Virgin Orbit is developing a launch system to carry satellites into space using a rocket mounted to the wing of a modified 747. The team has today ticked off what it calls a significant milestone, carrying said rocket into the air and releasing it over the Californian desert for the first time.
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SpaceX is on a mission to reuse as much of its launch systems as possible. Part of this strategy involves catching pieces of rocket as they plummet back toward Earth, something the company managed to pull off for the first time following yesterday’s landmark Falcon Heavy launch.
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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is off again. With a slew of government satellites and important spacecraft onboard, the world’s most powerful operational vehicle lifted off into the night sky for the first time in what the company calls one of the most challenging launches in its history.
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Space flight requires quite a lot of single-use machinery, and that gets expensive and wasteful. Now ESA has outlined its reusable Space Rider capsule, which would carry scientific equipment to the edge of space and back several times over.
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China has joined the US and Russia as nations with proven capability to launch rockets from sea. It was the 306th flight for the China National Space Administration’s line of Long March carrier rockets, but the first time one has taken off away from solid ground.
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Engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have now joined together four fifths of the Space Launch System’s core stage. The upcoming super heavy rocket is slated to make its maiden flight in 2020, and will provide the lifting capabilities for America’s return to the Moon.
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There's a lot riding on the development of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane. The company has now offered the public the first fiery look at the engine that will propel it through space, with missions for NASA slated to kick off the year after next.
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A decade-old mystery has been resolved after a NASA investigation found that the loss of two science satellite missions in 2009 and 2011 was due to falsified test results on the part of a private subcontractor.
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A piece of Space Age history is getting a new lease with news that Blue Origin plans to refurbish and operate the famous test stand used to develop the Saturn V moon rockets.
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Hydrazine rocket fuel is highly toxic, carcinogenic and unstable, making it incredibly dangerous to work with. Scientists at McGill believe their new alternative, based on metal-organic frameworks, will lead to cleaner, safer, more controllable rockets.
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