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Rocket Lab mission fails shortly after launch
Rocket Lab's 13th mission ended in failure when the vehicle had an 'anomaly' during its second-stage burn.
EU will speed up its spaceflight plans in response to SpaceX and China
The EU's space chief has promised to accelerate plans due in part to pressure from SpaceX and China.
Australia aims to launch locally-made hybrid rockets by 2022
Australian researchers and companies are teaming up to launch rockets that could give the country more independence in spaceflight.
Interstellar is still struggling to put private rockets in space
Japan's young private spaceflight industry has taken another hit as Interstellar's MOMO-5 rocket failed to reach space.
Rocket Lab proves it can recover a rocket in mid-air
Last year, Rocket Lab announced that it would attempt to reuse the first stage of its Electron rocket. Rocket Lab pulled off this stunt in early March. One helicopter dropped the Electron test stage over open ocean in New Zealand.
SpaceX aborts Falcon 9 launch with rare 'Liftoff! Disregard' sequence
With both computers and human controllers cautiously watching every single rocket function, it's not unusual for SpaceX to abort a launch. However, yesterday a Falcon 9 rocket was stopped at literally the last second, confusing even the countdown commentator. As the clock hit zero, the operator enthusiastically shouted "Liftoff!" but quickly added "Disregard. We have an abort" once it was clear the rocket wasn't getting airborne.
Blue Origin shows off the engine and nose cone of its reusable rocket
In late 2018, the US Air Force awarded Blue Origin $500 million to build the New Glenn rocket with a reusable first stage and performance similar to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy. We haven't heard a lot since then, but Jeff Bezos' company has just shared a couple of updates on development, showing the immense scale of the new rocket and how the upper stage engines work.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket prototype collapsed on itself this weekend
Another SpaceX test ended in failure this past weekend. A prototype of the company's Starship rocket, SN1, imploded in a pressure test late Friday night. Elon Musk acknowledged the incident on Twitter, sharing a video and writing, "It's fine, we'll just buff it out."
Flat Earth advocate dies after homemade rocket crashes
The saga of "Mad" Mike Hughes and his homebuilt rocket has come to a tragic end. The Flat Earth advocate died on February 22nd at the age of 64 when the chute for his steam-powered rocket detached shortly after launch, leading to a high-velocity crash in the desert near Barstow, California. The launch was being filmed for a Science Channel series, Homemade Astronauts, that aims to document the adventures of amateur rocket makers.
SpaceX lost another Falcon booster to the sea
This morning, at 10:05AM ET, SpaceX successfully launched its fifth batch of Starlink internet satellites via a Falcon 9 rocket. Unfortunately, it did not manage to land the rocket's booster as planned.
SpaceX asks permission to take Starship on a high-altitude test flight
One of the next major steps in SpaceX's plans for true spaceflight will be a 12-mile-high test flight. Sometime between March and September, the company plans to launch its Starship suborbital test vehicle from Boca Chica, Texas. The Starship will travel to an altitude of 12.4 miles, or 20 kilometers. SpaceX will then attempt to land and recover the vehicle.
'Rocket League' loses online multiplayer on Linux and Mac
Psyonix has announced that it is withdrawing support for Rocket League on Linux and macOS as part of its push to update the game with "new technologies." In a statement, the company said that it was "no longer viable" to maintain support for the macOS and Linux / SteamOS versions of the title. Consequently, after a final patch in March, online functionality (one of the main reasons to play the game) will be deactivated.
Bloodhound’s supersonic car hit 628MPH in under a minute
Not long ago, the Bloodhound supersonic car was on the brink of bankruptcy, and the project came close to shutting down altogether. But after test runs at the Hakskeen Pan dry lake bed race track in South Africa, the car seems to be pulling ahead. It reached 628MPH (1,010 km/h) in 50 seconds, making it the sixth fastest car ever.
Rocket Lab plans to send payloads to the Moon
Rocket Lab has been increasing the altitude of its missions in recent months, but now it wants to venture much, much farther. The private spaceflight firm now intends to help launch missions to higher Earth orbits, lunar orbit and even Lagrange points. It'll use a combination of Electron rockets, the Photon payload platform and a "dedicated bulk maneuver stage" to provide the new capabilities as soon as the fourth quarter of 2020.
SpaceX begins construction of its next-generation Starship rockets
SpaceX's next-generation rocket, the Starship, is 50 meters long and powered by three Raptor engines, creating a whopping 12,000 kN of thrust. It is designed to haul large amounts of cargo and eventually passengers into space, for missions to the moon and potentially to Mars and beyond as well. After unveiling the design for the Starship Mk 2 last month, and also revealing an ambitious timeline for getting the craft into orbit, construction of three of the rockets has begun.
Elon Musk hopes SpaceX's Starship will reach orbit in six months
Elon Musk's ambitious plans for Starship extend to the timeline for its first flights. As part of a Q&A session at SpaceX's presentation, Musk outlined plans for rapid prototyping that could get the vessel into space in a short time frame. Starship Mk1 (above) at Boca Chica, Texas should have a suborbital test flight within one to two months, the executive said. After that, a competing team in Cape Canaveral, Florida will conduct a similar test with a Mk2 ship as soon as November. Mk3 will start construction in October with aims to fly in December, while the competing Mk4 could come in January. If all goes well, either Mk3 or an eventual Mk5 would fly an orbital test within six months -- no small achievement when Starhopper only flew in August.
Get a glimpse of SpaceX's orbital Starship prototype under construction
You won't have to rely on spy shots to get a glimpse of SpaceX's orbital Starship prototype while it's under construction -- they're coming straight from the company's founder. Elon Musk has posted a pair of photos showing progress on the more ambitious spacecraft. The look won't startle anyone -- surprise, it's a much taller expansion of the Starhopper design. It does provide a good sense of scale, though, and it's a reminder that the finished Starship is meant to handle much more than putting satellites into service.
SpaceX confirms it's almost ready to test its orbital Starship
SpaceX isn't wasting much time now that Starhopper has completed its hover test. The company has filed an FCC communication permissions request that, as Elon Musk confirmed, prepares for test-flying the "orbit-class" Starship. The vehicle will fly much higher than its stubby predecessor, reaching an altitude of 12.5 miles before it comes back to the same landing pad used during earlier tests. It's not a true orbital test, then, but it's clearly much closer to SpaceX's goals.
Russian rocket test explosion leads to radiation leak
Russia's military technology push has unfortunately produced deadly consequences. The country's Rosatom has confirmed that five people have died and three have been injured after an explosion on August 8th while testing an isotopic power source for a rocket's liquid propulsion system. The same blast also increased radiation levels by as much as twenty times in nearby Severodvinsk for about half an hour.
Rocket Lab will reuse its rockets by catching them with a helicopter
SpaceX won't be the only company reusing its rockets for payload deliveries. Rocket Lab has unveiled plans to recover the first stage of its Electron vehicle. The strategy's first phase will have Rocket Lab recovering the stage from the ocean and refurbishing it for later. A second phase will be more... audacious. The company intends to have the stage "captured mid-air" by a helicopter, with the aircraft hooking on to the rocket's parachute array during the descent. It won't be as elegant as SpaceX's rocket landings, but it will be efficient if it works as planned.
