April 2025
Catapult to orbit - will David finally defeat Goliath?
.... The current Longshot accelerator consists of a kick stage, providing the initial impulse, followed by three boosters along the length of the 60-foot barrel. It is capable of accelerating payloads up to 6 inches in diameter to Mach 4.2. Longshot...
13 March 2015
ESA re-entry vehicle could pave way for reusable launcher
... demonstrator Wednesday to validate technologies for future robotic exploration probes, winged space planes, and reusable rocket boosters. The European Space Agency’s Intermediate Experimental Vehicle — about the size of a family car — will take off...
01 April 2015
Media Spun Up on NASA Cutting-edge Mars Landing Technology
... facility to an altitude of about 120,000 feet (36 kilometers). There, over the Pacific, it will be dropped and its booster rocket will kick in and carry it to 180,000 feet (55 kilometers), accelerating to Mach 4. Once in the very rarified...
18 March 2016
President of ISA Against Avio Takeover
..., ESA countries have agreed to a multi-year investment in Ariane 6 and upgrades to the Vega rocket. With Ariane 6’s boosters and Vega’s first stage produced by Avio, the production run is likely to be more than 30 cores per year...
07 April 2016
Ariane 6 Rocket Still on Schedule for 2020
... and the end of the development phase,” Charmeau said. “It’s an inflation computation.” The Ariane 64 carries four strap-on boosters and can place satellites weighing a combined 10,500 kilograms into orbit. Patrick Bonguet, Ariane 6 program head...
08 April 2016
Falcon 9 Launch Scheduled for Later Today
... as critical to opening up the space frontier. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that reusable boosters could cut the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100, perhaps making Mars colonies economically feasible. While SpaceX...
