Welcome to Edition 7.24 of the Rocket Report! This is the last Rocket Report of the year, and what a year it's been. So far, there have been 244 rocket launches to successfully reach orbit this year, a record for annual launch activity. And there are still a couple of weeks to go before the calendar turns to 2025. Time is running out for Blue Origin to launch its first heavy-lift New Glenn rocket this year, but if it flies before January 1, it will certainly be one of the top space stories of 2024.
As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Corkscrew in the sky. A Japanese space startup said its second attempt to launch a rocket carrying small satellites into orbit had been terminated minutes after liftoff Wednesday and destroyed itself again, nine months after the company’s first launch attempt in an explosion, the Associated Press reports. The startup that developed the rocket, named Space One, launched the Kairos rocket from a privately owned coastal spaceport in Japan's Kansai region. Company executive and space engineer Mamoru Endo said an abnormality in the first stage engine nozzle or its control system is likely to have caused an unstable flight of the rocket, which started spiraling in mid-flight and eventually destroyed itself about three minutes after liftoff, using its autonomous safety mechanism.
Almost no one ever writes about the Parker Solar Probe anymore.
Sure, the spacecraft got some attention when it launched. It is, after all, the fastest moving object that humans have ever built. At its maximum speed, goosed by the gravitational pull of the Sun, the probe reaches a velocity of 430,000 miles per hour, or more than one-sixth of 1 percent the speed of light. That kind of speed would get you from New York City to Tokyo in less than a minute.
And the Parker Solar Probe also has the distinction of being the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person. At the time of its launch, in August 2018, physicist Eugene Parker was 91 years old.
A plane crash on property owned by Buffalo Bills offensive lineman Dion Dawkins Thursday left one person dead, officials in New York said.
The Buffalo Niagara International Airport issued an alert at around 11:16 a.m. ET that the aircraft had mechanical issues as it tried to get to White Plains, East Aurora Police Chief Patrick Welch said. The plane originated from Lansing, Michigan.
Around six minutes later, East Aurora dispatch received a phone call about a small plane crash in a wooded area, he added.
The plane crashed between two properties and in "close proximity" to Dawkins’ house, Welch said. WKBW-TV reported it was Dawkins’ property, citing property records.
The offensive lineman was excused from practice for personal reasons.
Welch said fire officials responding to the crash reported a "fully involved fire" upon arriving.
The pilot, who was the only person on board the 1979 Beechcraft A36, died, officials said, but was not immediately identified.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate the crash.
Dawkins, a three-time Pro Bowler, talked about the crash when he returned to practice.
"I still wonder why things happen in life, but tragedies happen all of the time. The biggest point about it is that I hope the pilot’s family is OK. I hope that they’re doing all right because somebody lost their life today for an accident," he said, via Syracuse.com. "I’m glad my family is perfectly fine."
The Bills have been preparing for a Sunday evening matchup against the New England Patriots.
Buffalo is 11-3 on the season, and New England is 3-11.
In a widely anticipated test, Blue Origin may ignite the seven main engines on its New Glenn rocket as soon as Thursday at Launch Complex-36 in Florida.
This is the final test the company must complete before verifying the massive rocket is ready for its debut flight, and it is the most dynamic. This will be the first time Blue Origin has ever test-fired the BE-7 engines altogether, in a final rehearsal before launch.
The company did not respond immediately to a request for comment, but the imminent nature of the test was confirmed by a NASA official.
K2 Space is betting that the future of space hardware will be big — really big. The startup is building massive spacecraft under the assumption that launch costs will continue to drop as SpaceX’s Starship and other heavy-lift vehicles come online. It looks like the Space Force is taking up their side of that bet, […]
Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams will now come home in March at the earliest, to allow SpaceX and NASA engineers to complete development of a new Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Regulators have given SpaceX the go-ahead to launch Starship for the seventh time, although the company has not yet announced when that mission might take place. While the exact launch date is unclear, SpaceX engineers have been as busy as ever at the company’s massive launch site near Boca Chica, Texas. In recent days, the […]
In a wide-ranging interview with a Russian television station, the chief executive of Russia's main space corporation said the country is now planning to participate in the International Space Station project all the way to NASA's desired goal of 2030.
"In coordination with our American colleagues, we plan to de-orbit the station sometime around the beginning of 2030," the country's chief space official, Yuri Borisov, said during the interview. "The final scenario will probably be specified after the transition to a new NASA administration."
While the documents for such an extension have not been signed, these comments appear to represent a change in tone from Russia. When he first became head of Roscosmos in 2022, Borisov said Russia would leave the station partnership "after" 2024, which was interpreted as shortly thereafter. Later, Russia committed to working with NASA to keep the orbital outpost flying only through 2028. The US space agency has expressed a consistent desire to keep flying the station until 2030, after which point it hopes that private space station operators can provide one or more replacement facilities.
A new investigation from The New York Times suggests that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has not been reporting his travel activities and other information to the Department of Defense as required by his top-secret clearance.
According to the newspaper, concerns about Musk's reporting practices have led to reviews by three different bodies within the military; the Air Force, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and the Defense Department Office of Inspector General.
However, none of the federal agencies cited in the Times article has accused Musk of disclosing classified material.
The first batch of Internet satellites for China's Guowang megaconstellation launched Monday on the country's heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket.
The satellites are the first of up to 13,000 spacecraft a consortium of Chinese companies plans to build and launch over the next decade. The Guowang fleet will beam low-latency high-speed Internet signals in an architecture similar to SpaceX's Starlink network, although Chinese officials haven't laid out any specifics, such as target markets, service specifications, or user terminals.
The Long March 5B rocket took off from Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island, China's southernmost province, at 5:00 am EST (10:00 UTC) Monday. Ten liquid-fueled engines powered the rocket off the ground with 2.4 million pounds of thrust, steering the Long March 5B on a course south from Wenchang into a polar orbit.
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. This will be the final TechCrunch Space newsletter you receive in 2024, so to all our readers, have a wonderful holiday and see you next year. There’s a lot to look forward to next year. I expect to see much more progress from SpaceX on Starship, big changes […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is petitioning a county in the Texas Rio Grande Valley to incorporate its launch site into an official town called "Starbase, Texas," to serve as the company’s headquarters and "gateway to Mars."
Months after announcing he was moving SpaceX’s headquarters out of California, Musk exclaimed in an X post last week that "SpaceX HQ will now officially be in the city of Starbase, Texas!"
Located within Cameron County in far-south Texas, Starbase is currently an unincorporated community that serves as the hub for much of SpaceX’s rocket manufacturing, launches and operations, including the historic "rocket catch."
The rocket catch is part of SpaceX’s "Starship" program, which is housed in its Starbase facilities and is seeking to make the first fully reusable rocket designed to propel manned missions to establish a human presence on the moon and Mars.
But to get to Mars, SpaceX says it needs Starbase, Texas, to become official.
"To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community. That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley," Starbase general manager Kathryn Lueders said in a letter to Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino.
To be incorporated into a city in Texas, a county judge must order a special election in the community.
According to Lueders, incorporating Starbase will streamline the process to make Starbase a "world-class place to live" and enable the Starship program to "fundamentally alter humanity’s access to space."
Musk announced SpaceX was moving its former headquarters in Hawthorne, California, to Starbase in July. The reason for the move cited by Musk was California’s SAFETY Act, which prohibits schools from requiring teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender.
"This is the final straw," Musk said on X. "Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas."
Now, Lueders said that SpaceX is investing billions in infrastructure in Cameron County and generating hundreds of millions in income and taxes for local businesses and government, "all with the goal of making South Texas the gateway to Mars."
In her letter to Trevino, Lueders called Starbase a one-of-a-kind location for SpaceX’s future.
"Starbase is a one-of-a-kind location for manufacturing, testing, and launching the most advanced rocket and spaceships ever conceived – a fully and rapidly reusable system that paves the way for humanity’s return to the Moon and eventual travel to Mars," she said. "We look forward to continuing its transformation into a world-class hub for the men and women working to make life multiplanetary."
The European Union is forging ahead with plans for a constellation of internet satellites to rival Elon Musk-owned Starlink, after signing a €10.6 billion ($11.1 billion) deal to launch nearly 300 satellites into low- and medium-Earth orbits by 2030. The bloc wants the space tech to boost its digital sovereignty by providing secure comms to […]
SpaceX has submitted a petition requesting an election on incorporating the company's Starbase launch site as a city, according to a letter sent to local officials on Thursday.
Musk has been floating the idea of turning the launch site into a city for several years, with SpaceX first approaching officials in Cameron County, Texas, about the plan in 2021.
Holding an election to incorporate Starbase is the next step. In the letter to local officials, Starbase general manager Kathryn Lueders wrote that the goal of the site was to make South Texas "a gateway to Mars."
She said thousands of SpaceX employees work at the launch facility, with several hundred living on-site.
Reposting the letter on X, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the "city of Starbase" will also be the site of the company's new headquarters.
The billionaire said the move was in response to a California law prohibiting rules requiring teachers to notify parents if a child changes their name, pronouns, or gender identity at school.
Musk has also frequently clashed with local regulators. SpaceX sued the California Coastal Commission after members criticized his political views and denied a request to increase the number of launches in the state.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal working hours.
A New Jersey state Senator is calling on Gov. Phil Murphy to declare a state of emergency to ground all drones as a way of getting to the bottom of ongoing reports of unmanned craft swarming the Garden State in recent weeks.
State Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Republican, told "Cavuto Live" on Saturday that he also wants the FAA to join in the state of emergency as the public becomes increasingly frustrated with a lack of answers as to what is going on in the skies.
Bramnick says he has contacted Murphy about enacting a state of emergency but has not gotten a response.
"I've gotten silence and we met with the state police [who] have no information. Can you imagine? The Department of Defense must have some serious secret if we can't get any information on car-sized drones flying over our military bases."
A series of unidentified drone sightings near U.S. military installations and over residences have been spotted in New Jersey since mid-November, including President-elect Trump’s Bedminster golf course, which is causing alarm. Apparent drones have also been spotted in New York City, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, among other states, as well as over three US airbases in the UK.
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby has said many of the purported drone sightings are actually lawfully operated manned aircraft and that there is no evidence of a national security or public safety threat.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Friday said the government doesn't have the authority to shoot down drones and believes reports of some sightings are cases of mistaken identity.
The apparent lack of transparency about the situation has fueled conspiracy theories and raised national security concerns that a foreign entity may be behind the mysterious sightings.
The government’s dismissal of witness reports is also irking residents who believe the government's answers are insufficient. Some have threatened to take matters into their own hands and shoot them down.
"Every time someone comes out of the top secret briefing, we get the same answer," Bramnick said. "’Well, we need more information,’ but apparently it's not a threat. Now, I don't know how they're determining that. The Defense Department must be speaking to someone because they're surely not speaking to any of the residents in New Jersey."
"The Department of Defense has to explain why they don't know what a car-sized drone is doing, where it came from, where it's going. Is it sinister? Is there some sort of threat? Don't you think the Department of Defense should have that information? The technology is there."
Bramnick says that the state does not have the proper equipment or resources to deal with drones. He notes that the Garden State only has two state helicopters, and when one of those choppers was sent up to investigate a drone, its lights turned off and it fled.
"Now, that's an indication that the drone is not here for a good purpose, otherwise I assume somebody operating the drone would tell the state police what they're doing. That's why we have to ground all drones at this time," Bramnick added.
ORLANDO, Florida—Earlier this year, officials at US Space Command released a list of priorities and needs, and among the routine recitation of things like cyber defense, communications, and surveillance was a relatively new term: "integrated space fires."
This is a new phrase in the esoteric terminology the military uses to describe its activities. Essentially, "fires" are offensive or defensive actions against an adversary. The Army defines fires as "the use of weapon systems to create specific lethal and nonlethal effects on a target."
The inclusion of this term in a Space Command planning document was another signal that Pentagon leaders, long hesitant to even mention the possibility of putting offensive weapons in space for fear of stirring up a cosmic arms race, see the taboo of talking about space warfare as a thing of the past.
