Worst practices… The recent growth of Chinese upper stages has been driven by the country’s increased launch rate as it begins to deploy satellite megaconstellations, Shell said. China’s space industry is just at the beginning of launching megaconstellations to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service, suggesting that if the country does not curb this practice, ..
Tag : space
Could Blue Moon Mark 1 launch on other rockets? SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan vehicles both likely have the lift capacity to push the vehicle to the Moon. But Vulcan is also sidelined at present and has a long line of Space Force payloads in the queue. So what of Falcon Heavy? ..
Then there is the larger Blue Moon Mark 2 lander, which is due to fly on a larger and more powerful version of the New Glenn rocket with nine first stage engines, known as 9×4. NASA is counting on the Mark 2 lander, alongside SpaceX’s Starship vehicle, to carry humans to the Moon on a ..
Engineer Jaakko Karras inspects a next-generation Mars helicopter rotor blade prior to testing it at supersonic speeds in the 25-foot Space Simulator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in November 2025. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Engineer Jaakko Karras inspects a next-generation Mars helicopter rotor blade prior to testing it at supersonic speeds in the 25-foot Space Simulator at ..
And on Friday, the Department of Defense (which has renamed itself the Department of War without the required authorization from the US Congress) began releasing those files. So what’s in there? You can see for yourself here. The short answer is “not much.” Example photo from the UAP files released Friday. Credit: US military Example ..
Chosen for impact to humanity … The Falcon 9 team was chosen from a long list of impressive nominees. “In the end, the deciding factor was what we felt like was the team’s impact to humanity,” said Dan Dumbacher, chair of the Neil Armstrong Space Prize selection committee. “Their work has had a very clear ..
The bottom line: Astronauts likely won’t exceed Artemis II’s distance from Earth on most lunar landing missions, but it’s conceivable that on some occasions, circumstances will align to propel a crew a little beyond the 252,756-mile mark. The sure bet will come when someone finally takes aim at Mars. “Big disappointment” Haise, the only Apollo ..
The US Space Force released a list Friday of a dozen companies working on Space-Based Interceptors for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome initiative, a multilayer defense system to shield US territory from drones and ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile attacks. The roster of Golden Dome Space-Based Interceptor (SBI) contractors, some of which were previously reported, includes ..
“Through these contracts, Thales Alenia Space will call on the full sum of our expertise to expand our knowledge base and push back the frontiers of the cislunar exploration,” Massimo Claudio Comparini, a senior official, said in 2020 when the contracts were announced. Ars reached out to Thales on Wednesday evening for a comment about ..
But where money does that come from? … SpaceX expects more than 90 percent of that market, or $26.5 trillion, to stem from the AI sector. The vast majority of that, $22.7 trillion, could come from AI for businesses. The company is moving ahead with an IPO expected this summer targeting a valuation of roughly ..