Spaceflight

Shift4 Payments and Draken International founder Jared Isaacman has booked a trip with SpaceX that is being called “the world’s first all-civilian mission to space.” Named Inspiration4, the multi-day orbital flight is currently being planned for the fourth quarter of 2021. Isaacman, whose accomplishments as a pilot include two around-the-world speed records and over 100 […]

NASA is observing its annual Day of Remembrance on Thursday, paying tribute to “members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery.” As part of the event, NASA acting administrator Steve Jurczyk will lead a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Virginia’s Arlington […]

Citing delays related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has pushed back the time frame for the first mission using its Dream Chaser spaceplane. Formerly scheduled for late 2021, the company now expects the Dream Chaser to make its initial flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2022. The cargo mission […]

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced last week that his company is making plans to attempt to catch its reusable Super Heavy rocket with the arm of the launch tower. Currently in development, the Super Heavy is the first stage of the company’s Starship system. While SpaceX hasn’t yet tried anything quite like the launch tower […]

SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype exploded during landing following a successful high-altitude flight test on Wednesday. The uncrewed prototype, serial number 8 (SN8), flew for 6 minutes 42 seconds, completing a series of planned maneuvers and returning to the landing pad before the crash. The test took place at SpaceX’s facility in Cameron County, Texas. “Successful […]

NASA has chosen 18 astronauts who will train for missions on and around the Moon as part of the agency’s Artemis program. The Artemis Team was introduced by Vice President Mike Pence during the eighth National Space Council meeting at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The program aims to land the first woman and […]

Sir Richard Branson hopes to become the second billionaire to go to space in early 2021 to kick off his space tourism business. Branson, the owner of Virgin Galactic, will be on the first flight after the operation is certified by the FAA to take “space tourists” to the edge of space in a reusable […]

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft successfully made contact with asteroid Bennu on Tuesday. The purpose of the brief touch-and-go, the first of its kind accomplished by NASA, was to collect a sample from the asteroid’s surface. Sample collection was conducted using a sampling arm, called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition […]

In partnership with seven other nations, the United States signed an agreement on Tuesday designed to establish the principles that will guide cooperation among international participants in NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program. Rooted in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the principles laid out in the Artemis Accords include a commitment to peaceful exploration, transparency and […]

NASA and Boeing have announced that NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore will replace Chris Ferguson as commander for the first crewed mission of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. Ferguson, a three-time NASA space shuttle veteran, is stepping back from the position for undisclosed personal reasons. He will assume the roles of director of Mission Integration and […]