NASA lost its ability to launch humans from U.S. soil when the space shuttle retired. Now, companies and billionaire entrepreneurs are defining a new space age.
Space
(NASA)
SpaceX’s Starship was on the launchpad Thursday, apparently ready to fly in the latest iteration of the spacecraft SpaceX hopes will take people to Mars. But it didn’t fly.
The first space crew composed entirely of private citizens includes two grandfathers and a father with three young children. All are extremely wealthy.
During a private briefing Tuesday morning, industry officials said their expectations for successfully completing all the test objectives had been only “50/50.”
The rocket was carrying 10 small satellites when it was launched from a 747 flying over the Pacific Ocean.
There was no immediate word on why the test ended after less than two minutes.
Biden will likely keep NASA’s Artemis program, but on a different timeline.
2020 was a good year for space exploration. 2021 could be better.
After hosting a rotating cast of astronauts for more than 20 years straight, the International Space Station is showing its age — it sprung another tiny leak last month — and NASA is shopping for a new place for its astronauts.
Aerojet Rocketdyne manufacturers the RS-25 engines to be used on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which is designed to fly astronauts to the moon.
Storm Troopers wouldn’t have worked. Plus, it was taken by the Galactic Empire anyway.
The engine of the space plane ignited briefly, then went out. The vehicle glided back safely to the runway, and the pilots were reported to be in good health.
Starship was supposed to fly to an altitude of nearly eight miles, then fall back through the atmosphere in a belly-flop position before reorienting itself, reigniting its engine and touching down softly. It appeared to complete all of those milestones, except for the landing.
“Listening to the National Space Council meeting, you might get the mistaken impression that Trump invented space policy,” Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, a think tank, wrote on Twitter.
The $9.2 billion in funding will help companies provide broadband Internet service to millions of Americans who now lack access to reliable service.
NASA announced Thursday that several companies had won contracts to mine the moon and turn over small samples to the space agency for a small fee.
The landing of the uncrewed spacecraft was China’s third on the lunar surface since 2013 and came almost two years after China pulled off a historic first — landing a spacecraft on the far side of the moon.
During their first news conference since arriving at the International Space Station, the astronauts who blasted off Sunday said their escape from Earth’s gravity was a thrilling ride atop a spacecraft that on the ground appeared restless, grunting and vibrating before being unleashed into the skies.
A NASA official asked a Boeing executive if Boeing was going to contest the bid loss. It didn't. Instead, it resubmitted the bid, a move so unusual that NASA officials told the agency's inspector general, who then referred the matter to the Justice Department.
Following a successful Sunday launch, Dragon Crew-1′s ‘Resilience’ capsule docks onto the International Space Station. It became the first privately owned and operated spacecraft to be certified by NASA for human spaceflight.
SpaceX has launched four astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is the first privately owned and operated spacecraft to be certified by NASA for human spaceflight, a certification SpaceX received only days ago.
