Tag: Space
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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.…
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Amazon’s Project Kuiper highlights new connections to AWS and partners in Japan
A Project Kuiper satellite terminal is set up with a wind farm in the background. (Amazon Photo) As Amazon gears up to build and launch thousands of satellites for its Project Kuiper constellation, it’s talking up the space-based broadband network’s potential to enable new options for managing data traffic with Amazon Web Services — including…
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Rocket Report: Beyond Gravity to study fairing reuse; North Korea launches satellite
Welcome to Edition 6.20 of the Rocket Report! We apologize for missing last week, but both Stephen and I were in transit to South Texas for the Starship launch. To make up for it this week’s report is extra long, and a day early due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. But that…
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With budget cuts and an aging station, can NASA learn to love a gap in orbit?
Just in case you were under any illusions about the age of the International Space Station, Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Zarya module. This Russian-built power and propulsion module formed the cornerstone of the space station, and the first residents arrived two years later. In other words, some hardware on…
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Sorry, doubters: Starship actually had a remarkably successful flight
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas—Starship launches are clarifying events. Pretty quickly after liftoff you find out who understands the rocket business, and who are the casual observers bereft of a clue. Before I had even left the launch viewing area in South Padre Island on Saturday morning headlines started to fill my news feed. The Wall…