“We’re not gonna have landing legs. We’re gonna catch the booster in the air.” BOCA CHICA BEACH, TX — Today, SpaceX did the unthinkable: many thousands of engineers and technicians put in many thousands of hours to successfully snatch an orbital-class rocket booster out of the air with incredible precision and control. Over the last...
Reduced, asymmetric thrust, compensated well by the rocket’s robust— CAPE CANAVERAL, FL — At 7:25 a.m. EST, United Launch Alliance flew its Cert-2 mission. Aptly named, this was the second in a series of Vulcan certification flights and the latest in a string of successes for the storied space company. Though Vulcan, new on the...
You need to have teamwork, and you need to have precision— Update: SpaceX posted an update 11 hours after launch that the second stage of the Crew-9 mission faced an anomaly during its deorbit burn. This burn is an ignition of the upper stage to take it out of Earth orbit, reenter the atmosphere, mostly...
Moments in time, forever preserved— With today’s launch of Soyuz, there are now a record 19 people in Earth orbit. What a time to be alive. NASA astronaut Don Pettit, among a crew of three, has lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:23 PM Eastern time this afternoon. He is one of...
A shining example of both co-existing, peacefully— Home to a litany of launch pads, sprawling hundreds of thousands of acres through vast ecosystems, and refuge and habitat to over 1,500 species, Merritt Island is a special place. There’s a sign when you first arrive, emblazoned, “Where Dreams Are Launched.” It’s easy to lose sight of...
We will review the data and determine the next steps for the program— December 2019. May 2022. June 2024. Much has gone on each time Starliner journeys to space before reaching the ground once again, but ultimately, the fact of the matter is that Boeing and NASA have launched and returned Starliner to Earth, uncrewed...
Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast— The inaugural launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket being the one to carry twin NASA probes to Mars, is not to be. Friday afternoon, NASA announced on their blog plans to forego the fueling of their two EscaAPDE spacecraft as well as the upcoming October 13-21, 2024...
Catching the Next Orbital-Class Rocket Today in Florida, the next piece of the puzzle fell into place for Blue Origin as they prepare to fly their New Glenn heavy-lift rocket for the very first time. Like SpaceX, Blue Origin intends to recover the first stage of their rocket using an ocean-going platform and then tow...
United Launch Alliance plans to launch the Astrobotic Technology ‘Peregrine’ lunar lander at 2:18 a.m. EST on 8 January 2024. This morning, media were given the privilege of setting up sound and time-activated remote cameras to capture its inaugural liftoff. The Peregrine lunar lander will touch down ~6 weeks after launch after a long sequence...
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