Space Flight

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 […]

The first uncrewed test flight of SpaceX’s integrated Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket ended in a dramatic explosion shortly after launch on Thursday. While the cause off the company’s latest “rapid unscheduled disassembly” has not yet been announced, it appears as though Starship failed to separate from the rocket as planned. The vehicle hit […]

SpaceX has scrubbed the first launch attempt of its integrated Starship launch vehicle and Super Heavy rocket, citing issues with the pressurization system. The attempt was called off less than 10 minutes before launch, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk noting via Twitter that a “pressurant valve appears to be frozen.” SpaceX says it is targeting […]

Nearly two years after beginning its mission, NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, successfully completed its 50th flight with a 145.7-second hop on April 13. The rotorcraft flew for the first time on April 19, 2021, marking the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. Originally expected to survive for just five flights, Ingenuity […]

The FAA is taking steps to better fit rocket launches into the National Airspace system. The agency announced last week it has come up with guidelines “to optimize and equitably manage the airspace in the vicinity of launch sites.” Airlines and other operators have been grumbling about the diversions and airspace closures that inevitably result […]

The FAA has issued a launch permit for SpaceX’s test launch of its Starship spacecraft aboard its Super Heavy rocket booster with the earliest launch window opening at 8:00 a.m. April 17 with backup windows on each of the five following days. It’s the largest rocket combination ever built, towering almost 400 feet above the […]

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has sworn in Makenzie Lystrup as the new director of the Goddard Space Flight Center. She succeeds acting center director Dave Mitchell, who has held the position since January 2023 and will be returning to his previous role as chief program management officer at NASA headquarters. NASA noted that Goddard is […]