Commercial Space

If successful, Northrop’s Mission Extension Vehicle could seed a market for in-space servicing of satellites and open the door to manufacturing in space.

A carefully planned orbital ballet will bring Northrop’s MEV-1 and Intelsat 901 together in geosynchronous orbit.

The billionaire's Blue Origin space company wants to sell human-class lunar landing services to NASA.

Florida factory features robots to distribute parts kits and to move spacecraft through work sites and test chambers.

Dragon was about to fire up abort system thrusters when an explosion occurred.

SpaceX clears hurdle to launch first batch of satellites, but international operations are in question.

Company begins production of a small satellite platform based on its rocket’s apogee kick stage.

A test of abort thrusters destroyed the capsule that had returned from an unmanned test flight to the International Space Station.

After a near-flawless journey to lunar orbit, Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft reached the Moon’s surface but crashed about 2 min. before its slated touchdown.

More then a year after its flight test, Falcon Heavy enters commercial service.

In-space logistics are the key to increasing robustness and economic productivity.

After the geostationary communications satellite market collapse, Maxar is focused on launching its Legion satellites and rapidly providing data to customers.

Flying the SpaceX Falcon Heavy with ULA upper stage is an option for lunar missions beyond 2022.

Steppingstones are in place to fast-track revived U.S. lunar exploration initiative, but some key items are missing.

A former NASA extravehicular system manager for the ISS, Moses discusses her recent suborbital ride aboard SpaceShipTwo for the first inflight assessment of the passenger cabin.

Eight years after shuttle flights ended, SpaceX Dragon 2 capsule reaches space station for test run, ushering in “new era in space.”

As NASA gears up for first U.S. human spaceflights since 2011, a training tool from the ‘60s is back in vogue.

Virgin Galactic targets assured repeatability as test focus expands beyond envelope expansion to include cabin environment and ride quality.

At last, a U.S spaceship for orbital human flight is ready for a test run to ISS.

Lured by the prospect of thousands of small satellites needing rides to orbit, private launchers line up.

This Anglo-Danish startup describes how production, architecture and propellant are working together to drive efficiency.

Methane and liquid oxygen engine hits 60% of maximum thrust during 2-sec. debut.

Allowing corporations to buy naming rights to NASA property and to use astronauts for commercials would cause more harm than good for the American public and for NASA as a public entity.

Commercial funding not only enhances great American research organizations, but it also creates them—just look at the Smithsonian Institution.

A government-backed company is selling Soyuz launch services from Russian spaceports.