{"id":270975,"date":"2026-02-06T17:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/270975\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T17:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:24:09","slug":"rocket-report-spacex-probes-upper-stage-malfunction-starship-testing-resumes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/270975\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Report: SpaceX probes upper stage malfunction; Starship testing resumes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Edition 8.28 of the Rocket Report! The big news in rocketry this week was that NASA still hasn\u2019t solved the problem with hydrogen leaks on the Space Launch System. The problem caused months of delays before the first SLS launch in 2022, and the fuel leaks cropped up again Monday during a fueling test on NASA\u2019s second SLS rocket. It is a continuing problem, and NASA\u2019s sparse SLS launch rate makes every countdown an experiment, as my colleague Eric Berger wrote this week. NASA will conduct another fueling test in the coming weeks after troubleshooting the rocket\u2019s leaky fueling line, but the launch of the Artemis II mission is off until March.<\/p>\n

As always, we welcome reader submissions<\/a>. If you don\u2019t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.<\/p>\n

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Blue Origin \u201cpauses\u201d New Shepard flights. Blue Origin has \u201cpaused\u201d its New Shepard program for the next two years, a move that likely signals a permanent end to the suborbital space tourism initiative, Ars reports<\/a>. The small rocket and capsule have been flying since April 2015 and have combined to make 38 launches, all but one of which were successful, and 36 landings. In its existence, the New Shepard program flew 98 people to space, however briefly, and launched more than 200 scientific and research payloads into the microgravity environment.<\/p>\n

Moon first\u2026 So why is Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos more than a quarter of a century ago, ending the company\u2019s longest-running program? \u201cWe will redirect our people and resources toward further acceleration of our human lunar capabilities inclusive of New Glenn,\u201d wrote the company\u2019s chief executive, Dave Limp, in an internal email on January 30. \u201cWe have an extraordinary opportunity to be a part of our nation\u2019s goal of returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence.\u201d The cancellation came, generally, as a surprise to Blue Origin employees. The company flew its most recent mission a week prior to the announcement, launching six people into space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Edition 8.28 of the Rocket Report! The big news in rocketry this week was that NASA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-270975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}