One of the biggest questions to be answered by the International Space Station doesn’t involve mice, plants or 3-d printers. Instead it regards the Station itself, its lifespan and ultimate disposition. Currently funded through 2020 with agreement on the part of all the International Partners; the U.S., Russia, ESA, Japan and Canada, what comes after […]
Image Credit: Boeing Note: NASA’s start work /stop work/ start work edicts to Boeing and SpaceX due to the Sierra Nevada Commercial Crew bid protest do not apply to the work being performed under CCiCap. The timing of this announcement is also a little strange. Boeing announced in August that it had completed all of […]
Still Holding On: Image Credit Sierra Nevada Corporation. The Wall Street Journal (yes, Andy Pasztor) reports that Sierra Nevada has taken its protest of NASA’s Commercial Crew award to a new level. According to the story, SNC has filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. seeking to prevent NASA […]
Image Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation On Friday, Sierra Nevada Corporation lodged a formal complaint with the GAO regarding its loss with the Dream Chaser spaceplane in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The challenge was not unexpected, and as the press release included below indicates, is largely based on the considerable price differential between SpaceX and Boeing […]
Update: If you happened to watch even a moment of the USF-UConn game Friday night, it was clear that an awful lot of rain was falling on Central Florida. And in this case it stretched from the Gulf to the Atlantic coasts, including of of course, Cape Canaveral. When it became evident that a weather […]
Artists’ Concept of a Third Generation Chinese Station. Image Credit Xinhuan.net Following the success of Tiangong 1, China announced last year that after another round of development with the follow on Tiangong 2 station, that it is planning to open up its considerably more advanced third generation station to international astronauts. Unfortunately, an ongoing ban on […]
Two items in the news highlight the potential of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing to benefit an expanding future in space. The first is very near term, with the upcoming launch of the first 3-D printer to the International Space Station. The printer, which is manufactured by NewSpace company Made in Space, is among the […]
Update: A report in SpaceNews on the NanoRacks cubesat deployment problem includes a statement from the company confirming that the issue is electrical rather than mechanical, and is apparently tied to the deployer’s command box, as a new one will be sent to the station on a future supply flight. Deployments are estimated to resume “in […]
Image Credit : Boeing Boeing announced today that it has completed the final two of 20 milestones in the CCiCap phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew program. The announcement comes only weeks or even days ahead of a NASA’s award in the next and final phase of the program, Commercial Crew Transportation Capability, or CCtCap. According […]
Image Credit: NASA TV The last of five European Space Agency ATV’s docked with the International Space Station earlier today. One has to wonder whether Europe will ultimately regret terminating the ATV production line in favor of supporting NASA’s Space Launch System by providing a service module for the first and likely second SLS/Orion missions […]
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