Rocket

Orbex has publicly unveiled the full-scale prototype of its reusable Prime rocket on its pad at Space Hub Sutherland in northern Scotland, where the first-ever vertical launch of a satellite from UK soil is set to be carried out in the coming months.

Rocket Lab has taken an important step forward in its efforts to recover its boosters for re-flight, today capturing its Electron first stage with a helicopter as it hurtled back toward Earth for the first time.

Rocket Lab has some bold rocket reusability aspirations, and all going to plan will soon achieve a key milestone by collecting the first stage of its Electron booster in midair with a customized Sikorsky S-92 helicopter.

The US Air Force Research Laboratory and Air Force Office of Scientific Research are planning to live-stream a rocket launch in Virginia tonight, running hypersonic tests on the Bolt II flight system at speeds up to Mach 6.

In an initiative that could lead to carbon-free – and possibly cheaper – space launches, scientists at the UC Riverside are experimenting with ammonia borane as a substitute to conventional carbon-based chemical rocket fuels.

It turns out the rocket that is predicted to impact the Moon on March 4 is not the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after all, but the upper stage of a Chinese Long March 3C used to launch the Chang'e 5-T1 lunar flyby mission in 2014.

Described by his PR team as "like Russia's Elon Musk," serial entrepreneur Mikhail Korkorich says his new company Destinus is building a hydrogen-powered, zero-emissions, transcontinental cargo drone capable of hypersonic Mach 15 cruise speeds.

Rocket Lab has unveiled its concept for a new reusable launch vehicle called Neutron. Looking like something a Bond villain would deploy, it carries its second stage inside a permanently attached captive “Hungry Hippo” fairing design.

A UK company with lofty aspirations around sustainable space travel has test-fired a rocket engine powered in part by plastic waste. Pulsar Fusion's ambitious plans also involve the development of nuclear fusion technology for high-speed propulsion.

A new player has joined the ranks of private spacefaring outfits with the ability to reach orbit, following the successful lift-off for startup Astra's launch vehicle just five years after the company was established.

The US Navy has conducted a successful live-fire ground test of the first stage of the US' common hypersonic missile. It was the first test to include the thrust vector control system for maneuvering the rocket in flight.

The new technologies Honda plans to pursue in the coming decades include an eVTOL for inter-city transport, a robot that will act as an avatar for users to perform tasks remotely, and a renewable energy system for the Moon.