Intuitive Machines has for a second time selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket for the launch of a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission lander to the Moon.
After a one-day weather delay, SpaceX’s upgraded Dragon resupply capsule departed the International Space Station early Jan. 12 for a first-ever commercial atmospheric re-entry and parachute descent off the Florida coast with a 4,400-lb. scientific and equipment return payload.
Adverse weather Jan. 11 prompted SpaceX to delay the first-ever attempt by a NASA-contracted commercial International Space Station resupply mission to return to Earth for an Atlantic Ocean splashdown off Florida’s east coast with a 5,200-lb. cargo that includes science experiments.
FAA and NASA have pledged to coordinate their standards and to work together on commercial space launch and re-entry, point-to-point suborbital transportation, spaceports, airspace design and a host of other issues now that the era of commercially licensed human spaceflight has begun.
Virgin Orbit will make a second attempt to reach orbit with the LauncherOne small satellite rocket on Jan. 13, with backup launch windows available later in the month in the event of a delay.
Following its record-setting 26 launches in 2020, SpaceX kicked off the new year with delivery of the Turksat 5A broadband satellite into orbit on Jan. 7.
Arianespace is willing to operate microlaunchers if the opportunity arises, either as a way to meet demand or as proof of concepts for heavier launchers, CEO Stephane Israel said.
Virgin Galactic has completed post-flight inspections and root cause analysis of last month’s thwarted suborbital flight test of SpaceShipTwo, the company said on Jan. 7.
Denver-based Voyager Space Holdings, Inc. plans to acquire a majority stake in XO Markets and its largest subsidiary, Houston-based Nanoracks, which earlier this month launched the commercial Bishop airlock to the International Space Station.
Axiom Space, the space station startup, on Dec. 22 announced plans to create a 14-acre headquarters campus at Houston Spaceport to train private astronauts and begin production of its Axiom Station.
Jaunt Air Mobility has signed a memorandum of understanding with propulsion developer VerdeGo Aero to study a hybrid-electric version of Jaunt’s planned Journey urban air taxi.
Nanoracks’ commercial airlock, which was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this month aboard the first launch of SpaceX’s upgraded cargo version of the Dragon capsule, has been successfully removed from the freighter’s unpressurized trunk and berthed to the port side of the orbital outpost’s U.S. segment Tranquility module.
Germany’s ambitions for a smallsat launch capability from the North Sea has prompted the formation of a consortium to develop a ship-launch capability.
The Commercial Space Operations Center, now known as Comspoc, has formally split off as a standalone company from Analytical Graphics now that the latter has been acquired by Ansys.
