SpaceX released this video of the Falcon 9-R rising to 1000 meters today. What a way to end a week marked by the bitter battle between SpaceX and United Launch Alliance over the right to compete against 30 year old technology developed by the Soviet Union, the sweet sights and sound of progress being made […]
As promised, SpaceX has posted a video of the recent Falcon 9 first stage soft landing attempt which took place on April 18. As promised, it is rather garbled to say the least. And this is the improved footage, which SpaceX still hopes will be further cleaned up in a crowd sourced effort. Also forthcoming, […]
Stratolaunch has been pretty quiet as of late, but an Orbital Sciences conference call reported in Space News sheds some new light on the booster the behemoth twin fuselage aircraft may be lofting. Originally reported as likely to be a solid cored booster comprised of components provided by ATK, based on comments by CEO David […]
NASA’s Commercial Crew program continues to suffer the slings and arrows in this week’s passage of an Omnibus spending bill. After being badly underfunded for the third year in a row, in early 2013 NASA Administrator Charles Bolden warned Congress that a failure to authorize the $821 million being requested as part of the FY2013 […]
Sunday, August 18th 2013 marked the twentieth anniversary of the first flight of one of the most unique, and influential rockets of the space age, one which never reached orbit and was never intended to. Developed under the auspices of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), the DC-X marked an incremental approach to solving the […]
From the SpaceX Channel: “On August 13th, the Falcon 9 test rig (code name Grasshopper) completed a divert test, flying to a 250m altitude with a 100m lateral maneuver before returning to the center of the pad. The test demonstrated the vehicle’s ability to perform more aggressive steering maneuvers than have been attempted in previous […]
Although there has been no official word from SpaceX, nor even a tweet from Elon Musk, according to Wacotrib.com Space X apparently conducted another moderately long duration test of the Falcon 9-R Wednesday evening. It is unclear just how long the test lasted with witnesses saying it was “about a minute.” NASAspaceflight.com has a […]
The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center announced yesterday that it has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Space Exploration Technologies Corp., paving the way for the company to take the next steps along the pathway to entering the EELV business as outlined in the New Entrants Certification Guide which was introduced in October 2011. […]
If you’ve ever been to Key West, you probably visited Mallory Square docks around sunset to look for the elusive “Green Flash” on the western horizon. It is a beautiful sight to be sure, but for space exploration enthusiasts, it perhaps pales in comparison to another green flash, that emitted by the tea-tab ignition which marks the […]
Stratolaunch announced yesterday that following a 9 month courtship, it is entering into a development arrangement with Orbital Sciences Corporation to secure the booster for the behemoth, twin boomed aircraft currently being built by Scaled Composites at Mojave. NBC News Science Editor Alan Boyle shed a little more light on the arrangement yesterday on his […]
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