Tag: Space
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To keep Starliner flying, Boeing must make some hard choices
In September 2009, Boeing announced that it would participate in NASA’s new “commercial crew” program. The aerospace industry leader vowed to bring its long experience in supporting the space agency and leverage its human spaceflight experience to make the program successful. “Boeing has a lot to offer NASA in this new field of commercial crew…
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Rocket Report: SpaceX pushing ahead on Starbase, North Korea launch failure
Welcome to Edition 5.41 of the Rocket Report! Not for the first time this year, the next three launches on the global calendar are all Falcon 9 missions. The cadence of that rocket’s ability to launch continues to astound me—as does its reliability record. Read more about that below. As always, we welcome reader submissions,…
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Boeing finds two serious problems with Starliner just weeks before launch
A Boeing official said Thursday that the company was “standing down” from an attempt to launch the Starliner spacecraft on July 21 to focus on recently discovered issues with the vehicle. Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for Starliner, said two spacecraft problems were discovered before Memorial Day weekend and that the company spent…
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NASA panel: No convincing evidence for extraterrestrial life connected with UAPs
On Wednesday, members of the NASA advisory board tasked with studying unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) held its first public meeting, debuting its plan for how it would proceed with a report it is scheduled to write this year. Among many topics discussed, several of its members (and NASA officials) stressed that they were not specifically…
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A new report finds NASA has spent an obscene amount of money on SLS propulsion
An independent report published Thursday contained troubling findings about the money spent by the agency on propulsion for the Space Launch System rocket. Moreover, the report by NASA Inspector General Paul Martin warns that if these costs are not controlled, it could jeopardize plans to return to the Moon. Bluntly, Martin wrote that if the…
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No one should be surprised Virgin Orbit failed—it had a terrible business plan
It’s now official—the launch company Virgin Orbit is being sold for parts. In a new filing as part of the bankruptcy process, Rocket Lab purchased the company’s main production facility in Long Beach, California, to support its Neutron rocket. Stratolaunch bought Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747 aircraft and related equipment. And Launcher acquired the company’s lease…
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At long last, the glorious future we were promised in space is on the way
Last Friday, NASA awarded a $3.4 billion contract to a team led by Blue Origin for the design and construction of a second Human Landing System to fly astronauts down to the Moon. The announcement capped a furious two-year lobbying campaign by Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos to obtain a coveted piece of NASA’s Artemis…
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At long last, the glorious future we were promised in space is on the way
Last Friday, NASA awarded a $3.4 billion contract to a team led by Blue Origin for the design and construction of a second Human Landing System to fly astronauts down to the Moon. The announcement capped a furious two-year lobbying campaign by Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos to obtain a coveted piece of NASA’s Artemis…
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LIGO starts its fourth round of searching for gravitational waves and black holes
A specialist checks the alignment of a test beam at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. (National Science Foundation Photo) After three years of upgrading and waiting, due in part to the coronavirus pandemic, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory has officially resumed its hunt for the signatures of crashing black holes and neutron stars. “Our LIGO…
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How NASA plans to melt the Moon—and build on Mars
In June a four-person crew will enter a hangar at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and spend one year inside a 3D-printed building. Made of a slurry that—before it dried—looked like neatly laid lines of soft-serve ice cream, Mars Dune Alpha has crew quarters, shared living space, and dedicated areas for administering medical…