Satellite firm bucks miniaturization trend, aims to build big for big rockets
A potentially disruptive satellite company launched its first spacecraft last week as part of a Transporter mission flown on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The demonstration mission from a California-based firm named K2 aims to “burn down” the risk of the technology that will fly on the company’s first full-sized satellite. So far, so good, but…
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Rocket Report: Starship experiences a RUD; Blue Origin nails its debut launch
Welcome to Edition 7.27 of the Rocket Report! Thursday was an eventful day in super heavy lift launch, with Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket having a highly successful debut launch before dawn in Florida, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Then, on Thursday afternoon, an upgraded Starship took flight from South Texas. The first stage…
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Firm developing a fully reusable rocket raises a quarter of a billion dollars
A Washington-based launch company announced Wednesday that it has raised $260 million in Series C funding, a significant capital raise at a time when it has become more difficult for some space companies to attract funding. “The market is tough, but I think what we’re doing is poised to go straight to the end state…
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Blue Origin reaches orbit on first flight of its titanic New Glenn rocket
Early on Thursday morning, a Saturn V-sized rocket ignited its seven main engines, a prelude to lifting off from Earth. But then, the New Glenn rocket didn’t move. And still, the engines produced their blue flame, furiously burning away methane. The thrust-to-weight ratio of the rocket must have been in the vicinity of 1.0 to…
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New Glenn to make another launch attempt early Thursday
Blue Origin announced late on Monday afternoon that it planned to make a second attempt to launch the New Glenn rocket at 1 am ET (06:00 UTC) on Tuesday. But then, a couple of hours later, the company said it would move the launch to Thursday. Although the company provided no information about why it…