The growing list of potential smallsat launchers thinned out a bit last week with the news that DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has cancelled ALASA, the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access program which was awarded to Boeing in 2014. The story, reported in Space News, cites difficulties in maintaining safe control over the […]
Yesterday, InnerSpace focused on air-launched solutions to the growing demand for small satellite launches. And while winged rockets may conjure up fond memories for those who grew up reading classic science fiction from the golden era, an announcement from New Zealand born but LA based NewsSpace company Rocket Lab suggests that conventional vertically launched two-stage […]
The prospects for air-launched, lower cost access to space appear to be soaring higher all the time. On July 27th, a defense contracts notification website reported that Boeing has received a contract modification for its Experimental Spaceplane, XS-1 award. Managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the XS-1 program is seeking to […]
A recent KSC launch award to Orbital Sciences Corporation for a 2016 mission highlights just how expensive the Pegasus booster, once hailed as revolutionary, has become. The $55 million order for the air launched Pegasus for the CYGNSS mission is nearly what SpaceX is charging a commercial customer for the EELV class Falcon 9, […]
The continually disappointing state of very small launch vehicle development was dealt another blow November 18th, when NASA notified Space Florida that it would be terminating its role in funding the Nan0-Sat Launch Challenge. The challenge, which was never officially approved, and only progressed as far as choosing a logo and developing a set of draft rules, would have paid […]
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