Tag: commercial-space
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NASA cancels lunar rover, shifts focus to commercial moon landers
The Resource Prospector prototype searches for a buried sample tube at the Johnson Space Center rock yard in August 2015. Credit: NASA As NASA turns up support for future commercial lunar landers, the space agency last week canceled a mission that would have placed a rover on the moon to survey resources, such as water…
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Video: Blue Origin flies New Shepard rocket for eighth time
Video credit: Blue Origin Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster, topped with a capsule carrying a dummy dubbed Mannequin Skywalker, took off Sunday from the company’s sprawling test site in West Texas on a 10-minute trip to the edge of space and back. The hydrogen-fueled rocket lifted off from the test site near Van Horn, Texas,…
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin venture sends its New Shepard spaceship to new heights
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship, dubbed RSS H.G. Wells, blasts off from its West Texas launch pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube) Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture notched another record today when it sent its New Shepard suborbital spaceship on its highest-ever round trip to space. It was the eighth uncrewed test…
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Suborbital test flight moves Blue Origin closer to launching people
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) with new apogee number. The New Shepard booster took off from West Texas at 12:06 p.m. CDT (1:07 p.m. EDT; 1707 GMT). Credit: Blue Origin The privately-developed New Shepard booster, designed and built by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin, took off from a launch…
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Concerns with Indian satellite postpone next Ariane 5 launch
The GSAT 11 satellite arrived in French Guiana from India in late March. This photo shows the spacecraft in its shipping container during offloading from an Antonov An-124 cargo plane at Félix Eboué Airport in Cayenne, French Guiana. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – H. Rouffie India’s most powerful communications satellite will…
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Blue Origin preps for suborbital test flight Sunday
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated April 29 with new launch times. Blue Origin plans its next suborbital test launch Sunday from the company’s sprawling development complex in West Texas, the company’s owner Jeff Bezos announced Friday. The single-stage New Shepard rocket is scheduled for launch at 12:42 p.m. EDT (1642 GMT; 11:42 a.m. CDT), after thunderstorms apparently…
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SpaceX set to debut upgraded Falcon 9 rocket
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) to correct schedule for first Crew Dragon mission. File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket standing at launch pad 39A in Florida before a previous mission. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX technicians at Cape Canaveral are readying for the first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket configuration…
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SpaceX to build BFR factory in Southern California
Artist’s concept of SpaceX’s planned spaceship on the moon. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX plans to build its massive BFR rocket boosters and spaceships inside a cavernous new factory at the Port of Los Angeles, officials announced this week. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti confirmed Monday during a State of the City address that SpaceX will produce…
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Spaceflight reserves two rideshare missions on Vega rocket
Artist’s concept of the Vega rocket’s Small Spacecraft Mission Service dispenser deploying multiple satellites in orbit. Credit: ESA Spaceflight Industries has booked reservations for two commercial rideshare missions on Arianespace’s Vega rocket, officials announced Tuesday, beginning with a proof-of-concept flight in early 2019 of a new Italian-built multi-payload dispenser tailored to accommodate small satellites and…
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Sierra Nevada Corp. gears up to build a cargo spaceship – and a space station
Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Dream Chaser atmospheric test vehicle is on display at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Sierra Nevada Corp. is showing off a prototype of its Dream Chaser space plane, but its focus is quickly shifting to building the real thing to send to orbit.…