HOUSTON, TX – The Boeing Company of Houston, a NASA Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partner, recently performed wind tunnel testing of its CST-100 spacecraft and integrated launch vehicle, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The testing is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, intended to make commercial human spaceflight services […]
Commercial Space
Commercial Space
Another American High Frontier First: 3-D Manufacturing In Space
WASHINGTON, DC – In preparation for a future where parts and tools can be printed on demand in space, NASA and Made in Space Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., have joined to launch equipment for the the first 3-D microgravity printing experiment to the International Space Station. If successful, the 3-D Printing in Zero G […]
Students And The Public Invited To Participate In Solar Sail Mission
The invention of the CubeSat standard by the California Polytechnic State University ushered in a revolution in the utilization and exploration of space by both governmental and civilian users. With a total volume as small as a 1,000 cubic centimeters, cubesats have enabled relatively economical space access for industrial, academic and private organizations that previously […]
Sierra Nevada Completes Critical Review Of Its Dreamchaser Commercial Spacecraft
Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., has completed its first major, comprehensive safety review of its Dream Chaser Space System. This is the company’s latest paid-for-performance milestone with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which is working with commercial space partners to develop capabilities to launch U.S. astronauts from American soil in the […]
Virgin Galactic Adds Fromer Space Shuttle Commander To Its Commercial Flight Team
Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, announced today that pilots Frederick “CJ” Sturckow and Michael “Sooch” Masucci have been selected to join its commercial flight team. As Virgin Galactic clears its final flight test program milestones with powered flight tests now under way, the necessary addition of new pilots will enable the company to […]
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Breaks The Sound Barrier In First Powered Free-Flight
For the first time, Virgin Galactic’s commercial spaceplane, SpaceShipTwo, fired up its rocket engine in free-flight for 16 seconds during its latest successful drop test which also saw the craft break the sound barrier for the first time. Managed by teams from Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic, the test begins the final phase of vehicle […]
Antares Roars In Successful Debut Launch
Rising up from a blast of fire and steam, Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket roared off its Virignia launch pad this evening to begin successful inaugural mission. Liftoff occurred on Sunday, April 21 at 5:00 p.m. EDT from the new Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at the NASA’s’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It marked the […]
ATK Successfully Tests New Upper Stage For Antares Rocket
ATK successfully tested its newly developed CASTOR® 30XL upper stage solid rocket motor today at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) in Tennessee. The test was the final qualification for the ATK commercial motor, which was jointly developed by ATK and Orbital Sciences Corporation in just 20 months from concept to completion. […]