May 2020
Developing a commercial market for small sample return
... system to preserve volatile substances. It’s not just a self-contained spacecraft - it’s also a launch vehicle. Fully loaded, the sample return vehicle would autonomously launch itself from its container, ignite its main thruster, and fly a shallow...
September 2020
Commercial opportunities beyond Earth orbit
...has been disrupted by SpaceX, with its Falcon 9 launch vehicle designed with reusable first stages and payload fairings. Smallsats ...can be met cost effectively will be through reusable launch vehicles. A concept for constructing a lunar base using ...
25 November 2015
Historic landing for private rocket company Blue Origin
... after the first American in space, Alan Shepard, it is the second test of the capsule and launch vehicle this year following a launch in April, putting the company in direct competition with SpaceX. “Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard space...
October 2015
Earth independence: new definitions of home on Mars missions and beyond
..., they’ll need a launch vehicle powerful enough to lift them back into space. When astronauts launched from Earth on the shuttle... work in developing and proving new capabilities and vehicles – rendezvous and docking, extravehicular capability, weeks-...
February 2016
The Benefits of a British Spaceport
... the coast. Different types of spaceplane could be launched from a site in the UK, ranging from air launch vehicles such as Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo to ground launch types embracing space tourist vehicles like the XCOR Lynx at one end of the...
March 2016
Resource Prospector – a Lunar Pathfinder
...missions. Two lunar missions, for example, both need a launch vehicle and a lander to begin their missions on the surface .... NASA would provide the rover, ISRU payload and launch vehicle, while an international or commercial partner would provide the...
