Space

Virgin Galactic targets assured repeatability as test focus expands beyond envelope expansion to include cabin environment and ride quality.

At last, a U.S spaceship for orbital human flight is ready for a test run to ISS.

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.

One of Aviation Week’s 20 Twenties in 2014 is now a mechanical test engineering manager for Northrop Grumman’s James Webb Space Telescope program.

China’s Insitu look-alike, HAL displays utility helo mockup; the U.S. Air Force’s space force, and Saab may sign on to UK fighter concept.

Company takes on Iridium, GlobalStar with cheap narrowband communications via nanosatellites.

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.

With the market for large geostationary satellites in a slump, heritage companies expand options for smallsat ride-shares.

Lured by the prospect of thousands of small satellites needing rides to orbit, private launchers line up.

Perhaps the gods of capitalism demanded one real sacrifice on the altar of total shareholder return. If so, let us hope Arconic satiates them.

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.

This Anglo-Danish startup describes how production, architecture and propellant are working together to drive efficiency.

The Long March 3A-series program, busier than ever, has probably never performed so well. Replacement is planned, however.

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.

This year’s winners will be recognized March 14 at a black-tie gala in Washington, when the Grand Laureates and Lifetime Achievement awards also will be presented.

Methane and liquid oxygen engine hits 60% of maximum thrust during 2-sec. debut.

New Horizons surveys Ultima Thule, a twin-lobed body that formed in situ in the Kuiper Belt.

The first test of the methane-burning Raptor rocket engine marks a key step toward the start of flight tests of SpaceX's multipurpose, interplanetary-class space transportation system.

Hoping for a massive increase in its space safety budget, ESA presses on with a joint asteroid deflection mission with NASA.

Allowing corporations to buy naming rights to NASA property and to use astronauts for commercials would cause more harm than good for the American public and for NASA as a public entity.

Commercial funding not only enhances great American research organizations, but it also creates them—just look at the Smithsonian Institution.

Listen in as our editors discuss the shocking turnabout for the late Paul Allen’s air-launch space company and other recent churn in the space launch market.

The first rocket officially named Soyuz was launched in 1966 and has since flown 1,050 times, of which 1,023 were successful.

January was not kind for space businesses. If it is a bellwether for the rest of the year, 2019 might be a year of de-orbiting some expectations.