Month: July 2024

Enlarge (credit: Kevin Purdy)

Let me get three negative points about the Gazelle Eclipse out of the way first. First, it’s a 62-pound e-bike, so it’s tough to get moving without its battery. Second, its rack is a thick, non-standard size, so you might need new bags for it. Third—and this is the big one—with its $6,000 suggested retail price, it's expensive, and you will probably feel nervous about locking it anywhere you don’t completely trust.

Apart from those issues, though, this e-bike is great fun. When I rode the Eclipse (the C380+ HMB version of it), I felt like Batman on a day off, or maybe Bruce Wayne doing reconnaissance as a bike enthusiast. The matte gray color, the black hardware, and the understated but impressively advanced tech certainly helped. But I felt prepared to handle anything that was thrown at me without having to think about it much. Brutally steep hills, poorly maintained gravel paths, curbs, stop lights, or friends trying to outrun me on their light road bikes—the Eclipse was ready.

It assists up to 28 miles per hour (i.e., Class 3) and provides up to 85 Nm of torque, and the front suspension absorbs shocks without shaking your grip confidence. It has integrated lights, the display can show you navigation while your phone is tucked away, and the automatic assist changing option balances your mechanical and battery levels, leaving you to just pedal and look.

Enlarge / The core stage for NASA's second Space Launch System rocket rolls aboard a barge that will take it from New Orleans to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (credit: NASA)

Welcome to Edition 7.03 of the Rocket Report! One week ago, SpaceX suffered a rare failure of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. In fact, it was the first time the latest version of the Falcon 9, known as the Block 5, has ever failed on its prime mission after nearly 300 launches. The world's launch pads have been silent since the grounding of the Falcon 9 fleet after last week's failure. This isn't surprising, but it's noteworthy. After all, the Falcon 9 has flown more this year than all of the world's other rockets combined and is fundamental to much of what the world does in space.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't 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.

Astra finally goes private, again. A long-simmering deal for Astra's founders to take the company private has been finalized, the company announced Thursday, capping the rocket launch company’s descent from blank-check darling to delisting in three years, Bloomberg reports. The launch company's valuation peaked at $3.9 billion in 2021, the year it went public, and was worth about $12.2 million at the end of March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Astra's chief executive officer, Chris Kemp, and chief technology officer, Adam London, founded the company in 2016 with the goal of essentially commoditizing launch services for small satellites. But Astra's rockets failed to deliver and fell short of orbit five times in seven tries.