Space

Phantom Express to demo reusable launch; NASA seeks funding for low-boom X-plane; Rocket Lab makes it to space, but not orbit; NASA develops design tools for eVTOLs

Rocket Lab says that despite not reaching its intended orbit of between 300 and 500 km on its first test launch on May 25, the Electron vehicle performed nominally throughout most of the mission.

While most of Trump’s first NASA budget mimics the Obama administration’s, there are some important differences in emphasis, such as climate science.

Despite being cut from the budget request by the Trump administration, robotics developed by NASA will still be of great use to the space industry.

By making launch more affordable, SpaceX hopes to open the door to wider experimentation in space.

President Donald Trump’s $19.1 billion fiscal 2018 spending request for NASA achieves a 0.8% decrease from current levels by terminating a robotic satellite-servicing demonstration mission and, as expected, trimming Earth-science missions.

NASA’s ambitions of reaching Mars with human explorers continue to pay dividends for Johnson Space Center, the highest funded of the agency’s 10 field centers.

Despite doubts about funding for a multibillion dollar lander to seek evidence of life on Jupiter’s moon Europa, NASA is telling those interested in providing instruments for the mission not to lose hope.

More OEM vertical integration is coming, but so are new opportunities for suppliers, including non-traditional ones.

Don’t count on a big defense spending increase this year; report finds SLS NASA’s deadline rush cost millions, and the fight over air traffic control continues.

As NASA charts a course to Mars for human explorers with ever more capable hardware and software systems, policymakers, mission managers and those who launch face some tough ethical issues.

Finding usable water on the Moon would boost space exploration, but extracting it is likely to be a challenge.

From the big rockets for human spaceflight to the swarms of tiny cubesats revolutionizing data and bandwidth, the space economy is making a name for itself.

An analysis from space industry boosters in Washington seems aimed at the future, but really it is a warning about not repeating the past.

A series of diamond shapes over the ocean—areas where there is no air traffic—signals room for improvement in cruise efficiency for airlines.

Nuclear-powered probe on track to get closest look yet at Kuiper Belt Object.

Whether it is found in our Solar System or another one, discovery of another life form will mean we are not unique in the universe, and probably not even rare.

The rocket engine battle between the 500,000-lb.-thrust class Aerojet Rocketdyne AR1 and Blue Origin BE-4 is heating up.

In this week’s Washington Outlook: Republicans lobby for end to defense budget limits, SpaceX seeks regulatory changes for broadband constellation and will the airlines regulate themselves?

Reaction Engines has begun construction of a test facility where it plans to perform the first ground-based demonstration of its Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine.

Orbital ATK, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance are key contenders for the Air Force’s EELV launch service investments.

Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Dream Chaser uses guidance, navigation and control techniques first developed for astronaut flights in the 1960s.

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall met Valanathan Munsami, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), on the sidelines of the meeting of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS).

Trump and NATO defense spending; investor calls on Musk to stop cooperating with the president; the F-35’s air show prospects; and goodbye to a government shutdown.

Exploration Mission-1, NASA’s planned first flight of its heavy-lift Space Launch System and Orion deep-space crew capsule, won’t make its target launch date of November 2018.