China’s curious spaceplane is at it again, releasing an unidentified object into orbit that could signal the end of its mysterious mission.
March madness has taken hold of space exploration, with red-hot rockets, gravity-defying hops, and dramatic explosions being just a few of the many captivating highlights from the past few weeks.
Stratolaunch flew its Talon-A hypersonic vehicle for the first time after dropping it out of the belly of Roc, an utterly massive aircraft with a 385-foot wingspan. Meanwhile, SpaceX flew its Starship for the third time in a test that pushed the limits of the megarocket. Catch up on these and other top science stories…
California startup Stratolaunch completed the first powered flight of its Talon-A hypersonic vehicle as it works to develop a reusable version that’s capable of carrying science payloads and flying them at five times the speed of sound.