Contracts for Boeing and SpaceX: Boeing and SpaceX win four more NASA orders for space taxis, with one big ‘if’ NASA has agreed to purchase four more crew launches to the International Space Station from Boeing and SpaceX — if their spacecraft achieve agency certification. Each company had contracts for two flights previously. The two companies… [Continue Reading]
Orion in 2017: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-readies-for-major-orion-milestones-in-2017 SLS Rocket Test Stand: Huge NASA rocket test stand constructed in 2.5 years | Time-lapse video Video offers the latest on the lengthy construction of a NASA Marshall Space Center test stand to help prepare the Space Launch System rocket for its first test flight in late 2018. SLS is a… [Continue Reading]
Scott Kelly: PBS to document Scott Kelly after historic Space Station stay in ‘Beyond a Year in Space’ PBS plans a follow-on documentary detailing NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s return to Earth, following a 340-day mission to the International Space Station in 2015-16. Beyond a Year in Space promises to look into the health challenges of… [Continue Reading]
NASA Transition Leadership: Lightfoot to be acting NASA administrator, CFO Radzanowski to stay on President Obama and his administration, including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, leave office on January 20. President-elect Trump has not designated successors, who will face U.S. Senate confirmation. During the interim, long-time NASA civil servant Robert Lightfoot, now the… [Continue Reading]
Gene Cernan: Eugene Cernan, last human to walk on moon, dies at 82 Gene Cernan, who commanded Apollo 17, NASA’s final human moon landing mission in December 1972, died Monday afternoon, in a Houston hospital following ongoing health issues. Cernan made the lunar journey twice, serving first as lunar module pilot aboard the May 1969… [Continue Reading]
James Dean, FLORIDA TODAY Published 9:54 p.m. ET Jan. 1, 2017 | Updated 7:18 a.m. ET Jan. 2, 2017 Published 9:54 p.m. ET Jan. 1, 2017 | Updated 7:18 a.m. ET Jan. 2, 2017 The New Year will see a pair of major new space manufacturing facilities rise at Kennedy Space Center’s Exploration Park. OneWeb, a… [Continue Reading]
Continuing Resolution: Lightfoot: No negative impact for NASA from new CR NASA should be able to spend as needed to keep Exploration Mission-1 on track under the U.S. budget Continuing Resolution passed by the Senate late last week. Passed earlier by the U.S. House, the new CR remains in effect through April in lieu of… [Continue Reading]
Transition Team for NASA: Trump adds six more to NASA transition team A half dozen experts have joined the Chris Shank-led transition team for President-elect Donald Trump at NASA. They include Steve Cook, who worked on Ares rocket development for the George W. Bush administration’s now cancelled Constellation program, and Sandra Magnus, a former NASA… [Continue Reading]
Photos from ISS: NASA releases top 16 photos from the International Space Station from 2016 The whole world stars in an all-star lineup of the 16 best photos snapped from the International Space Station in 2016. Auroras over Australia are pretty amazing. Citizens for Space Exploration – a pro-space, taxpayer, grassroots advocacy group (http://www.bayareahouston.com/content/c_s_e/c_s_e) –… [Continue Reading]
Orion Highlights 2016 and Nov 2016: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/2016_orion_overview_full.pdf andhttps://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/orion_monthly_newsletter_11-2016.pdf Orion Service Module: Orion service module engine shipped to Europe The NASA-furnished rocket engine that will fit onto the Orion capsule slated for a crucial late 2018 unpiloted test launch of the Space Launch System explorationrocket has been shipped to Europe. There it will be mated to Orion’s… [Continue Reading]