WASHINGTON – London-based Spacebit plans to send a rover small enough to fit in a single cubesat to the moon in 2021 on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. The rover, which walks and jumps on four legs, “is one of the smallest if not the smallest rover in the world,” Spacebit […]
X Prize
78 posts
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity fires its rocket motor to head to the edge of space in 2018. (Virgin Galactic Photo) Boeing says it’s planning to invest $20 million in Virgin Galactic once it goes public, potentially unlocking a new level of synergy for commercial space travel. For Virgin Galactic, the […]
WASHINGTON — German lunar lander company PTScientists, which filed for bankruptcy in July, announced it has been acquired by an unidentified aerospace company, allowing it to continue operations. Berlin-based PTScientists and the law firm Görg, which handled the company’s bankruptcy administration, announced the acquisition in a German-language statement published Sept. […]
This article originally appeared in the July 29, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine. Tim Pickens has vivid memories of Project Apollo. Growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, where his father worked at Redstone Arsenal, Pickens recalls his father explaining why their home windows were vibrating. Saturn V was undergoing testing nearby. […]
WASHINGTON — One of the three companies NASA selected less than two months ago to carry payloads to the moon has informed the agency it won’t be able to perform that mission and has terminated its nearly $100 million contract. NASA announced July 29 that OrbitBeyond informed the agency that […]
It would seem that a distinguished liberal historian, a jumbo-jet captain and retired Swiss Air Force officer, and a brilliant rocket engineer and satirical novelist would have little in common. But as their most recent books make clear, Douglas Brinkley, Lukas Viglietti, and Robert Zubrin share an optimistic, ‘Whiggish’ outlook […]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A German company that is developing a lunar lander has filed for insolvency, citing a shortfall in funding, but vows to continue development of its spacecraft. Berlin-based PTScientists announced July 8 that it had filed for “preliminary insolvency” under the German Insolvency Code in a local court […]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Firefly Aerospace announced July 9 it plans to work with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the manufacturer of the Beresheet lunar lander, to develop its own lunar landers for NASA. Firefly and IAI said they signed intellectual property and engineering support agreements giving Firefly access to the technology […]