Tag: NanoRacks
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Northrop Grumman leaves behind solo commercial space station venture, partners with Nanoracks on ‘Starlab’
A rendering of the Nanoracks/Voyager Space commercial space station orbiting the Earth. Image: Nanoracks About a year and a half after signing a Space Act Agreement with NASA to develop a commercial space station, Northrop Grumman formally withdrew from its solo plans in order to partner with Nanoracks, a subsidiary of Voyager Space. Under this…
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Trans-Atlantic joint venture aims to build new “international” space station
Voyager Space, one of several US companies formulating concepts for new commercial space stations, has established a joint venture with Airbus to co-develop an Earth-orbiting research outpost called Starlab. The companies announced the joint venture Wednesday, saying they plan to field a successor to the International Space Station. “The US-led joint venture will bring together…
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Blue Origin’s team wins a $130M share of NASA funding for commercial space stations
An artist’s conception shows the Orbital Reef space station with a single-person spacecraft and Boeing’s Starliner space taxi flying nearby, and Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser space plane docked to a port. (Orbital Reef Illustration) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture and its partners have won a $130 million award to jump-start the design of their…
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NASA chief warns of gap after retirement of International Space Station
File photo from the International Space Station as the outpost flew over the Nile River delta n Egypt in August 2019. Credit: NASA The International Space Station is likely to continue operating for another decade, but without more government support, a privately-owned outpost may not be ready in time to replace it, NASA Administrator Jim…
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Xplore partners with Nanoracks to set up opportunities for deep-space missions
An artist’s conception shows Xplore’s Xcraft probe making its way to the moon. (Xplore Illustration) Seattle-based Xplore says it’s joining forces with Houston-based Nanoracks to create low-cost rideshare opportunities for payloads heading for the moon, Mars and other destinations beyond Earth orbit. The partnership takes advantage of the commercial approach to deep-space exploration that’s being…
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Nanoracks aims to test habitat-building method during SpaceX satellite mission
An artist’s conception shows the deployment of hardware that would deploy a set of nanosatellites and then demonstrate a robotic metal-cutting technique for in-space habitat construction. (Nanoracks Illustration) Nanoracks says it’ll put a metal-cutting robot to work in orbit next year as part of a satellite deployment mission, marking the first in-space test of a…
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NanoRacks names its space outpost team, including Stratolaunch and Olis Robotics
An artist’s conception shows a Centaur upper-stage booster that’s been outfitted to become an orbital outpost. (NanoRacks Illustration) It takes a village to raise an space outpost, and NanoRacks’ array of villagers includes Stratolaunch as well as Olis Robotics, the startup formerly known as BluHaptics. NanoRacks, which is headquartered in Texas, today listed those two Seattle-based…
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NanoRacks lays out vision for turning rockets into space outposts, starting with Independence-1
Artwork shows a Centaur upper stage that’s been converted into an outpost. (NanoRacks Illustration) Don’t call them commercial space stations, or gateways, or portals. NanoRacks is laying claim to a different moniker for its new breed of refurbished orbital modules. “We like ‘outposts,’” NanoRacks CEO Jeffrey Manber told GeekWire. The space outposts that Manber has…
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NASA gives its nod to NanoRacks for space station’s first commercial portal
In this artist’s conception, NanoRacks’ airlock module is the knobby-looking hardware attached to a port on the International Space Station’s Tranquility module. (NanoRacks Illustration) NASA has accepted a plan from a private venture called NanoRacks to provide the International Space Station with an air lock that would serve as its first commercial portal. The plan could…
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NASA okays commercial airlock for space station
Artist’s concept of the NanoRacks airlock attached to the space station’s Tranquility module. Credit: NanoRacks A commercial airlock built in partnership by NanoRacks and Boeing will be connected to the International Space Station in 2019, the companies announced Monday, after the proposed project won preliminary approval from NASA managers. NanoRacks plans to deploy small commercial…