The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) performed a successful demonstration flight of the Crew Escape System (CES) via its Test Vehicle – a special single stage rocket – at 1630 GMT on 21 October from its Sriharikota launch site in the south of India. The...
Just as the Starship SN8 test launch ended in an explosive landing failure in December – after all the hard bits of the flight – so the same has happened to its successor, Starship SN9. After a few days’ delay due to a flight safety waiver dispute with the Federal...
While NASA left off the parachutes for schedule reasons (the parachute system has already been tested) the Orion crew module capsule (in unmanned condition) had its tractor rocket tower escape system fitted above it, successfully fired in a test on 2 July 2019 to...
Jules Verne in his 19th century sci-fi books From Earth to the Moon and is sequel Around the Moon, had the designers of “Columbiad” super cannon wondering from which US state the cannon-launched shell-like spacecraft would be launched from. The finalists...
A Falcon 9v1.2 FT Block 5 launch vehicle successfully launched the first unmanned test of the Dragon 2 crew capsule – called DM-1 – at 0749 GMT on 2 March. The launch took place from Kennedy Space Center, near Cape Cape Canaveral in Florida. The initial orbit achieved...
The Blue Origin programme to develop the new BE-4 Methane/Liquid Oxygen burning rocket engine for the reusable first stage of its proposed New Glenn vehicle range had a major set back on 13 May when a key test of its major components ended in explosive failure. The...
