SpaceX has picked up NASA orders for five more commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station, according to an article in Space News. The agreement, which was signed in December, bring the total number of Dragon missions to ISS under the original CRS-1 contract to 20. The original order called for 12 flights, […]
NASA’s Commercial Crew partners Boeing and SpaceX are continuing to make progress in testing their respective systems for flights which will begin next year. Yesterday, NASA’s featured image came from a drop test of Boeing’s Starliner capsule conducted at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The test, which took place in the facility’s 2o’ […]
A speech by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell at the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Conference yesterday revealed a number of details regarding the company’s plans for the next two years as well as some interesting, if decidedly vague results from studying its recently recovered rocket. Without going into specifics, Shotwell stated that based on the […]
A pair of Elon Musk appearances conducted on opposite sides of the planet over the last few days have provided quite a bit of insight to the SpaceX founder’s short and long term plans, both for the company as well as for himself. As is so often the case, the long term vision is enthralling, […]
It is far from the best of times for the Russian space program, as budget realities conflict with that nation’s lunar ambitions. Following optimistic projections last year that it was working towards a 2025 launch date for a lunar circumnavigation mission to be carried out by the planned Angara A5B heavy lift vehicle, a draft […]
Perhaps it is time to change the plucky little spacecraft’s name. In a press conference held Thursday afternoon at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to announce the CRS-2 contract awards, Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane finally caught up with its ambitions, becoming for a day at least, Dream Catcher. In fact, the second Commercial Resupply […]
KSC News Release: “NASA took a significant step Friday toward expanding research opportunities aboard the International Space Station with its first mission order from Hawthorne, California based-company SpaceX to launch astronauts from U.S. soil. This is the second in a series of four guaranteed orders NASA will make under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) […]
NASA announced earlier this week through its Commercial Crew Blog that SpaceX has completed testing of SuperDraco propulsion system. “The propulsion system SpaceX would use to power its Crew Dragon out of danger has been test-fired 27 times as the company refines the design for the demands of operational missions carrying astronauts to the International […]
In a week likely to be dominated by news from both United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin, the company which began the ongoing disruption in the launch industry kicked things off with an early morning announcement regarding two new contracts. From SpaceX: SpaceX Signs New Commercial Launch Contracts Hawthorne, CA/Paris, France, September 14, 2015 — […]
Tuesday, September 8th 2015 marks the day Congress returns to session after an August recess. It is an event which officially starts the timer on a countdown to an annual budget battle, with this year’s episode, FY 2016, taking center stage. As usual, Spacepolicyonline has a good summary of what is (or is not) to […]
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