rocket

recover the first stage of a rocket, and he has done it his way

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China now looks a little more like SpaceX, since for the first time it has managed to recycle the first stage of a rocket after separating from the second, which was able to place its payload in low Earth orbit without problem. This is something that for a long time only Elon Musk’s company had achieved. Later, Blue Origin also joined the list. Some companies, such as Rocket Lab, have done something similar, although the recovery has been a ditching directly into the ocean, with the help of a parachute. China, on the other hand, has done the same as SpaceX. After completing its task, the first stage of the Chinese rocket has returned to Earth and landed vertically. Of course, it was not done at the launch base itself, but on a ship at sea. As usual, a posteriori. We are more than used to knowing about China’s great space achievements once they have already been committed. There are usually no prior announcements, no televised launches or a countdown. There was some evidence that China intended to make a recovery of this type, but we did not know its successful completion until it had already ended. The person in charge of announcing it has been China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)a state-owned company that is the main contractor for this country’s space operations. Only 6 minutes. The launch of the Long March-10B took place on July 10 at 12:15 pm Beijing time, from the Hainan Commercial Launch Center. The first and second stages of the rocket separated, leaving the first ready to return to Earth. 6 minutes laterthe landing occurred on a maritime platform, using a net capture system. This means that, instead of landing directly on its own legs, the rocket is caught by a huge net, which cushions the fall and helps it land on the landing pad. The first steps of Japan. Curiously, another Asian country has recently taken its first steps towards the use of reusable rockets. This is Japan, since its space agency, JAXA, has successfully completed the tests of the RV-X rocket. Of course, it is important to emphasize that it has only been a test. The rocket rose 11 meters, moved 16 meters horizontally and finally landed, all in a period of 40 seconds. No payload was carried, as it did not even go into low Earth orbit. In addition, it is a small vehicle, designed to validate rocket reuse technology, it is not the final model, as is the case with the Chinese rocket. One less Chinese rocket wandering through space. Many experts are worried because of the amount of junk that China is releasing into space. The ability to reuse rockets will not only be advantageous to them economically. It would also reduce the amount of space debris associated with its activity. It’s something they know a lot about at SpaceX. The company has received a lot of criticism for its contribution to both light pollution and the release of space debris. Elon Musk’s ambitious plans to expand the Starlink fleet require many launches, hence a lot of importance is placed on rocket reuse. With Falcon 9 it is more than implemented and the goal is to do it with Starship as well. This does not solve the problem of light pollution, but it is a kind of spacewashing regarding space debris. Perhaps China’s path will also go that way. Of course, their activity in space is becoming more and more abundant. These types of initiatives are key to continuing to increase the pace. Image | 中国新闻社 (not the news rocket) In Xataka | Orbital cleanup is no longer science fiction: the first regular space debris collection service will arrive in 2027

Every time a rocket ship fails, an industry grows. And China has just decided that it wants to be the owner and mistress

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In 2016, a SpaceX’s Falcon 9 exploded at Cape Canaveral destroying Israel’s Amos-6 communications satellite. Luckily, like when you get hit by a car while parking, there was insurance behind it that paid for the mess because the incident cost almost 300 million dollars. Because imagine that your latest and most ambitious project explodes and that as a consequence you end up bankrupt. Insurance is that industry that when everything goes well seems like a superfluous expense and that saves you when there is an accident. Applied to space, they move more than 4 billion dollars a year. Well, space insurance is undergoing a historic transformation: China has decided who no longer wants to be a mere customer, she wants to be the owner of the business. China goes from client to insurer. China had been insuring its satellites for years through the state insurer PICC, but part of the real risk was absorbed by the international market via reinsurance. So when ChinaSat-18 failed in 2019, it was foreign insurers that absorbed part of the hit, according to SpaceNews. China paid the premiums and London and Paris, where space reinsurance business is concentratedthey stayed with the business. Everything changed in March 2025: a consortium from Beijing covered 25 private launches for $1.47 billion in its first year, bringing together domestic insurers so that everything, money and control, stays at home, according to Caixin Global. It is the first consortium dedicated exclusively to the Chinese commercial aerospace sector. Why is it important. Because if there is no insurance, there is no investment and without that financing there are no rockets either. A fact: a geostationary satellite costs between 150 and 400 million dollars to manufacture and launch, according to the Satellite Industry Association. If there is a failure, the economic impact is tremendous and could lead to the bankruptcy of the operator, so having an insurance policy is a condition for any investor to dare to put money into a space project. Controlling space insurance is controlling who can take certain risks and how. The Chinese government is clear: according to the IISSShanghai allocated 300 million yuan in subsidies to the commercial aerospace sector in April 2025, and Beijing has announced targeted insurance premium subsidies for space companies. China replicates the move it has already used in semiconductors or batteries: state push to achieve strategic independence. Context. The space insurance market is growing simply because the commercial space sector is also growing, and because insurance is an essential condition for operating in it: Space Liability Convention of 1972 establishes that states are responsible for damages caused by their space objects. Lloyd’s of London has been insuring satellites since 1965 and for decades, this was a closed market dominated in Europe by companies such as Munich Re, Swiss Re or AXA XL. According to Orbital Radarthis market generates between 500 and 600 million in annual premiums and remains concentrated in London, Paris and Bermuda. SpaceX changed everything: more launches, lower unit cost, new risk profiles… and now new Chinese private launchers such as LandSpace, CAS Space, Space Pioneer bring a new transformation: everything stays at home, China cooks it and China eats it. In detail. As with cars, insurance premiums depend on the history of the rocket and here China has a potential gap to slip through: for new rockets with no history, the premiums are very high. Orbital Radar Explained that launch premiums range between 5% and 15% of the insured value depending on the vehicle and orbit. Therein lies the great advantage of the Chinese consortium: it can take risks where other insurers put their “buts.” A revealing fact: of 10,000 active satellites in orbit, only 300 have insurance, according to Space Insider. In fact, SpaceX does not even externally secure its own Starlink. Yes, but. The market that China wants to enter with everything is in trouble: in 2024 it paid more in claims than it earned in premiums, according to Insurance Business Magazineamong other things due to the loss of Intelsat 33e. And it’s going to get worse: space debris is growing faster than the ability to calculate it and here China is largely to blame. Furthermore, in accordance with the regulations OFAC of the US Department of the Treasury.when a Chinese rocket fails, American and European insurers can’t always pay: Western sanctions legally prohibit them from dealing with certain Chinese assets, so the market is fragmented. In Xataka | SpaceX has always been 10 years ahead of the competition. The problem is that in China that law no longer applies. In Xataka | The race to become “China’s SpaceX”: who’s who in its private space launch sector Cover | Ivan Diaz and zhang kaiyv

China just launched a rocket without telling anyone. It turns out that it is the most ambitious in its history

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China has taken seriously that “first come, first served” thing. Although the 1967 Outer Space Treaty states that No State can claim sovereignty over the Moon, Mars or any other celestial body, what does apply is that the geostationary orbital positions and frequency bands work as “first come, first served”. What does this mean? Well, the country or company that first registers and coordinates a constellation or a position with certain frequencies gets priority of use. This context is necessary to understand why SpaceX or Amazon are so interested in mass launching satellites into low orbit, and also why China has been accelerating the pace for months with their rockets in an aggressive expansion maneuver. So aggressive that finish of surprise and secret launch of a Long March 12B rocket with a double objective: to continue feeding its satellite constellation and to demonstrate that its reusable rocket can compete against the Falcon 9 from SpaceX. China and the space sprint This past Monday, the operators of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in the Gobi Desert, had work. In the American early morning, a rocket Long March 12B It left for low orbit with a cargo of satellites that will feed the Qianfan megaconstellation. This is China’s response to SpaceX Starlink and it seems that the mission went well because the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation declared the flight a success. There is a double reading here. On the one hand, the Long March 12B is one of the responses to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. It is a reusable rocket that has a first stage intended to land by propulsion on a recovery platform on Earth. It can transport 20 tons to low Earth orbit and this was its first flight… although was not done no recovery attempt. The other reading is that China is in aggressive mode launching things into space. It has been a very busy few months with different missions both in low orbit and in its Tiangong space stationbut the interesting thing about this launch of the Long March 12B is that people found out through social networks. When a mission is going to be carried out, whether it is more or less media-related, a series of prior notices are made to both the international authorities that control the air and maritime space in case something goes wrong. However, This mission has been carried out in absolute secrecybeing an unusual practice in both government and private programs. In the end, it is one more demonstration of what we were talking about: China has stepped on the accelerator to claim a space that can only be claimed by getting there and occupying it, and that is vital within the framework of user service (satellite Internet, wow) and, above all, for strategic reasons and technological sovereignty. Because it may seem that companies and countries want to bring the Internet everywhere, but the strategy is different: Controlling constellations and their orbital resources means controlling critical infrastructure such as satellite Internet, Earth observation, and military communications. Geopolitical advantage by arriving first in a space that the rival might want to occupy with other types of satellites. Arriving first forces the others to play on their board. And most importantly: the space you are interested in occupying is finite and everyone wants their land as soon as possible. In the end, this “secret” flight marks number 647 of the Long March series and is one more example that China is deeply involved in a new space race in which it competes directly against the United States, but in which Europe is also working to have something to say. In Xataka | Europe has almost ready something that, until recently, seemed practically a dream: its first reusable spacecraft

Blue Origin equals SpaceX in rocket reuse but fails in the mission

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Blue Origin has reused the propellant of its New Glenn rocket for the first time, reaching a milestone that until now had only been achieved by SpaceX. With this achievement, it is one step closer to its main competitor, which is also beginning to hinder its path to the Moon. However, this launch has been accompanied by some errors that still allow Elon Musk’s company to breathe easy. The good and the bad. Last November, Blue Origin managed to recover the propellant for the first time with which he had launched a New Glenn rocket into space. Their goal was to reuse it, exactly as SpaceX already does routinely. That second achievement has been a long time coming, but it finally took place this Sunday, April 19. The launch was carried out successfully, but there was a problem: The satellite it was carrying as a payload was placed in the wrong orbit. Therefore, although this is a giant step for Jeff Bezos’ space company, there are still details to be refined. Background. Blue Origin had already managed to reuse the propellant of a rocket, but it was not a New Glenn rocket, but a New Shepard. This one is smaller, so it was less of a challenge. To match SpaceX, it needed to do the same with a larger rocket. For this reason, the company’s goal has long been set on reusing the first phase of a New Glenn. This one measures 98 meters high. The New Shepard only 18 meters. A failed attempt in January 2025. To reuse a propellant, it must first be recovered. This occurs after the rocket launches. The two phases separate and, while the second continues the journey to leave its payload in place, the first returns to Earth. Ideally, a vertical landing or splashdown should occur, so that the propellant can be recovered intact. Blue Origin already tried this with a New Glenn rocket in January 2025, but a failure to fire the engines during descent prevented it from being done correctly. In November, however, complete recovery was achieved. That has been the propellant that has now been reused. SpaceX has reused its Falcon 9 hundreds of times Other companys. In reality, the only space companies that have achieved reuse of this type have been Blue Origin and SpaceX, although there is another that has done something similar: Rocket Lab. In their case, a vertical landing of the first phase does not occur, but instead It lands in the ocean with the help of a parachute. It is also useful, but recovery is more complicated. Furthermore, this company has not yet achieved complete reuse of the recovered rockets. Other companies, like the Chinese LandSpacethey also intend to follow in the footsteps of SpaceX, but are still carrying out tests. Importance for the future. Rocket reuse is important for many reasons. To begin with, what companies look at most: their economy. Not having to manufacture a new propellant with each launch greatly reduces costs and allows investment in other technologies. On the other hand, it is useful and necessary for reduce space debris levels. SpaceX does not stop generating new space junk by sending satellites into space. Few experts consider that the reuse of rockets will compensate for that, but it continues with its particular space greenwashing. SpaceX has made a lot of progress in this regard. Their reuse of rockets has already become routine, with more than 500 reused takeoffs from its Falcon 9. It has also been possible to reuse the powerful Starship. Even Rockets have been recovered in flight with a kind of giant Chinese chopsticks. Now, Blue Origin is closer, but if they want to continue in the competition they must be more accurate. An investigation is underway as to why the satellite did not end up in the correct orbit. When you find the answer, you can look for solutions. Images | Blue Origin | SpaceX In Xataka | Jeff Bezos asked his parents for their life savings to found Amazon. They only asked him one question: “What is the Internet?

a slam on Israel to manufacture rocket launchers and howitzers at home

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The Spanish defense of the last century has been built on the basis of delicate balances: first the almost total dependence on foreign allies, then the integration in large international consortiums and, later, the comfort of buying abroad what was not known or did not want to be manufactured within. This model, born in the heat of NATO and post-war industrial Europe, worked as long as the geopolitical chessboard was stable. Today, however, it begins to show cracks that force to rethink alliances. The “sovereignty mode.” Yes, Spain has taken an abrupt and unusual turn in its military industrial policy by activating a “sovereignty mode” that combines accelerated rearmament and technological rupture with traditional allies. A decision forced by political embargo on Israel and the deterioration of the environment European strategic but converted into a State strategy: the country has assumed that, without its own industry, any military capacity is fragile in a real war scenario. The result is a draft decision: manufacture key rocket launchers and howitzers for the Army at home, even if this implies more costs, more risks and longer deadlines. SILAM as a breaking point. The program of High Mobility Launcher System has become the symbolic piece of this industrial catharsis, moving from a design based on Israeli technology by Elbit Systems to a completely national solution. Not only that, along the way has been discarded both to Israeli suppliers and to the American alternative of Lockheed Martin, despite the fact that their missiles offered a quick and proven exit. The decision to move forward without shortcuts reflects a conscious bet for not depending on licenses, political vetoes or external operational limitations, even if it implies delays and assuming that, for years, Spain will lack of certain abilities fully mature medium and long range attacks. If you will, it is a strategic bet that sacrifices speed in exchange for control, something unusual in the recent history of national defense. Navy An alliance and nationalize brain and muscle. The union between Escribano Mechanical & Engineering and GMV materializes this strategy by concentrating both the industrial platform and critical digital systems in Spain. In this way, both the SILAM rocket launcher and the new ATP howitzers will carry fire direction, navigation, command and control through the manufacturing of designs, code and maintenance entirely in Spain. In other words, in theory, this remove dependencies on the most sensitive components and guarantees total control about the life cycle of the systems, from initial integration to their use in combat and their maintenance in the event of a prolonged conflict. A massive rearmament. Furthermore, the plan is not limited to SILAM and is supported by a self-propelled wheeled and tracked artillery program valued in more than 7.8 billion of euros, a scenario led by Indra together with EM&E. Systems integration will allow batteries to receive targets, calculate trajectories and open fire in seconds. This complete digitalization responds to the high intensity war model that NATO promoteswhere decision speed “aims” to be as decisive as firepower. Legal tensions and exceptions. There is no doubt, the depth of this turn sovereigntist advances between frictions, as demonstrated the judicial appeal of Santa Bárbara Sistemas, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, against the public loans granted to Indra and EM&E. At the same time, the Government has had to activate exceptionality clauses to the Israeli embargo to protect strategic Airbus programs. That is to say, industrial sovereignty, in practice, advances in fits and starts and forces constant balances between political principles, employment and international commitments. The horizon. In parallel, the growing position of EM&E as key shareholder in the capital of Indra and its technological alliance with GMV They reinforce or feed the idea of ​​a future national champion capable of competing with European giants such as the all-powerful Rheinmetall or Leonardo. The Executive, just in case, observes this possibility cautiouslyaware of the risks of concentration and conflicts of interest. In any case, the strategic message has already been sent: Spain has decided to stop being just a client of the global arms market to try to control, for the first time in decades, its own military capacity. Image | EM&E, Navy In Xataka | Ukraine has found what it needed in an unexpected ally. Spain had the missing piece against the shahed drones In Xataka | In the midst of rearmament, Spain has just surprised Europe: 5,000 million for 34 warships and four submarines

In January a SpaceX rocket exploded. Today we know the danger that an Iberia plane was in with 450 passengers in the air

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On January 16, while air traffic in the Caribbean continued its usual routine, three commercial airliners were thrust into a situation that until recently belonged more to science fiction than civil aviation: passing through a possible cloud of rocket debris in mid-flight. Iberia under a space rain. It was a JetBlue plane heading to San Juan, another Iberia plane and a private jet that ended up declaring fuel emergencies and crossing a temporary exclusion zone hastily activated after the Starship explosion from SpaceX a few minutes after taking off. Altogether, about 450 people were traveling on those planes, which ultimately landed without incident, but internal documents of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reveal that the real risk was much higher than what was publicly known at that time. When the protocol is behind. The Starship explosion caused almost 50 minutes a rain of incandescent fragments over large areas of the Caribbean, a scenario in which the impact of a single piece of debris against an airplane could have had catastrophic consequences. However, the warning chain did not work as planned: SpaceX did not immediately report the failure through the official hotline, and some controllers learned of the incident because the pilots themselves they started reporting “intense fire and fragments” visible from the cabin. The exclusion zones were activated late and, furthermore, only covered US airspace with radar, leaving out pockets of international space where, in theory, flying could continue despite the risk. The result was a extreme workload for controllers and situations of added danger, such as excessive proximity between aircraft that forced intervention to avoid a collision. Impossible decisions at 10,000 meters. In the air, theory became a practical dilemma. The pilots were raised a choice that no manual comfortably contemplates: deviate and take risks to run out of fuel over the ocean or continue through an area where space debris could fall. In at least two cases, the only way out was declare emergency to be able to land. Iberia later maintained that its plane crossed the area when debris was no longer falling, and JetBlue assured that its flights avoided the points where debris was detected, but FAA records describe a tense situation in which decisions were made with incomplete information and under extreme pressure. A structural problem. The incident set off alarms both in the airline industry and in the US Government itself, not only because of what happened in January, but because of what comes next. The FAA plans to go from a historical average of about two dozen launches and reentries annually to managing between 200 and 400 every year for the foreseeable future. A good part of this increase goes through Starship, the most powerful system ever developed, with more than 120 meters high and trajectories that, in future missions, will fly over busy air routes in the North Atlantic, Florida or Mexico. The industry’s own history reminds us that the development of new rockets involves failures: approximately one third of launchers active since 2000 failed on their first flight. Half review. After the explosion January, the FAA convened a panel of experts to review protocols for failed launch debris, an initiative that took on even more urgency after another Starship that exploded in March. That second incident was managed better from the aerial point of view, closing loopholes in exclusion zones and avoiding fuel emergencies, and the panel came to identify high risks for aviation safety, such as forced diversions or overloading of controllers. However, in August the agency suspended unexpectedly that internal review, claiming that many recommendations were already being implemented and that the issue would be addressed at another regulatory level, a decision that surprised even some group participants. The defense of SpaceX. SpaceX responded calling the published information misleading and reiterating that public safety is always its priority, ensuring that no plane was really in danger. Your address insist in which the collaboration with the FAA is close and proposes solutions such as real-time monitoring of vehicles and possible debris, so that a problematic launch can be managed almost like a meteorological phenomenon. Meanwhile, the company has moved forward with new evidence of Starship, some longer before disintegrating and others staying within the planned profile, and preparing an even more powerful version for next year. As recognized Its CEO, Elon Musk, is a radical design that will likely have “growing pains.” A warning from heaven. What happened in January was not only a specific scarebut an early warning of a problem that is barely starts to take shape: the increasingly closer coexistence between commercial aviation and a rapidly accelerating space industry. The night when pilots tthey had to choose between the fuel and a rain of space debris showed that current protocols are not fully prepared for this new scenario. The challenge is no longer just to launch bigger rockets more often, but to ensure that the price of that progress is not paid at 10,000 meters above sea level, with hundreds of passengers trapped between the sky and the sea. Image | Adam Moreira (AEMoreira042281), NARA In Xataka | China is launching more rockets into space than ever before. And the reason is very simple: not to depend on Starlink In Xataka | Google doesn’t have rockets, but it is going to install data centers in space. SpaceX and Blue Origin rub their hands

Sam Altman is trying to buy his own rocket company to compete with SpaceX. The key: data centers

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The rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk has just reached its highest point: space. And all so that OpenAI can deploy its own data centers in space. The news. As revealed by the Wall Street Journalthe CEO of OpenAI has been exploring the purchase of Stoke Space, a Seattle startup that develops reusable rockets, with the goal of building data centers in space. Although talks with Stoke Space cooled in the fall, the move confirms a trend we’ve been observing for months: Silicon Valley is outgrowing the Earth to fuel AI. Sam’s plan. According to the Journal’s sources, Sam Altman was not looking for a launch provider, but rather an investment that would ensure OpenAI majority control of Stoke Space. Stoke Space, founded in 2020 by former Blue Origin engineers, is developing a fully reusable rocket called ‘Nova’ to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9. So that. Altman maintains a tense rivalry with Elon Musk, so the logic of this move would be to reduce OpenAI’s dependence on Musk’s rockets in the event that it decided to deploy servers in space. But above that there is a purely energetic motivation. The computing demand for AI is so insatiable that the environmental consequences of keeping it on Earth will be unsustainable. In certain orbits, however, solar energy is available 24/7 and the vacuum of space offers an infinite heat sink to cool equipment without wasting water. The fever of space data centers. Altman is not alone in this race. What until recently seemed like an eccentricity has become a serious project for big technology companies: And what does Musk say? The irony of Altman pursuing his own rocket company is that the industry’s undisputed leader, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, already has the infrastructure in place. While his competitors design prototypes and seek financing, Musk has cut off the debate with his usual forcefulness: in the face of the discussion about the need to build new orbital data centers, He assured that there is no need to reinvent the wheel: “It will be enough to scale the Starlink V3 satellites… SpaceX is going to do it.” Images | Brazilian Ministry of Communications | Village Global In Xataka | Building data centers in space was the new hot business. Elon Musk just broke it with a tweet

PLD Space already has a complete Miura 5 rocket ready. to destroy it

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The renders are over. PLD Space has once again demonstrated that it is advancing at a devilish pace by publishing the first photos of the entire Miura 5 rocket. These images are history of the Spanish space industry. With you, the Miura 5. The first complete unit of the Miura 5 is not made to fly, but to suffer. Named QM1 (Qualification Model 1), has been almost completely assembled for integration testing of all subsystems before the final flight model takes off into Earth orbit next year. This is the first orbital launcher from a Spanish company, the same one that successfully launched the Miura 1 suborbital rocket from Huelva in October 2023. It was that milestone that has allowed PLD Space to complete the development of a rocket in record time. No other European company has done it so quickly. Why it is important. At a time when preserving sovereign access to space It has become a geopolitical issueEurope needs to have a strong aerospace industry and cheaper and more versatile rockets than the Ariane 6 and Vega C developed by ESA. The Miura 5 leads the European New Space thanks to its TEPREL-C biokerosene and liquid oxygen engines, more powerful than its competitors and developed internally by PLD Space in its Elche factory. The rocket measures 35.7 meters high, has two stages (the first with five engines, and the second with an engine adapted to the vacuum of space). The next steps. The first stage of the QM1 will perform a full propellant loading test known as “wet dress rehearsal.” They will fill the tanks, pressurize the vehicle as they would before a flight, and replicate all the structural and thermal loads prior to launch, without actually turning on the engines for takeoff. The second stage will be sent to the United States to test the Flight Termination System (FTS). Basically, it will be destroyed to validate that the explosive charges are capable of safely disintegrating the rocket in the event of an in-flight anomaly. PLD Space expects to have the second qualification unit ready in December. The first Miura 5 designed to fly will arrive shortly after. He is scheduled to travel to French Guiana in the first quarter of 2026. Images | PLD Space In Xataka | PLD Space has a detailed plan to become Europe’s rocket factory. And the pieces have started to fit

In a gesture of incalculable Frenchness, France has named the first rocket launched from its borders “Baguette One”

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The Spanish Miura 1 rocket took off from southern Spain. He french rocket Baguette One will do the same next year from the south of France. It’s not a joke. It is the real name of the next bet of the European New Space. And it is very serious: the French company HyPrSpace has just closed an agreement to launch an experiment on board, confirming that the launch will take place from mainland France: something unprecedented in the civil sector. Traditionally, France launches its missions from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana. However, the Baguette One will take off from Europe. The suborbital rocket, about 10 meters high (slightly lower than the Miura 1), will take off from the Biscarrosse missile testing center, in the Landes department, thanks to an agreement with the French Directorate General of Armaments. You already have a client. The little rocket will not go empty. HyPrSpace has signed a memorandum of understanding with ATMOS Space Cargo to launch a demonstration mission. The German space logistics company will take advantage of the suborbital flight to test its Phoenix-2 reentry capsule. The French startup HyPrSpace, based in Bordeaux, is developing Baguette One as a preliminary step to validate the technologies of its future commercial rocket Orbital Baguette One. The project has just closed a financing round of 21 million euros from private funds. They are added to the 35 million that HyPrSpace had secured from the France 2030 public plan. Orbital Baguette One. The OB-1 will follow the Baguette One with a first launch scheduled for the end of 2027. This microlauncher promises to put between 200 and 250 kg into orbit with low prices as its main attraction. Instead of using pure liquid or solid fuel engines, HyPrSpace (short for Hybrid Propulsion for Space) will use a mixture: solid fuel made from recycled plastic and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer. The advantage of this architecture is that it eliminates turbopumps, one of the most expensive and complex pieces of aerospace engineering, which reduces the cost of the launcher by 40%. The disadvantage is that they are less versatile engines and without the possibility of reuse, something that PLD Space does plan for future versions of the Miura 5. Image | HyPrSpace In Xataka | The only photo you need to understand the scale of what Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ company, has just done

Jeff Bezos’ giant rocket is ready and NASA is making eyes at it

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For once, Elon Musk’s Starship is not the protagonist. In the midst of a heated public debate about Who will take astronauts to the Moon first?Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, is about to launch the first New Glenn rocket mission for NASA, with an unexpected lunar spin. Ready to take off. Now that Starbase platform 1 is undergoing renovationsall eyes are on the LC-36 platform at Cape Canaveral. The giant rocket that attracts attention this time is the imposing New Glenn from Blue Origin, another beast 98 meters high and seven meters in diameter, ready for its first order. After successfully completing a 38-second static burn with its seven BE-4 engines, Jeff Bezos’ megarocket has the green light for its first assignment: NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars. When? In the absence of confirmation from Blue Origin, the United States Federal Aviation Administration aim for a first try on November 7 between 19:51 and 21:50 UTC, with another two-hour backup window on November 8 starting at 19:49. It is not a minor release. ESCAPADE is NASA’s first multi-craft mission to Mars orbit. The New Glenn will launch the twin Blue and Gold probes, built by Rocket Lab to study the magnetosphere of the red planet. Second landing attempt. For Blue Origin, the secondary mission is almost as important as the main one: recovering the rocket propellant for the first time. In your January inaugural flightthe New Glenn managed to reach orbit, but failed in its first propulsive landing attempt, SpaceX’s specialty. Now the first stage of the rocket, 65 meters high, will have a second chance to land in the Atlantic Ocean. To do this, Blue Origin will once again deploy the autonomous barge “Jacklyn”, named in honor of Jeff Bezos’ mother. Getting it is key to the company’s lunar plansin more literal ways than we thought. From Mars to the Moon. According to Ars TechnicaBlue Origin has ambitious plans for this same rocket. If the New Glenn manages to land successfully after launching the ESCAPADE mission, Jeff Bezos’ company hopes to quickly refit it for a third flight. And what does that third flight consist of? Nothing less than the launch of the first Blue Moon Mk-1 lunar cargo module. The same one that Blue Origin is trying to adapt against the clock to replace the SpaceX Starship in the first manned lunar landings of NASA’s Artemis missions. NASA waits for no one. In the midst of a self-imposed race to reach the Moon before China does in 2030, NASA (or more specifically, NASA’s internal administrator, Sean Duffy) has reopened the Human Landing System contract for the private sector to make simpler proposals than Starship HLS to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon. Although it is actually simpler, the Blue Origin architecture It would not be without problems, including cryogenic refueling in orbit, an extremely complex choreography of ships that, to this day, neither SpaceX nor Blue Origin have demonstrated on the required scale. Image | Blue Origin In Xataka | We already know why Jeff Bezos invests so much money in space: he believes that in 20 years millions of people will live there

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