Aerojet Rocketdyne has delivered the initial set of propulsion system hardware to Boeing for integration with the latter’s Crew Space Transportation-100 Starliner spacecraft service module. The hardware set includes starboard manifold assemblies and low-pressure port designed to distribute helium and move the propellants through the service module’s thrusters and engines, Aerojet Rocketdyne said Tuesday. The space vehicle’s […] More

An Orbital ATK-built spacecraft lifted off Monday onboard the company’s updated Antares 230 rocket to deliver more than 5,100 pounds of scientific instruments and crew supplies to the International Space Station. NASA said Monday the Cygnus spacecraft’s launch from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia marks Orbital ATK’s sixth cargo delivery mission to the ISS under the Commercial Resupply Services contract and […] More

NASA officials have said the agency does not have plans to extend its contract with the Russian space agency to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station in 2019 through the Russian-built Soyuz crew capsules, Spaceflight Now reported Thursday. Stephen Clark writes NASA bought six round-trip seats for U.S. astronauts on the Soyuz spacecraft under […] More

Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, has said the competition between ULA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has made the former company re-evaluate its cost structure for space launch services, Forbes reported Friday. Bruno told Forbes contributor Loren Thompson in an interview that the Boeing–Lockheed Martin joint venture has made a 35 percent reduction in […] More

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said the Chicago-based aerospace company plans to land the first human on Mars and that he expects space tourism to develop into a “viable commercial market” over the next 20 years, Bloomberg Technology reported Tuesday. “I’m convinced the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding a Boeing […] More

The U.S. Air Force seeks a contractor to provide satellite and secondary payload launch services for the military branch’s future Space Test Program-3 mission. The Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center will accept responses to its request for proposals on the STP-3 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle contract through Dec. 2, according to a notice posted Thursday on FedBizOpps. Space News reported Friday the […] More

Boeing has outfitted NASA‘s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, with new simulation training equipment to support the crew of the company-built CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. The company’s Crew Part-Task Trainers are designed to simulate various Starliner mission aspects, NASA said in a blog post published Wednesday. JSC engineers will manage the simulations as astronauts rehearse Starliner missions, the space agency added. Suni Williams and Bob […] More

United Launch Alliance has signed a cooperative research-and-development agreement with the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center in support of efforts to certify the company’s future Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle for national security space missions. The Air Force said Tuesday the cooperative, jointly-written agreement will stay in effect until all non-recurring design validation activities for the launch vehicle […] More

A partnership between Sierra Nevada Corp. and the United Nations’ Office for Outer Space Affairs aims to launch microgravity payloads from UN member states aboard the company-built Dream Chaser spacecraft by 2021. The U.N. said Tuesday the collaborative effort aims to give developing nations an opportunity to build and deploy payloads into orbit and that all member nations will have the chance to propose payloads […] More

United Launch Alliance has submitted a bid to compete on a contract to launch the U.S. Air Force’s third GPS III satellite in 2019 and reiterated its concern about price as a deciding factor in contract competition, Florida Today reported Tuesday. “As recent launch failures have shown, rockets are not commodities,” the Boeing–Lockheed Martin joint venture […] More

NASA has given the Lockheed Martin-built Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer spacecraft the go-ahead to launch on Sept. 8 after the space vehicle passed a launch readiness evaluation Tuesday, Space News reported. Jeff Foust writes the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida onboard the United Launch Alliance-developed Atlas […] More

United Launch Alliance is developing a reusable rocket stage that would stay in low Earth orbit and support activities in space, Quartz reported Saturday. Tim Fernholz writes ULA CEO Tory Bruno said a fleet of the company’s future Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage will work to support large-scale LEO activities as the company envisions a future in which humans […] More