Space

Rocket launch startup Astra provided more details into its rather remarkable mission failure in August, during which the small launch vehicle hovered and drifted in the air before managing a brief vertical ascension. Even as it recounted the debacle, the company is ready to try again, opening the l

Rocket Lab is acquiring a Colorado-based space software company called Advanced Solutions, Inc. (ASI) for $40 million, with as much as $5.5 million in additional performance-based earnouts also available based on the company’s 2021 calendar year performance. ASI’s expertise lies in flig

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. I hope everyone is enjoying lower temperatures and all the other seasonal delights that autumn brings. Here in Austin, where I live, the daily high is still in the 90s, but the nights and mornings are blessedly cool. I’ll take it. Tips, opinions, criticism, th

It was Branson versus Bezos, rocket against rocket, in the race to send the first billionaire into space. Blue Origin announced on June 7 that Jeff Bezos, its founder, would fly on the firm's first crewed mission scheduled for July 20. That same day, Parabolic Arc reported that Virgin Galactic

""> "" role="presentation" data-qa="message_content"> ""> ""> "" data-qa="block-kit-renderer"> ""> "" dir="auto"> "">Ride-haing and e-scooters caused chaos for cities across the United States, even as companies promised they would fix more problems than they created. The city of Los Angeles — eage

In-space propulsion systems are the backbone of space exploration, and they're becoming even more important as companies and government agencies deploy ever-more low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. SpaceX alone hopes to deploy 42,000 Starlink satellites over the next several decades

An environmental document that needs U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval before SpaceX can begin testing the world’s largest rockets is missing key details about where its fuel will come from, experts say. The draft programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) for SpaceX’s Star

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency will be sending a probe to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, with the aim of ultimately landing on an asteroid in the early 2030s, in a mission that will surely be a major boost for the country's private sector space companies. The mission w

Hello, readers: Welcome back to Max Q. First, an introduction: I’m Aria Alamalhodaei, the resident space and transportation reporter here at technewss. I’ll be taking over the Max Q newsletter from Darrell Etherington for the next few months. Tips, opinions, criticism, thoughts? Email

NASA has a launch date for that most Hollywood of missions, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, which is basically a dry run of the movie “Armageddon.” Unlike the film, this will not involve nukes, oil rigs or Aerosmith, but instead is a practical test of our ability to change the tra

Blue Origin’s next passenger list will include TV and film space exploration veteran William Shatner, along with Blue Origin’s own Audrey Powers, who serves as the company’s vice president of New Shepard Mission & Flight Operations. These two will round out the four-person cre

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith wasted no time responding to allegations of a hostile work environment, sending an internal letter to employees Thursday encouraging staff to speak to him directly or via an in-house anonymous hotline with their concerns. Of course, it’s standard practice for compani

Jeff Bezos just can't get away from labor issues. The beleaguered billionaire, who has faced repeated and persistent criticism over working conditions at the company he formerly led, Amazon, is now facing allegations of a hostile work environment at his space company Blue Origin. An essay joint

No one knows exactly how drone delivery will fit into the future of logistics, but one thing is for sure: The aircraft aren’t going to drop off important payloads directly onto someone’s lawn. Matternet’s Station, an automated landing space and payload control tower, may be the so