By Keith Button
September 1, 2024
We’ve all heard the cliché, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Aerojet Rocketdyne is happily violating that maxim by creating an additional version of the venerable RL10 upper stage engine, a 60-year-old design that’s pushed some of history’s most storied spacecraft to orbit and beyond. Why is the company confident it will work? Keith Button has the story.
By Paul Brinkmann
July 1, 2024
By Ben Iannotta
January 1, 2022
By Alyssa Tomlinson
January 1, 2022
Moving about by trains, automobiles and aircraft began without consideration for the environmental effects of the emissions from these machines. Is humanity about to repeat this disregard, this time for transportation to space? Perhaps, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Alyssa Tomlinson tells the story.
May 1, 2021
Now that SpaceX has vividly demonstrated the promise of reusability in space launch, it’s time to revive the goal of aircraft-like reusability of launch vehicles. Eugene A. Ustinov and Philip I. Moynihan, both formerly of NASA, make the case and present a concept.
By Cat Hofacker
October 1, 2019
Tory Bruno
By Tom Risen
March 30, 2018
The White House wants to steer the launch of NASA’s proposed Europa Clipper spacecraft to a commercial rocket
By Ben Iannotta
November 30, 2017
By Debra Werner
May 31, 2017
Tim Hinerman, deputy BE-4 engine lead
By Tom Jones
April 17, 2017
It would be a mistake to rush a crew aboard untried NASA vehicles
By Debra Werner
April 17, 2017
By James Knauf
August 31, 2016
How the U.S. became dependent on RD-180 engines from a strategic foe
