rocket

Russia halts Soyuz rocket launches from South America over European sanctions on Ukraine invasion

by

The Russian space agency Roscosmos is stopping all Soyuz rocket launches from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana due to European Union sanctions on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  “In response to EU sanctions against our enterprises, Roscosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners in organizing space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdrawing its personnel, including … Read more

SpaceX launching 50 Starlink satellites, landing rocket today: Watch it live

by

SpaceX will launch 50 satellites and land the returning booster today (Feb. 25), and you can watch the action live. A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with 50 Starlink internet spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today at 12:12 p.m. EST (1712 GMT; 9:12 a.m. local California time). You … Read more

When a rogue rocket hits the moon March 4, NASA orbiter will hunt for its crater grave

by

A doomed rocket stage that’s expected to crash into the moon on March 4 will do so out of view of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The collision is set to take place on the far side of the moon, out of range of Earthbound telescopes. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) does have the ability to … Read more

Space junk: We don’t know whose rocket is about to hit the moon – that’s a problem

by

An old rocket will slam into the far side of the moon on 4 March and no one is accepting ownership of the space junk – similar objects could pose a safety risk for future crewed lunar missions Space 23 February 2022 By Jonathan O’Callaghan A representation of space junk in orbit around Earth ESA/ID&Sense/ONiRiXEL … Read more

Moon mystery: Who launched the rocket that will slam into the lunar far side?

by

There’s an ongoing saga about the object that will smash into the far side of the moon early next month. First thought to be the upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the DSCOVR Earth-observation spacecraft in February 2015, it was then tagged as a leftover from the launch of China’s Chang’e … Read more

China says moonbound rocket stage was not from 2014 lunar mission: report

by

China says a rocket stage set to slam into the moon on March 4 isn’t from one of its missions, contradicting several recent reports. Several independent observations suggest the rocket is from the Chang’e 5-T1 mission in 2014, following a misidentification that said the stage was part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched … Read more

Fly around SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket in this stunning drone video

by

A stunning drone video from SpaceX shows the company taking apart the fully stacked Starship it plans to launch into orbit later this year. The waterside view on Twitter, posted Saturday (Feb. 19), shows the giant Starship rocket on a crane next to the Super Heavy booster that will attempt the company’s first orbital flight.  … Read more

Mystery Deepens as China Denies Owning Space Junk Set to Crash Into Moon

by

China on Monday denied responsibility for a rocket set to slam into the Moon, after experts said the piece of space junk likely came from Beijing’s lunar exploration program. Astronomers initially thought the wayward object was a chunk of a SpaceX rocket that blasted off seven years ago and was abandoned in space after completing … Read more

NASA successfully retests moon rocket core stage engines after fault

by

All core stage rocket engines on NASA’s moon rocket performed as expected in a recent series of tests that followed a replacement of a faulty control mechanism in one of those engines, the agency said. A faulty controller on the RS-25 engine number 4 forced the space agency to delay its upcoming uncrewed moon mission, … Read more