Launch
Payload Launch
Second Starship Test Flies Higher Before Failure
With 33 Raptor engines belching flame, SpaceX’s Starship demonstrated the full power of its main booster, reaching an altitude of 91 miles before the second uncrewed attempt to launch the massive rocket from Boca Chica, Texas, ended when the second stage apparently failed.
India P.M. Calls Safe Landing of Lunar Probe ‘Dawn of a New Era’
Space workers in India celebrated the landing of their Chandrayaan-3 probe, making it the fourth nation to safely land a spacecraft on the Moon, and had their efforts lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “India is on the Moon,” Modi boomed in a broadcast to India’s 1.4 billion residents.
ESA Sending Heroic, Fictional Sheep Aboard Artemis I
NASA says its Artemis I flight set to launch as soon as late August will be an uncrewed lunar fly-by. The Paris-based European Space Agency would beg to differ. Shaun is leaving the happy confines of Mossy Bottom Farm to lead the flight around the Moon, an agency press release announced.
Spacecraft Mission Segment Shares by Nation
2021 analysis shows how strongly communications spacecraft deployments continued to dominate payload launches.
2019 TSRQ4 – Infrastructure: Spaceports
Spaceport upgrades and new spaceport development are at an all-time high, with 40 active launch sites around the globe, 10 more in development in the United States, Sweden, Australia and Canada, and 13 more proposed in eight countries. . .
2017 – Suborbital Payload Launch
Suborbital launch activity continued throughout 2017. For many nations and a few organizations, suborbital launches are an excellent and relatively inexpensive way to gain…
2017 – U.S. Payload Launch – Snapshot
The U.S. share of global orbital launch activities continued to grow, from 26% in 2016 to 33% in 2017. In 2017, the nation’s launch service providers. . .
2017 – Sounding Rockets – Snapshot
NASA’s Sounding Rockets Program Office (SRPO) uses sounding rockets as training tools for engineers and scientists, as well as for educating future engineers and scientists. The program provides . . .
2017 – Suborbital Payload Launch – Snapshot
Compared to suborbital payload launch activities the previous year, 2017 was a relatively quiet year. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) continued work with its…
2017 – Iran launches Simorgh – Snapshot
In 2017, Iran was the only other nation to attempt an orbital launch. Iran conducted a single test launch of . . .