Image credit KGET 17. Notice workers circled in red for scale. A series of still images from an upcoming tv news story about Stratolaunch Systems has been released, providing a rare glimpse into the project. The original Aviation Week article, with more images, is here. Background and Analysis One of the least visible launch development […]
LauncherOne Factory Launch / Image Credit : Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic announced on Thursday that its is opening a dedicate factory in Long Beach, California for producing the LauncherOne small booster. Here is an excerpt from the press release, absent the obligatory statements from local officials:: LONG BEACH, Calif. – February 12, 2015 – Virgin […]
Europe’s IXV, or Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, a small re-entry test vehicle, launched this morning aboard a Vega booster from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff, in what was the fourth flight of the three stage solid fueled Vega small launch vehicle, occurred at 13:30 GMT. After reaching a maximum altitude of 412 […]
Russia successfully launches the Angara booster on its first orbital flight. From the Russian news agency TASS: MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. A new Russian heavy rocket was successfully test-launched from the Plesetsk space center on Tuesday as planned at 08:57am Moscow time. The head unit has separated from the third stage of the Angara rocket, […]
Capsule Recovery : ISRO Although the upper stage was inert, the launch was suborbital and the capsule was an uncrewed re-entry demonstrator, rising space power India took a major step into the future with the December 18th launch of the GSLV Mk-III booster carrying the CARE crew module. Coming on the heels of the successful […]
SpaceX has finally confirmed that it will indeed be attempting to land the Falcon 9 first stage on its autonomous drone ship following Friday’s CRS-5 launch to the International Space Station. The complete description is posted on their website’s update page here. America’s Russian engine addiction continues unabated. Orbital Sciences has selected the RD-181 derivative […]
This is not how you design a rocket : ESA Ministerial Meeting Seeking a defense against the market disruption being wrought by SpaceX and its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters, European space ministers voted yesterday to formally endorse the Ariane 6 project. The move came after Germany dropped its long running call to proceed […]
JAXA, the Japanese space agency successfully launched the Hayabusa2 spacecraft on its way to an asteroid sample return mission overnight. Liftoff, which took place aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA rocket, designated #26, took place at 1:22:04 PM Japan Standard Time on Wednesday. December 3rd from the Tanegashima Space Center. According to JAXA, the launch […]
Hydrogen Piston Pump: Image Credit XCOR Aerospace XCOR has announced a new milestone in its upper stage engine program being supported by United Launch Alliance. The complete press release is below. From a big picture standpoint, ULA appears to be in an interesting state of transition, with stories coming out in a bad cop/good cop […]
SOAR Space Plane / Credit Swiss Space Systems One of Europe’s leading NewSpace companies, Swiss Space Systems recently completed a first milestone, conducting an initial round of “flight testing” key components at its Canadian test facility. From its press release: “These first test flights were done with the purpose of testing and validating avionics systems, […]
Recent Comments