Tag: Commercial Spaceflight
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Six Key Metrics for Assessing China’s Reusable Rockets
China’s reusable-rocket race has reached a turning point. With the Long March-10B completing an offshore net-capture recovery and Zhuque-3 Y2 landing its first stage on deployable legs, the country has demonstrated that it can recover intact boosters from orbital-class missions. But landing a rocket is not the same as reusing it—and reuse does not automatically…
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NASA Chief Floats Orbital Data Centers as AI Infrastructure Push Extends Into Space
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has publicly endorsed the idea of placing data centers in orbit, arguing that space-based computing infrastructure could eventually address growing concerns over the energy consumption, land use, and local opposition associated with terrestrial AI facilities. Speaking on a recent podcast appearance, Isaacman suggested that future data centers could take advantage of…
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SpaceX Recovers First Intact Starship Upper Stage After Month-Long Indian Ocean Ordeal
SpaceX has achieved a major milestone in the development of its fully reusable Starship system, successfully loading the upper stage from Starship Flight 13 onto a semi-submersible transport vessel in the Indian Ocean more than a month after the spacecraft completed its mission and splashed down at sea. The recovery marks the first time a…
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SpaceX Commits $100 Billion to Build Starbase Louisiana, Expanding Starship Launch Capacity
SpaceX has announced plans to invest approximately $100 billion in the construction of Starbase Louisiana, a massive new Starship launch complex on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast that would become the company’s largest spaceflight operations center and one of the most ambitious commercial space infrastructure projects ever proposed. The development is intended to support thousands of Starship…
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In-Depth Look at the Long March 10B Launch Vehicle
I. Basic Information The Long March 10B is a large, reusable commercial liquid-propellant launch vehicle with a diameter of 5 meters. The rocket was developed under the overall responsibility of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). The project was formally approved on July 3, 2025, entered the engineering development phase in December 2025,…
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As Satellites Multiply, Does Space Need “Traffic Police”? A Survey of China’s Space Traffic Management Companies
Suppose a satellite receives an alert in the early hours of the morning: in 36 hours, it may pass dangerously close to a defunct rocket fragment. The predicted miss distance is only a few hundred meters. That sounds alarming, but operators cannot immediately fire the thrusters and change orbit. They must first determine whether the…
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Deep Blue Aerospace Completes First 100-Second Long-Duration Test of 130-Tonne-Class THUNDER-RS Engine
August 21 — Deep Blue Aerospace has successfully completed a 100-second, long-duration steady-state hot-fire test of its 130-tonne-class THUNDER-RS liquid oxygen/kerosene engine at the company’s liquid rocket engine and propulsion-system test facility. The engine operated steadily and without faults throughout the test, achieving all test objectives. The milestone marks a key engineering breakthrough for high-thrust…
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Portal Space Systems Buys Dedicated Falcon 9 Mission for Supernova Debut, Expands Rideshare Opportunities
Portal Space Systems has secured an entire SpaceX Falcon 9 launch for its first Supernova spacecraft mission, a move that gives the Washington-based company direct control over launch timing while creating new rideshare opportunities for other satellite operators. The company announced on Aug. 20 that Falcon 9 will launch its Motus Via Sol mission in…
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Why Inter-Satellite Laser Communications Have Become a Strategic Battleground for Satellite Internet
In the traditional satellite-to-Earth transmission model, satellites serve only as relay nodes: they forward information but do not process it directly, while ground gateways and terrestrial networks perform the core functions. With inter-satellite links, by contrast, satellites can transmit and exchange information directly without routing every connection through a ground station. Each spacecraft acts as…
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Redwire To Fly Drug-Crystallization Labs On SpaceX Starfall Mission In 2028
Redwire plans to expand pharmaceutical manufacturing research in orbit through an agreement between its SpaceMD subsidiary and SpaceX to fly up to 32 drug-crystallization laboratories on a 2028 Starfall mission. The contract, announced during Redwire’s second-quarter earnings call, represents the first dedicated commercial mission for SpaceX’s Starfall reentry capsule. The spacecraft made its debut in…