Collaborate Disseminate
For months before liftoff, the popular press had been hyping up the fact that the Polaris Dawn mission would include the first-ever private spacewalk. Not only would this be the …read more Continue reading Polaris Dawn, and the Prudence of a Short Spacewalk
Though it suffered through decades of naysayers, these days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who would still argue that the commercialization of space has been anything but a …read more Continue reading Japan’s First Commercial Rocket Debuts With a Bang
Within a few hours of this post going live, Astrobotic’s Peregrine spacecraft is expected to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere — a disappointing end to a mission that was …read more Continue reading Crippled Peregrine Lander to Make Fiery Return Home
There was a time when putting an object into low Earth orbit was the absolute pinnacle of human achievement. It was such an outrageously expensive and complex undertaking that only …read more Continue reading Democratizing Space, One Picosatellite at a Time
When Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy in April, it was clear the commercial launch provider was in serious trouble. Despite successfully putting four payloads into low Earth orbit, the spin-off …read more Continue reading Bankruptcy Sale Scatters Virgin Orbit to the Winds
It looks as though things may have gone from bad to worse at Virgin Orbit, the satellite carrying spin-off of Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic. After a disappointing …read more Continue reading Virgin Orbit Pauses Operations, Seeks Funding
Even if you’re just making a brief hop over the Kármán line to gain a few minutes of weightlessness, getting to space is hard. Just in case any of their …read more Continue reading Blue Origin Loses Rocket, Gains Abort System Test
It’s fair to say that there’s really no phase of spaceflight that could be considered easy. But the case could be made that the most difficult part of a spacecraft’s …read more Continue reading SpinLaunch and the History of Hurling Stuff into Space
In an era where anyone with deep enough pockets can hitch a ride to the edge of space and back, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Axiom’s Ax-1 mission to …read more Continue reading Axiom’s Private ISS Mission Was No Space Vacation
We’ve all heard it said, and it bears repeating: getting to space is hard. But it actually gets even harder the smaller your booster is. That’s because the structure, engines, …read more Continue reading Astra’s Frugal Design Leads To Latest Unusual Failure