SpaceX’s launch of its giant Starship rocket on Thursday accomplished a series of ambitious goals that Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, had set out before the test flight, its fourth. While the flight wasn’t a perfect success, it offered a sign that Musk’s vision to build the most powerful rocket ever and make it reusable … Read more
Just hours after NASA was forced to do so cancel the Florida launch from the Boeing Starliner for the second time, a Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon on Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could provide insight into the differences between the less explored region and the better-known … Read more
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will not shoot to the moon with SpaceX’s Starship after all. Maezawa, who booked a private trip around the moon in 2018 on SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket, has now scrapped the project – which he called dearMoon – after the rocket wasn’t ready to fly him and eight hand-picked artists in 2023. … Read more
Boeing is gearing up for another attempt to launch NASA astronauts aboard its Starliner spacecraft. It’s a major test flight: the first time a crew will fly the vehicle to the International Space Station. The launch was originally scheduled for May 6, but that attempt was canceled with about two hours remaining. Now, the launch … 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
Enlarge / On Wednesday, SpaceX fully stacked the Starship’s Super Heavy booster and upper stage for the megarocket’s next test flight from South Texas. Welcome to edition 6.44 of the Rocket Report! Kathy Lueders, general manager of SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility, says the company expects to receive an FAA launch license for the next Starship … Read more