Space Industry Analysis
Oct 14, 2013
Among advanced developments hindered by the ongoing budget saga on Capitol Hill is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's proposed XS-1 experimental spaceplane. Darpa is polling industry for interest in developing a reusable hypersonic vehicle with expendable upper stages that can put as much as 5,000 lb. in space up to 10 times over 10 days. But Boeing, which has a lot of relevant technology in its X-37 spaceplane, isn't ready to commit. There is some uncertainty about what is and isn't going to be funded, Muilenburg says.
Oct 14, 2013
One way to try to escape cataclysmic budget uncertainty is to cover all the bases. Consider EADS's Lakota Light Utility Helicopter, one of the programs that fared poorly in President Barack Obama's long-term budget plans. The Army asked for just 10 this year and no more after that. But members of Congress appear to be persuaded by EADS's pitch of a low-cost, robust platform that delivers on time and is entrenched in the U.S. industrial base. The House's spending committee added funding to procure 31 Lakotas, and its Senate counterpart funded 20.
Oct 07, 2013
There always has been a clear objective for potential human space explorers who are alive today—Mars. After the lunar landings, the red planet was the next natural goal. If the papers presented in Beijing at the 64th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) are an indication—and they are—nothing has changed in the subsequent 40 years.
Oct 07, 2013
Completes mission, but some new capabilities do not work
Oct 07, 2013
Orbital Sciences' Cygnus berths at ISS to complete COTS demo
Oct 07, 2013
J-2X engine will go on the shelf as tight funds slow exploration
Dec 16, 2020
NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract for launch services on its New Glenn rocket.
Dec 16, 2020
The return capsule of China’s Chang’e 5 lunar mission landed early on Dec. 17, Chinese time, bringing back the first samples from the Moon in 44 years.
Dec 16, 2020
The Commercial Space Operations Center, now known as Comspoc, has formally split off as a standalone company from Analytical Graphics now that the latter has been acquired by Ansys.
Dec 16, 2020
President Trump issued his administration’s sixth Space Policy Directive on Dec. 16, promoting the development of space nuclear power and propulsion technologies to support a permanent human presence on the Moon by the end of the 2020s and the human exploration of Mars in the decade that follows.
Dec 16, 2020
Persistent lapses in NASA’s oversight of key Artemis elements continue to jeopardize upcoming test flight launch schedules and plans for hardware upgrades after the agency returns to the Moon’s surface with human explorers, a U.S. Government Accountability Office audit says.
Dec 16, 2020
Russia on Dec. 15 MST, conducted a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile test, according to U.S. Space Command (Spacecom).
Dec 15, 2020
Redwire, the private equity-backed space rollup, said Dec. 15 it bought LoadPath, a developer of payload adapters, deployable structures and thermal products for the space industry.
Dec 15, 2020
The U.S. Space Force may establish its acquisition and sustainment arm, Space Systems Command, earlier than planned, the chief of space operations says.