SpaceX
Swedish firm buys Falcon Heavy launch
A Swedish company with plans for a geostationary communications satellite announced Oct. 16 a contract with SpaceX for a Falcon Heavy launch no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2020.
Safety panel fears Soyuz failure could exacerbate commercial crew safety concerns
Members of an independent NASA safety panel said they were worried that the Oct. 11 Soyuz launch failure could make safety concerns with the agency’s commercial crew program even worse.
International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight
The symposium is a dialog between the speakers and audience. Together we capture the growth, diversification and momentum of the commercial space industry at the time of the conference. Short powerful talks capture direction of the sectors focused…
Price swings expected during launch industry shakeout
The next two to three years will be a time of adjustment in the space launch industry, according to panelists at Satellite Innovation 2018 here.
SpaceX launches Argentine satellite, posts first ground-landing on West Coast
SpaceX conducted its seventeenth launch of the year Oct. 7, sending an Argentine radar satellite into low-Earth orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket.
NASA confirms new delays in commercial crew test flight schedule
A day after a SpaceX executive expressed doubts that his company would be able to carry out its first commercial crew test flight before the end of the year, NASA issued an updated schedule that delayed that mission to 2019.
First SpaceX commercial crew test flight could slip to 2019
A SpaceX executive said Oct. 3 that the company’s first commercial crew test flight could be delayed until early 2019 because of paperwork issues.
Japanese company ispace selects SpaceX for lunar missions
A Japanese company that has roots in the former Google Lunar X Prize competition announced Sept. 26 that it has selected SpaceX to launch a pair of missions to the moon in 2020 and 2021.
Commercial crew providers believe they now meet NASA safety requirements
Boeing and SpaceX, who have been struggling to meet safety thresholds established by NASA for commercial crew vehicles, now believe their vehicles can meet those requirements as they prepare for test flights scheduled in the next several months.
SpaceX signs up Japanese billionaire for circumlunar BFR flight
SpaceX announced Sept. 17 that a Japanese billionaire will be paying an undisclosed but significant sum to buy a flight of the company’s next-generation rocket for a flight around the moon carrying a group of artists.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell: ‘We would launch a weapon to defend the U.S.’
Shotwell: “Failure is bad. But failure while you’re trying and you’re testing is not terrible. You’re learning from it.”
AIAA SPACE Forum
AIAA SPACE Forum combines the best aspects of technical conferences with insights from respected leaders providing a single, integrated forum for navigating the key challenges and opportunities affecting the future direction of global space policy…
Amid GEO downturn, launch operators look for new markets
With orders for geostationary orbit satellites declining, potentially permanently, commercial launch service providers are looking to government and other markets to make up for lost business.
Falcon 9 launches Telstar 18 Vantage satellite
SpaceX ended a rare extended gap in launch activity Sept. 10 with the successful launch of a communications satellite for Telesat, the second payload for that satellite operator in less than two months.
NASA keeps open option of extended commercial crew demo flights
NASA is continuing to study using commercial crew test flights as space station crew rotation missions, but won’t make a final decision regarding that until next summer.
