While still high relative to recent years, the space launch total for 2019 at 102 orbital attempted launches was more than 10 per cent down on last year’s figure of 114. China continued to dominate, again taking the number one spot with 34 launches. These included the...
Officially it is not a blow to SpaceX, given that its Starship Mk.1 suborbital hopping test rocket was not going to fly again, but the tank failure on the spacecraft/upper stage during a deliberate over-pressurisation test on on 20 November still made a spectacular...
At 1135 GMT the Blue Origin conducted another unmanned suborbital launch of its New Shepard launch vehicle/carrier spacecraft (Mark II) with an unofficial altitude achieved of 105.6 km above the Van Horn launch site in Texas. The launch is counted by Seradata as a...
At 1607 GMT on 15 February a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Unity rocketplaine was air-dropped from its carrier aircraft Over the Mojave air strip in California, at. Aboard was David Mackay – the main test pilot and his co-pilot Mike “Sooch” Masucci (Co-Pilot). ...
While Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos might have his expensive divorce on his mind, at least his rocket ambitions are showing progress. His Blue Origin firm made the 10th test flight of its suborbital New Shepard rocket at 1505 GMT on 23 January 2019 from the Van Horn...
Space News reports that Astra Space Inc – a successor company to Ventions, the California pump-fed rocket engine developer – is reported to have had a failure of its second test rocket on 29 November 2018 flying on a south-southwesterly track out of the...
