Following the December 21st Orbcomm 2 mission which saw a Falcon 9 first stage successfully return to Cape Canaveral, a New Year’s Eve tweet from SpaceX founder Elon Musk gave a preview of what 2016 could bring. Falcon 9 back in the hangar at Cape Canaveral. No damage found, ready to fire again. https://t.co/7w6IfJGtXM — […]
December 21st, 2015. It came on a night which was perhaps uniquely appropriate. Celebrated by people and cultures around the planet for a stretch of time which predates the written word, the winter solstice marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. More than a curiosity of the […]
The growing list of potential smallsat launchers thinned out a bit last week with the news that DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has cancelled ALASA, the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access program which was awarded to Boeing in 2014. The story, reported in Space News, cites difficulties in maintaining safe control over the […]
To loosely paraphrase Khan Noonien Sing (the real one) Stratolaunch may no as wounded as the Wall Street Journal led us to believe. Here is a statement sent to Spacenews from Vulcan Aerospace made in response to yesterday’s story : Vulcan Aerospace remains steadfast in its mission to transform space transportation to low-Earth orbit […]
Perched on its launch rail, the USAF Super Strypi rocket looked more like a typical Estes model rocket many might have build and launched as kids. Unfortunately for the Air Force and the much beleaguered Operationally Responsive Space Launch Office that oversaw yesterday’s launch from Hawaii, the results were pretty much the same. Liftoff of […]
Yesterday, NASA held a press conference to formally announce the winners of its initial Venture Class Launch Services competition. Given that notice of the awards, which went to Virgin Galactic, Rocket Lab and Firefly Space Systems was posted over two weeks ago, the event was somewhat redundant, but did shed new light on the agency’s […]
Editorial The long running drama regarding United Launch Alliance and the use of Russian RD-180 engines for the Atlas V rocket entered a new phase late Friday with the announcement that the Pentagon will not issue a waiver requested by the company allowing it to acquire more engines which it says are needed for competitive […]
One of the great things about the emerging cubesat launch market is that NASA is able to help no less than three different companies get off the ground by booking a launch for less than $18 million. On June 12th, NASA’s Launch Services Program announced that it was establishing a new class of launch vehicles, […]
Virgin Galactic Press Release, Comments Follow VIRGIN GALACTIC ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS WITH LAUNCHERONE ROCKET PROPULSION IN-HOUSE TEAM ACHIEVES KEY MILESTONES IN STEADY-STATE TESTING OF MAIN STAGE AND UPPER STAGE LIQUID ENGINES MOJAVE, California – September 28, 2015 – Successful test firings of key propulsion components marked the latest sign of progress for Virgin Galactic’s dedicated small […]
Until late last week, China’s most impressive space achievements have been carried out with relatively primitive, hypergolic fueled launch vehicles. On Friday however, China marked the debut of the first of a new series of boosters which while still carrying the Long March designation, are designed to bring that nation’s boost capabilities on par with […]
Recent Comments