Welcome to Version 8.15 of the Rocket Report! This 12 months has been, at greatest, one in every of blended outcomes for SpaceX’s Starship program. There have been necessary steps ahead, together with the profitable reuse of the rocket’s huge Tremendous Heavy booster. Clearly, SpaceX is getting actually good at launching and recovering the 33-engine booster stage. However Starship itself, half spacecraft and half higher stage, hasn’t fared as nicely—at least it hadn’t till the final couple of months. After 4 Starships have been destroyed in flight and on the bottom within the first half of 2025, the final two missions ended with pinpoint splashdowns within the Indian Ocean. The latest mission this week was arguably essentially the most profitable but for Starship, which returned to Earth with little injury, suggesting SpaceX’s enhancements to the warmth protect are working.
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SpaceX vet will fly with Blue Origin. Hans Koenigsmann is one in every of SpaceX’s earliest, longest-tenured, and most-revered staff. He labored at Elon Musk’s house firm for practically twenty years, rising to the position of vice chairman for mission assurance and security earlier than leaving SpaceX in 2021. He led the investigations into each Falcon rocket failure, mentored younger engineers, and have become a public face for SpaceX by quite a few displays and press conferences. And now he has introduced he’s going to house on a future suborbital flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard automobile, Ars experiences.
Due diligence … Koenigsmann will fly to house alongside his good friend Michaela “Michi” Benthaus as early as subsequent month. She’s notable in her personal proper—a mountain biking accident in 2018 left her with a spinal wire damage, however she didn’t let this derail her from her dream. She’s going to grow to be the primary wheelchair person to fly in house. Koenigsmann mentioned one in every of his foremost issues with the flight was security, however assembly with Blue Origin engineers gave him confidence to climb aboard New Shepard. “After we met them, I requested a whole lot of technical questions on the security facet, and I really feel like they answered the vast majority of them thoughtfully and accurately.” So, what’s it like for a long-time SpaceXer to work with a former competitor, Blue Origin? Learn Eric Berger’s interview with Koenigsmann to be taught extra.
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