Tag: 33rd Space Symposium
-
Weather looks good for Falcon 9 launch Sunday, but payload still a mystery
The National Reconnaissance Office has released its mission patch for Sunday’s launch. The NROL-76 mission patch “depicts Lewis and Clark heading into the great unknown to discover and explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory,” the NRO said. Credit: NRO An official weather outlook issued by U.S. Air Force meteorologists Thursday calls for partly cloudy skies…
-
ULA chief says Blue Origin in driver’s seat for Vulcan engine deal
The first fully-assembled BE-4 engine. Credit: Blue Origin A full-scale BE-4 engine developed by Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, is installed on a test stand in West Texas for a series of hotfire tests that United Launch Alliance will closely examine before settling on the reusable methane-fueled engine for its…
-
Brexit raises question mark over UK’s role in some European space projects
SSTL engineers working in Guildford, England, test a navigation payload for Europe’s Galileo program. Credit: SSTL The future participation of major segments of Britain’s space industry in Europe’s Galileo navigation system and Copernicus environmental network, two multibillion-dollar flagship programs with dozens of satellites, is sure to be a significant part of negotiations as the UK…
-
Musk wants to make Falcon rockets fully reusable
This illustration of a Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage re-entering the atmosphere is part of an animation released in 2011. SpaceX officials have not discussed technical details of how the company would recover upper stages under founder Elon Musk’s latest emphasis on the project. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX chief Elon Musk said last week he is…
-
U.S. military orders two more surveillance satellites to roam geosynchronous orbit
Artist’s concept of two GSSAP spacecraft in orbit. Credit: U.S. Air Force Orbital ATK started work on two more surveillance satellites for the U.S. Air Force’s geosynchronous neighborhood watch program late last year as the military aims to expand its ability to track and investigate other objects in the heavily-trafficked belt more than 22,000 miles…
-
NASA, Roscosmos open to extending station operations to 2028
The exterior of the International Space Station seeing during a spacewalk in September 2016. Credit: NASA Top officials from NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, could decide soon to commit to keeping the International Space Station staffed and flying through at least 2028, four years after the research lab’s current retirement date. The head…
-
Blue Origin’s staying power bankrolled by Jeff Bezos’s multibillion-dollar investment
Jeff Bezos speaks at the 33rd Space Symposium on April 5. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, now the second-richest person in the world, is funding his space company’s lofty ambitions $1 billion per year, driving Blue Origin closer to taking paying passengers to the edge of space and fielding a reusable satellite launcher…
-
Photos: Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster on display
Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now Scarred from five trips to the edge of space and back, Blue Origin’s privately-developed New Shepard rocket was on vertical display this week at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. The single-stage rocket is now retired and will eventually go into a museum after a traveling “road show” around the…