Space

The first American to orbit Earth and the oldest person to ever fly in space was both a straight arrow and a self-promoter.

What the space-launch upstart thinks went wrong in September, what the delay means for its customers and how the company has handled losses in the past. Plus, Orbital ATK’s Pegasus launch and a John Glenn remembrance.

Soyuz maybe nudged out of many launches due to the increased payload capability of the Vega C.

Jan Woerner’s Moon village concept is looking better to NASA, and the Trump administration could move things along faster.

The Sept. 1 launch-pad explosion, among other problems, is putting a crimp, for now, in the big plans for Elon Musk’s "new space" company.

The U.S. missed several opportunities over almost 70 years to expand hypersonics into research and development of operational systems.

America’s aerospace trade association said it is preparing for a “challenging” policy arena in both Washington and around the world.

SpaceX has yet to present a final report to the FAA’s commercial space office, which licenses commercial launches, on the company's September pad explosion that destroyed an Israeli satellite.

A top NASA administrator discusses the U.S. space program at what may be an ‘inflection point’ between the old and the new ways of doing things.

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is hearing that life-support technology remains a question mark in NASA’s exploration plans.

Virgin Galactic has begun glide flights of the second—and significantly improved—SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle after completing a fourth and final captive carriage flight under the WhiteKnightTwo mothership.

With more outreach to commercial industry and international partners, the U.S. is expanding the ways it approaches defense.

In this week’s Washington Outlook, outsourcing business seems suddenly unpopular, lawmakers ask for a flyoff between the F-35 and the A-10 and the head of Trump’s NASA transition team is named.

NASA has decided to ease humans back to the Moon in a free-return flyaround trajectory on the first flight of the Orion crew capsule with astronauts on board, instead of going directly to the lunar orbit where it plans to test hardware for human missions to Mars.

The principal investigator for the New Horizons space program says that the volume of unexpected results generated will mean rewriting the textbooks on what is happening in the Kuiper Belt.

ESA’s vision for Europe’s participation in space is expected to be bolstered by a vote of confidence and cash from the 22 member states that comprise the space agency.

In this week’s Washington Outlook: punting could limit number of KC-46A aircraft ordered this year; and a plan to send humans past Venus and Mars.

European Space Agency engineers believe they have found the root cause of the Oct. 19 crash of the Schiaparelli Mars lander.

Researchers using radar data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have observed a subsurface ice deposit on the Red Planet that rivals the size of Lake Superior, the largest of the U.S. Great Lakes.

Both SpaceX and Boeing have slipped their launch dates for first crewed flights to the ISS, as a big decision awaits the next presidential administration on giving the green light.

The prospects for subjects of search-and-rescue operations will be better with the introductions of improved distress beacon services, starting in December.

Donald Trump’s election to the White House means change is coming to the A&D world, but practically no one—maybe not even the president-elect—knows exactly what those changes will be.

China's Casic says its KZ-11 can hurl 1 metric ton to a 700-km (430-mi.) sun-synchronous orbit, exactly the same that CASC attributed last year to Long March 6.

In this week’s Washington Outlook: Heritage Foundation on military options for new administration; Trump may back bilateral space ties with China; and the flood of new UAV pilots.

Space policy transition is taking shape slowly following Donald Trump’s surprise election victory.