Startup World View Enterprises Inc. envisions a commercial high-altitude balloon experience for luxury-minded passengers and scientific researchers that will strive to deliver many of the prolonged experiences of spaceflight without the confinement, cost, risks or health limitations associated with rocket launches.

Seven-seat Blue Origin spacecraft aims to fly in 2018

Scientists worry about plans under no-frills budget environment

Launch of a Minotaur-1 rocket cobbled together from surplus ICBM stages and carrying a record 29 satellites underscores—again—the growing importance of nanosatellites in the overall spaceflight endeavor.

Americans love to look for silver-bullet solutions to big problems

Has technology advanced enough to make an aircraft-like launch vehicle practical?

A growing number of satellite-based automatic identification systems (AIS) make it easier for maritime surveillance to tie ship-tracking data with high-resolution satellite imagery. Used with AIS, space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical remote-sensing platforms determine not only the presence of ships, but their identity, position, speed, heading, load, size and type.