Latest Private spaceflight Stories
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com At this year’s SETIcon II, space experts with varying degrees of expertise and goals gathered together to discuss a far-out plan: Traveling to the moon. Alex Hall, Senior Director of the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, (GLXP) a private competition to drive commercial exploration of space, started an early morning panel discussing Google’s foray into space exploration. She said her organization will be one of the first to sell tickets to land on the...
LONDON, June 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Excalibur Almaz Limited (EA), a commercial aerospace company based on the Isle of Man, British Isles, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with California-based XCOR Aerospace for suborbital flight services. The agreement signed in conjunction with the Royal Aeronautical Society's 3rd European Space Tourism Conference calls for XCOR to provide suborbital flight familiarization and training using its Lynx vehicle for Excalibur Almaz crews traveling...
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., June 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Chinese Air Force Officers are now conducting military operations in orbit. "The space program, including ostensible civil projects, supports China's growing ability to deny or degrade the space assets of potential adversaries and enhances China's conventional military capabilities," Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, wrote in testimony presented before the U.S. Senate's Armed Services...
HAMPTON, Va., June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center are marking five years of collaboration with Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems in Louisville, Colo., as partners in the design and development of the Dream Chaser® Space System. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) NASA Langley and SNC joined forces to update Langley's HL-20 lifting body vehicle design into the Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle,...
MOJAVE, Calif. and NEW YORK, June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- With the Tom Sachs space-themed art exhibit, "Space Program: Mars" as a backdrop, XCOR Aerospace named Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) as the new General Sales Agent (GSA) for the XCOR owned Lynx Suborbital vehicle flying from the Mojave Air and Spaceport. SXC was previously announced as the first wet lease customer for a Lynx production vehicle with planned flights from Curacao. The GSA places the responsibility with SXC...
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems has successfully completed a preliminary design review (PDR) of the design, architecture and performance of its Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle. This marks a new milestone in the company's effort to develop transportation for astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station. SNC is one of several companies working to develop commercial crew transportation capabilities under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2)...
LOUISVILLE, Colo., June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems has successfully completed a preliminary design review (PDR) of the design, architecture and performance of its Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle. This marks a new milestone in the company's effort to develop transportation for astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) SNC is one of...
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems successfully completed a "captive carry test" of its full-scale Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle Tuesday, marking a new milestone in the company's effort to develop transportation for astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station. During the test, the Dream Chaser flight vehicle was carried under an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter to assess the vehicle's aerodynamic flight performance, which will allow additional flight tests...
[ Watch the Video ] Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com SpaceX had an ideal ending to its Dragon capsule mission as the spacecraft zipped safely back through Earth's atmosphere and into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday. The Dragon capsule spent over a week in space, becoming the first commercial vehicle to dock with the International Space Station. SpaceX's prized capsule saw numerous launch delays, and one abort, until it finally was able to send Dragon into orbit last Tuesday at 3:44 a.m....
HOUSTON, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SpaceX's Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 11:42 a.m. EDT a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico, marking a successful end to the first mission by a commercial company to resupply the International Space Station. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "Congratulations to the teams at SpaceX and NASA who worked hard to make this first commercial mission to the International Space...
