Enlarge / Four kerosene-fueled Reaver engines power the Firefly Alpha rocket from the launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Welcome to Issue 7.01 of the Rocket Report! We’re putting this week’s report together a day later than usual because of the Independence Day holiday. Ars is entering its seventh year of publishing … Read more
Updated at 8:25 p.m. Eastern Time with a post-launch statement. TOKYO — Firefly Aerospace has launched eight cubesats into orbit in a mission funded by NASA, the first flight of the company’s Alpha rocket since an upper stage failure more than six months ago. The Alpha rocket lifted off at 12:04 a.m. Eastern Time on … Read more
Enlarge / A test version of Firefly’s Miranda engine fires up on a test stand in Briggs, Texas. Firefly Aviation BRIGGS, Texas—The new medium-lift rocket being developed by Firefly Aerospace and Northrop Grumman will eventually include a recoverable booster that returns to the launch site in Virginia for reuse. Firefly has previously indicated that rocket … Read more
29 After a week in which Tropical Storm Alberto delayed the Florida launch schedule in high seas, wind and rain, SpaceX hopes to get back on track this week with launches planned for all three active Falcon launch pads, including a Valk heavy. By the end of the week, the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency … Read more
The confusion and anger surrounding an update to Adobe’s terms of use last week caused Adobe to reexamine its language and communications in general. In addition to a blog post late last week, Adobe published another blog post today announcing plans for direct customer communications and updated terms of use. “We recently introduced a re-acceptance … Read more
Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket will launch the NROL-146 mission from California this week. SpaceX Welcome to edition 6.45 of the Rocket Report! The most interesting news from this week’s launch for me is that Firefly may be available for purchase. That means two of the few U.S. companies with operational rockets, Firefly and … Read more