Today, January 28th 2016, marks the 30th anniversary of Challenger disaster. It is also NASA’s official Day of Remembrance to commemorate the three separate tragedies which have scarred the agency and shaped its acceptance of risk. They were the Apollo 1 fire which took place January 27th, 1967, the loss of Challenger on January 28th, […]
This could be the year of the real thing. In an interview conducted just days after his company completed the second successful suborbital launch of its New Shepard rocket, Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson indicated that 2016 should see the same vehicle fly “again and again” as it begins building the experience base which will lead […]
It is far from the best of times for the Russian space program, as budget realities conflict with that nation’s lunar ambitions. Following optimistic projections last year that it was working towards a 2025 launch date for a lunar circumnavigation mission to be carried out by the planned Angara A5B heavy lift vehicle, a draft […]
Blue Origin has taken another step in its quest to see “millions of people living and working in space,” and this one could be characterized as significant. Following the announcement of FAA airspace restrictions for the area surrounding the company’s West Texas test facility which came on Thursday, it was pretty clear that another flight […]
First there was the Ed Wood classic, Plan 9 From Outer Space. Now, a fascinating bit of astronomical detective work from researchers at Caltech may have come up with the best evidence yet that somewhere well beyond the Kuiper Belt, our solar system harbors a massive, as yet undiscovered world they have dubbed “Planet Nine.” […]
The SpaceX Falcon 9 V1.1 ended its career on Sunday in much the same fashion as it began, with an on-time launch out of California’s Vandenberg, AFB and a bit more experience gained in the still elusive art of landing a descending booster at sea. Lifting off at 1:42 PM EST out of a very […]
Perhaps it is time to change the plucky little spacecraft’s name. In a press conference held Thursday afternoon at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to announce the CRS-2 contract awards, Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane finally caught up with its ambitions, becoming for a day at least, Dream Catcher. In fact, the second Commercial Resupply […]
It could be an exciting second half of the week for several aerospace companies. After three delays for unspecified reasons, NASA may finally be ready to announce the winners of its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract for ongoing supply of the International Space Station. Industry analyst Charles Lurio is suggesting the awards could come as […]
According to industry analyst Charles Lurio, next week’s Jason-3 launch from Vandenberg, Ca. will include a new attempt to recover a Falcon 9 first stage at sea. SpaceX will try to land the Falcon 9 first stage on a drone ship during the Jason-3 launch from Vandenberg AFB on January 17. — Charles A. Lurio […]
It doesn’t take place “a long time ago” nor in a galaxy “far, far away,” but if your interests run towards what a future in space might look like in a universe where the limitations of science (and plot points) actually count for something, SyFy’s The Expanse is easily the run away hit of an overhyped […]
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