Tag: Space
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Intuitive Machines set for second landing, looking to build a lunar economy
Five years ago, a small company in Houston named Intuitive Machines had just 30 employees, a couple of 3D printers, and a few soldering irons. Oh, and it had some big dreams. The company’s founders wanted to open a business on the Moon. On Wednesday morning, when I drove into the company’s new headquarters at…
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Nearly two years after its radical pivot, Fidelity slashes Relativity’s valuation
For several years, an innovative, California-based launch company named Relativity Space has been the darling of investors and media. Relativity promised to disrupt launch by taking a somewhat niche technology in the space industry at the time, 3D printing, and using it as the foundation for manufacturing rockets. The pitch worked. Relativity’s chief executive Tim…
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Outgoing NASA administrator urges incoming leaders to stick with Artemis plan
After a long career as a politician from Florida, former astronaut Bill Nelson has served as NASA’s administrator for the last three and a half years. He intends to resign from this position in about two weeks when President Joe Biden ends his term in the White House. Several significant events have happened under Nelson’s…
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Annual power ranking of US launch companies finds a shake-up at the bottom
Once again, we’re back with our annual power ranking of US launch companies. 2024 was the third year Ars compiled a list of the most accomplished rocket companies in the United States with the goal of sparking debate, discussion, and appreciation for the challenge of operating a successful launch company. This is a difficult business,…
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Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”
Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media site X, he has been relatively restrained when it comes to US space policy in recent years. For example, he has rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis Program. Rather,…
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Rocket Report: Avio named top European launch firm; New Glenn may launch soon
Welcome to Edition 7.25 of the Rocket Report! Happy New Year! It’s a shorter edition of the newsletter this week because most companies (not named Blue Origin, this holiday season) took things easier over the last 10 days. But after the break we’re back in the saddle for the new year, and eager to see…
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Russia just launched the 2,000th Semyorka rocket—it’s both a triumph and tragedy
The Russian space program reached a significant milestone over the holidays with the 2,000th launch of a rocket from the “R-7” family of boosters. The launch took place on Christmas Day when an R-7 rocket lifted off, carrying a remote-sensing satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This family of rockets has an incredible heritage dating back…
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After 60 years of spaceflight patches, here are some of our favorites
The art of space mission patches is now more than six decades old, dating to the Vostok 6 mission in 1963 that carried Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova into low-Earth orbit for nearly three days. The patch for the first female human spaceflight showcased a dove flying above the letters designating the Soviet Union, CCCP. That…
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After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly
After a long day of stops and starts that stretched well into the evening, and on what appeared to be the company’s fifth attempt Friday, Blue Origin successfully ignited the seven main engines on its massive New Glenn rocket. The test firing came as fog built over the Florida coast, and it marks the final…
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How might NASA change under Trump? Here’s what is being discussed
Although the details remain in flux, the transition team reviewing NASA and its activities has begun to draft potential executive orders for changes to space policy under the Trump Administration. Sources familiar with the five people on the team, who have spent the last six weeks assessing the space agency and its exploration plans, were…