Stories about the companies building a ride to space.
SpaceX’s Starship made history yesterday with its first-ever orbital launch attempt that notched a lot of successes and one very fiery failure. With tens of thousands of launch enthusiasts watching from South Texas and millions more tuning in virtually worldwide, the rocket cleared the pad, reached Max Q, and soared to an altitude of 39 […]
The space industry is preparing to send tens of thousands of satellites to orbit in the coming decade, building out large constellations across the spectrum of possible capabilities. They may run into a bottleneck, however, when it comes to booking tickets to space. This morning, McKinsey released its analysis of the demand for launch services […]
Happy belated Transporter launch day to all who celebrate. At 2:48am Saturday, SpaceX launched the Transporter-7 mission on a Falcon 9, carrying 51 customer payloads to new homes in orbit. These rideshare missions are big days for small satellite companies that rely on the comparatively low cost to send their birds to orbit. On this […]
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 […]
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. […]
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. […]
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 – […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
