Collaborate Disseminate
History was made today as a private company leapfrogged ahead of NASA by launching the largest, most powerful rocket ever. At 8:36 am CDT, SpaceX’s uncrewed Starship lifted off from the company’s Starbase at Boca Chica, Texas, on an orbital test flight… Continue reading SpaceX successfully launches largest ever space rocket – which blows up
Back in 2021, we heard how the Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane had made its first test flights … but it was using surrogate jet engines. Now, however, the vehicle has made its first flights using an actual rocket engine.Continue ReadingCategory: Spa… Continue reading Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane makes first rocket-powered flights
It was a glass half-full situation on March 22, 2023 when Relativity Space carried out the first successful launch of an almost entirely 3D-printed rocket from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 11:23 pm EDT. Though t… Continue reading World’s first 3D-printed space rocket lifts off
Rockets are conceptually rather simple: you put the pointy bit upwards and make sure that the bit that will go flamey points downwards before starting the engine(s). Yet how to …read more Continue reading The Intricacies of Starting a Rocket Engine
Northrop Grumman has successfully completed the first full-scale static test fire of the stage-one solid-rocket motor for the LGM-35A Sentinel that will replace the US Air Force’s Minuteman III nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).C… Continue reading Northrop Grumman test fires first stage of Sentinel nuclear missile
Explosions get you much more bang from your fuel buck than combustion – if your engine can withstand them. NASA believes the rotating detonation engine could be the future of deep space travel, and it’s getting strong results in prototype testing.Conti… Continue reading NASA’s rotating detonation rocket engine posts record test results
NASA and DARPA have agreed to develop and test a nuclear rocket engine in space as soon as 2027. Using a nuclear reactor as its power source, it would outperform chemical rockets and greatly reduce the time for the first crewed Mars mission.Continue Re… Continue reading DARPA and NASA plan orbital nuclear rocket test
The mystery of why the first orbital mission launched from the UK fell into the sea on January 9 had some light shed on it today as Virgin Orbital announced that telemetry indicated that the second stage engine shut down prematurely.Continue ReadingCat… Continue reading Second stage engine malfunction blamed for UK space launch failure
Equipmake says it’s got the lightest and most power-dense electric motor on the market, and if there’s one place where weight is critical, it’s on a launch pad. The company has developed an ultra-lightweight motor for Australia’s first rocket launch.Co… Continue reading Ultra-light electric motor to feed Australia’s first home-grown rocket
[Joe] at BPS.space has a thing for rockets, and his latest quest is to build a rocket that will cross the Kármán Line and launch into the Final Frontier. And being …read more Continue reading Rocket Mounted 3D Printed Camera Wheel Tries, Succeeds, and Also Fails