Commercial Spaceflight Soars In 2013

After more than a decade of design work and pathfinder fabrication, the lightweight five-layer sunshield that will keep the sensitive infrared detectors on the James Webb Space Telescope at 40K is in deployment testing at prime contractor Northrop Grumman.

Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson defines close-mouthed, but as his secretive startup begins to notch some success in its plan to develop reusable space launchers, he is opening up a bit. He was unusually chatty during a press teleconference on the results of a full mission-cycle test of the clean-sheet BE-3 rocket engine Blue is developing to power its reusable suborbital New Shepard crew vehicle.

Webb Telescope lost time to shutdown; technical setbacks seen as minor

Lockheed Martin, Surrey Satellite will study private Mars lander

When EADS CEO Tom Enders announced a major strategic review of the group's defense and space business earlier this year, he inadvertently raised expectations for a plan to overcome the structural limitations of operating in Europe. As it turns out, the grand plan has a lot more to do with cutting jobs and finding internal efficiencies than with a new approach to markets.

Humans visitors would have increased cancer risk over their lifetimes

An external cooling system pump module aboard the International Space Station shut down on Wednesday, prompting a round of troubleshooting by NASA's Mission Control team and a decision to power down non critical solar powered systems in three U. S. segment modules.