Posted on September 22, 2016, at 3:22 am .
A rendering of the Cislunar Explorers CubeSat separating after deployment. (Credit: Kyle Doyle)
By Tom Fleischman
A satellite propelled by the Earth’s most abundant natural resource? Yes, it’s true.
Cislunar Explorers, a team of Cornell graduate and undergraduate students guided by Mason Peck, a former senior official at NASA and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is attempting to boldly go where no CubeSat team has gone before: around the moon.
Continue reading ‘Cornell Students Sending Water-Propelled CubeSat to Moon’
Posted on August 30, 2016, at 8:34 pm .
The moon rising over Half Moon Bay, California on Halloween 2009. (Credit: Douglas Messier)
LOS ANGELES (XPRIZE PR) — Today, XPRIZE officially verified Team SYNERGY MOON’s launch agreement as part of the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE, a global competition for privately funded teams to land an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of the moon by December 31, 2017. The SYNERGY MOON mission will use a NEPTUNE 8 rocket, built and launched by Interorbital Systems, to carry a lunar lander and at least one rover to the surface of the moon, launching from an open-ocean location off the California coast during the second half of 2017.
Continue reading ‘GLXP Update: XPRIZE Verifies Launch Agreement for Team SYNERGY MOON’
Posted on August 23, 2016, at 10:17 am .
The moon rising over Half Moon Bay, California on Halloween 2009. (Credit: Douglas Messier)
BANGALORE, India (TeamIndus PR) — TeamIndus, an Indian aerospace startup and one of the front-runners for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, today announced an international jury for Lab2Moon, a competition to challenge the brightest young minds globally to think beyond our planet and create an experiment to fly on board the TeamIndus spacecraft to the Moon in 2017.
Continue reading ‘GLXP Update: TeamIndus Announces Lab2Moon Global Youth Challenge’
Posted on August 19, 2016, at 5:03 pm .
Space Adventures vehicle for circumlunar flights. (Credit: Space Adventures)
Like the elusive Loch Ness Monster, a plan to send a cosmonaut and two tourists looping around the moon in a modified Soyuz transport has once again surfaced in the Russian media.
Continue reading ‘Soyuz Mission to the Moon Surfaces — Again’
Posted on August 19, 2016, at 12:27 am .
Peregrine lunar lander (Credit: Astrobotic)
PITTSBURGH, Pa., August 18, 2016 (Astrobotic PR) – Astrobotic, a lunar delivery service, NASA contractor, and an official partner with NASA in the Lunar CATALYST program, selected Andrew D. Horchler, PhD as the Senior Research Scientist on their Future Missions and Technology Team.
Continue reading ‘Astrobotic Appoints Senior Research Scientist’
Posted on August 4, 2016, at 11:49 am .
The moon rising over Half Moon Bay, California on Halloween 2009. (Credit: Douglas Messier)
The latest deadline to end all deadlines for winning the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize is Dec. 31, 2017. Barring a further extension of a drop dead date that has already been extended five years from 2012, the 16 remaining teams have just under 17 months to land a vehicle on the moon and have it travel 500 meters across the surface.
Can any of them do it in time?
Continue reading ‘New Poll: Will Anyone Win the Google Lunar X Prize?’
Posted on August 3, 2016, at 11:23 pm .
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 3, 2016) – The Space Foundation today voiced its strong support for two important commercial space regulatory milestones:
- On July 29, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (OCST) issued a license to Virgin Galactic for its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, enabling the company to resume flight tests, from Mojave Air & Space Port, Calif., leading toward commercial suborbital space flights.
- Today, it was announced that the U.S. Government has cleared the way for California-based Moon Express to send a spacecraft beyond Earth orbit, to land on the moon, in 2017. To date, no commercial company has conducted a mission beyond Earth orbit. This has long been solely the territory of government space programs.
Continue reading ‘Space Foundation Praises FAA Decisions on Virgin Galactic, Moon Express’
Posted on August 3, 2016, at 10:51 am .
Moon Express Co-founder Naveen Jain talks to the folks at CNBC’s Squak Box about mining the moon, honeymooning on the moon, dinosaurs and the moon. He’s very, very excited about the moon thing.
Posted on August 3, 2016, at 10:40 am .
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CSF PR) – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) congratulates Moon Express, Inc., on its U.S. government authorization for a planned robotic mission to the Moon in 2017. This is the first time that a private enterprise has been licensed by the U.S. Government to venture to the lunar surface.
Moon Express first filed the application with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on April 8, 2016. The company then consulted extensively with the FAA, White House, State Department, NASA and other federal agencies before being granted the landmark license. The formal approval sets a precedent for the private sector to engage in peaceful space exploration in accordance with U.S. national obligations of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
Continue reading ‘CSF Congratulates Moon Express on License Announcement’
Posted on August 3, 2016, at 10:18 am .
Bob Richards, co-founder and CE) of Moon Express Inc., of Moffett Field, California, speaks to the media Nov. 3 at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. To the left of Richards is Greg Chavers, Lander Technologies project manager at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. (Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Moon Express PR) — For the first time in the history of space travel, a private enterprise will leave this world to explore another
The U.S. Government has made a historic ruling to allow the first private enterprise, Moon Express, Inc. (MoonEx), permission to travel beyond Earth’s orbit and land on the Moon in 2017. This breakthrough U.S. policy decision provides authorization to Moon Express for a maiden flight of its robotic spacecraft onto the Moon’s surface, beginning a new era of ongoing commercial lunar exploration and discovery, unlocking the immense potential of the Moon’s valuable resources.
Continue reading ‘U.S. Government Approves Moon Express Lunar Landing’
Posted on August 3, 2016, at 9:31 am .
Moon Express MX-1 spacecraft orbits the Moon in preparation for landing. MX-1 will deliver commercial, academic and government instruments to explore the Moon for science and resources. (Credit: Moon Express)
FAA Fact Sheet
Aug. 3, 2016
On April 8, 2016, Moon Express, Inc. submitted a request to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a Payload Review and Determination on the MX-1E spacecraft. On April 21, 2016, the FAA accepted this application and proceeded with review.
Continue reading ‘Moon Express Receives FAA OK for Lunar Landing’
Posted on July 13, 2016, at 11:19 am .
Lunar Pathfinder mission (Credit: SSTL)
GUILDFORD, UK (SSTL PR) — Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd (GES) have today announced a new partnership to go beyond Earth’s orbit and provide a new model of low cost, high value, space exploration and science. With the ultimate aim of supporting a Solar System network, the SSTL-GES Lunar Pathfinder mission and its successors will provide a system to transport payloads to the Moon together with communications links for these payloads and any other deployed assets back to the Earth.
The mission will support the international development and exploration of space, and the first mission will also provide a new opportunity to transport commercial payloads to lunar orbit. A call for flight opportunities for small lunar missions and payloads is now open and is hosted on a dedicated website www.goonhilly.org/lunar. The call targets the global space community from established space agencies, developing space nations, commercial entities, public and private organisations and universities.
Continue reading ‘Surrey Satellite, Goonhilly Call for Lunar Orbit Payloads’
Posted on July 13, 2016, at 3:30 am .
Bob Richards, co-founder and CE) of Moon Express Inc., of Moffett Field, California, speaks to the media Nov. 3 at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. To the left of Richards is Greg Chavers, Lander Technologies project manager at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. (Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 12, 2016 (MoonEx PR) — Moon Express, Inc. (MoonEx) announced today that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Air Force 45th Wing to license the historic Space Launch Complexes 17 and 18 at Cape Canaveral for its lunar lander development and flight test operations. The announcement was made by company founder & CEO Bob Richards in a keynote address to over 300 attendees at the National Space Club Florida Committee luncheon today.
Continue reading ‘Moon Express Licenses Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complexes’
Posted on July 13, 2016, at 12:44 am .
SpaceIL engine test. (Credit: SpaceIL)
TEL AVIV (SpaceIL PR) — SpaceIL recently tested the spacecraft’s main engine in a facility in England.
The purpose of the experiment was to test engine performance under conditions, which are similar to the expected conditions during the Moon landing. The test examined the engine’s reactions to different operating modes.
The test was a success after the engine showed durability to the requirements during various shutdown cycles, without overheating of the inside parts.
Since the maximum temperature the engine reached in the experiment has not exceeded the allowed range, it is expected to perform well in moment of truth. The positive results of the test increase the chances to successful landing on the Moon.
Save
Posted on July 3, 2016, at 8:44 am .
Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering a Pluto-like object in the distant Kuiper Belt. (Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Alex Parker)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Following its historic first-ever flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons mission has received the green light to fly onward to an object deeper in the Kuiper Belt, known as 2014 MU69. The spacecraft’s planned rendezvous with the ancient object – considered one of the early building blocks of the solar system — is Jan. 1, 2019.
Continue reading ‘New Horizons Given Mission Extension, Dawn to Stay at Ceres’
Loading ...
