NASA

Musk Reddit AMA on Mars Plans Echo NASA’s Approach to Apollo Decades Ago

Musk Reddit AMA on Mars Plans Echo NASA’s Approach to Apollo Decades Ago

A Sunday “Ask Me Anything” segment on Reddit by SpaceX CEO Founder and CEO Elon Musk filled in some of the details regarding the company’s recently announced Mars plans. It also demonstrated once again the unique nature of SpaceX’s path to its overriding goal and a big picture approach which is strongly reminiscent of the […]

Posted in: Mars, NASA, SpaceX
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
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
NASA Selects Selects Six Deep Space Habitat Proposals for Ground Development

NASA Selects Selects Six Deep Space Habitat Proposals for Ground Development

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, […]

Posted in: NASA, Space Stations
ISS and the Future of Commercial Operations in Low Earth Orbit

ISS and the Future of Commercial Operations in Low Earth Orbit

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 […]

SpaceX Receives Second Order for Commercial Crew Launch to ISS

SpaceX Receives Second Order for Commercial Crew Launch to ISS

Kennedy Space Center News Release July 29, 2016 RELEASE 16-080 NASA Orders Second SpaceX Crew Mission to International Space Station NASA took another important step Friday in returning U.S. astronaut launches from U.S. soil with the order of a second post-certification mission from commercial provider SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. Commercial crew flights from Florida’s Space […]

Posted in: NASA, SpaceX
Democrats Like NASA Too

Democrats Like NASA Too

One of the very best things about the NewSpace age is the fact that it is no longer necessary, or at times even useful, to listen patiently for a call to action from a State of the Union Address, or from a candidate or party platform to engage the United States in human space exploration […]

Posted in: NASA
The Choices We Make: Thiel, the Moon and Mars

The Choices We Make: Thiel, the Moon and Mars

What a week in space. It began of course, with SpaceX launching a Dragon spacecraft to ISS for the 9th time, and landing a Falcon 9 first stage at Cape Canaveral for only the second time. It also featured a speech and curious non-endorsement by former astronaut and first female Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins at […]

Posted in: Mars, Moon, NASA, SpaceX, Uncategorized
Study: Ceres Likely Harbors Water Ice in Polar Craters

Study: Ceres Likely Harbors Water Ice in Polar Craters

A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters concludes that in addition to whatever ice reserves the dwarf planet Ceres may harbor under its surface, (and they could be substantial, including even a subsurface ocean) the largest body in the main asteroid belt has also likely accumulated quite a bit of water ice in permanently shadowed […]

Posted in: Asteroids, NASA
Juno Arrives at Jupiter, NASA Extends A Host of Other Missions As Well

Juno Arrives at Jupiter, NASA Extends A Host of Other Missions As Well

It is in many ways high summer for NASA’s fleet of robotic spacecraft deployed throughout the solar system. On Monday evening, as the fireworks were lighting up the night sky across much of the United States, the space agency’s latest probe, Juno, arrived in orbit around Jupiter. Coming nearly five years after it launched from […]

Posted in: NASA, Outer Planets
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