InternationalLaunch

JUICE Lifts Off Aboard Ariane 5 and Heads to Jupiter

The JUICE is Jupiter-bound.  ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft launched aboard an Ariane-5 rocket this morning from the European Spaceport in French Guiana. The probe will perform four gravitational assist fly-bys of Venus and Earth before heading to Jupiter, where it’s scheduled to arrive in July 2031.  The squeeze: JUICE will spend three […]

Launch

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Prepares for its First Fully Expendable Mission

What goes up won’t come down.  SpaceX is preparing its Falcon Heavy rocket to launch a ViaSat-3 satellite on April 18—the first mission for the rocket in which all three boosters will be expended.  The mission: The Falcon Heavy, which consists of three Falcon 9 boosters, will deploy the ViaSat broadband communication satellite to GEO. […]

Launch

Russian Rocket Chief Says Sanctions Impacting Demand More than Supply

EU sanctions imposed on Russia-owned rocket maker Khrunichev Center will not slow rocket production, but they will impact customer demand, center Chief Alexey Varochko said Monday in an interview with TASS. On Feb 23, the EU passed its 10th round of sanctions on Russia, which included the rocket maker on the list of prohibited entities. […]

BusinessLaunch

Dawn’s Rocket-Powered Spaceplane Takes Flight

New Zealand startup Dawn Aerospace announced Wednesday that it successfully completed three flights of its rocket-powered Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane last week. During the test flights, the vehicle reached an altitude of over 6,000 feet. “When we set out to change how we access space, we didn’t want an iterative step on expendable rockets – […]

BusinessLaunch

Launch Date Nears for SpaceX’s Starship

The countdown has begun for the maiden orbital flight of SpaceX’s Starship.  SpaceX has notified the FAA that they are targeting April 10 for Starship’s orbital flight, with April 11 and April 12 as backup dates. On Tuesday, Elon Musk further stoked excitement and seemingly confirmed the date by “liking” three tweets regarding an April […]

EquitiesLaunch

Astra Announces Q4 and FY2022 Losses

Astra reported significant financial setbacks in FY22, but brought in $9.4M in revenue. The launch company’s engine sales drove income as Rocket 4 nears launch test readiness.   Astra’s Q4, by the numbers: Times of trouble: It’s been a tough year for Astra. Last week, the company outlined a plan to prevent Nasdaq from delisting its […]

LaunchRockets

OneWeb Launch Shows ISRO’s Budding Commercial Opportunities

An Indian Launch Vehicle Mark-3 rocket launched and deployed 36 OneWeb satellites on Sunday, marking the Indian Space Research Organisation’s second commercial launch for the UK firm. ISRO’s fleet of rockets is first and foremost to give India independence from foreign launchers. But it will also offer new commercial opportunities, as shown by the OneWeb […]

Launch

Innoflight Lifts Off from Brazil

South Korea is angling to join the elite club of major spacefaring nations. Now, the second rocket developed domestically in the country has achieved liftoff. Innospace, a Korean launch startup developing a suite of small-lift rockets, successfully got its Hanbit-TLV suborbital test rocket off the ground on Sunday. The flight lifted off from the Alcântara […]

CislunarCivilLaunch

Firefly Wins NASA CLPS Contract for the Dark Side of the Moon

Blue Ghost #2 is a go.  Firefly has clinched a deal to travel to the dark side of the Moon in 2026. Yesterday, NASA  awarded the Cedar Park, TX-based launcher a $112M contract to deliver several lunar payloads using the Blue Ghost spacecraft. The details: NASA awarded the contract through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services […]

CivilLaunch

USSF Allocates Launch Pads at the Cape

A handful of new launch companies will soon head down to Cape Canaveral to set up shop at newly dedicated launch pads. USSF announced last night that it has begun to implement its Launch Pad Allocation Strategy (LPAS), which is intended to give more launch companies an opportunity to launch from the historic launch site. […]

LaunchPathfinderQ&ARockets

Ursa Major, Vector Launch Strike Engine Deal

Ursa Major has struck a deal to supply Vector Launch with “several” propulsion systems, the company tells Payload. Ursa’s Hadley engines will power the main stage of the Vector-R launch vehicle in future demonstration missions for national security customers.  A word on Vector: The seven-year-old startup, which has raised more than $180M, declared bankruptcy in […]

Launch

H3 Fails on Second Debut Attempt

Last night, JAXA’s H3 rocket debut ended in failure. The Japanese space agency was forced to send termination commands to the launcher a few minutes into the flight, when the engine on the second stage failed to ignite. The road so far: JAXA has been building the H3 rocket, intended as a less expensive successor […]