All posts tagged: rocket

Blue Origin Rocket Grounded After ‘Mishap’ Destroys Customer Satellite

Blue Origin Rocket Grounded After ‘Mishap’ Destroys Customer Satellite

Published by skeptic

Blue Origin‘s New Glenn Mission 3 (NG-3) was supposed to mark another step forward for the company’s long-awaited entry into the commercial space launch market. Instead, the heavy-lift rocket’s third flight ended in a partial failure and, for now, a full stop. The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the New Glenn vehicle from future missions following a “mishap” during Sunday’s launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida until an investigation into the incident can be completed.  The mission wasn’t a total loss. New Glenn’s reusable first-stage booster performed as expected and landed successfully. However, the upper stage failed at the job that mattered most for the mission: delivering its payload into the correct orbit.  That payload (the BlueBird 7 communications satellite for AST SpaceMobile, Blue Origin’s first commercial launch payload for a customer) was supposed to be deployed into a roughly 285-mile orbit. Instead, it reached only about 95 miles — far too low for the satellite’s boosters to keep it in orbit. BlueBird 7 will now be deorbited and destroyed during reentry. …

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Finally Joins Reusable Rocket Club – But Suffers Craft Issues In Space

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Finally Joins Reusable Rocket Club – But Suffers Craft Issues In Space

Published by Jenni Sidey

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket reached space on its third flight and successfully landed its booster for the first time, but ultimately failed to place an AST SpaceMobile satellite into low Earth orbit. The booster landed on a large barge in the Atlantic Ocean, while the satellite separated and powered on but ended up in what Jeff Bezos’ rocket company described as an “off-nominal orbit.” pic.twitter.com/BMAUIwF5jk — Dave Limp (@davill) April 19, 2026 The New Glenn rocket, carrying AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite, blasted off from the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at about 7:25 a.m. local time. Its reusable first stage returned to Earth ten minutes later, touching down on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. LIFTOFF! New Glenn clears the tower at LC-36, carrying @AST_SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite. — Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 19, 2026 “BOOSTER TOUCHDOWN! ‘Never Tell Me The Odds’ has done it again!” Blue Origin wrote on X, with Bezos posting footage of the now-reusable rocket touching down on the barge. pic.twitter.com/0WzaWjjjL9 — Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 19, 2026 However, …

Blue Origin successfully re-uses a New Glenn rocket for the first time ever

Blue Origin successfully re-uses a New Glenn rocket for the first time ever

Published by skeptic

Blue Origin has successfully reused one of its New Glenn rockets for the first time ever, marking a major milestone for the heavy-launch system as Jeff Bezos’ space company looks to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. But the overall mission’s success may be in question. Roughly two hours after the launch, Blue Origin revealed that the communications satellite that New Glenn carried to space for AST SpaceMobile wound up in an “off-nominal orbit,” meaning something may have gone wrong with the rocket’s upper stage. In other words, it appears the company missed the mark. “We have confirmed payload separation. AST SpaceMobile has confirmed the satellite has powered on,” the company wrote on X. “We are currently assessing and will update when we have more detailed information.” AST later said Blue Origin’s rocket placed its satellite into an orbit that was “lower than planned,” so the satellite will have to be de-orbited. According to a timeline provided by Blue Origin prior to the launch, the upper stage of New Glenn should have performed a second burn …

AI startup Rocket offers vibe McKinsey-style reports at a fraction of the cost

AI startup Rocket offers vibe McKinsey-style reports at a fraction of the cost

Published by skeptic

Indian startup Rocket is betting that the next big opportunity is the part before the vibe coding: having AI help people decide what to build. It has launched a platform that produces consulting-style product strategies. The startup, based in Surat, India, on Tuesday launched its platform, Rocket 1.0, which connects research, product building, and competitive intelligence in a single workflow. The platform generates detailed product strategy documents — including pricing, unit economics, and go-to-market recommendations. As AI-powered coding tools proliferate — from platforms like Cursor, Replit, and Lovable to features such as Claude Code and Codex — writing code has become significantly easier and faster. “Everyone can generate the code now… it has become a commodity. But what to build is something which everyone is missing,” said Rocket co-founder and CEO Vishal Virani (pictured above), adding that “running a business and just building a codebase are two different things.” TechCrunch briefly tested Rocket’s platform ahead of its launch and found that it generated product requirement documents in PDF format from simple prompts. These documents resemble …

Pulsar Fusion’s Sunbird fusion rocket could get us to Mars in half the time

Pulsar Fusion’s Sunbird fusion rocket could get us to Mars in half the time

Published by Jenni Sidey

Plasma flashed inside the exhaust system, held in place by electric and magnetic fields. This scene marked a small but closely watched step in Pulsar Fusion’s bid to build a fusion-powered space tug. The U.K.-based company said it achieved first plasma in the exhaust test system for Sunbird, its nuclear fusion rocket program, during a live-streamed technical session at Amazon’s MARS Conference in Ojai, California. The test itself took place at Pulsar’s facility in Bletchley, England. Meanwhile, CEO Richard Dinan presented the milestone on stage in California. “The Sunbird program showcased this milestone live in California at the MARS Conference, hosted by Jeff Bezos, which was an exceptional moment and a genuine privilege,” Dinan said. “There is no greater platform to share this first test than here, surrounded by an esteemed group of world leading machine learning and robotics academics/entrepreneurs, Nobel laureates, astronauts. I am grateful to the MARS Conference and Jeff Bezos.” 3–5 km/s to Mars or 6–10 km/s to Jupiter. The initial launch vehicle only needs enough delta-V to reach orbit. (CREDIT: Pulsar …

NASA astronauts prove that sending an email really is rocket science

NASA astronauts prove that sending an email really is rocket science

Published by skeptic

Before the Orion spacecraft even launched on Wednesday, NASA’s Artemis II moon mission — the first in 50 years — had already weathered a storm of complex challenges, like hydrogen and helium leaks, a faulty heat shield, and technical issues with its safety system. Now in space, these four brave astronauts face their most formidable obstacle yet: Microsoft Outlook. In the first of their 10 planned days in space, Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman was having trouble using Microsoft Outlook, so he contacted Mission Control for tech support, according to the livestream of launch communications. At first, Wiseman was having issues related to Optimus software, but then he flagged a more pedestrian concern: There were two instances of Outlook running on his personal computing device, or PCD — a Microsoft Surface Pro, per NASA. “I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working. If you want to remote in and check Optimus and those two Outlooks, that would be awesome,” Wiseman said. Soon after Wiseman reported the issue, …

NASA’s giant moon rocket, in photos

NASA’s giant moon rocket, in photos

Published by Sam Flores

The gumdrop-shaped Orion spacecraft can carry up to four passengers. At 16.5 feet wide, it has a habitable volume of around 330 cubic feet. So the crew members have been training to sleep, eat, exercise, use the bathroom and communicate with ground controllers in very tight quarters. The Orion capsule includes a space toilet (with a door for privacy) that uses a vacuum system to vent urine into space. All other waste is stored for disposal at the end of the mission. After launch, the astronauts will be able to remove and stow two seats until landing day to give them more room to move. The astronauts will do 30-minute workouts every day, according to the Canadian Space Agency. The capsule has a small device, known as a flywheel, that can be used for squats, deadlifts and other activities. NASA aims to reuse parts of Orion for the subsequent Artemis III flight, which is slated to launch in mid-2027 and demonstrate key docking and landing technologies in low-Earth orbit. After that, a moon landing is …

Arbor Energy just landed a billion-dollar order to bring rocket turbine tech to the power grid

Arbor Energy just landed a billion-dollar order to bring rocket turbine tech to the power grid

Published by skeptic

Energy startup Arbor Energy on Wednesday said it had sold up to 5 gigawatts worth of its modular turbines to GridMarket, a company that helps arrange power projects for data centers and industrial users.  “Everyone wants more power. They wanted it yesterday,” Brad Hartwig, co-founder and CEO of Arbor, told TechCrunch. “The time frames are compressing and the scale is getting larger.” Arbor’s Halcyon turbines are based on rocket turbomachinery, high-performance engine technology originally developed for spaceflight, and its first commercial turbines will be 3D printed and capable of generating 25 megawatts each. GridMarket’s order, if fully fulfilled, represents 200 units. Neither company disclosed the exact price of the deal, though Hartwig said that Arbor has seen a “willingness to pay of upwards of $100 per megawatt-hour.” A person familiar with the deal told TechCrunch that the total is in the single-digit billions of dollars. The startup plans to connect its first turbine to the grid in 2028 and ramp production through 2030, at which point it hopes to deliver more than 100 turbines annually. …

NASA prepares Artemis II launch – with rocket back on site and crew in quarantine | Science, Climate & Tech News

NASA prepares Artemis II launch – with rocket back on site and crew in quarantine | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

A NASA spacecraft is now back on its launchpad ahead of the first lunar exploration mission in more than 50 years, after a month of delays. The space agency’s Artemis II mission – part of NASA’s long-term plans to build a space station called Lunar Gateway, where astronauts will be able to live and work – will take the crew further than humans ‍have ever ventured in space before. It was set to get underway on 8 February, but a liquid hydrogen leak during a practice launch forced the agency to delay the operation. In a post on its website, NASA said it was now targeting a launch window from 1 April to 6 April. Read more: Everything to know about Artemis II Image: The NASA Artemis II rocket with the Orion spacecraft moves slowly to pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. Pic: AP It added that engineers had started work to roll the Artemis II space launch system rocket, and its Orion spacecraft, to Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Centre …