Enlarge / New Shepard crew capsule is seen landing in West Texas. (credit: Blue Origin) Welcome to Edition 3.41 of the Rocket Report! As always there is plenty of news in the world of launch, and this week we have several stories about heavy lift vehicles. Perhaps most interesting, SpaceX has received approval from the […]
Enlarge / Fairing catcher ship GO Ms. Tree leading the way into Port Canaveral. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann / Ars Technica) Welcome to Edition 3.40 of the Rocket Report! There were fewer announcements in the realm of launch this week, but that doesn’t mean we lack stories for this report. These include interesting developments on the […]
Enlarge / SN11 nears apogee on March 30, 2021 over SpaceX’s South Texas launch site. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann / Ars Technica) Welcome to Edition 3.39 of the Rocket Report! This week, we have another exploding Starship to cover, as well as two—count ’em two—stories that originate Down Under. Finally, one of the most promising Scottish […]
Enlarge / Hot fire test of integrated second stage for ABL Space System’s RS1 rocket in the fall of 2020. (credit: ABL Space Systems) Welcome to Edition 3.38 of the Rocket Report! This week, we have launch news from around the world, including several snippets from across the pond, where Europe is grappling with the […]
Enlarge / NASA astronaut Jessica Meir looks on as the SLS core stage completes a full-duration 8-minute firing. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann / Ars Technica) Welcome to Edition 3.37 of the Rocket Report! This week saw NASA reach a big milestone in igniting the four main engines of its Space Launch System rocket and firing them […]
Enlarge / Drone’s eye view of a New Shepard Launch. (credit: Blue Origin) Welcome to Edition 3.36 of the Rocket Report! This week we have plenty of news with small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets. I was perhaps most intrigued to learn that Blue Origin has figured out a way to use its New Shepard suborbital […]
Enlarge / In mid-February a Falcon 9 launch was successful, but the first stage failed to land. (credit: SpaceX) Welcome to Edition 3.35 of the Rocket Report! There is an incredible amount of launch news this week, but I want to start with this: my new book on the origins of SpaceX, Liftoff: Elon Musk […]
Enlarge / We won’t be seeing New Glenn take flight for nearly two years, at least. (credit: Blue Origin) Welcome to Edition 3.34 of the Rocket Report! I apologize for the unplanned hiatus last week. The Rocket Report’s Houston-based author lacked power until Wednesday night amidst a massive winter storm, and I had no reliable […]
Enlarge / The Transporter-1 mission launches from Florida on January 24, 2021. (credit: SpaceX) Welcome to Edition 3.33 of the Rocket Report! Plenty of news this week about NASA awarding contracts to launch companies and also some new details about a pair of German rocket startups seeking to develop orbital boosters. As always, we welcome […]
Enlarge / Eighteenth SpaceX Starlink mission streaks to orbit from the Space Coast of Florida on Thursday, February 4. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann / Ars Technica) Welcome to Edition 3.32 of the Rocket Report! The Starship prototype SN9 gave us quite a week, what with the FAA drama surrounding its (eventually fiery) launch and hard landing, […]