What’s the biggest rocket out there? Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA (Getty Images)
I don’t know if you know this, but space is really freaking big. So to get there, we need to turn to some pretty enormous machines. The rockets that shoot satellites, astronauts and other craft into space can weigh hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pounds. So, they need a pretty big engine to get off the ground.
But, what are the biggest rocket engines out there, and what the heck have they been used for? That’s a question I pondered recently while staring aimlessly into space. So, here’s the answer to that questions.
These are the 15 most powerful rocket engines of all time, each ordered by their thrust at sea level. Because, it turns out that the thrust you get in the vacuum of space is different to that on Earth. The more you know.
An illustration of the Lucy spacecraft with both of its circular solar arrays fully deployed.Illustration: Southwest Research Institute
NASA is taking a break from attempts to unfurl a finicky solar array on the Lucy spacecraft, claiming that the probe is too cold and that efforts at deploying the array could be more fruitful when Lucy is closer to the Sun in December 2024.
After launching in October 2021, one of the spacecraft’s two 24-foot-wide (7-meter-wide) solar arrays, which supplies power to Lucy, failed to fully unfurl, remaining stuck in an unlatched position. While NASA has made previous attempts to fully deploy the array, the agency announced in a blog post that the Lucy team will be suspending attempts to completely unfurl the array, saying the spacecraft is too cold.
That said, NASA’s not sweating the issue, and estimated in a blog post that the array is 98% deployed and will be able to withstand the remainder of Lucy’s 12-year mission to visit Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids, which orbit both ahead and behind the gas giant.
More on this story: 7 Things to Know About NASA’s First Mission to the Jupiter Trojan Asteroids
“Ground-based testing indicated that the deployment attempts were most productive while the spacecraft was warmer, closer to the Sun,” NASA communication officer Erin Morton wrote in the post last week. “As the spacecraft is currently 123 million miles (197 million kilometers) from the Sun (1.3 times farther from the Sun than the Earth) and moving away at 20,000 mph (35,000 km/hr), the team does not expect further deployment attempts to be beneficial under present conditions.”
NASA noticed issues with the solar array shortly after the mission’s launch, and deduced that it was a loss in tension in a lanyard used to unfurl the circular array. Lucy is now hurtling away from the Sun, getting colder and colder, but will return to Earth for a gravity assist in December 2024. At this time, the Lucy team hopes that spacecraft will be warm enough to try again.
In the meantime, the team behind Lucy will be collecting data on the misbehaving solar array to see how it operates at its slightly incapacitated state as Lucy continues its mission to visit Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid clusters.
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Russia’s Soyuz rockets were used to launch OneWeb satellites from French Guiana.
The Russian space agency may be willing to return 36 satellites it’s been keeping hostage in Kazakhstan in exchange for parts of its Soyuz rockets that are being held in French Guiana.
According to a report by Russian Space Web, French aerospace company Arianespace might be looking into a deal with Roscosmos to swap components of the Russian Soyuz rocket for 36 OneWeb satellites that have been held at its Kazakhstan launch site since March. Roscosmos’s newly appointed head Yuri Borisov is reportedly open to negotiations with Arianespace, a source told Russian Space Web.
Arianespace and OneWeb did not immediately respond to our request for confirmations of the Russian Space Web report. We’ll update this post should we hear back.
Under the helm of former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, the space agency severed ties with Europe in retaliation for Western-imposed sanctions against Russia. That included an ongoing deal it had with British company OneWeb to launch its internet satellites to orbit aboard the Soyuz rockets. OneWeb refused to agree to a list of unreasonable demands put forward by Roscosmos in March, prompting Russia to hold on to the company’s 36 satellites and store them indefinitely at its launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. OneWeb eventually forged new partnerships with SpaceX and India’s space agency to launch its remaining satellites to orbit, but its 36 lonesome satellites remained out of reach.
Roscosmos also halted its cooperation with Europe on Soyuz rocket launches from French Guiana and withdrew 87 employees from the launch site. But with Russian involvement in French Guiana terminated, the Soyuz rocket components were left abandoned, as Anatoly Zak writes at Russian Space Web:
On orders from Roskosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, dozens of Russian specialists were abruptly withdrawn from French Guiana in early March 2022, leaving behind the rocket stages, containers with propellant, support hardware and documentation. The Paris-based Arianespace company, which contracted Roskosmos to provide and support Soyuz launches with European and most non-Russian commercial payloads, took custody of the stored equipment until its expected return to Russia. However, due to the severe breakdown in diplomatic relations and economic activities between Europe and Moscow, the Russian hardware remained in French Guiana for the rest of 2022.
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With Russia gone from French Guiana, the European Space Agency is turning to U.S. company SpaceX to launch its upcoming Euclid telescope to orbit instead of launching it on board a Soyuz rocket.
Following Rogozin’s dismissal from his position at Roscosmos, the space agency could be taking a more diplomatic approach to its space partnerships. But it could still take some time. Russian Space Web’s source said some logistical hurdles still need to be addressed, which are causing negotiations to advance at a slow pace. For example, Russian specialists would need to obtain new visas to enter French Guiana and retrieve the rocket parts, a process made more difficult on account of Russia’s severed ties with Europe.
The previous year was tumultuous for both the Russian and European space industry; Russia lost key space partners while Europe scrambled to find ways of reaching orbit without access to Soyuz rockets. Whether or not this will change this year remains to be seen, but an ongoing swap agreement may be a good step for now.
More: Europe Has Few Options to Reach Space After Vega-C Rocket Crash
Three astronauts and cosmonauts need rescuing from the ISS. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP)
Last year, there was some drama aboard the International Space Station as Russian cosmonauts were forced to abandon a spacewalk after a leak was found in a Soyuz capsule connected to the ISS. The leak, it transpired, was caused by a tiny meteoroid that hit the crew’s return ship and put the craft out of action, leaving three crew members stranded aboard, in need of rescue.
The leak aboard Soyuz capsule MS-22, which astronauts use for their return trip to Earth, was discovered in early December. It resulted in an increased cabin temperature and experts deemed the capsule “unfit” to use. With no return craft, a rescue flight is finally being planned to bring the space travelers home.
If you’re anything like me, Aerosmith is probably playing in your head as you imagine NASA assembling a team of the brightest and best to launch two rockets into space simultaneously to save the world and bring these brave heroes home.
The Soyuz capsule was struck by a meteor and sprung a leak. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP)
Sadly, that isn’t quite what’s happening. Instead, The Guardian reports that Russia will launch a craft into space next month to rescue the stricken astronauts from the ISS. The Guardian reports:
“After deliberations, Roscosmos said it has decided to bring forward a planned March launch of the Soyuz MS-23 to 20 February so it can be used to transport the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and the US astronaut Francisco Rubio back to Earth.
“If a ‘particularly critical’ situation arose on the ISS in the weeks before then, Roscosmos said, the possibility of using the damaged Soyuz MS-22 to rescue the crew would be considered.”
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Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio are part of a seven-strong crew onboard the ISS. The four other team members will be brought back to Earth on a Space X capsule currently docked with the station. Once the Space X craft leaves the ISS, this will free up the second of two docking stations on the space base. Then, Roscosmos will be able to fly a spare Soyuz craft up to the ISS to dock with the station and bring the crew members home.
Right – left: Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP)
The rescue flight, Soyuz MS-23, was originally scheduled to fly a new crew up to the ISS. But, the flight will be empty when it launches into orbit on its rescue mission. Once it docks with the space station, the damaged MS-22 craft will return to Earth empty.
An illustration of LunaH-Map in orbit around the Moon.Illustration: Arizona State University
A mission to measure lunar water-ice on the Moon is in jeopardy after the cubesat failed to fire its engines shortly after launch. Time is now running out, as the team has until mid-January to fix the spacecraft’s thrusters and give it a second chance to enter lunar orbit.
NASA’s LunaH-Map, manufactured by Arizona State University, was one of 10 cubesats launched on November 16, 2022 as secondary payloads aboard the Artemis 1 mission. The tiny probe was one of six cubesats cable of sending radio signal to ground teams, in what was an upsetting rate of attrition.
Things were looking good for LunaH-Map until the following day, when mission controllers tried to engage the cubesat’s propulsion system and execute a crucial course correction maneuver. Despite several attempts, the spacecraft failed to fire its engines, preventing it from performing its intended lunar flyby on November 21. LunaH-Map was supposed to use this propulsive maneuver to direct it towards its orbit around the Moon.
Engineers are hoping to fire LunaH-Map’s thrusters in the coming weeks such that the spacecraft can take an alternate route to the Moon, Craig Hardgrove, principal investigator for LunaH-Map at Arizona State University, said during a presentation about the mission at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December, SpaceNews reported. The team has until mid-January to do so, otherwise the probe will never reach any kind of orbit around the Moon.
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Data collected so far suggests that a valve within the spacecraft’s thrusters is partially stuck. Engineers are attempting to use heaters in the propulsion system to free the valve. Should the spacecraft miss its second shot at entering lunar orbit, the mission team will consider sending LunaH-Map towards a near-Earth asteroid, according to Hardgrove.
While NASA’s Artemis 1 mission was a success, its secondary payload has not been so lucky, with the majority of cubesats packed for the lunar mission failing at some point after launch. The mission suffered several delays and engineers were only able to recharge four out of 10 cubesats already packed inside the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. NASA was worried that its LunaH-Map cubesat would not have enough power to endure the journey to the Moon and complete its mission of measuring water-ice in the shadowed regions of the lunar surface, but this proved to not be a problem. The jammed valve is another story.
It won’t be long before we find out LunaH-Map’s fate once and for all, but hopefully this tiny probe can make it all the way to the Moon.
More: South Korea’s First Moon Mission Enters Lunar Orbit
A stream of particles shot out of the Soyuz spacecraft while it was attached to the ISS.Screenshot: NASA
NASA may turn to its commercial partner SpaceX to transport three astronauts back to Earth after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft suffered a coolant leak in mid-December.
In a blog post published on Friday, NASA said that it “reached out to SpaceX about its capability to return additional crew members aboard Dragon if needed in an emergency.” At the moment, NASA is investigating whether or not the Soyuz spacecraft would still be capable of carrying astronauts on the trip back from the International Space Station, the space agency added.
The Soyuz spacecraft transported NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin to the ISS in September 2022. On December 14, the spacecraft began leaking coolant into low Earth orbit while attached to the ISS. The coolant leak lasted for three hours and was captured on a livestream by NASA TV. The astronauts on board the space station were not harmed, but the fate of the three astronauts that were meant to use the Soyuz spacecraft to return to Earth remains up in the air.
“NASA and Roscosmos are continuing to conduct a variety of engineering reviews and are consulting with other international partners about methods for safely bringing the Soyuz crew home for both normal and contingency scenarios,” NASA wrote in the blog post. The two space agencies are expected to make a final decision regarding the viability of the spacecraft this month.
Roscosmos was hoping to make a decision by December 27, but the space agency announced that it needed more time to evaluate the flight capabilities of the Soyuz spacecraft. The exact reason behind the leak has not been announced, although it may have been caused by a micrometeorite or a tiny piece of space junk that left an 0.8-millimeter-wide hole in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.
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Rubio was the first NASA astronaut to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket since April 2021, the result of a recent seat-swap agreement between the two space agencies. The arrangement stipulated that a U.S. astronaut would ride aboard a Soyuz capsule in exchange for a Russian cosmonaut boarding a SpaceX Crew Dragon for the very first time. Should the Soyuz spacecraft be deemed unusable for a crew return, NASA may call on SpaceX to send a Crew Dragon to pick up the three astronauts from the ISS and bring them back to Earth. The astronauts are scheduled to return in the spring after having spent six months on board the ISS.
More: Russian Cosmonaut Forced to Abandon Spacewalk Due to Spacesuit Power Malfunction
The Webb Space Telescope’s instruments have been in safe mode intermittently since December 7, but scientific operations resumed earlier this week, NASA said in a press release on Wednesday.
Webb was in safe mode—during which all the observatory’s nonessential systems are turned off, which means no scientific operations—multiple times in the last two weeks, the release stated. Though NASA says the issue is resolved and “the observatory and instruments are all in good health,” the agency also did not report the glitch until yesterday.
Webb is a $10 billion space observatory that images the cosmos at infrared and near-infrared wavelengths. It is a state-of-the-art telescope that has captured our attention in its first six months of scientific observations, revealing iconic structures like the Pillars of Creation in new light.
The NASA release says the “software fault triggered in the attitude control system,” the apparatus that guides where the observatory is pointing. That’s most directions, except that the telescope was turned away from the micrometeoroid avoidance zone in the spring, to protect the telescope’s mirrors. That maneuver came following a space rock strike that damaged one of the mirror panels.
The pauses added up to several days that the telescope could not do observations this month, NASA said. Now, science is fully back underway, and the Webb team is working to reschedule the observations affected by the glitch.
Yesterday, Webb posted the cosmic equivalent of a holiday card: an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 7469, which bears a resemblance to a wreath. The galaxy is 220 million light-years away and looks distinctly serene in Webb’s eye. Sharp diffraction spikes spread from the galactic center, where a supermassive black hole resides.
Besides seeing known objects in new ways, Webb has imaged light from the earliest corners of the universe, light which was too faint for older observatories to see.
One of Webb’s core scientific goals is to inspect ancient light sources—the earliest stars and galaxies—to understand how those objects emerged and evolved in deep time.
In other words, it’d be really nice if Webb could avoid safe mode, for the sake of science. But better safe than sorry, and now that the telescope is back to business, let’s hope it stays that way.
More: Webb Telescope Brings a Once-Fuzzy Galaxy Into Focus
The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the Russian Rassvet ISS module, in a photo taken on October 8, 2022.Photo: NASA
An inspection has revealed an 0.8-millimeter-wide hole in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft that sprung a coolant leak outside the International Space Station last week. Russian space agency Roscosmos will make a decision on the flight-worthiness of the spacecraft later this month, at which time Russia may choose to expedite the launch of a replacement capsule.
The hole is located on the ship’s instrumentation compartment on the Soyuz service module, according to Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov and as reported by state-run TASS news agency. “The primary guidance, navigation, control and computer systems of the Soyuz are in the instrumentation compartment, which is a sealed container filled with circulating nitrogen gas to cool the avionics equipment,” NASA says.
The Soyuz MS-22 sprung a leak on December 15, sending streams of coolant into space and canceling a Russian spacewalk. NASA and Roscosmos have both stated that the incident poses no risk to the crew or the orbiting space station. A preliminary inspection with a robotic arm confirmed the leak shortly after it began on Thursday, with a follow-up inspection, performed earlier today, now confirming the hole, which may have been caused by a micrometeorite or a tiny piece of space junk.
Today’s inspection “revealed that there is a tiny hole” in the instrumentation compartment “measuring about 0.8mm, which caused the leak,” Borisov said Monday, describing the ongoing situation as “not very pleasant.” The Russian space agency has set a deadline of December 27 to determine the status and fate of the damaged Soyuz spacecraft. Two working groups will decide whether the spacecraft can host passengers and return to the surface or if it needs to be junked.
The MS-22 capsule is slated to return NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin to Earth in early spring, but the trio may have lost their ride. A SpaceX Crew Dragon is also parked outside the ISS, but that’s reserved for NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos. The Crew Dragon cannot accommodate seven people, but the option exists for the Russian space agency to expedite its next Soyuz launch to the ISS, the MS-23 mission.
“Of course, we have backup options,” Borisov told the state-run Izvestia media outlet. “We will prepare the spaceship faster. Instead of the scheduled March descent, we will prepare it somewhere by February 19. It is already installed at the Baikonur spaceport and undergoing all the tests,” he said. To which he added: “In this situation, we will simply undock the Soyuz MS-22, it will descend to Earth and we will send a second [uncrewed] spaceship to bring back the crew.”
It’s not yet clear if the MS-22 is toast, but there is some cause for concern. As the Associated Press reports, the temperature inside the capsule’s crew section rose to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) as a result of the leak, while the temperature in the equipment section temporarily rose to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) prior to ground teams shutting down some of the spacecraft’s systems.
The crew used fans to blow cooler air into the Soyuz capsule in an attempt to lower the cabin’s temperature, Roscosmos said, adding that the “increase in temperature on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is admissible and isn’t critical for the functioning of the equipment or health of the crew in case they need to be in the spacecraft.” Borisov rejected speculation that the Soyuz cabin temperature rose to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celscius), according to TASS.
According to NASA, Roscosmos flight controllers performed a successful test of the Soyuz MS-22’s thrusters on Friday, so there’s at least some positive news. In addition, NASA is moving ahead with a planned spacewalk to continue installation of the International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA), which was supposed to happen today but will instead take place on Wednesday, December 21.
An illustration of the Zhuque-2 rocket.Illustration: Landspace
The Zhuque-2 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Wednesday, leaving behind an unusual purplish trail—a product of its unique methane fuel. The rocket managed to take flight, but it failed to reach orbit and deliver the 14 satellites that were on board.
China’s private aerospace company Landspace was hoping to lead the way in utilizing methane—the next-generation rocket fuel—which is considered to be cleaner and safer than liquid hydrogen, kerosene, and other propellants currently in use. Liquid methane is also a good choice in terms of rocket reusability, a coveted capability for space companies.
The Beijing-based Landspace launched the doomed Zhuque-2 at 3:30 a.m. ET on December 14, in what was supposed to be the rocket’s first orbital mission. Following liftoff, the rocket’s second stage suffered an engine malfunction, resulting in mission failure, Landspace announced on Wednesday. Outside observers had already speculated that the mission was a failure before the company announced it.
Telemetry data suggests the rocket reached a speed of 11,000 miles per hour (5 kilometers per second), when it needed to reach around 17,500 miles per hour (7.8 kilometers per second) to maintain a stable orbit, according to Everyday Astronaut. The rocket was carrying a commercial payload of 14 satellites, all of them lost (not sure why the company thought it was a good idea to launch so many satellites on an unproven rocket, but whatever).
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Despite its failure, the orbital test flight was still lauded as a major milestone for China, and its private space industry as a whole. The Chinese startup had attempted to launch a three-stage Zhuque-1 rocket, which used solid propellant, back in 2018. Zhuque-1 also failed to reach orbit, but the company is now set on switching to liquid methane as propellant instead.
Had Landspace been successful in launching the rocket to orbit, the company would’ve beat Elon Musk’s SpaceX in achieving this vaunted goal. SpaceX is also hoping to use liquid methane fuel to power its next generation Starship rockets, which are yet to fly. The company’s Falcon 9 and Super Heavy rockets use kerosene for fuel.
Even before its first orbital test flight, Landspace was already preparing for the second attempted launch of Zhuque-2, SpaceNews reported. The rocket’s second and third models are already in development, but Landspace is aiming to eventually make the rocket reusable, according to SpaceNews.
China is making significant headway with its spaceflight industry, both on the private and public front. In October, China launched the final module for its own space station in low Earth orbit, completing the ambitious project to rival the International Space Station. China also has some big plans for the Moon, setting up future launches that could compete with NASA’s Artemis program.
Launching the first ever methane-fueled rocket to Earth orbit would certainly give China a major advantage over other space programs. Of course, that all depends on how well the second launch attempt goes.
More: China Launches 3 Astronauts to Its Fledgling Space Station
An artist’s depiction of the ICON spacecraft.Illustration: NASA
A three-year-old NASA satellite lost touch with ground controllers two weeks ago and is now wandering through low Earth orbit without supervision. Sadly, the space agency fears the worst.
NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission has not communicated with ground stations since November 25 due to some sort of glitch the space agency is yet to identify, NASA wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. The spacecraft is equipped with an onboard command loss timer that’s designed to reset ICON in the event that contact is lost for eight days, but the reset seemingly did not work as the team was still unable to communicate with the spacecraft on December 5 after the power cycle was complete.
Although silent, the ICON spacecraft is still intact. NASA used the Department of Defense’s Space Surveillance Network to confirm that ICON is still out there in one piece, according to the space agency. But communication is obviously key for orbiting spacecraft, as it allows the mission team to send commands to satellites and also receive data through downlinked signals.
“The ICON mission team is working to troubleshoot the issue and has narrowed the cause of the communication loss to problems within the avionics or radio-frequency communications subsystems,” NASA wrote in the blog post. “The team is currently unable to determine the health of the spacecraft, and the lack of a downlink signal could be indicative of a system failure.” Oof, that doesn’t sound good.
ICON, launched in October 2019, is tasked with observing the way terrestrial weather interacts with space weather in Earth’s ionosphere. It does so (or at least it did so) from an orbital outpost that’s roughly 360 miles (580 kilometers) above the planet. The spacecraft carries four instruments to measure various characteristics of the ionosphere and capture ultra-violet images of the upper atmosphere. The ICON mission has offered a comprehensive view of this part of Earth’s atmosphere which would otherwise require two or more orbiting spacecraft to gather, according to NASA.
The mission was originally supposed to last for two years and has been operating on an extended timeline since December 2021. Hopefully NASA can squeeze more overtime from this important space weather satellite.
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