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108 articles
Bezos reveals design of powerful orbital-class launcher
Tech pioneer and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos said this week his growing launch company, Blue Origin, plans to debut a 30-story satellite booster built and launched from Florida by the end of the decade.
VideoBlue Origin flies reusable suborbital rocket for fourth time
Blue Origin's suborbital space transport system made another test flight Sunday, launching and landing at the company's West Texas test facility to prove out the crew capsule's resiliency to a parachute failure.
Details of Orbital ATK’s proposed heavy launcher revealed
The launch vehicle Orbital ATK wants to face off against SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for lucrative U.S. military contracts would be made of two internally-built solid rocket motors and an upper stage engine supplied by Blue Origin, the entrepreneurial space firm led by Jeff Bezos, an Orbital ATK official said this week.
VideoCompanies offer fresh perspectives on recent rocket landings
In case the the sight of a large rocket plummeting back to Earth, only to be slowed in the last seconds by a puff of thrust, hasn't lost its novelty yet, SpaceX and Blue Origin have released dramatic videos showing their recent powered rocket landings from new angles.
Orbital ATK eyes Kennedy Space Center as home of potential new launcher
NASA announced Thursday that Orbital ATK has begun negotiations to lease a disused section of Kennedy Space Center's iconic Vehicle Assembly Building and an Apollo-era launch platform for the company's proposed next-generation rocket.
VideoBlue Origin launches same New Shepard spacecraft for third time
Blue Origin launched its reusable New Shepard suborbital spacecraft on its third test flight Saturday, successfully boosting an unpiloted capsule out of the discernible atmosphere for a few minutes of weightlessness before a parachute descent to the company's West Texas launch site.
ULA’s candidates to replace RD-180 engine win Air Force funding
The Pentagon has awarded at least $162 million in contracts to Aerojet Rocketdyne and United Launch Alliance for development of the AR1 and BE-4 rocket engines, candidates to power the first stage of a next-generation rocket and replace the Russian-made engine currently flying on the Atlas 5 launcher.
VideoBlue Origin’s reusable New Shepard booster flies again
Two months after it flew into space and landed smoothly, Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard booster made the trip again Friday, proving it can be reused for future space tourism jaunts and laying the groundwork for a future commercial satellite launcher, the company said.
Orbital ATK, SpaceX nab U.S. Air Force propulsion contracts
Orbital ATK and SpaceX won Pentagon contracts worth a combined value of up to $241 million Wednesday in public-private partnerships crafted to hasten the U.S. military's move away from Russian-supplied propulsion to deliver national security satellites to orbit.
SpaceX rocket landing applauded, but experts say implications TBD
The successful launch and landing by the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday was a significant step toward achieving reusability and, eventually, lowering launch costs, but turning that success into operational reality poses a significant challenge for company founder Elon Musk.