Tag: Space
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Russian space chief says new rocket will put Falcon 9 reuse to shame
Russia’s once-vaunted launch industry has been much in decline due to a combination of factors, including an aging fleet of rockets, a reduction in government investment, and the country’s war in Ukraine driving away Western customers. However, it is has been difficult for the country’s leaders to explain these difficult facts to the Russian people.…
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Kuiper satellite network gets a big lift from Amazon’s CEO, but timeline is a bit hazy
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket sends two prototype Project Kuiper satellites into orbit for Amazon in October 2023. (ULA Photo) In his annual letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company’s Project Kuiper satellite venture will be “a very large revenue opportunity” in the future — but he’s hedging his bets as…
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The most metal of rockets has gone into the great mosh pit in the sky
United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket lifted off for the final time on Tuesday. United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket lifted off for the final time on Tuesday. United Launch Alliance The rocket will now go into retirement after 16 flights. United Launch Alliance The rocket will now go into…
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With payload questions, it’s likely Vulcan will not launch again until fall
After the impressive debut of the Vulcan rocket in January, it is unclear when the heavy lift vehicle will fly again. The uncertainty is due to a couple of factors, including the rocket’s readiness and, perhaps more critically, what will fly on top of it. United Launch Alliance, which assembles and launches the Vulcan rocket,…
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How will astronauts cruise around the Moon? NASA narrows choice to three options
NASA has made another bold bet on the nation’s commercial space industry, this time asking private companies to provide a lunar rover that can survive for up to a decade near the South Pole of the Moon. The space agency on Wednesday announced the selection of three teams, led by Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and…
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Russia has a plan to “restore” its dominant position in the global launch market
It has been a terrible decade for the Russian launch industry, which once led the world. The country’s long-running workhorse, the Proton rocket, ran into reliability issues and will soon be retired. Russia’s next-generation rocket, Angara, is fully expendable and still flying dummy payloads on test flights a decade after its debut. And the ever-reliable…
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Daily Telescope: Peering into the remnants of an 800-year-old supernova
Welcome to the Daily 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’re going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a…
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Seeing this eclipse is probably the highest-reward, lowest-effort thing one can do in life
If you enter “how to see the eclipse” into your favorite search engine, you’re bound to see thousands—millions?—of helpful guides. Some of these are extremely detailed and thorough, almost as if the author were getting paid by the word or augmented by AI. In reality, seeing a solar eclipse is just about the easiest thing…
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It’s a few years late, but a prototype supersonic airplane has taken flight
A prototype jet independently developed by Boom Supersonic made its first flight on Friday, the company said. The XB-1 vehicle flew from Mojave Air & Space Port in California, reaching an altitude of 7,120 feet (2.2 km) and a maximum speed of 273 mph (439 kph). In a news release, Boom Supersonic said the initial…
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A Soyuz crew launch suffers a rare abort seconds before liftoff
On Thursday a crew of three people was due to launch on a Soyuz rocket, bound for the International Space Station. However, the launch scrubbed at about 20 seconds before the planned liftoff time, just before the sequence to ignite the rocket’s engines was initiated, due to unspecified issues. Shortly after the abort, there were…