Tag: NASA
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Watchdogs issue warning about NASA’s SLS moon rocket plan, but Boeing CEO stays the course
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Space Launch System in flight. (NASA Illustration) The federal government’s watchdog agency says getting NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket off the ground is likely to take longer and cost more than the space agency says it will. Any issues that crop up in the months ahead could push the…
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10 years since its launch, NASA lunar orbiter remains crucial for moon landings
Artist’s concept of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA Scientists marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on Tuesday, celebrating a mission that has greatly outlived its original one-year design life and continues taking high-resolution pictures to help U.S. companies and international space agencies select destinations for moon landers. LRO…
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Tethers Unlimited wins five NASA awards to develop new types of space gizmos
Tethers Unlimited’s Androgynous Robotic Tool-change Interface, or ARTIE, is a hot-swappable tool-change interface for the Kraken robotic arm. (Tethers Unlimited Illustration) NASA today awarded up to $45.4 million for 363 aerospace projects proposed by small businesses and research institutions — including Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited, which snagged five of the awards. Phase I grants of…
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Bigelow announces plans for private astronaut flights to space station
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (foreground) and Doug Hurley (background) train in a Crew Dragon simulator for their flight to the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX/NASA Bigelow Space Operations says it will charge $52 million per seat to send private astronauts to the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon ferry ships, and has already paid “substantial…
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Bigelow aims to sell rides to space station on SpaceX Dragon ships for $52M a seat
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins conducts tests and replaces parts inside the International Space Station’s Bigelow Expandable Activity Module in 2016. (NASA Photo) Just days after NASA laid out its ground rules for commercial travel to the International Space Station, Nevada-based Bigelow Space Operations says it’s targeting a fare of roughly $52 million a seat for…
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NASA finally gets down to the business of commercializing space station operations
As a joke, NASA spacewalker Dale Gardner holds up a “For Sale” sign during a shuttle mission in 1984, during a time when the space shuttle fleet took on commercial satellite servicing tasks. (NASA Photo) NASA today laid out its initial batch of ground rules for future commercial activities on the International Space Station, including…
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NASA unveils plans to commercialize low Earth orbit
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Roscosmos NASA unveiled an ambitious program Friday to commercialize low-Earth orbit, making way for product development and even advertising aboard the International Space Station, month-long visits by company astronauts starting as early as next year and use of a station docking port for…
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Trump criticizes NASA over his own administration’s moon program
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION President Donald Trump after signing Space Policy Directive 1 on Dec. 11, 2017, directing NASA to return to the moon. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani In a head-spinning tweet, President Trump blasted NASA on Friday for its plan to return to the moon, a plan set in motion during a…
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With a single tweet, President Trump stirs tumult over NASA’s plans to go to the moon
President Donald Trump shows off a flight jacket he was given after signing a NASA authorization bill into law in 2017. (NASA Photo / Bill Ingalls) President Donald Trump put the space community on edge today with a tweet that downplayed NASA’s plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2024 as the first step…
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NASA picks three companies to send commercial landers to the moon
Artist’s concept of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. Credit: Astrobotic NASA has announced that Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond won contracts to deliver science instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the moon’s surface in the first of a series of robotic missions preceding a human return to the moon. The three companies are developing commercial lunar…