Tag: commercial-space
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SpaceX’s unmatched streak of perfection with the Falcon 9 rocket is over
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket suffered an upper stage engine failure and deployed a batch of Starlink Internet satellites into a perilously low orbit after launch from California Thursday night, the first blemish on the workhorse launcher’s record in more than 300 missions since 2016. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, posted on X that…
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Rocket Report: Firefly delivers for NASA; Polaris Dawn launching this month
Welcome to Edition 7.01 of the Rocket Report! We’re compiling this week’s report a day later than usual due to the Independence Day holiday. Ars is beginning its seventh year publishing this weekly roundup of rocket news, and there’s a lot of it this week despite the holiday here in the United States. Worldwide, there…
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Here’s why SpaceX’s competitors are crying foul over Starship launch plans
United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin are worried about SpaceX’s plans to launch its enormous Starship rocket from Florida. In documents submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration last month, ULA and Blue Origin raised concerns about the impact of Starship launch operations on their own activities on Florida’s Space Coast. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space…
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Firefly is building fast and breaking things on path to a reusable rocket
BRIGGS, Texas—The new medium-lift rocket under development by Firefly Aerospace and Northrop Grumman will eventually incorporate a recoverable booster that will return to its launch site in Virginia for reuse. Firefly has previously suggested rocket reuse is on the roadmap for the new rocket—known, for now, only as the Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV)—but officials revealed…
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SpaceX is about to launch Starship again—the FAA will be more forgiving this time
The Federal Aviation Administration approved the commercial launch license for the fourth test flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket Tuesday, with liftoff from South Texas targeted for just after sunrise Thursday. “The FAA has approved a license authorization for SpaceX Starship Flight 4,” the agency said in a statement. “SpaceX met all safety and other licensing…
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Rocket Report: North Korean rocket explosion; launch over Chinese skyline
Welcome to Edition 6.46 of the Rocket Report! It looks like we will be covering the crew test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and the fourth test flight of SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket over the next week. All of this is happening as SpaceX keeps up its cadence of flying multiple Starlink missions per week.…
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Surviving reentry is the key goal for SpaceX’s fourth Starship test flight
After three test flights, SpaceX has shown that the world’s most powerful rocket can reach space. Now, engineers must demonstrate the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle can get back home. This will be the central objective for the fourth Starship test flight, which could happen as soon as early June, according to Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder…
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Blue Origin resumes human flights to suborbital space, but it wasn’t perfect
More than 60 years after he was denied an opportunity to become America’s first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight finally traveled into space Sunday with five other passengers on a 10-minute flight inside a Blue Origin capsule. Dwight, a retired Air Force captain and test pilot, had a chance to become the first African American astronaut.…
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We take a stab at decoding SpaceX’s ever-changing plans for Starship in Florida
There are a couple of ways to read the announcement from the Federal Aviation Administration that it’s kicking off a new environmental review of SpaceX’s plan to launch the most powerful rocket in the world from Florida. The FAA said on May 10 that it plans to develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for SpaceX’s…
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Rocket Report: Starship stacked; Georgia shuts the door on Spaceport Camden
Welcome to Edition 6.44 of the Rocket Report! Kathy Lueders, general manager of SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility, says the company expects to receive an FAA launch license for the next Starship test flight shortly after Memorial Day. It looks like this rocket could fly in late May or early June, about two-and-a-half months after the…