SLS cleared for full development, but risk assessment may push first launch back to late 2018

In September 1999, the National Reconnaissance Office dumped its incumbent imagery satellite contractor, Lockheed Martin, in favor of a bolder and less costly proposal led by Boeing.

"Imagine we land humans on Mars and we have five to 10 robots we can send out to areas of interest for our researchers to look at," said Randy Bresnik, NEEMO 19's commander.

How to flight-test a crew space capsule

Aerospike revival, advances in composite structures are shaping design of low-cost smallsat launch vehicle

Northrop Grumman has unveiled a vertical-launch, horizontal-landing reusable booster design for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s XS-1 experimental spaceplane.

Cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev deployed a Peruvian cubesat and worked with materials-space-exposure experiments during a 5-hr. extra-vehicular excursion at the International Space Station Aug. 18. Unlike cubesat deployments from the Japanese Kibo module’s robotic arm, which use a mechanical dispenser, Artemyev deployed the small satellite with a toss of the hand in the direction opposite the station’s travel to avoid a future collision.

The third Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus commercial cargo carrier to reach the International Space Station reentered the atmosphere Aug. 17 for a splashdown in the Pacific east of New Zealand, wrapping up the second of eight resupply missions for the company under its $1.9 billion commercial resupply services contract with NASA. Carried to orbit July 13 on an Orbital Sciences Antares launch vehicle from Wallops Island, Virginia, the pressurized capsule carried 3,550 lb. of garbage for its destructive return to Earth. It took 3,669 lb.