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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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.
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NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) have recommended that NASA personnel embedded at commercial companies should be rotated, in order to avoid them “going native”, which they fear threatens rule bending as the teams’ working relationship becomes closer over time. Meanwhile, SpaceX are waiting on decision to see if they can combine their next two [...]
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While Russian engineers continue to investigate the failure of their Progress M-12M, which crashed in Eastern Russia on Wednesday, half a world away Orbital welcomed their first pressurized cargo module (PCM) for its Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, in preparation for leading the charge of America’s own commercial cargo [...]
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NASA’s key Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) drive appears to be progressing to plan, as four companies press on with the development of their manned vehicles, with an aim to transport crews to the International Space Station (ISS) by the middle of this decade – aided by Agency money, whilst allowing for the key oversight from [...]
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