Space – Page 2 of 88

Illustration: Otter spacecraft and another satellite in orbit

Starfish Space wins contract to help NRO advance capabilities for orbital operations

Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space and two other companies have won contracts from the National Reconnaissance Office, America’s spy satellite agency, to evaluate advanced technologies for space operations. Starfish’s work for… Read More

BE-4 engines on Blue Origin New Glenn booster.

Space shots: A tangled web of speculation surrounds Boeing, Blue Origin and Bezos

Is Boeing thinking about unloading some of its space projects? Is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture a potential buyer? And in light of former President Donald Trump’s increasingly close… Read More

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket ship lifts off from Texas launch pad

Blue Origin lofts new New Shepard capsule into space for test run before carrying crew

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture successfully sent a brand-new New Shepard rocket ship on an uncrewed shakedown cruise today, with the aim of increasing the company’s capacity to take… Read More

Panel members at Bellevue Chamber forum focusing on space industry

Why housing affordability looms as a final frontier for Seattle area’s space industry

BELLEVUE, Wash. — The biggest applause line at a Bellevue Chamber event focusing on the Seattle area’s space industry came when attention was paid to a down-to-earth topic: housing affordability… Read More

Mars gullies with evidence of dusty ice deposits

Researchers suggest new place to look for microbial life on Mars: ice with bits of dust

Could microbes endure just beneath the surface of Mars, in layers of dusty ice exposed to just the right amount of sunlight? A newly published study suggests those might be… Read More

Blue Origin donates historic New Shepard booster and space capsule to Smithsonian

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has donated a New Shepard rocket booster, plus a New Shepard capsule, to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The history-making hardware will… Read More

‘We have a telescope!’ Rubin Observatory construction team installs its huge mirror

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope in Chile has now been equipped with all three of its mirrors, plus a camera for good measure. Last week’s installation… Read More

Startup Trek: Blue Origin vets go to the frontiers of space and tech with new studio

Two former employees of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company are striking out on their own with Actuate Ventures, a venture studio that specializes in supporting startups in the space… Read More

Starfish Space brings in new funding as it gears up for orbital inspection and docking

Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space is bringing in more funding after announcing several agreements to use its Otter spacecraft for missions ranging from inspecting dead satellites to extending the life of… Read More

Simonyi Survey Telescope under construction

Podcast

Tech leader Charles Simonyi provides a wide-angle view of the telescope that bears his family name

Hubble. Webb. Chandra. Spitzer. Rubin. Roman. And now, Simonyi. With the ramping up of the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, Microsoft software architect Charles… Read More

Starfish Space wins $15M NASA award for a SSPICY mission to visit dead satellites

Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space has won a three-year, $15 million contract from NASA for a mission aimed at doing up-close inspections of defunct satellites in orbit. Such inspections, to be… Read More

Radian Aerospace prototype plane at airfield in UAE

Radian Aerospace completes its first round of ground testing for prototype space plane

Seattle-based Radian Aerospace has finished the first round of ground taxi testing for a prototype aircraft that’s meant to blaze the trail for a first-of-its-kind, single-stage-to-orbit space plane. Radian said… Read More

Atlas V launch with Amazon Kuiper satellites

Market study says Amazon is spending up to $20B on Project Kuiper satellite network

A newly published market analysis of Amazon’s Project Kuiper effort to create a global satellite broadband network estimates the cost of getting the project off the ground at $16.5 billion… Read More

A futuristic space habitat will touch down in Seattle in new exhibit at Museum of Flight

Visitors to Seattle’s Museum of Flight will be able to step into a mock-up of what a futuristic space habitat could look like with the arrival later this month of… Read More

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft wraps up its crewless journey home from space station

It wasn’t perfect, but the propulsion system that NASA worried about did its job today as Boeing’s Starliner space capsule made an uncrewed descent from the International Space Station back… Read More

Workers mate sections of New Glenn's first stage

Blue Origin shifts its plans for New Glenn rocket after NASA postpones Mars mission

NASA is delaying the launch of its ESCAPADE probes to Mars, which means plans for the debut of Blue Origin’s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket will change as well. New Glenn… Read More

Richard Black holds a Project Silica data storage platter

Microsoft joins with students to document humanity with a ‘Golden Record’ of glass

Forty-seven years after NASA sent a “Golden Record” into deep space to document humanity’s view of the world, Microsoft’s Project Silica is teaming up with a citizen-science effort to lay… Read More

Illustration: Teenage Mars inhabitant in space helmet

Artificial intelligence is going full circle — from fiction to science, and back again

Artificial intelligence has had an effect on nearly every facet of modern life — ranging from diagnosing diseases, to applying for a job, to deciding which movie to watch. Now it’s reaching back… Read More

Blue Origin sends six people on suborbital space trip, marking a first for researchers

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture today provided a brief dose of spaceflight to six people, including the first researcher to conduct his own experiment on a suborbital space trip… Read More

NASA says Boeing Starliner craft will land empty, with its crew returning months later

NASA has decided it’s too risky to have Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft return to Earth from the International Space Station with its two crew members, and so those astronauts will extend… Read More

Portraits of Blue Origin NS-26 crew members

Blue Origin sets a date for its next flight to launch people and experiments into space

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says its next suborbital spaceflight is set for Aug. 29, with a space researcher and a college senior among the mission’s six spacefliers. Next… Read More

Aerial view of Amazon's satellite processing facility in Florida

Amazon says it’s devoting another $19.5M to Project Kuiper satellite facility in Florida

Amazon plans to build a secondary support facility for its Project Kuiper satellite processing center at Kennedy Space Center in Florida — a $19.5 million expansion plan that brings total… Read More

New Glenn first-stage simulator being maneuvered in Florida

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket program reportedly faces failures during testing

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has encountered two recent failures in its efforts to get orbital-class New Glenn rockets ready for future launches from Florida, Bloomberg News reported today.… Read More

NASA engineer working on construction robot

Mars Society gains foothold in AI, robotics and biotechnology to clear a path to space

The Mars Society says it’s making progress on launching a startup incubator in the Seattle area, with artificial intelligence and biotech as its first targets. Its long-term goal? To make… Read More

AI-generated images of "Cybertruck on Mars."

Cybertrucks on Mars? Space advocates and NASA consider ideas for sample return

Tesla’s Cybertruck may look ungainly on Earth, but a pressurized version of the vehicle might be just the thing for gathering up samples of Martian rock and soil for return… Read More

Portrait of Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham

What if the aliens win? That’s the subject of a new saga from creators of ‘The Expanse’

In nearly all alien-invasion tales, the puny humans somehow find a way to win — for example, in classic novels like “The War of the Worlds,” or in movies like “Independence Day” and “Battle: Los… Read More

View of Boeing Starliner capsule docked to ISS

NASA says Boeing Starliner test crew may have to return in SpaceX capsule in 2025

Continuing concerns about the thruster system on Boeing’s Starliner space capsule may lead NASA to decide against letting astronauts take the craft back down to Earth from the International Space… Read More

Crew 245 simulated EVA at Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station in Utah

Mars Society brings its convention — plus strategies for space startups — to Seattle

What’s the best route to the Red Planet? Hundreds of people are converging on Seattle this week to consider that question at the annual convention of the Mars Society. And… Read More

Researcher with apparatus on zero-gravity flight

NASA awards $348,000 to Interlune to test technology for processing moon soil

Seattle-based Interlune has received a $348,000 grant from NASA to test its system for processing lunar soil on a series of reduced-gravity airplane flights — marking one more small step… Read More

Gravitics wins $125M contract from Axiom for commercial space station hardware

Marysville, Wash.-based Gravitics says it has won a $125 million contract from Axiom Space to provide a pressurized spacecraft for Axiom’s yet-to-be-launched commercial space station. The hardware would play a… Read More