Space Flight

The NASA-SpaceX Crew-6 mission made a safe return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, splashing down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev spent 186 days in space for Crew-6. The mission was the […]

Voyager Space and Airbus Defence and Space have launched a joint venture to develop, build and operate a commercial space station. According to the companies, the U.S.-led project “will bring together world-class leaders in the space domain, while further uniting American and European interests in space exploration.” Called Starlab, it is intended to succeed the […]

Close to 200,000 people watched live as Northrop Grumman’s mission successfully launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. The S.S. Laurel Clark Cygnus spacecraft atop the Antares rocket is carrying a new water dispenser, artwork from students around the world, research materials, medical studies and other supplies to the International Space Station. […]

Although the FAA may seem to be all over commercial space regulation, it’s about to fill a big gap that Congress mandated almost 20 years ago. SpaceRef is reporting the agency has struck the Human Space Flight Occupant Safety Rulemaking Committee for the Commercial Transportation Industry and it would appear the length of the name […]

Virgin Galactic conducted its first suborbital commercial spaceflight from New Mexico’s Spaceport America on Thursday. The flight took off at 8:30 a.m. local time and touched down at 9:42 a.m. carrying three crew members and three paying passengers from the Italian air force and the National Research Council of Italy along with 13 research payloads. […]

Most people don’t ask to be sued, but SpaceX has applied to be named a co-defendant in a suit against the FAA by several environmental groups. As we reported earlier, the groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, allege the agency rushed the permitting process for the test launch of the massive Starship system, […]

Blue Origin will supply the lunar lander for the third crewed Artemis mission to land astronauts on the moon. NASA announced Friday that the company, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has been awarded a $3.5 billion contract to develop the lunar lander it dubbed Blue Moon. The project is expected to cost more the […]

A collection of environmental groups is suing the FAA, claiming the agency failed to protect the environment from SpaceX’s Super Heavy test launch in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20. The suit, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, alleges the agency didn’t fully assess the effects on the environment in issuing a launch license, […]

A private moon landing attempt ended with the likely destruction of the lander. Japanese firm ispace said it lost contact with the Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander when it apparently ran out of propellant needed to slow the vehicle. “It apparently went into a freefall towards the surface as it was running out of fuel to […]

The FAA has grounded SpaceX’s Starship program while it investigates last week’s explosive test launch of the full system. This time, however, the agency appears to be at least as interested in the scorched mess left behind by the booster as it is the explosion that was triggered a few minutes later when the second […]