{"id":317271,"date":"2026-03-07T06:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/317271\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T06:54:16","slug":"rocket-report-spacex-launch-prices-are-going-up-russia-fixes-broken-launch-pad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/317271\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Report: SpaceX launch prices are going up; Russia fixes broken launch pad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CU later, EUS\u2026 \u201cNASA must standardize its approach, increase flight rate safely, and execute on the president\u2019s national space policy,\u201d Isaacman said. \u201cWith credible competition from our greatest geopolitical adversary increasing by the day, we need to move faster, eliminate delays, and achieve our objectives.\u201d The announced changes to the Artemis program include the cancellation of the Exploration Upper Stage and Block IB upgrade for SLS rocket, and future SLS missions, starting with Artemis IV, will use a \u201cstandardized\u201d commercial upper stage. Artemis III will no longer land on the Moon. Instead, the Orion spacecraft will launch on SLS and dock with SpaceX\u2019s Starship and\/or Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon landers in low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p>NASA favors ULA upper stage. United Launch Alliance\u2019s Centaur V upper stage, used on the company\u2019s Vulcan rocket, will replace the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) on SLS missions beginning with Artemis IV, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-03-04\/nasa-said-to-tap-boeing-lockheed-s-vulcan-for-top-of-moon-rocket?srnd=phx-space&amp;embedded-checkout=true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg reports<\/a>. ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, also built the interim upper stages flying on the Artemis I, II, and III missions. Those stages were based on designs used for ULA\u2019s now-retired Delta IV Heavy rocket. With that production line shut down, ULA will now provide Centaur Vs to NASA. This means Boeing, which was on contract to develop the EUS, will still have a role in supplying upper stages for the SLS rocket. Boeing is also the prime contractor for the rocket\u2019s massive core stage.<\/p>\n<p>Building on a legacy\u2026\u00a0The Centaur V upper stage is the latest version of a design that dates back to the 1960s. Centaurs began flying in 1962, and the Centaur V is the most powerful variant, with a wider diameter and two hydrogen-fueled RL10 engines. The Centaur V still uses the ultra-thin, pressure-stabilized stainless steel structure used on all Centaur upper stages. The Centaur has a reliable track record, and the Centaur V\u2019s predecessor, the Centaur III, was human-rated for launches of Boeing\u2019s Starliner crew capsule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CU later, EUS\u2026 \u201cNASA must standardize its approach, increase flight rate safely, and execute on the president\u2019s national&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-317271","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\/317271","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=317271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}