Image Credit : SpaceX On Monday, Innerspace reported on a story in Space News about an excerpt from a letter sent by U.S. Representatives Lamar Smith (Tx) and Steven Palazzo, (Ms) to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden regarding the possible use of Orion as a backup to Commercial Crew. Significantly, the letter also questioned whether or […]
Original NASA Caption: Three views of an escaping atmosphere, obtained by MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. By observing all of the products of water and carbon dioxide breakdown, MAVEN’s remote sensing team can characterize the processes that drive atmospheric loss on Mars. Image Credit: University of Colorado/NASA NASA News Release RELEASE 14-285 NASA Mission Provides Its […]
Cygnus Approach Orion Image Credit: OSC One of the most common arguments put forward in support of NASA’s current program of exploration using the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft is that alternative modular missions launched by smaller boosters are inherently too complicated. The ISS, which required dozens of Shuttle and Russian launches to complete, […]
Note: New results from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter indicates just how asinine the notion was that the Moon is no longer a worthy destination for human exploration simply because “we’ve been there before.” But then again, India’s Chandrayaan 1 orbiter had already confirmed that point by discovering the presence of water molecules on the Moon […]
Image Credit: Boeing The NASA source selection statement for Commercial Crew is still not publicly available, at least officially, but Aviation Week has obtained a copy, and the resulting article sheds some light on what its says. From the article: “The internal document, signed by NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier on Sept. 15, the day […]
In case anyone thought NASA’s announcement of two winners in the Commercial Crew program, one of which was Boeing, signified a new era of cordial relations between “NewSpace” advocates for Commercial Crew and those who remain firmly in the camp of the “OldSpace” approach as represented by the SLS/Orion program, a letter from two key […]
Artists Concept: Image CredIt JPL One recurring theme in coverage from Innerspace.net is a lamentation over the lack of any flagship class outer planet mission to follow in the wake of the spectacularly successful Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. While Innerspace is predominately focused on human exploration and settlement, and in particular the contributions being made […]
Note: NASA has made the right call here. The SNC protest can go on, even as work does as well. One wonders why this took as long as it did. Presumably it took until today to get a legal opinion. NASA News Story: NASA Exercises Authority to Proceed with Commercial Crew Contracts On Sept. 16, […]
Image Credit: NASA Note: Another NASA story/promotion with a somewhat misleading headline. While NASA is preparing to launch a partially completed Orion spacecraft on a Delta Heavy in order to test the heat shield, and has two flights aboard SLS in development, there is absolutely no concrete plan, and more importantly no budget, to send […]
Not so “bleak.” Image Credit: Mars One Last week at the International Astronautical Congress, a team of graduate students from MIT presented a paper entitled, “An Independent Assessment Of the Technical Feasibility Of The Mars One Mission Plan.” This week, space media began reporting on the study with headlines such as this: “MIT Analysis Paints […]
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