Tag: Space
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Have you tried restarting? Bill Nye’s LightSail needs a reboot due to software glitch
An artist rendition of what the LightSail will look like if it can be deployed Update, Saturday evening: LightSail spacecraft reboots in orbit: ‘It’s alive!’ says Bill Nye A glitch with a spreadsheet file has caused Bill Nye’s LightSail satellite to stop responding. With no communication, the Planetary Society may have to wait for a cosmic…
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NASA taps Boeing for first commercial crew flight to International Space Station
Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100. Photo via Boeing. Boeing will help NASA get back into the business of transporting people to the International Space Station. NASA announced on Wednesday that it has tasked Boeing to fly astronauts to the ISS in 2017, marking its first commercial order for a human spaceflight mission. The “crew rotation mission” is part of…
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House passes space mining bill allowing companies to keep what they find in asteroids
Planetary Resources President Chris Lewicki with the Arkyd spacecraft at the GeekWire Summit 2014. Asteroid mining has made its way to Washington D.C. To help companies gain future legal ownership of resources found in space asteroids, the House of Representatives passed the “SPACE Act of 2015” this week, The Washington Post reported. The legislation would create new commercial property…
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Blue Origin spaceship makes first test flight, with founder Jeff Bezos in the control room
Jeff Bezos in the control room, as seen in a Blue Origin video. Blue Origin, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ space venture, launched the first developmental test flight of its New Shepard spacecraft in West Texas on Thursday. Bezos himself was on hand for the occasion, making a cameo appearance in this video, first in the…
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It’s the final countdown to the launch of NASA’s Year in Space
Photo via NASA/Bill Ingalls/Astronaut Scott Kelly It’s about to happen: NASA’s “Year in Space” is set to take off today, as Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko begin their 12-month mission aboard the International Space Station. Coverage starts at 2:30 ET/11:30 PT, and takeoff is set for 3:42 p.m. ET/12:42 PT. You can watch it all on NASA…
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Elon Musk makes SpaceX photos free for public use
Photo via SpaceX/Falcon 9 Vertical Talk about responsive. Less than an hour after Elon Musk announced that SpaceX would post photos for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, he decided to go for the full public domain, when pressed by another’s tweet. Also, kudos to Musk for his new Dr. Evil-inspired profile pic. SpaceX…
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NASA posts gorgeous Aurora shots from International Space Station on Twitter
Photo Twitter/ NASA Happy morning after St. Patty’s Day! Are you hungover, a bit slow on the uptake? It’s OK. Sit back with your coffee and Advil and take in these shots, thanks to International Space Station astronauts and that geomagnetic storm that was kicking up havoc yesterday (no one was in danger or harmed):…
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Spaceflight raises $19M to help launch micro-satellites through innovative ‘ride share’ program
Spaceflight’s SHERPA In-Space Tug offers a platform for hosting payloads for periods up to three years Spaceflight Industries, which helps the U.S. government, Planet Labs and other customers launch small satellites on larger space transportation vehicles, has snagged $19.2 million in financing, according to a SEC filing. Backers of the company — which is led…
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NASA launches new video on next era for Kennedy Space Center
Photo via YouTube Today, NASA released a video showing how it’s “retooling for the future” by remaking the Kennedy Space Center into a “multi-user space port.” The goal? By modernizing and subletting parts of America’s iconic space center they want to make Kennedy the “world’s premier space port,” and the top launch spot for most…
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SpaceX founder Elon Musk inks $3.5M book deal to write about Earth and Mars
Elon Musk Like he needed the cash, Tesla and SpaceX head honcho Elon Musk just signed a $3.5 million book deal with Penguin. Details are scarce at this point, but apparently it’s a book about Earth and Mars, “half about the issues facing us on Earth — sustainability issues in particular. The second half will be about the…