Tag: commercial-space
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin targets 2016 for suborbital research flights with drone spaceships
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship rises from its West Texas launch pad in April for a test flight. (Blue Origin photo) Blue Origin, the space venture backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is reportedly planning to start flying research payloads on its New Shepard suborbital space vehicle as early as the first half of…
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Asteroid miners hail commercial space legislation that sets up property rights in space
An artist’s conception shows an asteroid being mined by swarms of robots. (Credit: Planetary Resources) After months of consideration, Congress is finishing up work on legislation that establishes legal rights for U.S. citizens to own resources in outer space – a key requirement for asteroid mining ventures like Planetary Resources. “Many years from now, we will…
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After missing out on NASA’s next cargo contract, Boeing focuses on space taxis
An artist’s conception shows Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner space taxi in orbit. (Credit: Boeing) Boeing says it’s out of the running for NASA’s next contract to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, but it’ll still be sending up cargo as well as astronauts on its CST-100 Starliner spaceship under the terms of different deal. The…
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Virgin Galactic in transition one year after fatal accident
Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo vehicle goes “weight on wheels” in Mojave in May. Credit: Virgin Galactic Last year’s fatal crash of Virgin Galactic’s suborbital rocket plane has delayed the start of the company’s commercial operations at least a year, prompting a change in mindset from a “period of euphoria to a period of real, measurable,…
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Three reasons why Seattle’s big on space ventures, plus three frontiers to watch
Jeff Bezos shows off the concept for Blue Origin’s launch system during a September news conference in Florida. Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is headquartered in Kent, Wash. (Blue Origin photo) What is it about Seattle that’s led some folks to call it the “Silicon Valley of space,” and how far can space entrepreneurs go…
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One year after Antares failure, Orbital ATK nears return to flight
Orbital’s Antares rocket suffers a failure moments after liftoff Oct. 28, 2014, from Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky A year after a launch mishap left Orbital ATK’s Cygnus supply ship without a ride to the International Space Station, company officials say the firm’s cargo delivery system is on the verge of a comeback, thanks…
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NASA turning to U.S. industry to build asteroid redirect craft
Artist’s concept of the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission spacecraft with a captured boulder from an asteroid. Credit: NASA NASA is seeking proposals from U.S. satellite manufacturers interested in building the spacecraft bus for the agency’s initiative to pluck a boulder from an asteroid and drive it into lunar orbit, with plans to select multiple winners…
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Moon Express and Rocket Lab make deal for lunar landings in 2017
Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards shows off a model of the MX-1 lunar lander in 2013. (Credit: Moon Express via YouTube) Moon Express says it has reserved three lunar lander launches from a startup called Rocket Lab starting in 2017, with an eye toward putting robots on the moon’s surface and winning the…
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Red planet vs. blue planet: Lori Garver looks ahead to Mars and the future of space
Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver chats with Alan Boyle on stage during the 2015 GeekWire Summit. If we want to send astronauts to Mars, we better find a way to do it within 10 years. And if we want to discover a blue planet around an alien sun, there’s a good chance it could happen within five…
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Spaceflight buys a whole rocket from SpaceX for small satellites
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off in April, sending cargo to the International Space Station. The payloads included Planetary Resources’ A3R satellite, which was flown under an arrangement with Seattle-based Spaceflight. (Credit: SpaceX) In the first deal of its kind, Seattle-based Spaceflight says it’s buying a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will be set aside…