Tag: flight
Rocket startup Gilmour Space gets a $3 million grant to develop lighter fuel tanks
Mass is money when it comes to the rocket launch business, and any small savings you can eke out can add up to big savings. That’s been the driving force behind the growing commercialization of space, and the rapid rise of the small satellite industry, and now Australian rocket startup…
Read More
2021 NASA budget request includes $3.3B for human lunar landers, $430M for Moon resource development
The Trump White House today issued its fiscal 2021 budget request, and it included a 12% increase in requested funding to NASA’s coffers, as expected. That puts the total request for NASA at $25.2 billion, nearly half, or $12.3 billion, of which is earmarked specifically to support NASA’s efforts to…
Read More
Rocket Lab readies parachute tests for its rocket recovery and reuse program
Rocket Lab is proceeding as planned with its efforts to recover and reuse spent rocket boosters from its Electron launch vehicle, and has completed its first prototype parachute for use in the recovery process. Rocket lab CEO Peter Beck announced last year that it would be aiming for reusability with…
Read More
Rocket Lab points out that not all rideshare rocket launches are created equal
The commercial rideshare model for spacefaring cargo is increasingly popular, and for good reason: It lowers the cost of launching something to space even further than companies like SpaceX have managed by splitting the available space on a rocket among multiple customers. Last August, SpaceX announced that it would be…
Read More
Xplore teams up with Nanoracks for commercial deep space exploration
Mostly when we talk about commercial space, and space startups, the focus is relatively close to home – stretching to orbit, and maybe the Moon. But Seattle-based startup Xplore wants to extend the privatization of space further still, through the development of spacecraft and a platform designed for commercial missions…
Read More
SpaceX successfully catches one fairing half from latest Starlink launch
SpaceX is one step closer to an even more re-usable launch system today, after it successfully recovered one fo the halves of the fairing used on its Starlink satellite launch today. The fairing half was caught by its ‘Ms. Tree’ vessel, a ship at sea in the Atlantic strung with…
Read More