rockets

The European Space Agency has always launched rockets from South America. Norway is very close to changing that

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The Arctic is no longer just that vast ice desert at the end of the world, but it has become a strategic point for many countries that they do not want to waste. And Europe does not want to let him escape, now opting to migrate the launch of part of your rockets from South America to this new location, something that has a great geopolitical strategy behind it. An agreement. The European Space Agency (ESA) and Norway recently signed an agreement to promote the creation of a new research center in the north of our planet: the ESA Arctic Space Center in Tromso. But it is not just another research center, but rather it is Europe’s response to ensure its autonomy in observation, navigation and communications in a region where it is already Russia and China is deploying its own infrastructure. The location. Choosing Tromsø as the city where to locate this new launch zone is not something chosen at random. If we go to a map, we can locate it far above the Arctic Circle, already being a city that has become a vibrant ecosystem of satellite data. Looking back, Tromsø already hosts mission control Arctic Weather Satellite, a satellite launched in 2024 that tried to demonstrate how a polar constellation can save lives through very accurate weather forecasts. But it also has a large number of institutions that make it a true Silicon Valley of the cold, housing the Secretariat of the Arctic Council and the Norwegian Polar Institute. A greater amount of data. The agreement signed between ESA and the Norwegian agency NOSA establishes a working group that will define the details before the end of 2026. This center is defined as an opportunity to monitor the melting of the Arctic, which warming four times faster than the global averagewhich gives us data on what will happen in the rest of the planet. It also entails an important national security reason, since today maritime traffic in the Northeast Passage does not stop increasing, and this means having signs of Galileo It allows you to have better control of everything that happens here. That is why, more than science, we are facing a critical center for civil security, search and rescue. The change of location. Until now, our gateway to space was French Guiana for a reason of basic physics: its proximity to the equator allows us to take advantage of the “impulse” of the Earth’s rotation to launch heavy satellites. However, the center of Tromsø and the new Nordic ports respond to a different need: polar orbit. That is why while from South America it is ideal to launch television satellites that remain “fixed” on the equator, the Arctic is the perfect balcony for satellites that must monitor melting ice or borders. Launching from the Pole, the satellite enters directly onto a North-South path that allows it to scan every corner of the planet as the Earth rotates below. In addition, being on the axis of rotation, rockets do not have to “fight” against the Earth’s lateral spin, which makes observation missions much more efficient and cheaper. Geopolitics. Beyond science, in this case there is a reading of territorial sovereigntysince while China invests in the “Polar Silk Road” and Russia increases its infrastructure in Siberia, Europe needs its own eyes in the north. In this way, while from South America it is ideal to launch television satellites that remain “fixed” on the equator, the Arctic is the perfect balcony for satellites that must monitor melting ice or borders. In this way, the Tromsø–Svalbard axis, added to the new spaceports of Andøya (Norway) and Kiruna (Sweden), consolidates northern Europe as the main gateway to space on the continent. This decision reduces dependence on external infrastructure as occurred in South America and obviously guarantees that all data remains in European territory. What’s next now. Norway, a member of ESA since 1987, brings its network of polar stations and its unique experience in polar orbit operations that are undoubtedly crucial in the current situation. From now on, the working group that has been formed has two years to design the governance and calendar of a center that promises to be “the control tower” of the European future in the Arctic. Images | riya rohewal In Xataka | In January a SpaceX rocket exploded. Today we know the danger that an Iberia plane was in with 450 passengers in the air

China is launching more rockets into space than ever before. And the reason is very simple: not to depend on Starlink

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China has taken the lead in a disputed area: that of space sovereignty. To talk about space is to think directly about the POTbut the photo has changed in recent years. The space race It is no longer just a matter of government agencies, but also of private companies as SpaceXthe Spanish PLD Space either Blue Origin. Europe seeks its space without depending on anyone and countries like China and India are taking steps to expand your borders by looking into space. And, earlier this month, China complete four space missions. It is a clear blow to the United States. Rhythm. 2025 has marked a turning point in China’s aerospace industry. The country has broke his record of launches with more than 80 orbitals throughout the year (it was on 68 launches), adding the one with three Long March rockets taking off less than 19 hours apart. Something like this is within the reach of very few. Specifically, only within the reach of SpaceX in terms of pace. stress test. The litmus test took place at the beginning of December, when the Chinese space agency carried out a stress test on its system. Between the 5th and 9th of this month, China overloaded its entire launch chain. They used four different launch sites to test the extent to which their launch, logistics and telemetry centers could operate in good conditions. With this, the country wanted to check to what extent its different centers can operate almost in parallel, without interference and without hindering each other. This is key for routine launches of mega satellite constellations, but also for rapid responses during a crisis. It is also a trial by fire to see how optimized the process is in which the rockets can spend the shortest time possible at the launch points, without forming bottlenecks. What do they throw?. For this operation, four ports were mobilized: Hainan, Taiyuan, Xichang and Jiuquan. And what they have put in the space is… a little of everything: Mission 1: A Kuaizhou-1A rapid-deploy rocket launched from Jiuquan. In the cargo there were VDES satellites to identify ships and their purpose is dual: to monitor maritime traffic, but also to have an analytical capacity for data on the high seas. Mission 2: a Long March 8A rocket designed for a high rate of launches that started from Hainan. It carried 14 Guowang satellites, the state’s answer to Starlink. This is also the most strategicsince the Long March 8A is designed to compete directly against Starlink’s Falcon 9 in costs and launch rate. Mission 3: another Long March, 6A. It left Taiyuan without a confirmed payload, although it is a rocket that has previously been used to launch more Guowang satellites into orbit. Mission 4: a Long March 4B that took off from Jiuquan and is the most “military” of all. Launched Yaogan-47, a satellite recognition to “census lands and estimate crops.” It is still a remote sensing satellite, and we are in a very complex moment in the Pacific. CAS Space The fear of Starlink. One of China’s goals is to have its own Starlink system. This involves thousands of satellites orbiting and providing service, something that cannot be launched in one go. This intense four-day campaign puts on the table the logistical capacity of the Chinese space agency to be able to launch many launches in a short space of time without jeopardizing their reliability. It is a movement that will allow climb the launch of thousands of Guowang satellites into orbit and, when we talk about “fear” of Starlink, we mean that China wants to occupy the orbital space before it runs out of chairs. It is estimated that Starlink has more than 6,000 satellites circling and another 42,000 planned. China has 25,000 planned between Guowang and G60, but in space the law of “first come, first served” applies. The International Telecommunications Union assigns orbits and frequencies under this principle, so China does not want to fall behind the West. Specifically, against the United States. Sovereignty. In fact, there is an interesting “prick” with Musk’s satellites that has nothing to do with communication. Starlink has already demonstrated its usefulness in the war context (andn the war in Ukraine, for example), but also, in 2021 Tiangong space station had to maneuver twice to avoid satellites starlink. And we already know that Russia, China and the United States are preparing (and according to the United States, more than just preparing) for a war in space. In the end, it is a matter of spatial sovereignty. The United States is the proper name when we think about space, but China has been strengthening its position for decades and more recently has begun to occupy that space. And from the European Union it is alsoe is testing the ground for that spatial sovereignty. The goal of all agencies and governments is the same: not to depend on external technology. And this stress test by China when it comes to launching is a blow to its biggest rival. Image | CAS Space, Galactic Energy In Xataka | After many years trying to copy the Falcon 9, Elon Musk believes there is a company about to achieve it

SpaceX is known for its rockets. What is less known is its growing and striking fleet of aircraft

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To build the largest rocket in the world, SpaceX needs logistics commensurate with its scale. And that includes a Boeing 737 with the company logo. SpaceX planes. Elon Musk’s aerospace company not only manages rockets and satellites. As it has grown, it has bought airplanes until ending up with a small private airline that connects its centers in California, Texas and Florida. Until a year ago, the entire fleet was made up of private jets, but SpaceX ended up acquiring a complete commercial plane: a Boeing 737-800 that it uses to move workers and components with agility. The history of the N154TS. A few days ago, the Los Angeles “planespotters” recorded a landing of SpaceX’s largest plane, in its black and dark gray livery, with details such as the Starship thermal tiles on the tail. The Boeing 737-800 entered service in 2002 for Air China and was later converted into a cargo aircraft. Now, under ownership of Falcon Aviation Holdings LLC (a subsidiary of SpaceX) makes trips between Los Angeles, Brownsville and Florida, where SpaceX’s three major headquarters are located: Hawthorne, Starbase and Cape Canaveral. The four Gulfstreams. SpaceX is a private company, but thanks to crawlers like GrndCntrl We also know the rest of the fleet. Owned by SpaceX are: a Gulfstream G650ER primarily associated with Elon Musk, two Gulfstream G550s used for critical logistics and executive transportation, and a Gulfstream G450 linked to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, who lives between Washington and Starbase. The Boeing was the last plane to join the fleet. While a private jet like the Gulfstream moves a few executives, a 737 can transport dozens of engineers and support teams in a single trip, something vital for moving a workforce during a launch campaign. But is it profitable? Buying a commercial plane instead of charter flights only makes economic sense for a company the size of SpaceX. The ability to move engineers with sensitive tools and hardware without going through commercial airport security saves a billion-dollar aerospace company thousands of work hours a year. In addition, there is an undeniable aesthetic component. Like its rockets, the company takes care of the image of its planes. As they commented from Teslaratithe aircraft is not only functional for transporting support equipment between launch sites; It also has a coat of paint that attracts everyone’s attention.

has had to put advertising on its rockets

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Heir to the Soviet glories that they put the first man in spacethe Russian space program is going through its lowest hours today. Although the space agency Roscosmos continues to announce grandiose projects, such as its own space station and a base on the Moon, the reality hides an industry drowning in debt. The solution? Turn rockets into billboards. In the midst of this systemic crisis, compounded by the loss of international partners since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin just approved a modification of the law that will allow, as of January 1, 2026, advertising to be placed on space vehicles, including Soyuz rockets and spacecraft. As Roscosmos tells it, the goal is “to create a mechanism to attract private investment to Russian space exploration and reduce the burden on the state budget.” A measure that comes at a critical moment due to the drop in launches against the United States, which launches almost everything that is put into orbit thanks to SpaceX, and China, which is a hotbed of projects. The SOS of an old glory. This decision is not a surprise. It is the culmination of a crisis that has been brewing for years and that the war has only accelerated. International sanctions removed Russia from the global market and dynamited key alliances, such as those it had with the European Space Agency. But the main problem is internal, and comes from afar. In August, RSC Energia, the legendary manufacturer of the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, launched a message of brutal honesty that contrasts with the official triumphalism of the Kremlin. Its general director, Igor Maltsev, admitted that the company that took Yuri Gagarin into space is in a “critical situation”, drowned by “multimillion-dollar debts” and with key projects unfulfilled. Just like we had in XatakaMaltsev went so far as to claim that only “a miracle” could save the corporation. An old trick for new problems. The idea of ​​putting advertisements on rockets is not innovative: Russia itself was a pioneer. In 2000, a Proton-K rocket carrying the Zvezda module for the International Space Station sported a huge Pizza Hut logo in exchange for a million dollars. That was an anecdote, a marketing curiosity at the dawn of space commercialization. Today, for Russia, it is a necessity. It is true that rockets usually carry logos of clients and suppliers, or even commemorative designslike the one that celebrated the 60th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight. But this is different. The new law seeks to institutionalize commercial advertising as a source of regular income. In fact, already in 2023 Russia had begun to study the interest of large banks and insurance companies. The question is whether it will work. The space advertising market has never really taken off, and it is difficult for Russia to be the place where it does so today, especially when the advertisers will be Russian companies or companies from allied countries so as not to violate sanctions. Whatever money can be raised, perhaps a few million dollars, seems like a Band-Aid for a massive hemorrhage. In the end, this plan is the confirmation of a harsh reality: the historic Russian space industry is fighting for its survival. Russia already threatened to leave the International Space Station to set up its own space station and in the end had to back out. The heir to a power that sent the first probes to the Moon, that landed on Venus, that launched the first man and the first woman, cannot finance her stay in low orbit. Image | Roscosmos In Xataka | The state of the ISS is so alarming that the United States and Russia have sat down at the table for the first time in eight years

NASA, NASA, NASA always sends rockets, rockets, rockets (but also balloons that turn the world)

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More modest and ignored than rockets, stratospheric balloons They are crucial for many scientific research NASA. The last of these huge balloons has just concluded its mission after 17 days circumnavating the southern hemisphere. 17 days back to the world. In early May, NASA ended the first flight of its 2025 superpression balloons campaign. A stratospheric balloon drew a route around the average latitudes of the southern hemisphere, furrowing the sky for 17 days, 13 hours and 47 minutes. Launched April 17 from Wanaka airportin New Zealand, the globe completed a complete circumnavigation on May 3, and merited the next day in the Pacific Ocean, 1,300 kilometers from the east coast of New Zealand. Straight to the bottom of the sea. Although the mission met the minimum requirements, NASA’s team had been monitoring a possible leak. The balloon lost altitude during the night when crossing areas with colder temperatures, so that their operators decided to finish the flight over the Pacific, without the possibility of recovering the payload. The space agency leaves nothing to chance, even in case of ruling. This type of balloons uses the two -tons payload itself as ballast to sink the entire flight train to the ocean bottom as quickly as possible. In this way, the globe is prevented from remaining in the primary zone of the water column, where most of the marine species. The mission. In addition to trying a new superpression balloon design, this first 2025 flight transported the Hiwind missionwhose objective was to measure the neutral wind in the thermosfera, the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere that is between the mesosphere and the exosphere, to help scientists understand and predict changes in the ionosphere, which can affect communication and navigation systems. Since the mission ended early (the globe that has been in flight lasted more time 57 days), NASA will thoroughly investigate the cause of altitude loss to reduce the probability that a similar problem occurs on future flights. The second campaign superpression balloon It was released on Saturday, May 3 and can be followed in real time on the NASA website. What are the superpression balloons. Are Pumpkin -shaped balloons whose structures, completely sealed, maintain a positive internal pressure and an almost constant volume, which allows them greater altitude stability and flights of much longer duration, since the loss of gas is minimal. With a diameter of 150 meters, the most common volume is 1.13 million cubic meters. A balloon of this size could house a football stadium inside when it is completely inflated. They fly to altitudes of up to 36 kilometers, more than double the altitude of commercial airplanes. And they have been playing for some time as an alternative to space releases For space tourism. What are these balloons for. NASA’s scientific balloons are a low cost form of accessing the stratosphere to do research on land or outer space. Some carry telescopes on board. The NASA scientific balloons program performs, between 10 and 15 individual flights every year. The heavens continue to offer valuable opportunities for science, without always turning on the engines of a rocket. Images | POT In Xataka | The mystery of the spy balloons as a result of an almost unknown phenomenon: the “garbage of the sky”

12 years after making fun of Spacex and his idea of ​​landing rockets, Arianegroup is creating a European mini-falcon 9

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Year 2013. An Arianespace manager gives his opinion on Spacex in a symposium in Singapore. His statements still resonate in the European space industry as a summary of the 10 or 20 years lost that now, Arianegroup and the European New Space They are trying recover. “They will wake up.” The question was: how Arianespace will compete, the French company that has been launching all the rockets of Europe for 40 years, with the launch of 15 million dollars that Spacex promises. This was what Richard Bowles repliedDirector of Arianespace in Southeast Asia: “They are progressing incredibly well, but what I see in the market is that Spacex seems to be selling mainly a dream. We should all dream, but the releases of 5 million or 15 million dollars are a dream. And personally I think that reuse is a dream.” “I feel that the question is how I am going to answer a dream. And my answer to answer a dream is’ do not wake up people, they have to wake up on their own.” “They are not superhombres, whatever they can do, we can do it too.” The awakening. Breaking a spear in favor of Bowles, very few would have opted for Spacex in 2013, much less a corporation with the European launch monopoly. By nature, large companies have risk aversion and cannot maneuver with the agility of a startup. However, time gave Elon Musk reason. In 2024, Arianespace launched three rockets: A Ariane 6, A Vega and a Vega-C. Spacex, meanwhile, launched 132 Falcon 9 and two Falcon Heavy. He also beat the reuse record with 26 launches and landings for the first stage of a Falcon 9. Themis project. Arianegroup began to maneuver in 2019 at the request of the French space agency CNES. ARIANEWORKSa collaboration between the two entities, announced the development of a multipurpose rocket of low cost and reusable, known as theomis project. The project received 33 million euros of initial financing. Although the first jump test (a vertical flight of low altitude) was scheduled for 2023, It has been delaying. Themis will merge with another rocket that has ended up being more promising. A rocket called Maia. In 2022, Arianegroup founded Maiaspace, a subsidiary that, this time, would work as a startup. His Maia rocket, competition of Miura 5 of Pld Space and the Spectrum by Isar Aerospacecan put up to 500 kg in Heliosíncrona orbit in its reusable version. Its first stage is essentially the lake that, of methane and liquid oxygen, with the ability to land in a barge in the ocean shortly after taking off from the Space Center of the French Guiana. Skyhopper project. While Maiaspace continues with the disposable version of his rocket (he already has a first client, Exotrails satellites), A newly announced project will develop the necessary modifications so that the first stage of Maia can land. He Skyhopper project It will focus that the propeller can recover, restore and reuse within 12 months since its launch. The first stage could be used again at least five times. CNES has awarded a contract of at least 20 million euros to Maiaspace to lead this advance. The first landing is planned for 2028. Image | Maiaspace In Xataka | “Elon Musk can monopolize everything,” says Arianespace, who has been launching all Europe’s satellites for 40 years

Going to space is going from a great aspiration of humanity to a “Ryanair with rockets”

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When Andy Davis opened his birthday gifts that afternoon of 1995, I was about to certify One of the most important changes of the cultural imaginary of the American twentieth century: the death of Western and the consecration of the astronaut as a great aspirational figure. Because, forgive me the expression, but how astronauts were cool. We talked about people who prepared for decades, who risked their life every fighter second and who achieved feats that we, simple mortals, could not even imagine. There was nothing more glamorous and guay than to be an astronaut. Now The thing has changed. The life cycle of all means of transport. When the train was invented, first There was curiosity. Then, fear. Later, luxury. And finally, The Rodalías de Barcelona either The Extremadura train. It is a law of life: a kind of Kübless model of the social perception of the means of transport. The same thing happened with the planes. From the first test flights we move on to Spirit of Sant Luisthen to the luxurious airplanes of the 60s And, now, a manifestly bad service that we usually associate with lowcost airlines, but that affects the entire sector. In space, we are living that process and we are living it very quickly. But why? In the background, what we are seeing is the logical development of the privatization of the space race. And, as we have been pointing for years, what has been privatized now is not space. The space has been privatized for many years. What we are living is the privatization of spatial sleep. Or, in other words, what we have seen is the birth of companies that are knowing how to take advantage of space rhetoric to find financing (winning the large agencies). Behind all that space rhetoric … The new space race does not “become an interplanetary species” or take “tourists to space.” The new special career goes, for now, to finance the development of an infrastructure Very expensive, very lucrative and that will be indispensable in the future. When Jeff Bezos said that the great battle is in whom it is responsible for taking out the devices from the earth (the basic infrastructure of the new space race or, as he said, The ‘Amazon Web Services’ of space) He was right, but fell short. There is Many critical services They will depend on what happens up there. Tourism (and the ‘banalization’ of space) is key in all this. Since Dennis Tito became the first space tourist In 2001 (and counting The six of Jesús Calleja’s last trip) About 84 people have gone to space to do something we could call “tourism.” That is to say, Jesús Calleja is a symptom of that progressive banalization of space, yes; But we already had many previous examples. The key is to take the analysis one step further: in understanding that the ‘democratization’ of space trips come to replace the spatial epic of the cold war years. It is its “aggiornamento”, its contemporary version: the story that serves to continue moving the gears of the development of the space industry. That is why it makes sense that a television star goes to space, so it makes sense wanting to lower costs, so it makes sense to take many people. Because as with the lowcostthe business is another. And, in normal conditions, it would be very interesting. After all, the twentieth century has taught us that every euro invested in space It is a euro invested in improving the conditions of this planet. Historically, The return of investment is huge And that has been one of the great levers that have allowed us to continue investing in it. However, as the years go by and we see that the business career derives quickly in A power struggleit is worth asking if the transfer of knowledge will remain so effective. If, in one way or another, the privatization of space will also be the privatization of all the good we can learn from it. Image | Club of the Future In Xataka | If the space industry wants to democratize tourism, it must overcome several challenges. Like space smells good

NASA is about to launch two rockets toward the auroras. The objective: understand their hypnotic movements

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The auroras have fascinated those who have observed them for millennia, but they continue to hold all kinds of mysteries. despite current sensors. In order to better understand your blinks and pulses, NASA will fly directly to them from the region of the United States where they appear most frequently. Meanwhile, in Alaska. Although almost all of America’s space activity occurs in warm Florida, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has everything ready to launch a sounding rocket from Alaska. Delayed on numerous occasions due to bad weather (today they expect snowfall and tomorrow, minimum temperatures of -28 ºC), the launch is scheduled for this week from Poker Flat Research Camp from Fairbanks. A flight to the auroras. The mission is called Ground Imaging to Rocket investigation of Auroral Fast Features (whose acronym is “GIRAFF”but I don’t know who they’re trying to fool, we all know they put the acronym first). The objective is to fly, with separate sounding rockets, to two subtypes of northern lights: Fast-pulsing aurorae, which flicker in a rhythmic pattern of pulsations every second, are related to a type of electromagnetic waves in the magnetosphere called Alfvén waves. Flickering auroras, whose variability is slower and more irregular, and are characterized by flickers in the sky that appear to move or shift according to the flow of charged particles in the magnetosphere Aboard a modified missile. For this mission, NASA will use Black Brant XI sounding rocketswhose first stage is derived from the US Talos naval missile. With three stages of solid fuel, the small rocket is capable of launching a payload of up to 600 kg to a height of 250 kilometers. The GIRAFF mission rockets are equipped with instruments to measure the processes responsible for creating the optical variations in auroras, hypnotic movements observable from Earth that occur at relatively high frequencies of up to 15 Hz or more. The GIRAFF mission. NASA researchers want to understand why some auroras flicker, others pulse, and others appear to have holes. This research focuses on two specific energy coupling mechanisms with such saccharine names as low-altitude electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave-particle interactions and chorus wave modulation in the equatorial magnetosphere. To better understand the mechanisms of these interactions, what better than to fly directly into a flickering aurora and a fast pulsating aurora with two identical rockets? A second mission will launch two more rockets into the dark spots or “holes” of the auroras to better study this other phenomenon. Images | NASA/Lee Wingfield/Sebastian Saarloos In Xataka | This is what the Northern Lights look like from space

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