rocket | Common News Update

Jun42021 by adminNo Comments

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches cargo to space station

Science

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla., June 3 (UPI) -- SpaceX launched tiny squids, medical experiments and improved solar panels for the International Space Station from Florida on Thursday afternoon. The 7,300-pound cargo mission rose into a mostly cloudy sky aboard a Falcon 9 rocket as planned at 1:29 p.m. EDT from Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Eight minutes after launch, SpaceX recovered the first-stage booster by landing it on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. "We're actually flying a new booster this mission," Sarah Walker, the company's director of mission management for the Dragon capsule, said at a press conference Wednesday. "This is the 17th mission that SpaceX has launched just in this front half of 2021 ... and the first one that's on a new booster." SpaceX reuses first-stage ...

Mar312021 by adminNo Comments

Florida rocket company rebrands, plans bigger rocket

Business

ORLANDO, Fla., March 31 (UPI) -- A Florida rocket company, Rocket Crafters, has rebranded as Vaya Space and plans a new, larger rocket than it had been pursuing, now named Dauntless, according to company president Rob Fabian. Rocket Crafters -- now called Vaya -- is one of many new companies pursuing new rockets considered small or medium, and far less powerful than SpaceX's Falcon 9. Advertisement The plan for Dauntless is to lift about 2,200 pounds to low-Earth orbit, Fabian said. That's more than twice as powerful as the Intrepid rocket the company no longer pursues. The goal for Dauntless would make it roughly as powerful as Texas-based Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket, which is also under development. Vaya planned to announce the new name and rocket publicly on Wednesday. "We think ...

Mar182021 by adminNo Comments

SLS: Successful test for world’s most powerful rocket

Science

NASANasa has carried out a successful test on part of the most powerful rocket in existence - the Space Launch System (SLS).Its engines were kept running for more than eight minutes - to simulate the time that it takes the rocket to get from the ground into space.It's the second such test for the biggest segment of the SLS, after an attempt in January shut down early.The SLS is to send humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.The mission is part of Nasa's Artemis project, launched by the Trump administration in 2017.The test was carried out on the rocket's core stage. The SLS consists of the orange core, with its four powerful RS-25 engines, and two boosters attached to the sides. The RS-25s, built by California-based Aerojet Rocketdyne, are much the same engines that powe...

Mar22021 by adminNo Comments

Rocket Lab plans new Neutron rocket, intends to go public

Science

March 2 (UPI) -- California-based Rocket Lab, which has sent rockets into space 17 times using its small Electron vehicle, plans to launch a much bigger rocket called Neutron by 2024. As part of Rocket Lab's effort to raise funds for Neutron, it plans a public listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange by the end of June. Advertisement Rocket Lab is confident it will succeed, but humble enough to adapt and offer new products, founder and CEO Peter Beck said in an interview. "If we see market opportunities, then we will go after them. And don't get me wrong. ... Electron is still an incredibly important tool. We're not abandoning the small satellite market," Beck said. Neutron would be more than twice as high as its smaller predecessor. It would stand 131 feet tall and be capable of lifting ab...

Feb222021 by adminNo Comments

NASA plans new test-firing of moon rocket

Business

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- NASA plans to test-fire its moon rocket again Thursday to prepare for a potential uncrewed flight around the moon later this year, possibly by October. The test, planned for about 5 p.m. EST, would ignite four powerful engines on the 212-foot-tall core stage of the Space Launch System rocket for four to eight minutes at the John C. Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. Advertisement A previous attempt to complete a test-firing Jan. 16 ended prematurely when sensors shut the engines after a little more than one minute. The test for the planned Artemis moon missions was the most powerful rocket test since the Apollo era at the facility. Even the truncated test-firing in January created huge clouds of steam from cooling system, which uses 300,000 gallo...