Tag: Space
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Famously secret about its finances, SpaceX opens its books for the first time
After nearly a quarter of a century operating as a private company, with its financial accounts a closely guarded secret, SpaceX on Wednesday afternoon released a detailed accounting of its business in a nearly 400-page S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. SpaceX, founded in 2002 and still led by Elon Musk, submitted…
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In addition to space stations, Vast says it will now build high-power satellites
As part of its plan to develop a private space station, Vast Space built and then launched a small demonstration spacecraft in early November. This vehicle then completed dozens of test objectives with flying colors before making a successful de-orbit three months later. The mission, which tested power, propulsion, tracking, and a multitude of other…
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Could this be the moment that drug manufacturing takes off in orbit?
NASA has enabled scientists to study the impact of microgravity on drug development for decades, beginning with the Space Shuttle. This work accelerated in the 2010s, with the completion of the International Space Station and full-time crew members devoted to scientific research. There have been some notable successes during this timeframe, such as the ability…
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The US military just released a bunch of UAP files, but there’s no there there
There have been supposed alien sightings for centuries. These observations of “unidentified flying objects,” or UFOs, have periodically surged, such as during the late 1940s and early 1950s as the Cold War began. There have been more sightings since the early 2000s, driven by advances in sensors and cameras that capture images in real time.…
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Rocket Report: Alpha Block 2 coming this summer; Falcon sets booster landing mark
Welcome to Edition 8.40 of the Rocket Report! One of the remarkable things about SpaceX is that, after a quarter of a century and becoming the most important launch company of this era, it remains a disruptive force. Even though the Falcon 9 is the most used rocket of the world, and groundbreaking in its…
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The animated version of the iconic “Hello, world” image reveals striking new details
The astronauts flying aboard the Artemis II mission to the Moon last month took a lot of pictures, and a few dozen of the best ones were released during and shortly afterward the flight. But it wasn’t until last weekend that NASA released the whole trove of more than 12,000 images, dumping them onto the…
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Virgin Galactic reveals new ship, but it’s running out of time and cash
On Thursday, the publicly traded spaceflight company Virgin Galactic shared on social media a new photo of its next-generation spaceship being towed outside of its factory in Mesa, Arizona. You remember Virgin Galactic, right? The space tourism company was founded 22 years ago by Sir Richard Branson to bring spaceflight to the masses. Hundreds of…
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Gateway manufacturer finally acknowledges issue, fails to mention “corrosion”
One of the more intriguing space stories in a while broke last week when NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during a congressional hearing that the two habitation modules built for the Lunar Gateway had been corroded. The immediate response to these comments on Wednesday before a House committee from some space industry observers was doubt—Isaacman,…
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Well, this is embarrassing: The Lunar Gateway’s primary modules are corroded
For a decade, NASA promoted the idea of building a space station around the Moon known as the Lunar Gateway. It touted the facility as both a platform for exploring the lunar environment and testing the technology needed for deep-space habitation. Like many major space projects, it faced delays. Originally, the first component of the…
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Rocket Report: Artemis III rocket getting ready; SpaceX is now an AI company
Welcome to Edition 8.38 of the Rocket Report! The big news this week concerned the third launch of the New Glenn rocket. The first 15 minutes of the flight were exhilarating for Blue Origin, seeing a previously flown rocket take flight and then triumphantly land on a barge at sea. But then the highest of…