Space

Given budget pressures, space industry increasingly using additive manufacturing to make components more flexibly and at lower cost

India’s second lunar exploration mission – Chandrayaan-2, to be launched during the next two to three years – will be completely indigenous, the country’s top scientist says.

Although investigators appear to be in broad agreement that wear in the bearings of the main engine turbopump is the “most probable” cause of the explosion that destroyed an Orbital ATK Antares launch vehicle on a crew resupply mission to the International Space Station last October, questions remain over what caused the wear in the first place.

SpaceX is thought to be focusing on static friction in an engine throttle valve as the prime suspect for the loss of the Falcon 9 first stage during the third attempt at recovering the booster.

United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno says his choice of planning to reuse only the BE-4 engines – not the entire first stage – of the company’s new Vulcan rocket was driven purely by the economics.

United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno says Aerojet Rocketdyne’s claim of delivering an AR-1 rocket engine capable of operating on the Atlas V or Vulcan vehicles by 2018 is “ridiculous.”

Despite tensions, U.S. and Russia are still cooperating in civil space. Now it’s time to bring China into the fold.

The company is striving to keep average cost of a new Vulcan rocket under $100 million as it preps for competition against SpaceX.

Asteroid-mission development will shape human/machine teaming for exploration.

Preparations are underway to begin testing a small-sat launcher dubbed Electron that would use the turbomachinery and other innovations to hold the cost per mission below $5 million.

This new rocket is the company’s path to substantially reduce its cost to launch — a critical factor as the company’s monopoly over national security launches is eroding — and compete against SpaceX.

The U.S. Air Force claims the new LISC deal could save up to $1.8 billion over 10 years, although skeptics question how.

Ahead of next week's Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, our editors discuss the latest on an American-built engine to send U.S. national security assets to space, competition between ULA and Space X, the state of U.S.-Russian relations and more.

Blue Origin plans to begin autonomous flight tests later this year with the reusable New Shepard suborbital human spacecraft it will power.

A new concept puts Mars in reach with today’s NASA budget. The trick is a stop in Martian orbit, and a flight-test landing on Earth’s Moon.

Just because parts can be produced faster with 3-D printing does not mean engineers can cut corners validating their properties, an additive manufacturing expert warns.

The Rise and Fall of a Launch Monopoly?

U.S. Air Force Secretary discusses creating an apples-to-apples comparison of ULA and SpaceX launch cost, embracing public-private partnerships for a new rocket engine and developing trust with new market entrants.

Blue Origin has completed acceptance flight tests of its cryogenic BE-3 deep-throttle engine, and plans to begin autonomous flight tests with the reusable New Shepard suborbital human spacecraft it will power later this year.

Smallsats in low Earth orbit have captured the interest of deep-pocket investors who see new technologies and applications offering substantial returns.

John Logsdon’s Nixon-tape transcripts show how the decision to build the space shuttle was derailed by dishonesty.

Russia may be open to Chinese participation in future space collaboration.

NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Directorate has agreed to address a dozen corrective recommendations raised by the agency’s Inspector General with regard to upgrade needs and increased security for the Deep Space Network, a 52-year-old global assembly of transmitters and receivers for communications with and navigation of distant planetary spacecraft.

USAF and SpaceX are modifying the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement signed two years ago to outline what has become the contentious process to certify the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket for use in launching national security payloads.

A new problem may have emerged to push the Long March 7 first flight into 2016.