NASA Spaceflight
• Chris Bergin
Four months after a New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad, Blue Origin says it remains on track to return the vehicle to flight before year-end. Attention is now on the reconstruction of Launch Complex 36 and whether work is nearing the halfway point, with roughly three months left in the year.
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Four months after a New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad, Blue Origin says it remains on track to return the vehicle to flight before year-end. Attention is now on the reconstruction of Launch Complex 36 and whether work is nearing the halfway point, with roughly three months left in the year.
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Elon Musk says Starlink will keep its satellite internet service affordable in India, where data prices are among the world’s lowest, positioning the service against Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio. The comments come days before Jio’s parent company is set to launch what is described as India’s largest-ever IPO.
Tech companies are accelerating bond issuance even as financing costs rise, challenging the usual pattern of slowing sales when debt gets more expensive. Talk of potentially large financings from SpaceX and Broadcom has sharpened investor concern about the growing wave of corporate debt.
SpaceForest completed the fourth launch of its PERUN suborbital rocket, describing the flight as the vehicle’s most successful test to date. The launch marks another test milestone for the Polish rocket builder’s suborbital program; the available report provides no further flight results or schedule details.
Amazon Leo says it remains on track to begin initial broadband service this year, with its first launch on ULA’s Vulcan and its third flight on Europe’s Ariane 6 in the 64-booster configuration expected “in the coming weeks.” The missions are part of the constellation’s deployment sequence.
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SpaceX has sent Ship 42, assigned to Flight 15, back to Massey’s for additional cryogenic proof testing as it accelerates vehicle production. Ship 40, used on Flight 13, has returned to Texas after 75 days at sea and is expected to go back to the production site.
President Donald Trump awarded Elon Musk and several other technology figures the National Medal of Science, the United States’ highest honor for scientists and engineers. The recognition puts the SpaceX founder among recipients honored for contributions to science and engineering.
Seattle-based Kapta Space has raised a $24 million Series A to build next-generation radar payloads designed to track moving targets. The funding will support development of the company’s space-based sensing technology, though the announcement provides no further details on customers, deployment timing or the payloads’ specifications.
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