Archive for May, 2016

Russian Space Minister: Program Will “Never Catch Up” to SpaceX Innovation

Russian Space Minister: Program Will “Never Catch Up” to SpaceX Innovation

  Russia still leads the world in total number of space missions launched, but for how long?  Here is an unusually blunt assessment of the state of that nation’s space program by the always loquacious Dmitry Rogozin. From the Moscow Times: “Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has been left red-faced after telling reporters that “Russia […]

Posted in: Russian Space
Bigelow’s BEAM Successfully Expands, Pressurizes at ISS

Bigelow’s BEAM Successfully Expands, Pressurizes at ISS

After a slow start brought about by a combination of extreme caution on NASA’s part, Bigelow Aerospace’s BEAM was successfully expanded to its full dimensions on Saturday. From NASA.gov: “Pressurization of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) began at 4:34 p.m. EDT, and the eight tanks filled with air completed full pressurization of the module […]

Three by Sea: SpaceX Launches Thaicom 8, Lands Falcon 9 (Again)

Three by Sea: SpaceX Launches Thaicom 8, Lands Falcon 9 (Again)

After standing down for a day “out of an abundance of caution” to analyze errant readings on a second stage engine actuator, SpaceX ended the week on a spectacular note, successfully lofting the Thaicom 8 communications satellite to Geostationary Transfer Orbit, and then once again landing the first stage on at sea. Sped up video […]

Posted in: SpaceX
ESO Signs Contract for World’s Largest Telescope

ESO Signs Contract for World’s Largest Telescope

  Whenever possible, Innerspace likes to end the work week with an another in the steady stream of image releases from the European Southern Observatory, which operates a series of ground based facilities in Chile’s Atacama desert. Earlier this week, ESO issued an organizational announcement which means the images are only going to keep getting […]

Emissions Nebula Image From ESO

Emissions Nebula Image From ESO

  Another stunner from the European Southern Observatory From the ESO Description: “LHA 120-N55, or N55 as it is usually known, is a glowing gas cloud in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located about 163 000 light-years away. N55 is situated inside a supergiant shell, or superbubble called […]

Blue Origin Will Test Failed Parachute on Next New Shepard Flight

Blue Origin Will Test Failed Parachute on Next New Shepard Flight

Blue Origin is continuing to make progress on multiple fronts. In a newsletter post, company founder Jeff Bezos tells subscribers that his company is advancing testing of the BE-4 LNG engine through construction of two new test cells. The first of those is a pressure-fed cell which will be used to support development of the preburner […]

Posted in: Blue Origin
Update: SpaceX (Not) Ready to Launch Thaicom 8, Recover First Stage

Update: SpaceX (Not) Ready to Launch Thaicom 8, Recover First Stage

Update: Today’s launch has been scrubbed due to “a tiny glitch in the motion of an upper stage engine actuator.” Original story: Following a successful static fire on Tuesday, SpaceX is getting set for an early evening launch of the Thaicom 8 communications satellite out of Cape Canaveral. Liftoff is scheduled for 5:40 PM EDT, […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Congress to Prez: “Kiss My Asteroid”

Congress to Prez: “Kiss My Asteroid”

Congress Give’s President ARM the Finger What may ultimately go down as one of the the strangest and most half-hearted space policy proposals in American history is finally just going down. As spacepolicyonline reports in its usual excruciating detail, a Congressional committee has essentially de-funded the Obama Administration’s Asteroid Redirect Mission, or ARM. Yesterday, the […]

Posted in: Asteroids, Congress
India Successfully Tests RLV Technologies Demonstrator

India Successfully Tests RLV Technologies Demonstrator

From the Indian Space Research Organization: India’s Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), Successfully Flight Tested Today, May 23, 2016 ISRO successfully flight tested India’s first winged body aerospace vehicle operating in hypersonic flight regime. In this experimental mission, the HS9 solid rocket booster carrying RLV-TD lifted off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan […]

Posted in: India Space
The Zombie Rocket Which Cannot Die: Bolden Says SLS/Orion “Protected” From Next President

The Zombie Rocket Which Cannot Die: Bolden Says SLS/Orion “Protected” From Next President

And so it has come to this. From AL.com: NASA administrator says Space Launch System ‘protected’ against next president “The Space Launch System (SLS) being developed by NASA in Alabama is “a protected program” the next president won’t be able to cancel, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. said Friday in Huntsville. “It’s a protected program […]

Posted in: SLS / Orion
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