Stories about rockets, and the companies that build them.
Italian rocket builder Avio announced late last week that it had successfully tested its M10 methalox upper stage engine at its test facility in Sardinia. The engine will power the third stage of the company’s Vega-E rocket, which it expects to debut in 2026. The M10 at a glance: Vehicle: Vega-E Thrust: 98 kN Specific […]
On Friday, SpaceX flew its 17th mission of the year. Launching from Cape Canaveral, the Starlink 4-16 mission delivered 53 new broadband satellites to space. The mission’s booster (tail name B1062) was previously flown just three weeks prior on the Ax-1 mission. B1062 has also previously launched two GPS spacecraft, Inspiration4, and another Starlink mission. […]
Graphic: Andrew Parsonson German launch startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has won the second and final round of the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) microlauncher competition. The award comes with a €11M ($11.7M) check and a requirement to carry 150 kgs of institutional payloads free of charge aboard the RFA One’s first two flights. “We are […]
Canadian launch startup SpaceRyde has conducted a test fire of what it says is the world’s first gimbaling hybrid rocket engine. The Toronto company is building what it hopes will be Canada’s first orbital rocket. How the system works: A balloon will bring the small-lift rocket above 99% of the atmosphere, where the latter will […]
Launcher has completed testing of its E-2 liquid rocket engine at NASA Stennis Space Center, the Hawthorne rocket startup announced this morning. The 3-D printed engine reached full thrust capacity during a Thursday test fire. E-2: Launcher is building a closed-cycle, staged-combustion E-2 engine to loft a small-lift rocket currently in development. The engine runs […]
Today, there is currently only one initiative developing crewed launch capabilities in Europe. It’s not ESA, CNES, or a private startup. It’s a moonshot venture from a group of enthusiasts working in their spare time, funded by donations. Their north star: develop a single-person suborbital vehicle. The scrappy underdogs Founded in 2011, Denmark-based Copenhagen Suborbitals […]
Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) will attempt to pluck a booster from the skies via helicopter later this month. The effort, if successful, would represent the first time that a small launch vehicle’s booster is recovered. “It’s actually, by far, the hardest thing to do,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck told Payload Friday. The company […]
Arianespace’s Vega C rocket’s upper stage uses engines built by Ukrainian space contractor Yuzhmash, Stéphane Israël, Arianespace CEO, said on a panel at Satellite last week. The company has three engines in storage, ESA officials said March 17. That’s not much of a strategic stockpile, especially as doubts linger that the Europeans will be able […]
A month after Astra’s LV0008 mission failed, the launcher has issued a preliminary postmortem of what went wrong. ICYMI: Astra (NASDAQ:ASTR) attempted its first launch from the Space Coast on Feb. 10. After a few delays, the rocket launched and eventually failed mid-flight. The problem: In a statement issued Monday morning by Andrew Griggs, Astra’s […]
Yesterday, Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) finally lifted the wraps on Neutron, its forthcoming medium-lift launch vehicle. CEO Peter Beck kept his pre-2019 promise to eat his hat—literally—if Rocket Lab ever developed a reusable launch vehicle. Meet Neutron: The first stage will be fully reusable, with a target turnaround time of just 24 hours. The squat rocket […]
SpaceX could face a “genuine risk” of going bankrupt if it doesn’t iron out kinks in Starship Raptor engine production, Elon Musk reportedly told employees in an email seen by Space Explored. As CNBC reported, SpaceX propulsion and mission/launch operations recently had leadership shakeups. If SpaceX can’t reliably, cost-effectively make enough Raptors, it can’t attain a “Starship flight […]
