The SLS is the world’s most powerful rocket and will enable NASA to return humans to the moon. NASA requested $11.2 billion in the fiscal year 2024 president’s budget request to fund the program through fiscal year 2028, in addition to the $11.8 billion spent developing the initial capability. NASA) does not plan to measure …
Our current space telescopes have found thousands of exoplanets based upon the slight variation in movement that they cause to the stars they are orbiting, but we have not seen the reflected light from those exoplanets. NASA has a count of exoplanets and candidate exoplanets. We need better and larger space telescopes so that we …
NASA Commercial Space Capabilities office and SpaceX have a 24 page agreed plan to develop the SpaceX starship into a low earth orbit space station design by 2028. This is unfunded and aspirational. The parties will cooperate to try and make it happen. SpaceX with successful Starlink commercial services will have the funds to make …
Human rating the SpaceX Starship could take a few years after it is flying successfully to orbit. However, the SpaceX Starship could fly unmanned into orbit and even dock with the ISS Space Station. ErcXSpace has some renderings of what the SpaceX Starship looks like in orbit and docked with the Space Station. It would …
Voyager Space is joining forces with Airbus Defence and Space on a joint venture for the development of the Starlab commercial space station. Aug. 2, they announced the creation of a joint venture, also called Starlab, that will be responsible for the development and operation of the station. The joint venture builds upon an agreement …
DARPA and NASA are advancing toward the goal of the world’s first in-orbit demonstration of a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) engine via DRACO, the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations. DARPA has finalized an agreement with Lockheed Martin for the company to begin work on the fabrication and design of the experimental NTR vehicle (X-NTRV) …
This July, NASA is sending a team of four six-unit (6U)-sized CubeSats into orbit around Earth to test cooperation without real-time updates from mission control. While that kind of autonomous cooperation may not sound too difficult for humans, this team will be robotic – composed of small satellites to test out key technologies for the …
NASA is working with seven U.S. companies on next generation Space Station designs. ThinkOrbital, Vast and Sierra Space/Blue Origin have interesting designs. NASA is also talking to SpaceX and Northrop Grumman and Voyager/Nanoracks. Think Orbital will use a CanadaArm to assemble hexagonal and pentagram pieces that will be stacked during launch. They will be assembled …
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is developing the next set of innovative technologies to enable human and robotic space missions. The NASA Strategic Technology Framework guides how STMD makes investments categorized into four themes: Go, Land, Live and Explore. Each includes specific strategic outcomes that span 18 technology capability areas. Dr. Julie Kleinhenz, NASA’s …
NASA and SpaceX are partnering to build Space stations using SpaceX Starship. NASA and SpaceX have not revealed or developed plans for their Starship based space stations. Cuzza Futurism has some designs for space stations built using standard and redesigned SpaceX Starships and some other components. The first is a space station built using 16 …
If we connect SpaceX Starships for space stations and rotate them for artificial gravity then we have to make sure they are rotationally stable. A Space Station with three SpaceX Starships with one in the center for docking is not rotationally stable. A two SpaceX Starship system is rotationally stable. The central structure for docking …