The United Launch Alliance (ULA) – best known in recent years for their high end payload launch services – are continuing their transition back into Human Space Flight operations. With an early history in human launches stretching back to safely sending astronaut John Glenn into space, ULA’s Atlas V is the preferred launch vehicle for [...]

The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) laid out its aspirations for the next two decades via a Future Development Concept (FDC) presentation that covers the spaceport’s transition into a multi-user facility. While KSC is hopeful of attracting additional launch providers, the center acknowledges times have dramatically changed since the production of the previous Master Plan created [...]

Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-3 (ATV-3) “Edoardo Amaldi” raised the International Space Station’s orbit by nearly four kilometers on Thursday evening, aiding the phasing requirements for its Russian cousins. ATV-3 continues to have its power loss issue evaluated, while one of its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) channels apparently failed on Thursday.

The new Space Launch System (SLS) will be able to cope with a minimum of 13 scrubs – or cryo cycles – and remain happily at the launch pad for a minimum of 180 days, according to the latest technical overview document. This robust design approach will assist SLS in being able to deal with [...]

With preliminary design work underway on the Deep Space Habitat (DSH) for future crewed exploration of the space beyond Low Earth Orbit, the configurations of the proposed craft, as well as its auxiliary support craft, are beginning to take shape as NASA eyes a multi-use approach for the aggregate vehicle that would be tasked with [...]

Following on from a system failure on Thursday night, electrical power has been successfully restored between Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-3 (ATV-3) and the International Space Station (ISS) after a marathon weekend of replanning and troubleshooting work by control centers around the globe and crews on-orbit.

With the push for exploration Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) increasing, a proposed habitat for human exploration outside the confines of Earth’s immediate space is taking shape as NASA presses forward with the development of its new Deep Space Habitat (DSH) – a module-based habitation facility that will be used as part of manned exploration missions [...]

After 45 years in service Russia’s Proton-K rocket has made its 311th and final launch Friday morning, on a mission that successfully deployed an early warning satellite for the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces with the aid of a Blok DM-2 upper stage. Launch was on schedule at 05:49 UTC (11:49 local time), from Area 81/24 at [...]

Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-3 (ATV-3) “Edoardo Amaldi” resupply ship docked to the International Space Station (ISS) at 10:31 PM GMT on Wednesday, following a five day free flight after its launch atop an Ariane V booster from French Guiana on Friday. Meanwhile, a minor issue with ATV-3′s Antenna Deployable Boom (ADB) has been successfully resolved.

The NASA Advisory Council (NAC) – a body that provides the NASA Administrator with counsel and advice on programs and issues of importance to the Agency – has insisted a human exploration plan, or at least a destination, should be selected as soon as possible. The call comes just weeks ahead of the greatly anticipated [...]

Classed as one of the defined destinations for NASA astronauts in the mid to late 2020s, missions to a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) – utilizing the Space Launch System (SLS) – have received a level of technical evaluation via the Exploration Systems Development Division (ESD) Concept Of Operations (Con Ops) document, which overviewed the Initial, [...]

Thirteen months after the launch of their second ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) mission to the International Space Station, the European Space Agency have launched their third ATV to the ISS from the Guiana Space Centre, in Kourou, French Guiana. The ATV-3 spacecraft, highlighting the detailed work of NASA, ESA, and Russian officials, launched onboard the [...]

The latest documentation relating to the efforts to create an Exploration Roadmap for NASA’s future has provided the strongest indication to date that the Agency wants to return US astronauts to the surface of the Moon. Listed as a Lunar Surface Sortie (LSS) mission, the Exploration Systems Development Division (ESD) revealed their plans via their [...]

With Space Shuttle orbiter Discovery buttoned up in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) ahead of her flight to her retirement home, and with Enterprise ready to make way for Discovery and head to her new display site, the Shuttle team at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is focused on finishing Transition and Retirement (T&R) work for Atlantis [...]

Eight months after the conclusion of the final Space Shuttle mission, the iconic winged-vehicle’s successor continues to take shape at various NASA centers, as the U.S. space agency further defines the Space Launch System requirements – as seen in the expansive SLS Program Launch Vehicle Specifications document, which provides details on the latest design baseline requirements [...]

As engineers finalize the removal of Main Propulsion System (MPS) hardware from the retired Space Shuttle fleet – comprising of large elements of the orbiter’s “guts” that are being donated to the Space Launch System (SLS) program – Orbiter Flow manager Stephanie Stilson revealed that “her baby”, Discovery, has held on to most of her [...]

The Orion Program is continuing to push forward at a lively pace, as the first MPCV (Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle) set to launch into space heads into the final pathfinder welds, ahead of closeout work. While work continues on the Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) Orion, the critical parachute system is set for another drop test in [...]

Canada’s Dextre robotic space helper, working with NASA’s Robotic Refuelling Mission (RRM) experiment, have together completed a record breaking week of robotics operations on the International Space Station (ISS), a week which saw the first ever attempt at satellite servicing tasks successfully performed in space.

Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery’s almost 30 years of processing at Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) came to an end on Friday with the retired spaceship’s transfer out of OPF Bay 1. The orbiter traded places with sistership Atlantis, which returned to the OPF from High Bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).