News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Apple already invested early half a billion dollars into its satellite communications partner Globalstar, and now the iPhone maker is upping its payout. This time there are more strings attached, however, as the $252 million investment comes in the form of a loan.

SpaceX successfully launched 21 Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket flying out of SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This launch was the first to carry SpaceX’s larger and more capable V2 Mini satellites, further expanding the capability of their satellite internet constellation

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.

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.

United Launch Alliance is targeting May 4 for the inaugural launch of its highly-anticipated Vulcan Centaur rocket.

The company has a planned window of four days to execute the launch once additional testing of the rocket and its main engines are satisfactory.

These final tests will occur at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. According to CEO Tory Bruno, the mega rocket will roll to the launch pad “a few days from now” for a wet dress rehearsal, as well as additional tanking tests.

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.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard any news around Phobos and Deimos, SpaceX’s retired oil rigs being converted into sea platforms for Starship. It turns out that’s because SpaceX quietly abandoned plans to turn either of its rigs into launchpads at sea.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers believe to have found a galaxy that was a near identical image to the Milky Way 13 billion years ago. What it can tell us about our own galaxy could be groundbreaking.

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!

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.

C/2022 E3 or more notably known as the “rare green comet,” has swept the Internet in the past weeks, with many people wondering how they can spot it. Here’s everything you need to know about the once in a 50,000-year event.

NASA’s newest discovery might just be the most adorable yet. Last month, the space agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured what can only be the face of a bear carved into the red planet’s ancient landscape.

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.