Tag Archives: Private Spaceflight

NASA’s second thoughts about VIPER opened an opportunity for someone else to book that ride to the moon. Just because its cargo was canceled did not mean Astrobotic’s journey was off — it remains scheduled for later this year. And on Wednesday, a small startup named Venturi Astrolab Inc. announced it had claimed that opportunity to accelerate its own lunar …

In a post on X on Tuesday evening, Elon Musk said President Trump had asked his rocket company SpaceX to bring home “as soon as possible” two NASA astronauts who have been on the International Space Station since June. SpaceX, in fact, is already scheduled to bring those two astronauts home, but no earlier than late March, along with two …

In a post on X on Tuesday evening, Elon Musk said President Trump had asked his rocket company SpaceX to bring home “as soon as possible” two NASA astronauts who have been on the International Space Station since June. SpaceX, in fact, is already scheduled to bring those two astronauts home, but no earlier than late March, along with two …

During his Inaugural Address on Monday, President Donald J. Trump again promised to launch American astronauts to Mars. Seated nearby, Elon Musk, a political benefactor of Mr. Trump who founded SpaceX in the hope that it would one day be able to send colonists to Mars, beamed with enthusiasm and offered two thumbs up. The gargantuan Starship rocket that Mr. …

The urgent radio calls by the air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration office in Puerto Rico started to go out on Thursday evening as a SpaceX test flight exploded and debris began to rain toward the Caribbean. Flights near Puerto Rico needed to avoid passing through the area — or risk being hit by falling chunks of the …

SpaceX is ready for the seventh test flight of Starship — the gargantuan rocket that Elon Musk, the company’s founder, says will take people to Mars someday. Over the first six test flights, SpaceX has demonstrated that it can launch the largest rocket ever into space and more or less bring the pieces back to Earth intact. Over the coming …

On Thursday morning, at a time when most people in the United States were sleeping, Jeff Bezos’ space company sent its first rocket into orbit. At 2:03 a.m. Eastern time, seven powerful engines ignited at the base of a 320-foot-tall rocket named New Glenn. The flames illuminated night into day at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket, …

On Thursday morning, at a time when most people in the United States were sleeping, Jeff Bezos’ space company sent its first rocket into orbit. At 2:03 a.m. Eastern time, seven powerful engines ignited at the base of a 320-foot-tall rocket named New Glenn. The flames illuminated night into day at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket, …

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is poised upright at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Preparations began in earnest several hours before launch when liquid hydrogen started flowing into New Glenn’s propellant tanks. At 10 minutes before liftoff time, the launch director will conduct a “go poll,” asking people whether the rocket’s systems are ready …

For years, the World Monuments Fund has sought to draw attention and resources to endangered cultural heritage sites including Machu Picchu in Peru, temples in Cambodia and the old city of Taiz in Yemen. But this year’s list of at-risk sites goes much further afield: to the moon. “The moon seems so far outside of our scope,” said Bénédicte de …