Posts Tagged ‘launch’
Facing Safety, Budget Concerns, NASA Delays Artemis Moon Missions
With budget cuts on the horizon and technical hurdles to vault before astronauts return to the Moon, NASA pushed the brakes on its Artemis program launch schedule Tuesday, delaying a planned lunar fly-by mission into 2025 and its planned landing into 2026. The agency cited safety concerns for the delay, including an ongoing investigation into problems with a heatshield, which was damaged when the uncrewed Artemis I capsule re-entered Earth’s atmosphere after a 2022 test flight. The move also comes as congressional negotiators mull slimming the agency’s budget by more than $500 million from its 2023, and $2.2 billion short of NASA’s 2024 budget request.
Read MoreWith Maiden Flight, ULA’s Vulcan Joins 2024’s Stampede to Space
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan launch vehicle successfully roared aloft Monday on its maiden flight from Florida, carrying lunar payloads and keeping up a blistering pace of spaceflight that could drive 2024 past annual records for payloads sent to space and launches set in 2023. The first eight days of 2024 have seen four launches from the United States, including three by SpaceX, along with missions to orbit from India and China.
Read MoreSecond Starship Test Flies Higher Before Failure
With 33 Raptor engines belching flame, SpaceX’s Starship demonstrated the full power of its main booster, reaching an altitude of 91 miles before the second uncrewed attempt to launch the massive rocket from Boca Chica, Texas, ended when the second stage apparently failed.
Read MoreU.S. Budget Proposals for 2024 Would Add $5 Billion in Space Spending
Unclassified federal space spending would top $60 billion in 2024 under budgets proposed by the White House March 10, with an extra $5 billion planned for civil and military programs.
Read MoreSolving Space Junk Problem Could Net Federal Prize
A grand prize could be in the offing for inventors who come up with new methods to prevent orbiting debris or design tools that can clean up space junk, according to recommendations from the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Read MoreQuilty Analytics: Space Market Transactions Cool During 2022’s 1st Quarter
After a torrent of transaction activity during 2021, the first quarter of 2022 saw a downshift in announced deal volumes. In Q1 22, there were six space-related acquisitions and buyouts, 41 private equity and venture equity financings totaling approximately $1.5 billion in funds raised, and three public equity financings, inclusive of two pending de-SPACs, totaling…
Read MoreU.S. Joins Allies in Space Operations ‘Vision’
By Tom Roeder troeder@spacefoundation.org A shared space operations vision accord now binds the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia and New Zealand, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The Combined Space Operations Vision 2031 accord commits the seven nations to a code of conduct in space, including a mission to “generate and improve cooperation, coordination,…
Read MoreState of Space 2022: Industry Enters ‘Era of Access and Opportunity’
By Tom Roeder troeder@spacefoundation.org The space industry has entered what Space Foundation CEO retired Navy Rear Adm. Tom Zelibor dubbed “the era of access and opportunity,” during an annual “State of Space” presentation this month on the foundation’s Symposium 365 online platform. Zelibor was joined by several industry leaders during the presentation, highlighting how satellites…
Read MoreJapanese Billionaire Caps Record Space Tourism Year
By Tom Roeder troeder@SpaceFoundation.org The first self-funded space tourist to reach the International Space Station in more than a decade reached his destination aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule Wednesday. Japanese fashion mogul Yusaku Maezawa paid $88 million for the ride, the BBC reported, and was accompanied on the trip by documentary filmmaker Yozo Hirano. Their…
Read More2019 Space Employment Hit 8-Year High, Launch Activity Reached Decade Growth of 39%, Research from The Space Report 2020 Q1 Analysis Shows
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 31, 2020) — Across multiple fronts, the space industry heading into 2020 was the strongest in years, with gains in space industry jobs, new nations entering space, and record-level research and investor activity through International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory programs. Those are among the new findings in The Space Report…
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