by National Space Society | Jan 14, 2021 | Commercial Space, Space Development, Space Tourism
By Bob Brodbeck Activities in the suborbital space tourism arena indicate that it is highly likely this business will finally become operational, flying paying passengers to space, this year. Earlier today at their west Texas facility, Blue Origin successfully...
by National Space Society | Jan 1, 2021 | Commercial Space
By Dale Skran Having just written a 2020 SpaceX year in review wrap up (which included a preview of 2021), I thought it would be fun to go back and look at the 2020 Space X preview I wrote a year ago and see how accurate it was. I’ve included the entire text of the...
by National Space Society | Dec 31, 2020 | Commercial Space
By Dale Skran Given how generally terrible 2020 has been for most of us suffering under the yoke of the pandemic, it seems impolite to point out that SpaceX has somehow struggled through to pull off what can only be described as its best year ever. Early in 2020 there...
by National Space Society | Dec 9, 2020 | Commercial Space, NSS Press Releases, Space Development
High-Altitude Test Flight is a Huge Step Toward National Space Society Goals of Space Settlement On December 9, at 5:45 p.m. EST, SpaceX’s Starship was successfully flown to an altitude of almost eight miles (12.5 km) from the company’s test facility at Boca Chica,...
by National Space Society | Dec 7, 2020 | Commercial Space, Space Development
By Dale Skran With a multitude of records surrounding this flight, the most important aspect is certainly the main cargo—Nanorack’s Bishop airlock. This airlock was built by Boeing for Nanoracks, and will be the first commercial airlock on the ISS, offering...
by National Space Society | Nov 28, 2020 | Commercial Space
By Dale Skran SpaceX continued to push the envelope of reusability with a November 24, 2020 launch of the 16th Starlink mission, bringing the total number of Starlinks launched to 955. For the first time, a Falcon 9 first stage flew and was recovered for the 7th time,...
by National Space Society | Nov 18, 2020 | Commercial Space, NSS Press Releases, Space Policy
National Space Society’s Ongoing Support for Commercial Spaceflight Shows Results On Tuesday, at 11:01 pm Eastern Time, SpaceX’s Crew-1 flight successfully docked with the International Space Station in its first operational flight with a crew of four. The...
by National Space Society | Oct 13, 2020 | Commercial Space, Space Development
By Bob Brodbeck This morning at 8:36 am CST the Blue Origin New Shepard space flight program resumed at the company’s West Texas facility with the successful flight of mission NS-13, the thirteenth consecutive successful flight of the New Shepard suborbital launch...