Archive for September, 2016

The Rapidly Receding Rationale for NASA’s Space Launch System

The Rapidly Receding Rationale for NASA’s Space Launch System

Opinion As he neared the end of the Tuesday presentation in which he introduced the world to SpaceX’s Interplanetary Transport System, Elon Musk was asked the inevitable question regarding what his plans meant for NASA. The answer was both polite and encouraging, as Musk rightly pointed out that there is no one sure path to […]

Posted in: Blue Origin, NASA, SpaceX
Dream Chaser to Fly First U.N. Space Mission

Dream Chaser to Fly First U.N. Space Mission

Sierra Nevada Corporation has announced an agreement to conduct the first ever United Nations sponsored space mission, which it plans to launch in 2021 using the Dream Chaser space plane. The flight, for which SNC and the U.N. are seeking sponsors, will be aimed at making space research opportunities available to non space-faring nations, many […]

Big Rockets and Bigger Dreams: Elon Musk Introduces SpaceX’s Interplanetary Transport System

Big Rockets and Bigger Dreams: Elon Musk Introduces SpaceX’s Interplanetary Transport System

SpaceX founder Elon Musk took to the stage at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico on Tuesday to finally unveil to the public his company’s vision of a Mars transportation architecture capable of ultimately transporting hundreds of thousands of colonists to the Red Planet. Through the course of the presentation which began with a […]

NASA: Ocean World Europa Is Almost Certainly Venting Water Plumes into Space

NASA: Ocean World Europa Is Almost Certainly Venting Water Plumes into Space

NASA today announced further evidence supporting the existence of plumes erupting from the global salt water ocean which is believed to exist on Jupiter’s moon Europa. The discovery is based on a series of observations in the extreme ultra-violet end of the visible light spectrum as Europa passed in front of Jupiter during its the […]

Posted in: Outer Planets
SpaceX Lights Up Its Raptor Engine For The First Time

SpaceX Lights Up Its Raptor Engine For The First Time

SpaceX has announced the first test firing of its next generation Raptor engine. Word came, as it so often does, via Elon Musk’s Twitter account:   SpaceX propulsion just achieved first firing of the Raptor interplanetary transport engine pic.twitter.com/vRleyJvBkx — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2016 A series of follow up tweets provided a bit […]

SpaceX Closes In On Cause of Falcon 9 Launch Pad Disaster

SpaceX Closes In On Cause of Falcon 9 Launch Pad Disaster

With the highly anticipated introduction of its next generation super heavy lift launch system just days away, SpaceX has shed a little more light on what went badly wrong with its current Falcon 9 workhorse during pre-launch preparations for the Amos-6 satellite mission three weeks ago. In an anomaly update posted to its website on […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Jeff Bezos Introduces New Glenn, Blue Origin’s Massive New Rocket

Jeff Bezos Introduces New Glenn, Blue Origin’s Massive New Rocket

If there were any possibility that SpaceX founder Elon Musk would step back from a highly anticipated announcement of his company’s next big booster in September in deference to the current Falcon 9 investigation, it has likely been erased by the bombshell dropped by Jeff Bezos on Monday. It came in the form of a […]

Blue Origin Teases Upcoming In-Flight Abort Test for New Shepard

Blue Origin Teases Upcoming In-Flight Abort Test for New Shepard

In his latest newsletter, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos teases an upcoming in-flight escape test of the New Shepard capsule aboard the similarly named booster. While there is not an announced date, Bezos says it will take place in early October, and will be broadcast for your “viewing pleasure.” The test, which is described in […]

Posted in: Blue Origin
India Strides Ahead With First “Operational” Launch of Its Cryogenic GSLV

India Strides Ahead With First “Operational” Launch of Its Cryogenic GSLV

While much of the space interested world is looking towards Cape Canaveral and the launch of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission this evening, doubtlessly casting a concerned eye over the charred remains of SpaceX’s mobile launch erector just a few miles away, it was a very different rocket launching from a pad much further away which has […]

Posted in: GSLV, India Space
NASA Counting Down to Asteroid Mission Launch on Thursday Evening

NASA Counting Down to Asteroid Mission Launch on Thursday Evening

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is counting down to the launch of yet another ground breaking (in this case, literally) spacecraft, from Cape Canaveral. Flying aboard the ever-reliable ULA Atlas-V in its 411 configuration, the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security – Regolith Explorer, or Osiris-REx, will journey to the Near Earth asteroid Bennu, where it will collect and […]

Posted in: Asteroids, NASA
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