Airships: A century from prototype to spaceflight?

Airships. There’s a certain nostalgic thrill to the streamline, art deco aircraft heyday that nearly was. To the point (and as illustrated above): the Empire State Building’s observation tower was originally intended to serve as a mooring point for airships. Achieving the power of flight by harnessing a buoyant gas is simple, reliable, quiet, low-velocity, […]

SpaceX chasing rocketry’s Holy Grail

As many who follow and support spaceflight are well aware, a Holy Grail of modern space transportation is the concept of the fully reusable rocket, or Reusable Launch System/Vehicle (RLV). Now, NewSpace orbital spacecraft provider SpaceX might just have this elusive target squarely in its sights. Many solutions have been suggested to achieve the true […]

NASA exploration goal to be announced

A NASA media advisory released yesterday alerted the world to what may be a landmark announcement later this afternoon. Specifically, the advisory states that an agency decision has defined the need for a human “deep space” transportation system. What does this tell us? Well, if we visit NASA’s exploration website, the first story would have […]

NASTAR: Day 3 – The Full Monty

[[Again, apologies for the delay on getting this one out!]] It’s hard to believe the last day has already come and gone. This program was worth everything it took to get here, from the fundraising and the family support (thanks, guys!) to the late-night flights and the headaches, (juggling finals for grad school comes to mind…) Trust me, it delivered. So, […]

Russia announces new Nuclear Rockets for manned Mars trip

For the first time in possibly four decades, two electrifying space technology phrases have managed to show up in the same sentence in earnest. Quietly nestled in the murky details of a somewhat thrilling AP news story about a potential new Russian spacecraft to be produced in the next few years are the words: “manned […]

Paradigm Shift

The Next-generation Suborbital Researcher’s Conference (NSRC) is in full swing, and the momentum here is staggering. We’ve had a very good showing to start and have gained invaluable feedback… and it’s only the first morning. As was mentioned by Dr. Alan Stern earlier this morning, this is Silicon Valley, the year is 1979, and commercial […]

Introducing Astrowright Spaceflight Consulting LLC

This has been nearly impossible for me to keep under my hat for so long, but after nearly a year of preliminary work, I am thrilled to announce that Astrowright Spaceflight Consulting LLC is open for business (www.astrowright.com). So, what is the venture specifically? The firm offers a suite of spaceflight-related services, including orbital and […]

Excalibur back in British Isles!

…commercial spacecraft manufacturer/provider Excalibur Almaz (EA), that is. And they ferried two partially-constructed commercial space stations with them. A primary competitor to Bigelow Aerospace on the commercial space station frontier, EA has leveraged 20th-Century Russian military space technology in a bid to accelerate a fully-functioning private spaceflight program to orbit. Because it is based on […]

Boeing enters commercial spaceflight, guns blazing

In a move that must have struck simultaneous chords of fear and joy in the hearts of future commercial and tourist spaceflight providers, aerospace titan Boeing recently announced the intent to partner with Space Adventures to sell private seats on its newest orbital spacecraft, the CST-100. (This passes up Virgin Galactic’s and Armadillo Aerospace’s suborbital spacecraft, […]

JAXA’s little space camera that could

A quick update on the recently-launched IKAROS Japanese solar sail spacecraft: Earlier this week the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reported visual confirmation that IKAROS’s solar sail has fully expanded as designed. As you can see, a complete success! Congratulations are in order all around to the IKAROS team as the craft enters into its […]