For what is now the fourth time, a Space Exploration Technologies Dragon spacecraft has successfully returned from Earth orbit to a well executed landing in the Pacific ocean. Following its release from the International Space Station, which took place in the early morning hours, the SpaceX CRS-2 Dragon performed three inital burns, followed by a sustained 10 minute de-oribit burn […]
As dusk settled on Florida’s Cape Canaveral Thursday evening, SpaceX made a couple of late package deliveries to the Dragon spacecraft scheduled to blast off for the International Space Station this morning. Among the items, fresh fruit for the astronauts aboard ISS, grown in an orchard owned by the parents of a SpaceX employee. With […]
Orbital Sciences conducted a successful hotfire test of its Antares first stage earlier this evening at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The test took place using a structural test article, and was intended to fully verify ground, fueling and countdown and ignition procedures for the brand new launch pad. According to OSC, an initial review indicates the 29 second test went […]
Late yesterday, NASAWatch published a press announcement on behalf of new organization, Inspiration Mars Foundation, which is scheduled to introduce a privately funded Mars mission to be launched in January 2018. The formal introduction will come at the National Press Club, 1:00 PM EST on February 27. At the moment, the nature of the mission is not at all clear, and drawing […]
With SpaceX scheduled to launch their third mission to the International Space Station, which will be the second under the Commercial Resupply Services Contract on March 1st, Orbital Sciences is hoping to complete a hot firing test of the Antares booster first stage “before the end of February.” OSC’s previous hot fire attempt on February 13 was terminated […]
A previous version of this article contained erroneous information on several accounts. The corrections, which are significant, are illustrative of the unique approach SpaceX is taking in its Falcon / Dragon system. Innerspace.net originally reported that during a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Exploration and Operations Committee, ISS Station Manager Mike Suffredini discussed […]
In the wake of President Barack Obama’s re-election, analysts in the space community seem to have reached the unsurprising consensus that the result will be a maintenance of the status quo regarding NASA and the nation’s space policy. With the U.S. House and Senate remaining divided between Republicans and Democrats respectively, the threat of sequestration still looms, but it seems almost […]
The SpaceX Grasshopper makes another small leap in the pursuit of first stage reusability in this video tweeted by Elon Musk on Saturday, November 3. While there are a number of efforts to develop reusable launch vehicles underway, most, like Blue Origin, are taking an incremental, scaled approach to the issue starting with subscale, suborbital systems and working their way up. […]
NASA Press Release: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed its first three performance milestones for NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which is intended to lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers. During the company’s first milestone, a technical baseline review, NASA and SpaceX reviewed the Dragon […]
Only slightly less miserable than the weather in the Northeast as a result of hurricane Sandy is the abysmal state of the nation’s weather satellite programs which are charged with tracking such occurrences. As Marcia Smith points out at spacepolicyonline, one impact Sandy is having is to focus some media attention on the fact that the U.S. is facing a potential gap in coverage from both polar and […]
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