Following up on the legacy of NASA’s aging Great Observatories may depend on breaking a cost spiral that has delayed the JWST and threatened the WFIRST.

Acknowledging the reusable rocket technology pioneered by SpaceX and Blue Origin, the U.S. Air Force has dropped the word “expendable” from the name of its orbital launch services acquisition program.

The new vehicle, Dragon 2, is designed, built, owned and operated by SpaceX, with financial backing, technical expertise and oversight provided by NASA.

The flight was crewed by Virgin Galactic chief pilot Dave McKay alongside lead trainer pilot Mike Masucci, with Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor, monitoring conditions in the passenger cabin.

In the quest to provide commercial suborbital spaceflight services to paying passengers, Blue Origin’s New Shepard has one clear advantage over Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, notes Blue founder Jeff Bezos: It flies higher, rendering moot a debate about the boundary of space.

In early February, a delegation of Roscosmos State Corp. visited Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East, the site of a new launch pad for the future super-heavy rocket that will be used for planned flights to the Moon.

Long-running efforts to re-establish communications with NASA’s intrepid Opportunity rover on Mars have come to a close.

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is sounding an urgent note as the agency’s Commercial Crew Program prepares for test flights of SpaceX and Boeing vehicles.