Tag: Moon
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Trump signs NASA authorization act, Pence to chair National Space Council
President Trump signed the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 on Tuesday, surrounded by members of Congress and astronauts. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls President Donald Trump signed a new NASA authorization bill Tuesday, the first such space policy framework since early in the Obama administration, that largely continues the space agency’s efforts to foster a commercial…
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Round-the-moon trip intrigues billionaire spaceflier Charles Simonyi, but he won’t go
Software billionaire Charles Simonyi chats with GeekWire’s Alan Boyle at a 50th-anniversary celebration for the University of Washington’s computer science and engineering program. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) Charles Simonyi, the billionaire software executive who’s flown to space twice, says he doesn’t know who’s on SpaceX’s passenger list for a flight beyond the moon and back.…
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Why choose to go to the moon? Trump changes commercial space calculations
An artist’s conception shows Bigelow Aerospace’s lunar depot in orbit. (Bigelow Aerospace) Nearly 55 years ago, President John F. Kennedy said America chose to go to the moon and take on other challenges “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Now it’s commercial space ventures that are choosing to go to the…
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Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin propose ‘Amazon-like’ delivery to the moon in 2020
Jeff Bezos shows off the concept for Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch system during a 2015 news conference in Florida. The rocket could reportedly be adapted for moon missions. (Blue Origin Photo) Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has reportedly proposed sending a robotic lander to the moon’s south polar region by 2020,…
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SpaceX to fly two private individuals on a Dragon 2 lunar mission
In a hastily arranged announcement, Elon Musk has revealed a plan to launch a Dragon 2 spacecraft on a circumlunar mission, with two paying customers. The launch, which will be conducted by a Falcon Heavy rocket in late 2018, is being seen as a major statement of intent by SpaceX, especially when NASA is conducting a…
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SpaceX reveals plan to send two private citizens around the moon in 2018
An artist’s conception shows SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX says it’s making plans to send two private citizens around the moon late next year – using its yet-to-be-flown Falcon Heavy rocket and its crew-capable Dragon capsule, which is still under development. The would-be fliers have not been identified, but they have already paid a…
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SpaceX to send two private citizens around the moon and back
Updated at 6:15 p.m. EST (2315 GMT) with details. An Apollo astronaut took this image of the Earth above the lunar horizon. Credit: NASA SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk announced Monday plans to send two paying “private individuals” on a week-long flight around the moon and back to Earth by the end of…
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NASA looks into sending astronauts on a trip beyond the moon as early as 2019
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Orion capsule in flight. (NASA Illustration) NASA and its commercial partners say they’re studying the possibility of sending astronauts beyond the moon years earlier than planned, by putting a crew on the first flight of the space agency’s heavy-lift Space Launch System. The NASA study, sparked in part by a desire…
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China sets November launch for lunar sample return mission
File photo of the moon seen from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA China plans to launch a robotic mission to return samples from the lunar surface, the first such mission in four decades, in November on top of the country’s new heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket, according to state media reports. The government-run Xinhua…
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Google Lunar X Prize clears five teams for moon race and pays out $1 million
An artist’s conception shows SpaceIL’s lander on the moon. (SpaceIL Illustration) The organizers of the Google Lunar X Prize competition confirmed that five teams have been cleared to go after the $20 million grand prize, and doled out a total of $1 million to all 16 teams that entered. These five teams previously reported that…