Enlarge / NASA’s large rocket will undergo a dress rehearsal this weekend. (credit: NASA) After two weeks of preparatory work on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, NASA is ready to put its large new rocket and its complex plumbing system to the test. This will be the final major rehearsal before the space […]
Enlarge / A technician works on the Orion spacecraft, atop the SLS rocket, in January 2022. (credit: NASA) NASA Inspector General Paul Martin serves as an independent watchdog for the space agency’s myriad activities. For nearly the entirety of his time as inspector general, since his appointment in 2009, Martin has tracked NASA’s development of […]
Enlarge / The Falcon Heavy rocket is the most recent heavy-lift booster to debut, and that was more than three years ago. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann / Ars Technica ) A little more than three years ago, Ars published an article assessing the potential for four large rockets to make their debut in 2020. Spoiler alert: […]
Enlarge / NASA’s Kathy Lueders, left, and SpaceX’s Hans Koenigsmann track the Demo-2 crew mission in 2020. SpaceX is helping to enable NASA to think less about transportation, and more about exploration. (credit: NASA) No NASA official would ever admit this in public, but the 2010s have been a frustrating decade for human spaceflight. After […]
Enlarge / The SLS core stage at NASA’s Stennis Space Center after firing up for the Green Run test on January 16, 2021. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) After completing a review of data collected from a hot fire test of its Space Launch System rocket in mid-December, NASA has decided it needs to test the large […]
Enlarge / And the day that was comes to a close at NASA’s Stennis Space Center after the SLS rocket fired up for the Green Run test on January 16, 2021. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) Nearly two years ago, then Vice President Mike Pence delivered the most consequential space policy speech of his tenure in office. […]
At 4:27pm central time, the SLS rocket core stage ignited its four RS-25 engines at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. The test was to last up to eight minutes. [credit: Trevor Mahlmann for Ars ] STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss.—For a few moments, it seemed like the Space Launch System saga might have a happy ending. Beneath […]