On December 22, Arianespace launched its second-ever Vega-C rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in South America. However, the launch failed shortly after the second stage ignition, and now we know why.
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Probably the two biggest things Rocket Lab is currently working on perfecting this year and in the coming years are tasks its CEO said would never happen. One of those is recovering the Electron’s first stage booster, something that might have a detour from its original idea.
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In the wee hours of the night, SpaceX’s Crew-6 and Endeavour Crew Dragon completed its rendezvous with the International Space Station. After following the slow and safe process, Endeavour docked with the ISS and the crew is now onboard.
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Last June Astra launched its final Rocket 3 mission, which was a pair of satellites for NASA. Sadly that mission did not end well with a failure in the second stage. The company has now released its report detailing what went wrong.
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Ars Technica’s Eric Berger reports that United Launch Alliance has informed interested parties that it is up for sale, potentially throwing the entire industry upside down.
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After aborting during an issue with loading Falcon 9’s ignition fluid, SpaceX successfully lifted off from historic LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with the sixth crew rotation in part of the Commercial Crew Program. This mission is unique, as it carries the first long-duration mission of a UAE astronaut, thanks to a partnership with Axiom.
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After scrubbing Monday morning’s attempt to launch the next crew rotation to the ISS due to an issue with the Falcon 9’s ignition fluid, both the company and agency are ready to try again tonight.
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Virgin Galactic has been in an idle mode for the past year and a half as it worked through an FAA investigation and refurbishment of its aircrafts. Now the company sounds ready to pick up the pace, with flights returning soon.
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In a short statement, Japan’s space agency, JAXA, announced it has selected two astronauts to join its corp to continue supporting the ISS and future Artemis missions.
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Over the weekend, an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the ISS to take the spot of MS-22, which sprang a leak last December. MS-23 will be the return spacecraft for two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut in the fall.
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It was a relatively quiet countdown last night, with SpaceX showing that they know what they’re doing and hitting all the milestones early during Crew-6’s launch preparations. Unfortunately, however, no good deed goes unpunished because the company ran into an issue when loading a rather nasty part of the propellant for Falcon 9’s launch.
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According to a public YouTube stream (and now a tweet from the company), Relativity will launch its first Terran 1 rocket in the coming weeks out of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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After years of trying, Blue Origin has finally been able to secure a launch task order through NASA for its New Glenn rocket, and it’s going to Mars!
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This week Seth and Jared recap Starship’s lead up to a potential static fire, other top stories from the week, and ponder the question if we are launching too many rockets.
After over three years of development in South Texas, SpaceX finally reached its final milestone before launching a complete Starship rocket to orbit, the 33-engine static fire. While only 31 Raptor engines successfully ignited, this is still a major milestone for the company as it hopes to start flying this rocket to finally gain an ROI on its investment.
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Remember in 2021 when we were so excited that both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic would come online and show a glimpse of a potential space tourism boom? Yet here we are with some exciting news, but neither company is currently capable of launching, and we don’t know when they will return fully. Sigh.
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After about a three-year delay due to multiple reasons, Rocket Lab can now be added to the list of companies that launch out of the US. Yesterday the company lifted off from LC-2, its second launch complex out of Wallops Island, Virginia, a pad it started construction on in 2019.
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Wow, it’s been a minute since I remember writing about a major Starship testing milestone out of SpaceX’s Starbase facility. But here we are to throw some more fuel to the excitement over Starship’s first launch attempt, now having a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) under its belt.
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Rocket Lab’s Electron launch program is finally starting to take off, with a chance to surpass double-digit launches this year. However, the development of the company’s next launcher, Neutron, is in full swing, with facilities built and hardware being produced.
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Sunday afternoon, this time without any fog, SpaceX launched USSF-67, another Falcon Heavy rocket out of LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. Starting a year that could bring us four more super heavy lift launches from the company.
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2022 was another record-breaking year for SpaceX, launching 60 Falcon 9s and one Falcon Heavy, the first since 2019. That’s an average of over one launch per week and double what SpaceX could do in 2021.
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That’s right, John Deere, what once was just a tractor company, is now looking at getting into the satellite business by finding a partner to supply geospatial maps to its farmers.
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I feel it was just a few days ago we were talking about SpaceX wrapping up 2022 and hitting its 60th launch. With the holiday weekend over, SpaceX is right back at it launching its Falcon 9 rocket.
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This week Seth and Jared recap their favorite events from 2022 and give some predictions for what SpaceX, NASA, and other companies will do in 2023.