Archive for April, 2014

SpaceX Releases Landing Video, Elon Musk Announces Reveal of Dragon 2.0

SpaceX Releases Landing Video, Elon Musk Announces Reveal of Dragon 2.0

As promised, SpaceX has posted a video of the recent Falcon 9 first stage soft landing attempt which took place on April 18.  As promised, it is rather garbled to say the least. And this is the improved footage, which SpaceX still hopes will be further cleaned up in a crowd sourced effort. Also forthcoming, […]

Orbital Sciences and ATK to Merge

Orbital Sciences and ATK to Merge

The company which likes to pride itself on being the original Newspace company, (and often refuses to refer to SpaceX by name) Orbital Sciences, announced today that it is engaging in a  “merger of equals” with Alliant Techsystems,  or ATK, the defense, munitions and space company which is perhaps best known as the major contractor […]

Image of Falcon 9 Just Prior to Landing

Image of Falcon 9 Just Prior to Landing

Image Credit Elon Musk This image, tweeted by Elon Musk today, was shot from the Falcon 9 first stage just before it touched down into a stormy Atlantic ocean on Friday, April 18th as part of the CRS-3 mission to ISS. According to Musk, the accompanying video will be posted to the SpaceX website shortly. […]

Release: NASA Seeks to Evolve Space Station for New Commercial Opportunities

Release: NASA Seeks to Evolve Space Station for New Commercial Opportunities

  The first paragraph sort of says it all, but it is still worth emphasizing. All though some things remain the same, in other ways this is not your father’s (or mother’s) NASA. April 28, 2014 RELEASE 14-118 NASA Seeks to Evolve Space Station for New Commercial Opportunities As part of NASA’s continuing effort to […]

Posted in: NASA, Space Commerce
Ceres and Vesta as Seen From the Curiosity Rover on Mars

Ceres and Vesta as Seen From the Curiosity Rover on Mars

On Thursday, JPL published the above photo with graphic, which depicts the first time the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, or any asteroid for that matter, have been photographed from the surface of the Red Planet. There is an interesting lesson in perspective here, as the release gives a brief mention of the NASA’s truly remarkable […]

Posted in: Asteroids, Mars
About That Falcon First Stage, Elon Musk at the National Press Club

About That Falcon First Stage, Elon Musk at the National Press Club

Although today’s SpaceX press conference was held primarily to announce a lawsuit filed to stop the Air Force/ULA block buy,  it also shed quite a bit more light onto last Friday’s soft landing of the Falcon 9 first stage. To sum it up, in the words of Chief Brody “You’re going to need a bigger […]

SpaceX Suing to Stop EELV Block Buy

SpaceX Suing to Stop EELV Block Buy

Well, it wasn’t about Mars Colonial Transport, or even the official reveal of Dragon 2.0. Instead today’s SpaceX press conference held at the National Press Club, and delivered by Elon Musk, was primarily to announce the fact that SpaceX is filing a lawsuit in the US Court of Federal Claims in an attempt to halt […]

“Important Announcement” From SpaceX Today

“Important Announcement” From SpaceX Today

Credit : Getty Images SpaceX has released the following media advisory;  “Elon Musk will make an important SpaceX announcement today, Friday, April 25th at 1:00PM ET at The National Press Club” Given the deafening silence coming from SpaceX after tweets from Elon Musk last Friday that the Falcon 9 first stage on the CRS-3 mission […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Orbital Sciences Suggests a New Antares for Stratolaunch

Orbital Sciences Suggests a New Antares for Stratolaunch

Stratolaunch has been pretty quiet as of late, but an Orbital Sciences conference call reported in Space News sheds some new light on the booster the behemoth twin fuselage aircraft may be lofting. Originally reported as likely to be a solid cored booster comprised of components provided by ATK,  based on comments by CEO David […]

Two More Questions SpaceX Might Have Asked of ULA

Two More Questions SpaceX Might Have Asked of ULA

In the six weeks which have passed since SpaceX’s Elon Musk and ULA’s Michael Gass squared off in Congressional testimony over the EELV program, SpaceX has completed another successful mission with the Falcon 9, the ninth overall and the fourth of the Falcon 9 V1.1/ F-9R. ULA has also completed two more launches, both by […]

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