Commercial Space

Unmanned K-Max; GEO satellite servicing; Kitty Hawks ends Flyer; sustainable fuel spinoff; Agility Prime advances.

The U.S. arm of Japanese satellite servicing startup Astroscale is expanding into geostationary orbit by acquiring the assets of Israeli company Effective Space Solutions.

“It’s truly a critical moment in the development of the space economy and a new era of private human spaceflight,” NASDAQ’s president and CEO said just before the astronauts rang the bell in the station’s U.S. segment.

“Things worked exactly the way we expected them to work," Demo-2 astronaut Doug Hurley said. " It’s a pretty awe-inspiring trip so far, pretty humbling,”

“I’m very confident that we’ll continue to fund NASA and fund NASA aggressively,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said shortly after SpaceX's Demo-2 mission successfully docked with the International Space Station.

SpaceX's first Dragon capsule to carry astronauts will remain docked for up to four months at the space station.

The 3:22 p.m. liftoff marked SpaceX’s first launch with people aboard and the first U.S. human orbital launch since the final STS-135 shuttle mission in July 2011.

Space company takes positives from failed first LauncherOne flight and targets speedy solution to engine probe as retest plans ramp up.

As this new decade begins, 2020 is shaping up to be a groundbreaking year for the burgeoning space tourism industry. A report issued by UBS, the

NASA’s return to flying astronauts from U.S. soil to the International Space Station, delayed on May 27 due to weather constraints, has required the FAA to impose temporary flight restrictions (TFR) in the launch area that it has not used since the space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011.

NASA and SpaceX are retargeting launch of the crewed Demo-2 flight test for 3:22 p.m. EDT May 30 after dicey weather at Kennedy Space Center prompted a scrub 16 min. before a liftoff attempt on May 27.

SpaceX plans to evaluate a new dimming feature called VisorSat for its growing global constellation of Starlink broadband connectivity satellites, whose disruptive brightness in the night sky has raised the ire of professional and amateur astronomers.

With preparations for SpaceX’s first human spaceflight drawing to a close, the company's President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell talks with Aviation Week & Space Technology space editor Irene Klotz about lessons learned for Starship and plans for the rollout of Starlink.

Musk talks to Aviation Week & Space Technology Space Editor Irene Klotz about finally getting to human spaceflight and what’s ahead.

While its space taxi won’t be first to fly astronauts, Boeing commits to the long game.

Launch of NASA astronauts on the flight test comes nine years after the last U.S. human orbital spaceflight.

After 18 years, 89 launches and thousands of tests, SpaceX attempts human spaceflight.

The Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands has performed its first unmanned air system delivery to a ship in a demonstration that could reduce pressures on the transport network around Europe’s largest seaport.

Ask the Editors: The global space economy is projected to exceed $1.1 trillion by 2040, but it is unclear how COVID-19 will affect that.

SpaceX is looking to shave development time for Starship crewed flights to less than half of the six years it has taken to get the Falcon 9-Dragon system ready to fly people for the first time.

Space company Virgin Orbit is reviewing telemetry data from the first LauncherOne launch vehicle orbital test flight attempt, which was terminated after an anomaly occurred shortly after launch May 25.

Work on SpaceX’s prototype Starship spacecraft has eased up while the company focuses on launching its first people into orbit, says CEO Elon Musk.

NASA completed a two-day Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for the Demo-2 test mission, confirming a launch attempt on May 27 for SpaceX’s first human spaceflight and NASA’s first launch of astronauts on a U.S. system since 2011.

Launch service companies could be given the discretion to decide the optimal launch plan to support the 30 satellites in Tranche 0 of the Space Development Agency’s future military surveillance and communications architecture in low Earth orbit, the agency said May 20.

British satellite launcher firm Skyrora has undertaken a full static fire test of its Skylark-L rocket, the first test of this scale since the UK’s Black Arrow program 50 years ago.