All posts tagged: rocket

Unastella, a South Korean rocket startup that launched from home, raises M

Unastella, a South Korean rocket startup that launched from home, raises $24M

Published by skeptic

As SpaceX counts down to what could be the largest IPO in history, the race to build the next generation of launch vehicles is heating up. Asia wants in. Startups across Australia, India, Japan, and South Korea are racing to establish themselves in a market long dominated by the U.S. and China. One of them is Unastella, a four-year-old South Korean startup that just closed a $24 million Series B, bringing its total funding to $44 million. The company launched its own rocket, the Una Express-I, from South Korean soil in May 2025. The Seoul-based rocket startup is developing its own launch vehicles and engines, with an initial focus on small satellite launch services. Unastella’s near-term focus is validating its technology and business model through orbital launches, with crewed suborbital spaceflight as a longer-term goal, founder and CEO Jae Park told TechCrunch. Unastella uses a kerosene and liquid oxygen propulsion system, one of the most proven combinations in rocket history, and one that is also used by SpaceX’s Falcon series. On top of that, the …

Blue Origin Rocket Explodes in Fiery Setback

Blue Origin Rocket Explodes in Fiery Setback

Published by skeptic

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on Thursday night during a hotfire test on the launch pad, lighting up the skies around the launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. In a post on X, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said that all personnel had been accounted for. “It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it,” Bezos wrote. “Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.” What Is a Hotfire Test? The test during which Blue Origin’s rocket—a vehicle that, at 98 meters tall, is one of the largest ever built—exploded is known as a hotfire test, or static fire test. Essentially, it is a standard procedure carried out on the engines of a rocket, spacecraft, or prototype, in which the engines are ignited for a very short period of time and then shut down while the vehicle remains secured to the launch pad. The purpose of this test is to verify that the systems are functioning correctly before an …

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes during engine-firing test in Florida

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes during engine-firing test in Florida

Published by Sam Flores

IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Now Playing Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes during engine-firing test in Florida 00:52 UP NEXT Breaking down the latest release of UAP files 08:10 NASA’s Jared Isaacman shares moon base plans 13:31 NASA unveils plans for base on the moon 01:27 SpaceX successfully launches prototype of Starship rocket 09:41 SpaceX scrubs Starship V3 rocket launch 05:26 New details on NASA’s Artemis III mission 05:04 Pentagon releases declassified UFO files 02:03 Pentagon releases batch of UFO files spanning decades 03:19 Trump meets with Artemis II crew after historic mission 01:25 Vast is building the first commercial space stations 03:00 Ed Buckbee, US Space and Rocket Center Founder, Dies at 89 02:02 Hubble telescope celebrates 36th anniversary 06:15 Astronauts for America Founders Share Mission Behind Nonprofit 05:05 Reid Wiseman captures view of ‘Earthset’ during Artemis II mission 00:46 Artemis II crew reflects on historic mission around the moon 06:09 Artemis crew speaks out after historic mission 03:01 Artemis II Crew Shares …

Jeff Bezos issues statement after Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explosion | US | News

Jeff Bezos issues statement after Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explosion | US | News

Published by Sam Flores

The incident occurred shortly after 9pm local time on Thursday, May 28, as Blue Origin was preparing to fuel its New Glenn rocket ahead of a planned static fire test when the explosion took place, CBS News reports. Following its third successful launch last month, the aerospace firm was readying the rocket for a mission scheduled for June 4, which will mark the fourth for the New Glenn programme. In footage circulating online, a detonation can be seen emanating from the base of the rocket, before smoke travels up the shaft of the rocket before an explosion towards the pointed tip of the spacecraft. The entire vessel is then engulfed in an enormous, bright yellow plume of flame. The full extent of damage to the Blue Origin launchpad and associated ground support equipment remains unclear. It is also uncertain what delays the project will face as a result of the explosion. Jeff Bezos took to X to say: “All personnel are accounted for and safe. It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re …

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes during testing in Florida

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes during testing in Florida

Published by skeptic

Blue Origin’s New Glenn mega-rocket just exploded during testing at a launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to live streams from NASASpaceFlight.com and SpaceFlight Now. Blue Origin later confirmed the explosion. Jeff Bezos’ space company was performing a static fire test ahead of an anticipated fourth launch of the new rocket in the coming weeks, which was supposed to carry Amazon Leo internet satellites to space. That means the rocket was likely fully fueled, contributing to what is one of the largest rocket explosions in U.S. history and the worst failure in Blue Origin’s existence. Blue Origin said in an X post Thursday evening that “[a]ll personnel have been accounted for,” and Bezos wrote that they were “safe.” The company didn’t say what went wrong, only that an “anomaly” occurred. “It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it,” Bezos wrote. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a post late Thursday …

SpaceX Announces Plans to Put Billionaire on First Rocket to Mars

SpaceX Announces Plans to Put Billionaire on First Rocket to Mars

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The future of space travel is pay to play, but that might not be a bad thing. During the final 15 minutes counting down to SpaceX’s aborted Starship V3 mission on Thursday, Elon Musk’s space company revealed a fascinating tidbit: the man who’s going to lead SpaceX’s first crewed mission to Mars. Spotted by Gizmodo, broadcasters on the company’s live feed announced that crypto billionaire Chun Wang has been tapped to lead humanity’s first interplanetary human flight. At first glance, Wang might seem like an unlikely candidate for such a monumental task. A software developer who dropped out of college, Wang made his fortune by developing one of China’s first and most successful Bitcoin mining pools — striking it rich just before the Chinese government shut all of that crypto stuff down in 2021. However, his resume includes another space flight, SpaceX’s April 2025 Fram2 mission, which he personally funded in order to secure a spot as mission …

SpaceX launches prototype of Starship rocket in crucial test flight

SpaceX launches prototype of Starship rocket in crucial test flight

Published by Sam Flores

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SpaceX faces high stakes for upcoming Starship rocket test flight

SpaceX faces high stakes for upcoming Starship rocket test flight

Published by Sam Flores

SpaceX plans to launch an updated version of its Starship megarocket — a new prototype of the system that NASA hopes will carry its astronauts to the moon in two years — on a critical test flight Tuesday. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. The stakes for Starship, and by extension for Elon Musk’s rocket company, have perhaps never been higher. SpaceX is developing Starship as part of NASA’s Artemis program and racing against its rival, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, to build a lunar lander for NASA to use in 2028, when it aims to put astronauts on the moon. Late next year, NASA intends to test one or both of those new vehicles in low-Earth orbit on the Artemis III mission. At the same time, SpaceX is preparing to go public. Its highly anticipated IPO, expected next month, could be the biggest of all time. Reuters reported Friday that the company aims to make its prospectus ​public as early as Wednesday — the day after …

SpaceX is about to launch tallest and most powerful rocket in history

SpaceX is about to launch tallest and most powerful rocket in history

Published by skeptic

Starship on the launchpad at SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas SpaceX SpaceX will fly an extensively upgraded Starship next week that will – if it launches successfully – break records as the tallest and most powerful rocket in history. The flight will be watched keenly at NASA, as the craft is vital to its plans to put humans back on the moon in 2028. Starship is made up of two parts: an upper stage, confusingly also called Starship, and a lower stage called Super Heavy. Since the last Starship test in October last year, SpaceX has been making extensive revisions to both stages. The twelfth test flight, which is expected to launch as soon as 19 May, will involve new version 3 models of both craft. Powering each stage will be version 3 Raptor engines, which have seen limited testing on previous flights, and the launch will take place from a newly designed pad at the company’s Starbase site in Texas, meaning that the stakes for the test are particularly high. On Super Heavy 3, the …