An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton rocket on May 18 successfully placed Telesat’s Nimiq 6 direct-broadcast television satellite into geostationary transfer orbit in the fifth Proton liftoff of 2012 and the fourth commercial mission for ILS. More
Huntsville scientists will be firing atoms into atoms on Redstone Arsenal this summer as they try to develop a small, lightweight pulsed nuclear fusion power system. "If this works," says Dr. Jason Cassibry, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, "we could reach Mars in six to eight weeks instead of six to eight months." More
Putting U.S. astronauts aboard private spacecraft originally was intended to accelerate the pace and slash the cost of manned exploration. But now, National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials are debating whether the plan's main goal should be fostering jobs to stimulate the economy. More
A measure giving the U.S. president the authority to ease export restrictions for commercial satellites and related components has made it into the defense authorization bill now under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives. More
The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) launched their H-2A rocket on Thursday, carrying Global Change Observation Mission 1st-Water “SHIZUKU” (GCOM-W1) and the Korea Multipurpose Satellite-3 “Arirang-3″ (KOMPSAT-3), along with two additional small satellite passengers. Launch occurred at 4:39pm GMT from the Tanegashima Space Center. More
Chris Bergin and William Graham
NASASpaceflight.com
May 17, 2012
In the first of three launches within the space of several hours, a Russian Soyuz-U kicked of a busy Thursday with the launch of the Kobalt-M spy satellite. Launch of the veteran rocket was conducted at launch pad 16/2 at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, with the lift off time given as 3:05pm GMT. More
An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station early Thursday (May 17), kicking off a four-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. More
The ruling council of the European Space Agency (ESA) on May 16 agreed to keep the long-struggling ExoMars project on life support until June 14, when its supporting nations will be asked to decide to pursue it, an ESA official said. ExoMars, in which Russia replaced NASA as ESA’s main partner, is being designed to send a telecommunications orbiter, two landers and a rover to Mars following launches in 2016 and 2018. More
Chris Gilbert (Commentary)
Space News
May 16, 2012
Today, the administration of President Barack Obama does not know what to do with human space exploration but does not want to be the one to cancel it. This is a weak position that must be changed if space exploration is to become a reality. More
Paul D. Spudis
Smithsonian Air & Space (Blog)
May 15, 2012
Even as we hope for a successful SpaceX launch and return, it is vital that America recognize that our government has no space policy or strategic direction – commercial or otherwise. From both a security and an economic perspective, this is a dangerous situation for our nation. More
Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket on May 15 successfully placed two telecommunications satellites into orbit for Japanese and Vietnamese customers in the second of seven Ariane 5 missions planned for 2012. More
Mark Madler
San Fernando Valley Business Journal
May 15, 2012
The tests, which will continue through Friday, are significant for the company because they combine both development and production engines, said Jim Maser, president of the CanogaPark-based rocket engine developer and manufacturer. More
NASA says Boeing is best equipped to provide two cryogenic upper stages derived from the Delta 4 rocket to power the agency's Orion capsule on a test flight around the moon in 2017 and send astronauts on a voyage to lunar orbit in 2021, according to documents posted on a federal government procurement website. More
In an age of austere federal budgets, the Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office are looking to reduce the spiraling cost of placing their heaviest satellites into space. And rocket manufacturers — faced by overcapacity — are making adjustments to the way they do business. More
Already, there are some hints of how the era of commercial space travel might unfold. Companies like Virgin Galactic, XCOR and Space Adventures are booking passengers on suborbital joy rides to space, promised for dates within the next few years, and hundreds of people are signing up. More
"For many years, the U.S. space industrial base has been at a competitive disadvantage with other countries due to outdated and overly burdensome licensing processes under ITAR," said NSS Executive Director, Paul E. Damphousse. "The U.S space export control system has created delays, driven up costs, and severely hampered the ability of the American space industry to compete in an increasingly global market, and this situation must not be allowed to continue." More
The Russian Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft, known by its US designation of 30S, has launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday (local time) carrying three new crewmembers bound for the International Space Station (ISS). More
NASA conducted a long duration test of the J-2X powerpack, 340 seconds total, at the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi on May 10, marking another step in development of the next-generation rocket engine that will carry humans deeper into space than ever before. More
Four years after the rocket-powered Lynx project was unveiled at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the presence here of a full-scale vehicle mockup at the Spacecraft Technology Expo reveals two fundamental truths about the “new space” market. More
NewSpace companies Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Bigelow Aerospace announced today that the commercial space firms will begin offering rides to Bigelow’s commercial space stations once they are on orbit and ready to receive guests. More
Europe’s ExoMars mission to launch a lander, telecommunications orbiter and rover to Mars is once again facing collapse after having narrowly escaped cancellation early this year when Russia stepped in to replace NASA as a partner, according to government and industry officials. More
Four days after the launch of Tianhui-1B mapping satellite, China has launched a new optical remote sensing satellite on May 10, 2012 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. More
With the additional cut, NASA would see its budget shrink by $324 million — a 1.8 percent drop compared to 2012. Under President Barack Obama’s budget proposal, NASA would receive $17.71 billion in 2013, which is $60 million less than this year. More
The Liberty launch system will now include the Liberty launcher, launch-abort-system or LAS as well as a spacecraft. This provides ATK with the complete package, something that only a handful of companies either currently has, or potentially could have. More
Sierra Nevada Corp., one of the firms vying to build a commercial space taxi for NASA, plans a series of automated and piloted atmospheric flight tests of its lifting body Dream Chaser spacecraft beginning this summer, ultimately leading to an orbital demonstration mission in 2016, according to company managers. More
"We are absolutely trying to partner with everybody to go — anyone who wants to participate," [NASA Administrator] Bolden told SPACE.com. "Our goal is to try to form international coalitions. Almost everything we do today has some international flavor to it, whether it's science flights, or human spaceflights. I think you'll find everything we do from here on out is probably going to be international in nature." More
Marion Blakey (Opinion)
Washington Business Journal
May 8, 2012
With many nations rapidly developing space capabilities, U.S. leadership in space is once again being challenged. This challenge comes at a time when our national reliance on space for national security, economic growth and new technology is greater than ever. More
As the House of Representatives begins debate on funding legislation that would direct NASA to move quickly to pick a single commercial crew vehicle for public support, the commanders of three Apollo missions to the Moon endorsed the approach. More
The $51 billion Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act for 2013 (H.R. 5326) that the Republican-led House began debating May 8 would fund NASA at $17.56 billion next year — the lowest level since 2008 and some $150 million less than President Barack Obama requested for the agency. More
The space plane now circuiting Earth is the second spacecraft of its kind built for the Air Force by Boeing’s Phantom Works. Known as the Orbital Test Vehicle 2, or OTV-2, the space plane's classified mission is being carried out by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. More
The new rocket [engine], which will be around 30 percent more efficient than exising designs, works on a completely novel fuel mixture of acetylene and ammonia (atsetam). More
The U.S. space agency received proposals for capsules, a lifting body and perhaps other approaches to transporting humans to and from low Earth orbit. But the House of Representatives is set to consider appropriations legislation this week directing an “immediate downselect” to a single commercial crew design. More
Sierra Nevada Corp., one of four firms working on space taxi designs for NASA, is stepping up plans to expand its work force and operations in Florida, company and state officials announced May 4. More
After reviewing other upper stages, the U.S. space agency picked the Delta unit because it meets most of the requirements for lofting Orion multipurpose crew vehicles in 2017 and 2021 atop a NASA-developed SLS main stage with strap-on boosters. More
The European Space Agency (ESA) will select two competing proposals by late June to design a next-generation rocket that, if accepted by European governments in November, could succeed the current Ariane 5 heavy-lift vehicle within 15 years, ESA officials said. More
The private spaceflight company SpaceX has once again postponed the launch of its first commercial Dragon space capsule bound for the International Space Station, this time to May 19, to allow more time to complete final checks on the spacecraft's rocket. More
The Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency 2 (AEHF 2) satellite lifted off at 2:42 p.m. EDT (1842 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, riding toward a preliminary orbit aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. More
The CST-100 crew transport vehicle successfully conducted its second parachute test this week, safely demonstrating its entire landing system via a 14,000 feet descent on to a dry lake bed in Nevada. More
After the Atlas was fuelled, but less than 30min before scheduled liftoff, technicians noted a problem with the Centaur interstage adaptor, a piece of hardware that connects the Centaur to the common core body first stage. A helium purge valve in the adaptor appears to be at fault. More
Ongoing analysis of spacecraft software systems will delay by at least several days SpaceX’s launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. More
NASA managers argued Tuesday a proposal by lawmakers to immediately select a single provider for commercial crew transportation services would undermine the agency's strategy of reducing the cost of space travel through private industry. More
The Jupiter Icy moons Explorer – JUICE – was selected over two other candidates: NGO, the New Gravitational wave Observatory, to hunt for gravitational waves, and ATHENA, the Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics. More
Chris Bergin and William Graham
NASASpaceflight.com
May 1, 2012
The next key milestone ahead of the historical SpaceX mission to the International Space Station (ISS) took place on Monday, as the integrated Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft underwent their full dress rehearsal for what was a May 7 launch – a date that is now under review. More
The new Vinci space plane is detailed in an ESA report obtained exclusively by SPACE.com. The report, titled "A Cryogenic Sub-orbital Spacecraft," says the plane would be a piloted vehicle with the appearance of a business jet and would be propelled by the Vinci rocket engine currently being developed for the upper stage of the European Ariane 5 rocket. More
The J-2X is being developed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. It is the first liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket engine rated to carry humans into space to be developed in 40 years. More
France’s Safran on April 30 said it has completed the merger of SME, formerly a subsidiary of the state-owned SNPE, and Safran’s own Snecma Solid Propulsion division into Europe’s foremost solid-rocket propulsion specialist, to be known as Herakles. More
United Launch Alliance (ULA) and the U. S. Air Force are poised to launch the second Advanced Extreme High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellite from Cape Canaveral May 3 on board an Atlas V rocket. More
Howard Steven Friedman
The Huffington Post (Blog)
April 30, 2012
Here we are in 2012. We heard George Bush talk about a mission to Mars but no money was provided. Meanwhile, China and India plan to send missions to the Moon in the next few years while the Russians talk about landing people on the moon. More
The U.S. House of Representatives is slated to begin debate May 8 on a 2013 appropriations bill that would cut NASA's budget by more than $200 million, overhaul commercial crew procurement plans and potentially force the agency to begin work on a Europa orbiter instead of a Mars probe. More
Two satellites for China's Beidou navigation system launched aboard a Long March 3B rocket Sunday [April 29], further expanding the space-based positioning network as China eyes global service by 2020. More
United Technologies Corp.is the most recent company to announce it will sharply scale back its role in space exploration. It's selling Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a manufacturer of rocket engines and liquid-propulsion systems that it's owned for seven years. More
The European Space Agency (ESA) is proposing that its 19 member governments finance development of a module to power NASA’s Orion crew transport vehicle and limit work on a competing proposal — a robotic vehicle that would perform multiple tasks in low Earth orbit — to initial studies. More
A dispute between Russia and Kazakhstan over debris from Soyuz rocket lower stages has forced an indefinite postponement of the launch of Europe's MetOp-B meteorological satellite. More
Jim Maser, PWR’s president, said that by the end 2013, the company will have shrunk its factory floor space from 189,000 square meters to less than 90,000 square meters. PWR has sprawling manufacturing and test facilities in Canoga Park, Calif., where it is headquartered, but Maser said operations in West Palm Beach, Fla., also are being consolidated. More
Roscosmos will resume lunar exploration by 2015 using an unmanned space ship. Russia is also planning to send a manned mission to the moon by 2030, the space agency said. More
"We intend to go to the Farnborough International Air Show in July with a clear message," explained REL managing director Alan Bond. "The message is that Britain has the next step beyond the jet engine; that we can reduce the world to four hours - the maximum time it would take to go anywhere. And that it also gives us aircraft that can go into space, replacing all the expendable rockets we use today." More
The Russian Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, known by its US designation of 28S, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and landed safely in Kazakhstan Friday morning after a five and a half month stay in space, carrying three crewmembers of the ISS crew back to Earth and beginning the Expedition 31 mission aboard the station. More
Zach Rosenberg
Flight International
April 26, 2012
Congress will likely appropriate around $500 million for NASA's commercial crew programme, well short of the $830 million in the Obama administration's FY2013 budget request, according to the latest budget markups. More
"It's really about developing and using vertical powered landing to drive reusable systems that can increase reliability and lower cost," Rob Meyerson, the company's president and program manager, said in a rare public presentation last September at a conference in Long Beach, Calif. More
The FY13 Commerce, Justice, and Science Draft Committee Report says that NASA should immediately down select to a single competitor in the commercial crew program to save money and time in fielding a shuttle replacement. More
India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off Thursday with a radar surveillance satellite designed to obtain all-weather, day-and-night ground imagery for national security and environmental applications. More
"One of the reasons that we chose to announce the company at this time is because we're beginning to aggressively search for the world's best engineers, to complement our team," Planetary Resources co-founder and co-chairman Peter Diamandis said during the press conference. "And it's tough to do that in the quiet." More
Senate and House budget bills would cut up to 40 percent from NASA's requested budget to pay for new commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station and end U.S. reliance on Russia for crew transportation. More
With NASA's oldest and most-flown space shuttle now delivered to its museum retirement home, the commercial future of American human spaceflight is taking center stage. More
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is gearing up for a busy week in early May with United Launch Alliance and SpaceX targeting rocket launches from neighboring pads on May 3 and May 7, respectively. More
The next-generation engine that will help carry humans deeper into space than ever is back, bigger and better. The J-2X engine is currently on the A-2 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for an extensive round of tests to build on last year's successful test firings. More
SpaceX has postponed by a week its bid to become the first private company to attempt to launch an unmanned cargo vessel to the International Space Station. "After reviewing our recent progress, it was clear that we needed more time to finish hardware-in-the-loop testing and properly review and follow up on all data," SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham said late Monday. More
If you're a taxpayer frustrated with inaction by government and political leaders on the epidemic of over-budget, multibillion-dollar space boondoggles, you might want to count to 10 before you read on. More
Russia is stepping in to save a long-standing European Space Agency plan for a two-legged mission to Mars launching in 2016 and 2018 that had looked to be doomed because of NASA budget problems. More
Zach Rosenberg
Flight International
April 19, 2012
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Dynetics have announced a resurrected F-1 engine as their entry into the advanced booster engineering demonstration and/or risk reduction (ABEDRR) programme, a precursor to selecting advanced boosters for the Space Launch System (SLS). More
United Technologies Corp. (UTC) is expected to complete the sale of its Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne rocket propulsion arm within the next two weeks as part of efforts to raise $3 billion to help finance its acquisition of Goodrich Corp. More
A full-size model of a new space capsule being built by Boeing to carry astronauts to the International Space Station offers a glimpse of how spaceflyers will be positioned inside the spacecraft. More
Charles Krauthammer (Opinion)
Washington Post
April 19, 2012
What is national greatness, scientific prestige or inspiring the young — legacies of NASA — when we are in economic distress? Okay. But if we're talking jobs and growth, science and technology, R&D and innovation — what President Obama insists are the keys to "an economy built to last" — why on earth cancel an incomparably sophisticated, uniquely American technological enterprise? More
Dynetics and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne announced Wednesday they are teaming up to resurrect the Saturn 5 rocket's mighty F-1 engine to power NASA's planned heavy-lift launch vehicle, saying the Apollo-era engine will offer significantly more performance than solid-fueled boosters currently under development. More
The main stage of NASA’s planned heavy-lift Space Launch System exploration rocket will carry four surplus RD-25D space shuttle main engines, as NASA and main-stage prime contractor Boeing move toward preliminary design review (PDR) on the big new rocket by the end of the year. More
U.S. House appropriators are proposing a plan that would give NASA $17.6 billion in 2013, $226 million less than Congress approved for the agency in 2012, according to a legislative plan released April 18 and scheduled to be marked up April 19 by the House Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee. More
The long-awaited 1248 report, which the Pentagon released April 18, finds that the national security risks associated with removing commercial satellites from the U.S. Munitions List (USML) and transferring jurisdiction to the Commerce Department are manageable. More
An audacious new private space exploration company backed by billionaire investors and filmmaker-turned-explorer James Cameron will unveil its master plan "to help ensure humanity's prosperity" on Tuesday, April 24. More
Stew Magnuson
National Defense (Blog)
April 17, 2012
Fixed-price contracts are not a panacea for reducing the prices military contractors charge for their goods, the president of rocket engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne said April 16. More
"The bill funds the Orion capsule at $1.2 billion in order to maintain a 2014 test launch, and the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket development at $1.48 billion to move toward a 2017 test launch," [Sen. Kay Bailey] Hutchison said in a statement. "We also provide commercial crew with a $119 million increase over last year to allow NASA to select at least two competitors that could provide access to the International Space Station by 2017." More
NASA's decision to retire the space shuttle also has contributed to the cost uptick, owing in large part to a sharp reduction in work for the propulsion industry, including Alliant Techsystems, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Aerojet. More
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said the agency likely would stretch out rather than change its approach to the Commercial Crew Program should it not be fully funded next year. Stretching out the program would extend the time during which NASA is dependent on Russia for crew transport to and from the international space station, she said. More
Stew Magnuson (Blog)
National Defense
April 17, 2012
The satellite launch industry of late has suffered from decreased demand, rising costs and overcapacity. That coupled with U.S. government budget cuts have made for some heated rivalries among providers. More
Zach Rosenberg
Flight International
April 17, 2012
The US Air Force (USAF) is looking for ways to control the cost of space operations by examining smaller satellites, fee-for-service communications and partnering with other nations as shrinking budgets catch up with the service. More
It’s still a “Field of Dreams” proposition—“if you build it, they will come.” Even so, NASA’s as-yet-unrealized efforts to offload routine human space access onto the private sector is beginning to ripple across the U.S. launch industry in ways that could go well beyond transporting people and their stuff into space. More
For the first time ever, China has launched more rockets into orbit in a year than the U.S. In 2011, the Chinese sent 19 rockets into space. The U.S. sent just 18. Russia, the Walmart of space launches, fired off no fewer than 31 rockets. More
For the first time in history, NASA’s extensive Flight Readiness Review (FRR) process has concluded that a privately-owned spacecraft is tentatively cleared to visit the International Space Station (ISS). More
Jeff Foust (Commentary)
The Space Review
April 16, 2012
At the conference Thursday, Hudson unveiled what SSI [Space Studies Institute] calls The Great Enterprise Initiative. The initiative is designed to outline the technologies and other capabilities needed to enable the long-term goal of space settlement, and to host multiple projects in relevant areas. More
Thomas D. Taverney (Commentary)
The Space Review
April 16, 2012
Space capabilities are critical to all aspects of the global community, and the current approaches employed to manage this valuable medium are untenable. Simply put, space is a mess! Something needs to be done, but, thus far, little more than just talk has taken place. More
Visit our Media Coverage page for more news related to future space.
Future Space is at a crossroads
Will America’s leadership in space quietly slip away? Or will we use our nation’s heroic accomplishments as a stepping stone to even greater innovation and discovery for the whole planet? Where we go from here depends on America's space leaders taking action now. And that begins with a national conversation. So chime in.
If Man does not return to the moon before 2030 then history may regard the success of the Apollo missions of the late 1960s and early 1970s as a deviation in the scientific and technical development of Man.
R. Weingarten
Houston, TX
Future space means we will continue our robotic and human exploration of the Solar System and the Universe. For America to abandon our leadership in Space is a tragedy. Our Space program gives a greater return than any other government program. It saddens me to see the cutbacks in Planetary exploration.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of the PBS series NOVA scienceNOW and director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium, visited the University of Buffalo in 2010 and responded to a question about federal cutbacks to NASA funding. See the video below...
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