Rocket Report: SpaceX probes upper stage malfunction; Starship testing resumes
Welcome to Rocket Report 8.28! The big news in rocketry this week is that NASA still hasn’t solved the problem of hydrogen leaks on the Space Launch System. The problem led to months of delay before the first SLS launch in 2022, and the fuel leaks reappeared Monday during a refueling test on NASA’s second SLS rocket. This is an ongoing problem, and the low launch rate of NASA’s SLS makes each countdown an experience, as my colleague Eric Berger wrote this week. NASA will conduct another refueling test in the coming weeks after troubleshooting the rocket’s leaking refueling line, but the launch of the Artemis II mission is delayed until March.
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-range rockets, as well as a quick look at the next three launches on the schedule.
Blue Origin “suspends” New Shepard flights. Blue Origin has “paused” its New Shepard program for the next two years, a decision that likely marks the final end of the suborbital space tourism initiative, Ars reports. The small rocket and capsule have been flying since April 2015 and together have carried out 38 launches, all but one successful, and 36 landings. During its existence, the New Shepard program sent 98 people into space, however briefly, and launched more than 200 science and research payloads into the microgravity environment.
Moon first…So why is Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos more than a quarter of a century ago, ending the company’s longest-running program? “We will redirect our people and resources toward further accelerating our human capabilities on the Moon, including at New Glenn,” the company’s chief executive, Dave Limp, wrote in a Jan. 30 internal email. “We have an extraordinary opportunity to be part of our nation’s goal to return to the Moon and establish a permanent, sustained lunar presence.” The cancellation generally came as a surprise to Blue Origin employees. The company flew its final mission a week before the announcement, launching six people into space.
