Since unveiling plans in January to build rival networks of hundreds, or even thousands, of Internet satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), SpaceX and OneWeb are prompting comparisons with past ventures that flopped, among them Teledesic and Skybridge, two well-financed start-ups whose visions of delivering high-speed broadband to the masses were thwarted by technical setbacks.

NASA and its commercial crew partners open up about their plans, now that the legal hurdles have been cleared.

Early work is underway on an expendable version of the space shuttle main engine, which will power the heavy-lift Space Launch System.

SpaceX-USAF legal settlement offers little near-term gain for SpaceX, but it appears to serve the company’s strategic goals.

The Rise and Fall of a Launch Monopoly?

Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have reached into their bag of tricks to keep NASA’s solar-propelled Dawn probe in good shape to enter orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, its second stop in the main asteroid belt.

The boom in small Earth-observation satellites is expanding a market in which businesses and governments alike can gather valuable insight for monitoring climate change, political hot spots, business activities and disaster zones.

Test-flight data for the Orion crew capsule heat shield will be important in the redesign process.