SpaceX has an aggressive plan for Starship in 2024, planning to launch the rocket at least nine times this year, according to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator.
Starship is the most powerful and the largest heavy-lift launch vehicle ever built, and it will eventually be responsible for taking people from Earth to Mars, according to SpaceX’s goals for the project.
However, SpaceX has a long way to go before it will get Starship to that point.
The latest offering in space tourism promises to be a lot less bumpy.
Space Perspective, a Florida-based startup, recently unveiled a test capsule for its new Neptune spacecraft. Neptune is expected to start carrying passengers into the stratosphere — using a massive balloon, instead of rockets — as early as next year.
The company touts the pressurized Neptune capsule as “the largest human spacecraft in operation” aside from space stations like the ISS. It also says Neptune is the third commercial suborbital spacecraft to ever be built, after Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space plane and Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew capsule.
The Dream Chaser spaceplane, developed by Sierra Space and undergoing testing at NASA ’s Armstrong Test Facility, is set for its first demonstration flight to the ISS. This marks a significant step in the commercial resupply program and underscores the ongoing space industrial revolution, aimed at enhancing human life on Earth.
Nose-up and bathed in soft blue lights, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane and its Shooting Star cargo module cast dramatic shadows onto the walls of NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, as members of the media got their first glimpse of the towering 55-foot-tall stack on February 1.
The spaceplane and its cargo module are undergoing testing at the facility to prepare for the extreme environment of space.
Varda plans to pioneer the use of orbital manufacturing spacecraft such as this capsule to open unique pathways for engineering materials in space. “Processing materials in microgravity, or the near-weightless conditions found in space, offers a unique environment not available through terrestrial processing,” the company’s website states.
Related: Private Varda Space capsule returns to Earth with space-grown antiviral drug aboard
The recovery made Varda only the third private company to recover an intact spacecraft from orbit, after SpaceX and Boeing.
The moon lander dubbed Odysseus is “alive and well” but resting on its side a day after its white-knuckle touchdown as the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the U.S. since 1972, the company behind the vehicle said on Friday.
Recorded earlier
A robotic spacecraft is expected to touch down on the moon’s surface Thursday night, in what will mark the United States’s first uncrewed commercial moon landing.
On Thursday, flight controllers in Houston will lower the spacecraft’s orbit and attempt a landing near the moon’s south pole.
A private U.S. lunar lander is in orbit around the moon, a day before it will attempt to land on the surface.
Space Perspective, a US-based company, is set to revolutionize the way humans experience space.
The capsule has large vertical windows for panoramic views and innovative window technology that shields against harmful sunlight wavelengths and regulates the interior temperature.
This spacious capsule is designed to comfortably host eight Explorers (the travelers) along with a Captain.
The capsule has a spacious interior and several amenities, including the world’s first Space Lounge with WiFi and a restroom.
Firefly Aerospace sent a Lockheed Martin payload to the wrong orbit in December, and it is now ‘implementing corrections’ for future missions.
