Tag: Starship
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Rocket Report: Australia says yes to the launch; Russia delivers for Iran
Welcome to Edition 7.19 of the Rocket Report! Okay, we get it. We received more submissions from our readers on Australia’s approval of a launch permit for Gilmour Space than we’ve received on any other news story in recent memory. Thank you for your submissions as global rocket activity continues apace. We’ll cover Gilmour in…
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The next Starship launch may occur in less than two weeks
Less than a month has passed since the historic fifth flight of SpaceX’s Starship, during which the company caught the booster with mechanical arms back at the launch pad in Texas. Now, another test flight could come as soon as Nov. 18, the company announced Wednesday. The improbable but successful recovery of the Starship first…
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The next Starship launch may occur in less than two weeks
Less than a month has passed since the historic fifth flight of SpaceX’s Starship, during which the company caught the booster with mechanical arms back at the launch pad in Texas. Now, another test flight could come as soon as Nov. 18, the company announced Wednesday. The improbable but successful recovery of the Starship first…
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China reveals a new heavy lift rocket that is a clone of SpaceX’s Starship
When Chinese space officials unveiled the design for the country’s first super heavy lift rocket nearly a decade ago, it looked like a fairly conventional booster. The rocket was fully expendable, with three stages and solid motors strapped onto its sides. Since then, the Asian country has been revising the design of this rocket, named…
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Starship preparations to return to the Roberts Road facility
SpaceX is laying the groundwork for expansion at its Roberts Road facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Driven by a commitment to future advancements, SpaceX continuously enhances its infrastructure along the Space Coast. These developments include new buildings, property expansions, and Starship’s production in Florida. Starship’s History in Florida SpaceX has already made…
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Starship booster catch brings NASA, SpaceX closer to Artemis 3 Moon landing
Super Heavy Booster 12 returns to the pad it launched from just seven minutes earlier. Image: Adam Bernstein / Spaceflight Now. NASA’s plan to return humans to the surface of the Moon needs several puzzle pieces to come together in time, one of which is the lunar lander itself. For the first two planned crewed…
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Rocket Report: Sneak peek at the business end of New Glenn; France to fly FROG
Welcome to Edition 7.17 of the Rocket Report! Next week marks 10 years since one of the more spectacular launch failures of this century. On October 28, 2014, an Antares rocket, then operated by Orbital Sciences, suffered an engine failure six seconds after liftoff from Virginia and crashed back onto the pad in a fiery…
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SpaceX success with Flight 5, Flight 6 already tested
SpaceX completed a significant milestone in the Starship program with Flight 5 and is set to try to repeat it for Flight 6. Both vehicles are now Static-Fired and ready for integrated testing ahead of a potential November launch. Flight 5 Ship 30 and Booster 12 lifted off at 7:25 am Central Time on October…
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After seeing hundreds of launches, SpaceX’s rocket catch was a new thrill
BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas—I’ve taken some time to process what happened on the mudflats of South Texas a little more than a week ago and relived the scene in my mind countless times. With each replay, it’s still as astonishing as it was when I saw it on October 13, standing on an elevated platform…
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SpaceX catches returning rocket in mid-air, turning a fanciful idea into reality
BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas—SpaceX accomplished a groundbreaking engineering feat Sunday when it launched the fifth test flight of its gigantic Starship rocket and then caught the booster back at the launch pad in Texas with mechanical arms seven minutes later. This achievement is the first of its kind, and it’s crucial for SpaceX’s vision of…