Focus: Human Spaceflight
May 25, 2023
Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space tourism company, returned to flight on Thursday with a successful crewed mission to the edge of space. The mission — Unity 25 — was staffed with all Virgin Galactic specialists, and is the company’s final test of its full spaceflight system and experience before it plans to enter commercial service…
May 19, 2023
Blue Origin will now land astronauts on the surface of the Moon, as the Jeff Bezos-owned company won the second NASA human landing system award on Friday. It is a $3.4 billion fixed-price contract. Blue Origin will develop its Blue Moon lander for the Artemis V mission, set for 2029. With this award, SpaceX and…
January 4, 2023
Airbus Defence and Space is joining Voyager Space’s work to build the Starlab commercial space station. A Wednesday announcement from Airbus and Voyager was light on details but said that Airbus will provide technical design support and expertise. Starlab is planned as a free-flying space station to support NASA, global space agencies, and researchers, set…
September 22, 2022
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket is currently en-route to Virginia, and the launcher plans to hold its first mission from Wallops Island by the end of the year. Rocket Lab executives provided an update on its launch and space systems business lines on Wednesday during an investor presentation. HawkEye 360 is the first customer for…