T-Minus: A new rocket explodes, China

looks to Mars, and more

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Talon fires up its engines

Hypersonic vehicles — ones that move at least five times the speed of
sound — could be the future of transportation and military weaponry,
but designing them is a major challenge, partially because they’re
extremely expensive and complicated to launch from the ground.

Aerospace company Stratolaunch is building an “air launch” system that

uses a massive plane, called “Roc,” to drop hypersonic prototypes from
a high altitude. In addition to giving hypersonic vehicle developers a
way to avoid the challenges of a traditional take-off, Stratolaunch
envisions Roc one day being used to launch space planes, too.

While customers like the military or aerospace companies could use Roc
for test flights of their own vehicles, Stratolaunch is also developing a
hypersonic aircraft, called Talon-A, that they could use if they just
wanted to test specific technologies for their own systems — and on
March 9, the company completed its first powered test flight of the
vehicle.

While Talon-A didn’t reach hypersonic speeds during this flight, it did
accelerate to high supersonic speeds and complete a controlled landing
on the water — encouraging signs on the path to ushering in an era of
hypersonic flight.

Stratolaunch
Talon-A being dropped from Roc during the test flight

China updates rock collection plans

In September 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover started collecting
samples of Martian rock in the hope that a future mission will bring
them back to Earth. It’s possible those could be the very first samples of
Mars to reach our planet — but China wants to beat NASA to the punch.

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While NASA’s proposed sample retrieval mission has been paused due
to design, budget, and scheduling issues, China is making progress on its
own plan to collect Mars rocks, telling reporters on March 6 that it has
all the tech needed for the mission and expects to launch it around 2030.

Regardless of which nation brings back the first Mars rock samples, the
achievement will be a boon for the global science community, as the
rocks could answer important questions about the Red Planet, including
whether it still contains water and whether it once hosted life.

CNSA
China has already put a rover, seen here, on Mars. Its next goal is to bring some of Mars to
Earth.
Space One’s rocket explodes
On March 12, aerospace company Space One set out to become the first
private company in Japan to successfully put a satellite into orbit, and
unfortunately