Blue Origin announces ‘Orbital Reef’ commercial space station
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In partnership with Sierra Space, Blue Origin announced plans for a commercial space station to be built in low Earth orbit by the end of this decade.
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Commercial Crew Program flight schedule gets fresh clarity
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With the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission in the history books, NASA is looking toward the first operational flight of the Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX's Crew-1 mission, as well as the second uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner later this year.
Read MoreStarliner lands after abbreviated inaugural mission
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Some 48 hours after an internal clock error prevented the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test Starliner spacecraft from entering the correct orbit to get to the International Space Station, the capsule was commanded to return to Earth.
Starliner landed at 12:58 UTC Dec. 22, 2019, at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Using a combination of parachutes and airbags, the capsule gently touched down just before sunrise.
Read MoreStarliner's Orbital Flight Test mission 'go' for launch
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After years of development, the first orbital flight of Boeing’s Starliner is imminent. This uncrewed test is slated for a week-long trip to the International Space Station.
Starliner’s Orbital Flight Test, or OFT, is expected to take to the skies at 11:36 UTC Dec. 20, 2019, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Read MoreArtemis 1 core gets an engine, more SLS cores to be ordered
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Much like the Apollo program in the 1960s, the current Artemis program seems to have news every week. NASA’s first Space Launch System rocket recently received its first engine while the agency continues to work with Boeing to secure contracts for the giant vehicles through the end of the next decade.
Read MoreNASA, Boeing add option for extended Starliner crew flight test
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With the timeline for the first operational human flights for the Commercial Crew Program gradually slipping to the right and into 2019, Boeing last year proposed adding a third crew member to the first Crew Flight Test of the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station, NASA recently announced.
Read MoreNASA mulls purchasing Soyuz seats—from Boeing?
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Despite the Commercial Crew Program being years behind schedule, NASA has said for the last number of months that it has no plans to purchase additional Soyuz seats from Russia past the end of 2018. While that may technically hold true, the U.S. space agency is, however, looking to buy Soyuz seats acquired by Boeing.
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