Virgin Orbit just edged closer to its goal of launching rockets in mid-air. The company has completed the first "captive carry" test for its LauncherOne rocket, hauling the 70-foot machine under the wing of Cosmic Girl (its Boeing 747 launch aircraf...
Virgin Orbit’s rocket completes its first ‘captive carry’ flight test
Virgin Orbit just edged closer to its goal of launching rockets in mid-air. The company has completed the first "captive carry" test for its LauncherOne rocket, hauling the 70-foot machine under the wing of Cosmic Girl (its Boeing 747 launch aircraf...
For a while, SpaceX has dreamed of making its Falcon 9 rocket as reusable as possible, and not just the first stage. Now, though, it's having a change of heart. SpaceX has scrapped plans to make the rocket's second stage reusable. Instead, Elon Mu...
After months of delays, Rocket Lab has completed its first commercial mission. The spaceflight startup successfully launched its Electron rocket into orbit carrying six small satellites, including five cubesats as well as a small weather satellite....
Russia has released the findings from its investigation into the Soyuz rocket failure on October 11th, and the cause may be relatively ignominious. The investigators determined that a bent separation contact sensor pin, damaged during the assembly o...
China's young private spaceflight industry has enjoyed some success, but it's still facing setbacks. The first private attempt at a satellite launch failed on October 27th when the third stage of LandSpace's Zhuque-1 rocket didn't reach orbit. It's...
Today, small launch vehicle startup Rocket Lab announced the site of its new US spaceport. The Electron rocket will launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, located in Virginia. The launch site will be called Launch Complex 2; Rocket Lab's Launch...
SpaceX may be an old hand at rocket landings by this point, but there are still a few firsts left. The private spaceflight company is launching Argentina's SAOCOM 1A satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 10:21PM Eastern (7:21PM Pacific), and yo...
Blue Origin is best known for its own rocket programs, but it just scored a deal that could make it an important name in the spaceflight industry. United Launch Alliance has chosen Blue Origin's BE-4 engine (two of them, to be exact) to power the bo...
NASA's new leader is gung-ho on privatizing spaceflight, and that could lead to some new approaches to branding... like it or not. Administrator Jim Bridenstine has unveiled a NASA Advisory Council committee that will explore the feasibility of comm...
Russia has been using variants of Proton rockets in its space program since 1965, and the design is showing its age. For starters, every launch is an environmental mess -- Proton uses toxic chemicals where newer rockets have moved on to cleaner fuels...