KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA astronauts will fly as “space flight participants” aboard commercial spaceships being developed to taxi crews to and from the international space station, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has determined. “NASA astronauts do not meet the definition of ‘crew’ as [...]
The U.S. Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane is nearing a major milestone — one year of travel in Earth orbit, performing duties in support of long-term space objectives. The unmanned X-37B spacecraft — flying a mission known as Orbital Test Vehicle 3 (OTV-3) — launched into space atop an [...]
The launch of the satellite Sputnik in 1957 ignited a race between the world’s two great rival powers. The United States and the former Soviet Union, USSR each poured vast amounts of resources into the research and development of technologies for the exploration of outer space. Sputnik and the impressive [...]
For defense contractors looking for growth markets as Pentagon spending slows, the “final frontier” is looking more and more attractive. “People really don’t understand how big a business space is. I mean, the commercial satellite market is enormous. It far dwarfs anything that’s going on in exploration,” said James Crocker, [...]
