A Cessna Grand Caravan equipped with a MagniX propulsion system flies over Moses Lake, Washington for a flight test. (MagniX via YouTube) MagniX, based in Everett, Washington, will receive $ 74.3 million from NASA over the next five years to demonstrate electric propulsion technologies for aircraft. The fixed price / cost-sharing price is awarded through … Read more
An artist’s rendering shows SpaceX’s Starship rocket ship on the moon. (SpaceX illustration) NASA has suspended its contract with SpaceX to bring astronauts back to the moon pending the first outcome of a lawsuit from Blue Origin. The voluntary stay ends on November 1, two weeks after the hearing on the case, according to a … Read more
The Artemis I mission to the moon took some big strides when NASA recently unveiled its powerful, partially assembled SLS rocket (below). Now the space agency is asking for help naming their first (non-human) passenger, or “Moonikin”, who will fly aboard the Orion capsule. The dummy will fly on the first mission to collect data … Read more
Rocket Lab is known (mostly) for its orbital flights, but its interplanetary efforts will soon bear fruit. The startup has received an order to build two spaceships for ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers), a mission selected by NASA to investigate how solar wind is removing the Martian atmosphere and changing the planet’s … Read more
“Juno carries a number of sensitive instruments that Ganymede can see in ways never before possible.” Ganymede is larger than the planet Mercury, according to NASA. The flyby will be the closest to Ganymede since 2000. Jupiter’s largest moon is getting visitors today. On Monday afternoon, NASA’s Juno spacecraft will come within 645 miles of … Read more
Stoke Space Technologies’ second stage motor injector will be subjected to a test fire at the company’s component test facility. (Stoke photo) Two Washington state companies have received up to $ 750,000 each in NASA grants to take space-related technologies they are already working on to the next level of development. The awards for Stoke … Read more
An artist’s conception shows SpaceX’s spaceship rocket ship on the moon. (SpaceX illustration) NASA says it will withhold its payments to SpaceX for the development of its Starship super rocket as a lunar lander, while the Government Accountability Office addresses the $ 2.9 billion contracting challenges of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture as well … Read more
When NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter made its third flight in April, the ground team met the last of the three goals required to label the technology demo project a success. For this reason, for its fourth test flight, the Ingenuity team wants to improve the performance of the machine on Mars by flying further over more … Read more
Over a week ago, NASA placed a $ 2.9 billion contract with Elon Musks SpaceX to build a lunar lander for the upcoming Artemis Moon project. When choosing SpaceX, NASA handed over the defense company Dynetics and Blue Origin. The latter is now challenging the decision. In a protest filed with the Federal Government Accountability … Read more
A small robotic helicopter named Ingenuity made history in space exploration on Monday as it took off from the surface of Mars and floated in the blurry air of the red planet. It was the first machine from Earth to fly over another world like an airplane or a helicopter. The achievement extends the long, … Read more