Space

This week's Washington Outlook column discusses how the next president can best secure a budget deal, FAA's certification of Moon Express and Virgin, and the presidential candidates' mixed messages on space policy.

New constellations of Earth-observing smallsats and advanced data-crunching give decision-makers new tools for dealing with a changing planet.

South Korea will be the first customer for the Angara 1.2, designed for small or medium-size satellites and capable of lifting up to 3,500 kg to LEO or SSO.

NASA hopes the docking adaptor awaiting installation on ISS is just the first step in a broad range of international spacecraft standards that will be needed to explore beyond low Earth orbit.

The survival of human explorers on Mars will depend in part on how well experts size up the Red Planet’s environmental risks and resources, a NASA astronaut says.

I was probably the only 14-year-old who had his own subscription to AW&ST. But for me, the memory that resonates most has to be: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Birthday celebrations are fun, but from its inception as Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering our publication has always looked forward.

This week’s Washington Outlook looks at strategic options for the new president, NASA cash, presidential helicopter and new routes to Mexico.

Science planners believe the approach would increase the chances another surface vehicle eventually will be able to recover them for analysis on Earth.

Weather satellites are showing that global warming is contributing to heavier rainfalls worldwide.

The European Commission decision allows the new company to finalize development of the Ariane 5 successor while overhauling Europe’s space industry.

NASA and other governments may have an end date for the International Space Station, but private companies are creating their own for commercial purposes.

GOP candidate’s comments about NATO draw bipartisan rebukes | New window for reopening Ex-Im for business | Astronaut sidesteps Trump.

NASA and other governments may have an end date for the International Space Station, but private companies are creating their own for commercial purposes.

Concepts for the post-ISS era begin to emerge, including commercial space factories spun off the existing station, and test hardware set for launch in 2017 to manufacture potentially valuable optical fiber that can only be made in space.

An asteroid at least 10 times more massive than originally estimated appears responsible for a prominent impact site on the Moon known as the Imbrium Basin.

Real-time analysis of human genetic response to the space environment may be coming, with enormous—and perhaps scary—implications.

Optical comms development for DARPA can boost commercial crosslinks as well.

The U.S. is trying to keep smallsat, cubesat and nanosat operators viable as they wait for domestic launch-service providers to field dedicated rides to space.

Phoenix-based Atlas Space Operations, Inc., plans to inaugurate a commercial deep-space communications service by July 2017.

Currently, the FAA must clear large blocks of airspace around launch and recovery sites.

A Silicon Valley startup plans to send an experiment in fiber-optics manufacturing to the International Space Station next year in a bid to make to the first commercial products that require microgravity for their creation, and sell them at prices higher than the cost of launch.

JAXA has achieved long-term success for its JEM space lab on the ISS by sticking to its original plan as much as possible, regardless of short-term priorities.

NASA looks for flexibility in its uses for solar-electric propulsion, in part to avoid political pitfalls.

Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne project has kick-started the creation of new, vertically integrated, rocket development and manufacturing capabilities in California.