Max Q: A successful failure
Hello and welcome to Max Q!
In this issue:
Ship successful failure Electron from Rocket Lab goes suborbital Orbit Fab News and MoreSpaceX launched a fully stacked spacecraft for the first time on Thursday morning, with the vehicle passing through Max Q and flying for about three minutes. Let's be clear: this is a remarkable result for a first flight test, especially since it is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built by Human being. To focus on the conclusion of the launch - the rather spectacular explosion after the upper stage of the rocket failed to separate from the propellant - is to miss the major achievement of the Starship test program. so far.
The flight test likely provided a ton of useful data to inform subsequent Starship testing — data that the company wouldn't be able to obtain through further ground testing. Sometimes you just have to fly that damn rocket.
Image Credits: SpaceX
"Rocket Lab is adding a new offering to its suite of services: Hypersonic Suborbital Launches. The new service will be available from the first half of this year, when the company flies its first mission to a "confidential customer" who contracted the use of the new suborbital rocket.
Rocket Lab's Suborbital Vehicle is derived from its successful Electron Orbital Launch Vehicle, but is given a new name by way of the backronym "HASTE" (Hyperonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron). The first of these is already being readied for launch at Rocket Lab's US launch facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. –Darrell Etherington
Image Credit: Rocket Lab
More news from TC and beyond Astranis has closed $200 million in new funding as it prepares for its first launch on a SpaceX Super Heavy this week. (Bloomberg) Axiom Space is launching a new program aimed at giving countries without a national space agency easier access to space. (Axiom) AWS has announced the 14 startups that will participate in its space accelerator. (AWS) Lockheed Martin successfully demonstrated rendezvous and proximity operations, technologies that could be used for in-orbit servicing, earlier this year. (via satellite) Orbit Fab, a startup that wants to establish in-orbit refueling services, closed a $28.5 million Series A. (
Hello and welcome to Max Q!
In this issue:
Ship successful failure Electron from Rocket Lab goes suborbital Orbit Fab News and MoreSpaceX launched a fully stacked spacecraft for the first time on Thursday morning, with the vehicle passing through Max Q and flying for about three minutes. Let's be clear: this is a remarkable result for a first flight test, especially since it is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built by Human being. To focus on the conclusion of the launch - the rather spectacular explosion after the upper stage of the rocket failed to separate from the propellant - is to miss the major achievement of the Starship test program. so far.
The flight test likely provided a ton of useful data to inform subsequent Starship testing — data that the company wouldn't be able to obtain through further ground testing. Sometimes you just have to fly that damn rocket.
Image Credits: SpaceX
"Rocket Lab is adding a new offering to its suite of services: Hypersonic Suborbital Launches. The new service will be available from the first half of this year, when the company flies its first mission to a "confidential customer" who contracted the use of the new suborbital rocket.
Rocket Lab's Suborbital Vehicle is derived from its successful Electron Orbital Launch Vehicle, but is given a new name by way of the backronym "HASTE" (Hyperonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron). The first of these is already being readied for launch at Rocket Lab's US launch facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. –Darrell Etherington
Image Credit: Rocket Lab
More news from TC and beyond Astranis has closed $200 million in new funding as it prepares for its first launch on a SpaceX Super Heavy this week. (Bloomberg) Axiom Space is launching a new program aimed at giving countries without a national space agency easier access to space. (Axiom) AWS has announced the 14 startups that will participate in its space accelerator. (AWS) Lockheed Martin successfully demonstrated rendezvous and proximity operations, technologies that could be used for in-orbit servicing, earlier this year. (via satellite) Orbit Fab, a startup that wants to establish in-orbit refueling services, closed a $28.5 million Series A. (What's Your Reaction?
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