Rocket

Tamil Nadu startup launches country's first hybrid reusable rocket

Sets new standards for rapid space missions; the rocket launches three Cube satellites into orbit to study atmospheric conditions

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin suffers fiery setback building new rocket

The previously unreported incidents illustrate the hurdles Blue Origin is grappling with while ramping up production of New Glenn

China's iSpace rocket fails soon after launch, losing 3 weather satellites

A Chinese rocket start-up has suffered yet another launch failure, resulting in the loss of three satellites as part of a commercial constellation being assembled for global weather forecasting and earthquake prediction. Hyperbola-1 a 24-metre (79ft) high solid-fuel rocket produced by iSpace lifted off on Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China's Gobi Desert. The rocket's first, second and third stages flew normally, but the fourth stage suffered an anomaly and the launch mission ended in failure, the company said, adding that the specific reasons for the failure would be announced as soon as possible after detailed investigations, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Friday. The relatively small Hyperbola-1, which can deliver a 300 kg (661 pounds) payload into a 500 km (311 miles) sun-synchronous orbit, was carrying Yunyao-1 weather satellites 15, 16 and 17 for the Tianjin-based Yunyao Aerospace Technology company. The satellites did not re

China's Tianlong-3 rocket crashes into mountains after launch during test

A powerful Chinese rocket crashed after an "accidental launch during a ground test on Sunday due to a structural failure, a private company responsible for the rocket said. Space Pioneer, also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology, said in a statement that the Tianlong-3 rocket was unexpectedly launched during a static-fire test at a facility in Gongyi county in Henan province. Luckily it landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi and the company said there were no injuries as people in the area were evacuated in advance of the rocket test. The nine engines of the rocket, stated to be the most powerful in the country, fired in the afternoon on Sunday were lifted off because of a structural failure at the connection between the rocket body and the test platform, the company said. Space Pioneer is one of several private aerospace companies that are developing medium-lift, reusable rockets to help China assemble its satellite constellations comparable to SpaceX's Starlink. Residents

Chinese rocket Tianlong-3 crashes after accidental launch during test

Incident occurred when the first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket detached from its launch pad due to a structural failure

Isro Chairman inaugurates HAL facilities, boosting rocket manufacturing

ISRO Chairman S Somanath inaugurated state-of-the-art propellant tank production and computer numerical control (CNC) machining facilities at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's Aerospace Division here, boosting rocket manufacturing capacity . HAL said the facilities would provide a major boost to ISRO's ability to meet its growing production needs, particularly for the Launch Vehicle Mark3, India's heaviest and most powerful rocket. Currently, the existing capacity allows for only two LVM3 launches per year, whereas ISRO's requirements stand at six launches annually, according to an HAL statement on Wednesday. The facilities will address this gap, enabling HAL to manufacture enough critical components to support the production of six LVM3 rockets per year, it said. Somanath was quoted as saying in the statement that HAL has enormous capacities and this potential should be explored in the larger interest of both the organisations. "HAL will play a larger role in ISRO's future missions

Japan to launch upgraded observation satellites on new rocket's flight

Japan's space agency announced Friday a plan to launch a major upgrade to its satellite imaging system, as a new flagship rocket is put to the test for a third time. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that an H3 rocket will be launched from the Tanegashima Space Center, on a southwestern Japanese island, early afternoon on June 30, with a launch window that runs through the end of July. The rocket will be carrying an Advanced Land Observation Satellite, ALOS-4, tasked primarily with Earth observation and data collection for disaster response and mapmaking, as well as with monitoring military activity, such as missile launches, with an infrared sensor developed by the Defense Ministry. The ALOS-4 is a successor to the current ALOS-2 and can observe a much wider area. The launch will be the H3's third, coming after a failed debut in March 2023 and a successful launch on Feb. 17. During the first attempt, the rocket's second stage engine did not ignite and the rocket had to be ...

Skyroot Aerospace successfully test fires Stage-2 of Vikram-1 rocket

Skyroot Aerospace, a space-tech company, has successfully test-fired the Stage-2 of Vikram-1 space launch vehicle, called Kalam-250, at the propulsion testbed of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), at its Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The city-based firm in a press release on Thursday said Vikram-1 launch is slated to be a landmark event for the Indian space sector as its first private orbital rocket launch, and follows the remarkable suborbital space launch of India's first private rocket - the Vikram-S by Skyroot in November 2022. The test, done on Wednesday, which lasted 85 seconds, recorded a peak sea-level thrust of 186 kilonewtons (kN), which will translate to a fully expanded vacuum thrust of around 235 kN in flight, it said. The Kalam-250 is a high-strength carbon composite rocket motor, which uses solid fuel and a high-performance Ethylene-Propylene-Diene terpolymers (EPDM) thermal protection system (TPS). Pawan Chandana, ..

SpaceX's Starship successfully lifts off, but crashes before last stage

SpaceX came close to completing an hourlong test flight of its mega rocket on its third try on Thursday, but the spacecraft was lost as it descended back to Earth. The company said it lost contact with Starship as it neared its goal, a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Until then, most everything had gone well following liftoff from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. The ship has been lost. So no splashdown today, said SpaceX's Dan Huot. But again, it's incredible to see how much further we got this time around. Two test flights last year both ended in explosions minutes after liftoff. By surviving for close to 50 minutes this time, Thursday's effort was considered a win by not only SpaceX's Elon Musk, but NASA as well as Starship soared higher and farther than ever before. The space agency is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in another few years. The nearly 400-foot (121-meter) Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, headed o

Ananth Technologies claims crucial role in 55 modules for launch system

For the satellite INSAT-3DS, ATL has supplied complete power control system, solar array generation system, power distribution system, DC-DC power converters, star sensors

After new rocket's successful launch, US moon lander faces malfunction

"The team is responding in real time as the situation unfolds and will be providing updates as data is obtained and analysed," Astrobotic posted on the social media service X

China's LandSpace Technology pulls off 2nd methane-fueled rocket launch

The rocket, ZQ-2, took off at 7:39 a.m. Saturday Beijing time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gobi Desert, the company said in a statement

China launches Long March rocket with spy satellite over Taiwan zone

In order to enable a suitable response, it continued, it had deployed its joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system to track the ballistic dynamics, trajectories, and other data

SpaceX can't launch its giant rocket again until fixes are made: FAA

SpaceX must take a series of steps before it can launch its mega rocket again after its debut ended in an explosion, federal regulators said Friday. The Federal Aviation Administration said it closed its investigation into SpaceX's failed debut of Starship, the world's biggest rocket. The agency is requiring SpaceX to take 63 corrective actions and to apply for a modified FAA license before launching again. FAA official said multiple problems led to the April launch explosion, which sent pieces of concrete and metal hurtling for thousands of feet (meters) and created a plume of pulverized concrete that spread for miles (kilometers) around. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in the accident's aftermath that he improved the 394-foot (120-meter) rocket and strengthened the launch pad. A new Starship is on the redesigned pad, awaiting liftoff. It will fly empty, as before. During the initial test flight, the rocketship had to be destroyed after it tumbled out of control shortly after liftof

L&T, HAL vetted to potentially bid on India's rocket privatisation

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Aeronautics are among companies vetted to potentially bid in India's efforts to privatise its small satellite launch rocket, a source told Reuters, as the government seeks more investment in the booming space market.

India's attempt to privatise part of space programme, finds 20 bidders

India's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) was developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, the national space agency, and had its first successful satellite launch in February

Consider rockets like baby: Isro chief Somanath after Chandrayaan-3 launch

Expressing his deep love and association with rockets, ISRO chairman S Somanath on Saturday said he considers the launch vehicles as babies. Somanath said he enjoyed the launch of Phase-I of Chandrayaan-3 on Friday, while adding that he had gone through the entire data and marvelled at "how beautiful the rocket was". ISRO on Friday successfully launched its third moon mission, this time a far more complicated 41-day voyage to reach the lunar south pole where no other country has gone before. The space agency said the technically challenging soft landing on lunar surface, which Chandrayaan-2 could not achieve, has been planned for 5.47 pm on August 23. Delivering his address at the 12th Convocation of IIT Hyderabad in neighbouring Sangareddy district, Somanath said "As an engineer and scientist, I have a love for rockets. I consider the rocket like a baby, seeing its birth, its growth, its problems of growth, its emotions and developing a deep understanding of its mechanics and ...

Indo-German JV launches its first satellite on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

Azista BST aims to mass manufacture satellites in India for the global market

Richard Branson's rocket company Virgin Orbit sold for $36 mn, shuts biz

Launcher, a subsidiary of Vast Space, bought the company's facility in Mojave, California for $2.7 million

Isro to send up uncrewed rocket in 2024 as part of Gaganyaan Mission

Isro Chairman S Somanath said prior that there will a test of Gagayaan Mission in June this year where the rocket will go up to 12-14 km and test its safety systems