With the ability of heavy-lift rockets to perform piggyback launches, and even after making 100 A2100 geosynchroneous communications satellites since 1996, Lockheed Martin has not seen two launched on the same ride.

'New space' is already affecting established aerospace companies' plans and pushing prices down.

The first United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV in the Medium-plus 5.2 configuration lifts off surfside at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., at 7:12 p.m. EDT April 3 with a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload. The launch clears the way for three more intelligence satellite launches by the end of the summer for the the joint Defense Department/Intelligence Community agency.

Steve Squyres knows a thing or two about exploration, and he has a great soapbox for passing on his experience where it might do some good. A Cornell University astronomy professor, Squyres is principal investigator on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. He is also chairman of the NASA Advisory Council—a distinguished group of outside experts who do their best to guide NASA's political leadership in its decisionmaking.

Lopez-Alegria says new space companies can revive U.S. human spaceflight quickly and safely.

It it the most sophisticated piece of space hardware Europe has ever launched, a massive cargo vessel capable of docking automatically at the International Space Station with a precision of better than 6 cm (2.4 in.) and boosting the station to a higher orbit. But with three of the Automated Transfer Vehicle's (ATV) five missions now behind it, the European Space Agency (ESA) is looking for an opportunity to advance its already cutting-edge platform—along with a means to pay for it.