A long touted lunar circumnavigation for space tourists is back in the news with reports from Russia that RSC Energia now has 8 possible candidates for the mission, which would take place aboard a specially modified Soyuz. The story from Sputniknews, actually quotes an interview from another paper Izvestia, which somewhat paradoxically (or not) made […]
Today, two NASA astronauts on the International Space Station installed the International Docking Adapter which was carried to orbit in the trunk of the SpaceX CRS-9 Dragon capsule. With the first of two IDA’s now in place, the Station will be ready to receive U.S. Commercial Crew missions, which could begin with a test flight […]
An interesting piece of information regarding SpaceX’s future plans and the purchase of large quantities of carbon fiber out of the Nikkei Asian Review, courtesy of Jeff Foust’s morning newsletter. “Japanese materials maker Toray Industries has agreed to supply carbon fiber to U.S. startup SpaceX for use in the bodies of rockets and space vehicles. […]
It was something like watching Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky, you know the result is almost a foregone conclusion, but it still sure is fun to tune in, particularly if you are a fan of Team USA. During the overnight hours, SpaceX once again successfully launched a communications satellite on a commercial mission to Geostationary […]
SpaceX is preparing for another overnight launch out of Cape Canaveral. Scheduled to liftoff at 1:26 AM ET (5:26 AM UDT) early Sunday morning is JCSAT-16, a commercial communications satellite for SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation. The launch, which will take place from Space Launch Complex 40 aboard a Falcon 9 and has a 2-hour window, […]
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 […]
NASA has chosen six companies for further evaluation of potential deep space habitat modules as part of the agency’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships initiative. The selected companies are: Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas Boeing of Pasadena, Texas Lockheed Martin of Denver Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems of Louisville, […]
NASA recently released a new video timed to coincide with the premier of Star Trek: Beyond. For dedicated fans of TOS, the title, “On the Edge of Forever” is a bit perplexing given the fact that it is about the Space Station, not a “City on the Edge of Forever,” and Joan Collins is nowhere […]
Yesterday, Google Lunar X Prize competitor Moon Express announced that it has received approval for what will be the first purely commercial mission to go beyond Earth’s immediate orbit. If all goes according to plan, and that is a pretty big if considering the variables involved, ME’s MX-1 lander will launch out of New Zealand […]
While NASA’s Juno spacecraft is just getting settled in for its stay in orbit around the solar system’s largest planet, a new study based on information from ground based instruments sheds light on how Jupiter’s gravity and shadow affect one of its moons. Perhaps one of the most tortured bodies in the solar system, Io’s […]
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