International Space Station (ISS) Program managers at space agencies around the world are currently in the process of ironing out an extremely complex and busy integrated schedule of comings and goings at the station, in light of recent delays to Soyuz launches and the inaugural station visit by SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

Californian aerospace company Aerojet believe they are in a good position to continue their advancements in the development of rocket engines, ranging from the Next Generation Engine (NGE) for the US Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, through to environmentally “green” propellants for propulsion hardware.

The Space Launch System (SLS) teams are looking into the potential of finding extra roles for the vehicle, in addition to – or in tandem with – the flagship exploration missions, noting its availabity for Department of Defense (DoD) payloads and even what is known as “Secondary Payloads” – allowing satellites to hitch a ride [...]

SpaceX are continuing to make progress with their NASA commercial crew contract, with the latest milestone involving the firing of their SuperDraco thruster engine, an integrated element of the Dragon which will be used as its Launch Abort System (LAS). However, these engines are hoping to gain additional roles, including the ability to land Dragon [...]

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) have provided a positive overview on their progress in readying their Dream Chaser spacecraft for commercial crew operations in 2016. A fan favorite – due to its baby shuttle orbiter appearance – Dream Chaser has been paired with the highly reliable Atlas V launch vehicle as part of their Commercial Crew [...]

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 flight with the Dragon spaceship – a mission which is expected to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) – is slipping in order to allow for due diligence “safety checks” ahead of launch. SpaceX’s decision to slip what was a February 7 launch came after comments noting their sense of [...]

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) will begin testing on a vertical propulsion landing system later this year, part of a long-term project to evaluate the potential of creating a fully-reusable version of their Falcon 9 launch vehicle. SpaceX believe a fully and rapidly reusable orbital class rocket would provide a critical breakthrough for the human [...]

The six-member crew of the International Space Station (ISS) have been hard at work over the past few weeks, performing multiple hardware and software upgrades in order to ready the station to support the new fleet of commercial resupply vehicles, ahead of next month’s inaugural visit of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to the orbital outpost.

The Kennedy Space Center is undergoing improvements to its buildings and infrastructure, work which will continue at the spaceport through to 2013. Most of the work is taking place on the 50 year old waterway, which links the Turn Basin to the crawlerway through to both Pad 39A and 39B – the latter of which [...]

The International Space Station (ISS) has now entered what will be a challenging new year, which will see access to the station for both crews and cargo tested, in wake of last year’s retirement of the Space Shuttle, the start of new commercial resupply flights, and recent failures of Russian launch vehicles.

For the past several months, a plan to restart shuttle operations – funded by billions of dollars of secured non-government investment – was under evaluation with NASA and shuttle contractors prior to the secret effort ending last week. However, the group behind the effort have now switched their focus to a “Next Generation, Shuttle Capable” vehicle [...]

Funded as a Paul G. Allen project under the banner of Stratolaunch, Burt Rutan is taking his space tourism concept a step further, by developing an air-launch system for payloads in the 10,000lbm class into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The system will be able to launch from several possible operational sites and eventually aims to [...]

Orbital Sciences Corporation’s new launch vehicle – currently being developed as a simple solution to continue to support the medium class satellite market, as well as to loft much-needed cargo to the International Space Station via the company’s Cygnus spacecraft – has changed its name from Taurus II to the Antares.

In what will be a highly historic mission, NASA managers announced they have approved the combination of the Dragon C2/C3 (D2/D3) Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) missions, pending final reviews. A preliminary launch date of February 7 was also set, which will see SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch with an unmanned Dragon to the ISS.

SpaceX’s Dragon demonstration flight to the International Space Station (ISS) is understood to be moving into the February/March timeframe, while approval for the combination of the C2/C3 (D2/D3) missions – which would result in Dragon arriving at the orbital outpost – is still pending official approval from NASA and the ISS partners. UPDATE: Combined Mission approved on [...]

While fancy youtube videos and twitter-based cheer-leading continues to be the weapon of choice against the post-Shuttle era depression, one vehicle is quietly going about its business with tangible results, as opposed to backslapping tweets. The Atlas V launch vehicle – about to launch a mission to Mars – is on a winning streak, which includes strides towards [...]

An agreement has been signed between Raytheon Technical Services and Petrofac Training Services to allow oil workers to train at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory’s giant pool. While training scenes for fictional oil workers were seen during the movie Armageddon, Petrofac’s team won’t be preparing to save the planet, instead using the facility to fine tune [...]

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) employees have been encouraged to apply for NASA’s latest astronaut class, as the transition from purchased seats on Russian Soyuz vehicles to the International Space Station (ISS), to the fleet of commercial vehicle options in the middle of the decade, and eventually with Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS), picks [...]

One of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) suitors – Boeing and their CST-100 spacecraft – have signed a 15 year lease to utilize Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-3) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The deal was announced on Monday, following a NASA agreement with Space Florida – the State’s aerospace economic development agency.