Commercial Space

How Stratolaunch is set up to handle the loss of its financier and visionary leader may serve as a role model for kindred space ventures whose billionaire backers are still around.

Here is a look at some of the more than two dozen public and private organizations that have unveiled lunar exploration and development programs.

Awards tallying nearly $2.3 billion go to ULA, Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin.

Visiting near-Earth objects with multiple smallsats is to serve as a pilot run for a shared mission.

To be located in New Zealand, orbit-debris-mapping startup LeoLab’s latest ground radar will track objects down to 2 cm in size.

The four-year competition to supply U.S. engine for new Vulcan rocket ends with Jeff Bezos-backed BE-4 toppling traditional supplier.

An early customer for BFR puts a meaningful dent in estimated $5 billion development cost of BFR, says Musk.

As the International Space Station marks 20 years in low Earth orbit, NASA faces new imperative to expand its commercial realm.

With the communications satellite market still in flux, launch service providers are counting on aggregators and manufacturers to broaden their product ranges.

Rather than landing back on Earth, ULA Vulcan rockets will parachute just its engines for refurbishment and reflight.

Having already felt the bite of U.S. competition, Arianespace counting on new rocket to keep it in the commercial space launch game

Borrowing best practices, technologies from heritage Atlas and Delta programs, ULA pivots to compete in new space environment.

What the latest acquisitions by Boeing and Lockheed, and a possible sale by Maxar, tell us about the future of LEO, smallsats and geosats.

The future of the International Space Station hinges on expanding the number and type of commercial users, but NASA policy bans publicity and advertising.

The new space economy is beginning to diversify with service providers eyeing the smallsat community and beyond.

Boeing has found the cause of a propellant leak during a June hot-fire test of the CST-100 Starliner launch abort engines.

LeoLabs plans to expand its commercial low-Earth-orbit mapping capabilities with new funding from Airbus and other investors.

Centaur upper stage gets a second RL10 engine to accommodate space station crew taxi fights.

The tsunami of sensor data presents opportunities and challenges for satellite operators and service providers.

Startup Astrobotic aims to deliver payloads to the lunar surface once a year, starting with the first flight scheduled for 2020.

With Russian rides to space station ending, pressure builds on Boeing and SpaceX to finish and fly their vehicles without shortcutting safety.

New detail emerges about SpaceX’s "giant party balloon" upper-stage recovery studies.

As NASA prepares for start of commercial spaceflight, ‘load and go’ is among operational alternatives it will assess as a system.

Simultaneous solicitations for payloads and flight services could return U.S. to the lunar surface as early as 2019.

SpaceX plans novel test of booster’s reusability by flying it twice in 24 hr.