Tag: commercial-space
-
Billionaire kicks off new orbital missions with SpaceX, featuring spacewalk and Starlink tests
An artist’s conception shows a Polaris Project crew member heading out for a spacewalk from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship. (Polaris Project Illustration) Five months after billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman led a crew for a privately funded philanthropic space mission, he’s doing it again. And maybe again, and again. The Shift4 CEO announced today that…
-
Year in Space: Jeff Bezos and his billionaire rivals finally usher in the age of commercial spaceflight
Jeff Bezos uncorks the bubbly after riding Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. (Blue Origin Photo) For 25 years, I’ve been recapping the top stories about space and looking forward to next year’s trends on the final frontier — and for most of that time, the dawn of the era of commercial spaceflight has been…
-
Mike Suffredini talks Axiom module additions to ISS, ensuring no gap in LEO station access
It is a lesson the U.S. space program has had to learn many times over: don’t voluntarily give up a space capability without having a successor ready to go or already operational. But for the ISS (International Space Station), a gap in LEO (low Earth orbit) scientific research capability will likely not occur when the…
-
Axiom-1 science & the push toward greater commercialization of space research
When the Axiom-1 mission lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center early next year, it will take with it four humans on the first-ever all-private astronaut flight to the ISS (International Space Station). At its core, the mission focuses on science and education, and the four-person crew will conduct 25 experiments with more than 100…
-
Citizen spacefliers splash down, finishing up Inspiration4’s charity mission in orbit
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule descends to a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. (Inspiration4 Photo) The first non-governmental flight to orbit ended with a splash — and with the safe return of the Inspiration4 mission’s billionaire commander and his three crewmates. Shift4 Payment’s 38-year-old founder and CEO, Jared Isaacman, paid what’s thought to be a price…
-
Why Inspiration4’s ‘all-civilian’ trip to orbit represents the dawn of a second space age
Inspiration4 mission directors Scott Poteet (far left) and Todd Ericson (far right) flank the crew: Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, commander Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux. (Inspiration4 Photo / John Kraus) Are they space tourists? Citizen spacefliers? All-civilian astronauts? Whatever you call them, the four teammates who are due to go into orbit today in a…
-
Virgin Galactic flies to edge of space for first time from New Mexico
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane fires its rocket motor to begin an ascent to the edge of space Saturday. Credit: Virgin Galactic Two pilots flew Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocketplane to the edge of space Saturday over New Mexico on the first human spaceflight from the company’s new home base at Spaceport America. Commercial astronauts Rick…
-
Two BlackSky satellites lost on Rocket Lab launch failure
An Electron rocket lifts off at 7:11 a.m. EDT (1111 GMT) Saturday from Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab A Rocket Lab Electron launcher malfunctioned about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff from New Zealand Saturday, destroying two BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites in the launch company’s second failed flight in less than a year. Rocket Lab,…
-
Live coverage: Rocket Lab’s upper stage runs into trouble soon after launch
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand carrying two BlackSky optical Earth observation satellites. Rocket Lab will attempt to recover the first stage at sea. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Rocket Lab’s live video webcast begins approximately…
-
Watch our interview with two International Space Station astronauts
Spaceflight Now editor Stephen Clark spoke live to International Space Station astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur about their mission Friday.