Tag: Space
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As Vulcan nears debut, it’s not clear whether ULA will live long and prosper
It’s nearly time. After years of delays, billions of dollars in federal funding, and a spectacular second-stage explosion, the large and impressive Vulcan rocket is finally ready to take flight. United Launch Alliance’s heavy lift vehicle underwent its final review on Thursday, and the company cleared the rocket for its debut flight. With weather looking…
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Juno makes its first ultra-close flyby of the volcano-covered moon Io
On Saturday NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter for the better part of a decade, made its closest flyby of the innermost moon in the Jovian system. The spacecraft came to within 930 miles (1,500 km) of the surface of Io, a dense moon that is the fourth largest in the Solar System.…
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SpaceX completes static fire test in push toward third Starship launch
Just one month after the second flight of its massive Starship rocket, SpaceX is making progress toward a third attempt. On Wednesday, at 1:37 pm local time in South Texas, the company performed a static fire test of the next Starship—which bears the serial number Ship 28. The test of the rocket’s six engines appeared…
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US Congress recommends placing assets at Lagrange points to counter China
A bipartisan committee in the US House of Representatives recently issued a report on the economic and technological competition between the United States and China and offered nearly 150 recommendations to “fundamentally reset” the relationship. The report followed a year-long study of the competition between the countries since China’s entry into the World Trade Organization…
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Our ranking of top US launch companies finds a familiar name on top
After our inaugural ranking last year, Ars Technica is again publishing a list of the most accomplished US commercial launch companies. We hope the list sparks debate, discussion, and appreciation for the challenge of operating a successful rocket company. Please note that this is a subjective list, although hard metrics such as total launches, tonnage…
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Jeff Bezos says what we’re all thinking: “Blue Origin needs to be much faster”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gives very few interviews, but he recently sat down with the computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman for a two-hour interview about Amazon, Blue Origin, his business practices, and more. The discussion meanders somewhat, but there are some interesting tidbits about spaceflight, especially when the conversation turns to Blue Origin. This…
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After 15 months Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft will finally fly again
Blue Origin is finally returning to flight. On Tuesday the company announced, via the social media site X, that its New Shepard spacecraft would launch no earlier than next Monday. “We’re targeting a launch window that opens on Dec. 18 for our next New Shepard payload mission,” the company stated. “#NS24 will carry 33 science…
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ULA chief says Vulcan rocket will slip to 2024 after ground system issues
United Launch Alliance will not see the debut of its next-generation Vulcan rocket in 2023, as previously planned. The launch company’s chief executive, Tory Bruno, announced the delay on the social media site X on Sunday. United Launch Alliance had been working toward a debut flight of the lift booster on Christmas Eve from Cape…
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Rocket Report: The final space shuttle stack; SpaceX may extend booster lifetimes
Welcome to Edition 6.22 of the Rocket Report! We’re nearing the end of 2023, and it’s been an incredible year for rocket debuts. Early in the year we saw small lift vehicles from Relativity Space and ABL, and in the spring Japan’s H3 and SpaceX’s Starship rocket. There’s one big one left: United Launch Alliance’s…
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India reveals that it has returned lunar spacecraft to Earth orbit
A little more than three months ago the Indian space agency, ISRO, achieved a major success by putting its Vikram lander safely down on the surface of the Moon. In doing so India became the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, and this further ignited the country’s interest in space exploration.…