Stories about rockets, and the companies that build them.
Eric Berger’s new book Reentry takes readers behind the scenes, offering unprecedented access to company leaders who appear eager to (finally) tell the inside story of SpaceX’s rise.
It was a Willy Wonka-style event—a wealthy entrepreneur finally opening the doors to his secretive facility filled with innovative gadgets at a scale beyond imagination. However, instead of chocolate rivers, fizzy-lifting drinks, and Everlasting Gobstoppers, we were treated to fuel lines, heavy-lifting rockets, and boosters designed to last 25 launches.
Chinese rocket startup iSpace announced yesterday that it secured $99M in Series C and C+ funding to help accelerate the development of its first-stage reusable launch vehicle, Hyperbola-3.
The company posted it’s highest ever quarterly revenue, and announced the successful hot fire test of its Archimedes engine, which opens the door for Rocket Lab’s first medium-life launch vehicle, Neutron.
Interstellar Technologies models itself on vertically-integrated launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturers like SpaceX or Rocket Lab.
Ursa Major will buy several industrial 3D printers and hire 15 new employees for an R&D center in Youngstown, OH focused on additive manufacturing.
The change comes six weeks after DoD raised concerns about Vulcan’s readiness to fly national security missions after a series of delays.
“We were not the preordained winner of the small launch race.”
“These commercial companies—they frequently want to minimize the refurbishment between flights, they want to minimize the inspection time—they really want aircraft-like operation.”
“It starts to feel more like an aircraft engine development than a rocket engine development.”
The US military’s scheme to diversify its stable of rocketmakers is running into a problem: None of them is likely to fly their rockets on time.
Skyrora, a UK-based launch startup, is aiming to keep its supply chain close to home as it gears up for its first orbital launch tests.
