- [upbeat music] [rocket launching] - [Narrator] Welcome to Delta V. We're here to boost your knowledge of boosters, and there's a lot of thrust to discuss, so let's jump right in. Let's start with the world's small rockets, which lift anywhere from a few hundred kilogram, to a few tons, to orbit. A new report from Carlos Niederstrasser, a rocket scientist, has counted up the number of companies working to develop small rockets, which we use primarily to send Cube Sats, and slightly bigger satellites into orbit. He says the amount of companies working in this area has grown from 31 three years ago to 101 today. That's crazy! Some of these companies will make it, but most of them probably won't. One country where at least a dozen of these companies have formed may surprise you. It's China. Recently the Chinese rocket company, OneSpace, announced it had raised 43.6 million in a new round of financing. There's an interesting race going on between OneSpace and another Chinese rocket maker, LandSpace to become the first private company in China to launch an orbital rocket. One or both of them may achieve that later this year. Did you know that Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen is building the world's largest airplane? It has a wingspan 20 meters wider than the Spruce Goose. And Allen's company, Stratolaunch, has built this airplane to launch rockets. Until recently, we didn't know which rockets. Stratolaunch announced that it will begin by launching a tiny Pegasus rocket, but it has also begun working on two bigger rockets, as well as a space plane. Allen's big airplane may make its first test flight without rockets alas later this year. In the world of bigger rockets, SpaceX got some very good news of late. NASA has signed off on the company's plan to fuel its Falcon 9 rockets with the astronauts on board, which is a process called "load and go" as in, "Load that baby up with fuel, and blast off!" SpaceX still has to demonstrate this fueling method as safe, but it now has a path forward to the launch pad for its commercial crew program. SpaceX also just briefed through a Block 5 version of its Falcon 9 rockets for the first time. This was a pretty big deal, because SpaceX landed the rocket, tore it apart to make sure everything was alright, tested it some more, and then launched it again in less than 3 months. This immediately raised questions about the third use of this booster, something SpaceX has never done. It could happen later this year, perhaps as a side booster on a Falcon heavy launch, or a commercial mission a few months later. We can't wait to find out. Looking ahead, there's some cool stuff coming up in September. We're probably most intrigued by a mid-September launch of an ice-detection satellite for NASA, because it's flying into space on a Delta II rocket built by United Launch Alliance. This rocket entered service way back in 1989, and this will be its last flight. Although this has been a highly reliable booster, it's being priced out of market now by new arrivals like SpaceX's Falcon 9. After more than 150 missions, we wish the Delta II rocket a fond farewell.