Tag: commercial-space
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SpaceX has a license to launch Starship—this time it might fly at dawn
The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it has approved a commercial launch license for the third full-scale test flight of SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket. This is the final regulatory hurdle before SpaceX can launch Starship from South Texas. The third flight of the world’s most powerful rocket, following a pair of test launches last year,…
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The world’s most-traveled crew transport spacecraft flies again
SpaceX’s oldest Crew Dragon spacecraft launched Sunday night on its fifth mission to the International Space Station, and engineers are crunching data to see if the fleet of Dragons can safely fly as many as 15 times. It has been five years since SpaceX launched the first Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight…
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For Virgin Galactic, becoming profitable means a pause in flying to space
Last year, Virgin Galactic seemed to finally be hitting a stride toward making commercial suborbital spaceflight. The company flew its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane to the edge of space six times in six months, giving a few Virgin Galactic customers a taste of spaceflight after waiting more than a decade. Finally, it appeared that Virgin Galactic…
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Maybe, just maybe, Boeing’s Starliner will finally fly astronauts this spring
We’ve heard this before, but Boeing appears to be a couple of months from finally launching astronauts into orbit aboard the commercial CST-100 Starliner crew capsule. It was about two months prior to this mission’s previous launch date last July when Boeing and NASA officials decided to put a hold on launch preparations. During their…
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Varda’s drug-cooking Winnebago will be remembered as a space pioneer
Varda Space Industries is finally able to celebrate. For nearly eight months, the in-space manufacturing company’s first mission was essentially stranded in low-Earth orbit, but not because of any technical malfunction or a restriction imposed by the laws of physics. Instead, the spacecraft couldn’t return to Earth until Varda and three government entities—the US military,…
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Rocket Report: Starliner launch preps; Indian rocket engine human-rated
Welcome to Edition 6.32 of the Rocket Report! I’m writing the report again this week as Eric Berger is in Washington, DC, to receive a well-earned honor, the 2024 Excellence in Commercial Space Journalism Award from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Cape Canaveral is the world’s busiest spaceport, and this week, three leading US launch companies…
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Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket finally makes an appearance on the launch pad
Anyone who has tracked the development of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has been waiting for signs of progress from the usually secretive space company. On Wednesday, engineers rolled a full-scale New Glenn rocket, partially made up of flight hardware, to a launch pad in Florida for ground testing. The first New Glenn launch is…
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Test flights on tap for Space Perspective’s luxury high-altitude balloon
Space Perspective could begin test flights of its privately owned capsule suspended under a high-altitude balloon within the next couple of months, the company’s co-founder told Ars this week. Florida-based Space Perspective released photos of its first completed test capsule Tuesday. The company will use this pressurized capsule, called Excelsior, for a series of test flights…
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Before snagging a chunk of space junk, Astroscale must first catch up to one
Astroscale, a well-capitalized Japanese startup, is preparing a small satellite to do something that has never been done in space. This new spacecraft, delivered into orbit Sunday by Rocket Lab, will approach a defunct upper stage from a Japanese H-IIA rocket that has been circling Earth for more than 15 years. Over the next few…
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SpaceX wants to take over a Florida launch pad from rival ULA
One of the largest launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will become vacant later this year after the final flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket. SpaceX is looking to make the sprawling facility a new home for the Starship launch vehicle. The environmental review for SpaceX’s proposal to take over…