Tag: Space
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Here’s why SpaceX really needed to change out that part on Starship
SpaceX’s Starship rocket did not launch on Friday morning from South Texas as intended because the company had to replace the actuator on a grid fin. The rocket is now being prepared for a launch during a tight window on Saturday morning, from 7 to 7:20 am local time. Here’s an explanation of why grid…
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Space companies say ASAT tests threaten economic development
More than two dozen private space companies have signed on to a statement that supports an end to destructive anti-satellite testing in space. The statement comes two years after Russia shot down one of its older satellites, Kosmos 1408, with a Nudol missile launched from the ground. The test, intended to demonstrate Russia’s capability to…
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ULA chief on the Vulcan rocket: “The path to flight one is clear”
United Launch Alliance is closing in on the debut flight of the Vulcan rocket, and it remains on track to fly the vehicle for the first time on December 24. During a media roundtable on Wednesday afternoon, the chief executive of United Launch Alliance, Tory Bruno, said, “The path to flight one is clear” for…
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Sale of United Launch Alliance is nearing its end, with three potential buyers
Lockheed Martin and Boeing are close to selecting a buyer for United Launch Alliance, two sources told Ars. The jointly owned rocket company, which was founded in 2006 and for a time had a monopoly on US government launch contracts, has been up for sale most of this year. The sources say three buyers have…
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SpaceX founding employee successfully moves from rockets to in-space propulsion
SpaceX launched its ninth “Transporter” mission on Saturday from California, carrying dozens of small- and medium-sized satellites into low-Earth orbit. The upside of these launches for customers is that they can rely on regular, low-cost access to space aboard the reliable Falcon 9 rocket. The downside is that the satellites are all released into a…
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Ariane 6 cost and delays bring European launch industry to a breaking point
European space officials will convene on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the future of space policy for the continent. The “Space Summit” gathering in Seville, Spain, will encompass several topics, including the future of launch. “Seville will be a very decisive moment for space in Europe,” said the director general of the European Space Agency,…
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It’s almost showtime for SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket
SpaceX announced on Friday that the company is targeting “mid-November” for the second flight test of the Super Heavy rocket and its Starship upper stage. The company said the launch date is pending regulatory approval, which means that the Federal Aviation Administration and US Fish and Wildlife Service have yet to complete the environmental review…
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How long will Jeff Bezos continue to subsidize his New Shepard rocket?
Virgin Galactic smoothly completed its sixth human spaceflight in six months on Thursday, continuing an impressive cadence of missions with its VSS Unity spacecraft. This performance has made the company the clear leader in suborbital space tourism. A key question is where this leaves the other company with a launch system capable of carrying private…
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Rocket Report: ICBM test aborted after “anomaly”; FAA wraps Starship safety review
Welcome to Edition 6.18 of the Rocket Report! In this newsletter we have a double dose of news from China, where there are two separate efforts to duplicate SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. On the American side of the pond we also have two stories about United Launch Alliance and its effort to get Vulcan flying,…
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Scientists will soon find out whether the Lucy mission works as intended
A little more than two years have passed since the Lucy mission launched on an Atlas V rocket, ultimately bound for asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter. After a gravity assist from Earth in 2022, the spacecraft has been making a beeline for an intermediate target, and now it is nearly there. On Wednesday,…