Enlarge / The US Air Force Research Laboratory seeks to develop a satellite to patrol cislunar space. (credit: US Air Force Research Laboratory) This week, the US Air Force Research Laboratory released a video on YouTube that didn’t get much attention. But it made an announcement that is fairly significant—the US military plans to extend […]
Enlarge / A Soyuz rocket launches in 2020 carrying nearly three dozen OneWeb satellites into orbit. (credit: OneWeb) Russia has taken the extraordinary step of placing multiple demands on OneWeb and its government ownership prior to a planned launch of satellites Friday aboard a Soyuz rocket. The mission, to loft 34 broadband communications satellites into […]
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 / A rendering of a spacewalk happening outside of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. (credit: SpaceX) One of the most visually appealing Super Bowl advertisements on Sunday night starred Matthew McConaughey dressed as an astronaut. The advertisement begins with suggestive images of McConaughey in space only to find him in a hot air balloon. “It’s not […]
Enlarge / The Moon is safe from Falcon 9 rockets. (credit: NASA) About three weeks ago Ars Technica first reported that astronomers were tracking the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, and were increasingly confident that it would strike the Moon on March 4. This story set off a firestorm of media activity. Much […]
Enlarge / SpaceX’s stacked Starship vehicle complete with its impressive launch tower. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) STARBASE, Texas—Shortly after SpaceX founder Elon Musk completed a 75-minute presentation on Starship Thursday evening, I huddled with a few veteran space reporters. What, we discussed, were the headlines from the event? No one was sure, as we agreed that […]
Enlarge / Roscosmos Head Dmitry Rogozin is seen before Russia-China talks at the Moscow Kremlin. (credit: Mikhail Metzel/TASS via Getty Images) Nearly four years have passed since Dmitry Rogozin became director general of Roscosmos, the state-run corporation that manages the country’s human and civil spaceflight programs, rocket production, and space technology development. Roscosmos is a […]
Enlarge / NASA Television of the Crew-2 landing shows three main parachutes deployed, with a fourth one lagging behind. (credit: NASA TV) Officials from NASA and SpaceX say that they are paying attention to a parachute issue with the Dragon spacecraft, but they do not believe significant actions will be needed to address it. Upon […]
Enlarge / Composite image showing a Falcon 9 rocket launching, and a first stage landing, at Vandenberg Space Force Base this weekend. (credit: SpaceX) Welcome to Edition 4.31 of the Rocket Report! SpaceX launched three Falcon 9 rockets in three days this week, bringing its tally of orbital launches in 2022 to six. Not bad […]
Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket launches on a pillar of fire in January 2022. (credit: SpaceX) SpaceX has been launching Falcon 9 rockets thick and fast of late. With 10 launches since the beginning of December, the company has flown rockets at a rate greater than one mission a week. And another launch could […]