Coming right on the heels of the announcement by Moon Express that it has received clearance for a historic first commercial trip to the Moon, Deep Space Industries is officially announcing plans to send the first private mission to an asteroid. Notably, while the company’s long term goal is asteroid mining, its first mission […]
The United States is not the only country seeking to establish a sound legal framework for domestic corporations to go to work in outer space. In Europe, Luxembourg has stepped into the fray with an initiative of its own, titled spaceresources.lu. Last week, it announced a partnership with U.S. based Deep Space Industries to support […]
Source: NBC A new asteroid mining venture, Deep Space Industries, will be unveiled later today at the The Santa Monica Museum of Flying beginning at 10 AM PT and broadcast on spacevidcast.com as well as Youtube. Press releases thus far have indicated that the company will initially focus on sending small, 55 lb. spacecraft evocatively named Firefly, […]
In an election season pretty much devoid of serious discussion of space policy, if even for a moment, a coalition of space organizations has released a white paper titled “Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space.” The event took place at a National Press Club Newsmaker news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The […]
Is Elon Musk about to launch a revolution in satellite construction similar to the one he began at SpaceX which has is already altering the economics of how they are launched? The Wall Street Journal apparently thinks so, based on a story by Rolfe Winkler and Andy Pasztor. According to the report, Musk is considering […]
“I don’t know where I’m a gonna go when the Volcano blows” – Mr. James Buffet On a day on which some portion of the U.S. population may be prone to a contemplating a permanent change of address, perhaps it is time to consider the long term prospects of what may be the the ultimate […]
Two recent news items highlight the slow, but steady progress being made to set the stage for the robotic exploration and utilization of space beyond low Earth orbit. First, the tiny European nation of Luxembourg, already home to two of the world’s largest ComSat companies, announced a new initiative, called spaceresources.lu to promote space mining and […]
From NASA, comments follow: “New data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft point to more prevalent water ice on Pluto’s surface than previously thought. This false-color image, derived from observations in infrared light by the Ralph/Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) instrument, shows where the spectral features of water ice are abundant on Pluto’s surface. It […]
Early last week, news media reported that NASA has terminated its Space Act Agreement with the B612 Foundation due its failure to meet specified milestones, namely beginning development of the $350-$450 million Sentinel mission. B612 was founded by former astronauts Ed Lu and Rusty Schweickert, for the purpose of raising awareness about asteroid defense by funding […]
At just after 10 AM CST (US) Wednesday morning, November 12, the European Space Agency received confirmation that the Rosetta spacecraft’s Philae lander touched down on its target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, currently more than 500 million kilometers away from Earth. The initial jubilation over what appeared to be a perfect descent and touchdown, and a moment of […]
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