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Blue Origin's most visible business is that of launching stuff into space, for self and others, using home-brewed rockets, but that doesn't mean the company is not actively pursuing other goals as well. That includes, for instance, the deployment of a private space station in Earth orbit, prospecting the Moon, and, more recently, creating a global network of ground stations to handle orbital…
Our society has grown so addicted to wireless technologies that we simply can't imagine life without them. Yet, there are times when a good-old wired tech is not only preferable, but the only solution to perform certain tasks. Like, say, exploring the Moon's lava tubes and caves. Earth's satellite is littered with such things, remnants of a time when lava flowed freely up there. As far as we know,…
It's been so long since we've heard anything from Virgin Galactic that we almost forgot these guys are still around. Well, they are, working, as always, to make a business of civilian travel to the edge of space, and it appears that they'll be back in the spotlight pretty soon. The company founded by Sir Richard Branson last flew people beyond the Karmann line back in 2024, and after that it…
Whereas at the moment the focus of the space industry falls on the direct, hands-on exploration of the Moon and Mars, soon enough our species will need to handle an increased amount of sample return missions, not only from exploratory trips to other worlds, but also from commercial operations that will soon bloom in orbit. And for that, NASA needs a space hangar. A sample return mission involves…
Space exploration won't grow into something spectacular if humanity doesn't find a way to map the full extent of resources available on the Moon, on asteroids, and on Mars. Sadly, it's not that easy to map resources from afar, not even with the miracles of spectroscopy. At least, not yet, as someone from the SETI Institute is working on it, with backing from American space agency NASA. That…
Over the past few years, American space agency NASA has gotten us used to announcing the Innovative Advanced Concepts program awards early in the year. Busy as it was with the Artemis II mission to the Moon, NASA did that a lot later in 2026. But the wait, it seems, has been worth it. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program is an effort meant to support new and innovative ideas that…
With rocket launches and daring space missions almost a daily occurrence in our time, it's hard to keep people interested in space exploration. On Wednesday, though, a lot of people turned their attention to the Moon, which was impacted by a leftover Falcon 9 upper stage that once flew for SpaceX. The hardware in question was part of the rocket that, back in early 2025, launched from pad 39A in…
At the end of May 2026, Launch Complex 36 in Florida witnessed one of the largest explosions ever recorded on American soil. A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket was the culprit, after suffering an anomaly during a hot fire test. And now investigators are zeroing in on the culprit. As suspected right from the start, the anomaly (that's a space industry euphemism for any unexpected event, no matter its…
In the spring of 2026, American space agency NASA flipped the objectives of the Artemis Moon exploration program and went from plans to repeatedly visit the place to actually (and rapidly) building a base up there. That spelled good news for some programs that were ongoing at the time, and doom for others. The Gateway lunar space station, which would have served as a launch platform for surface…
When a Falcon Heavy rocket will lift off the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center at the end of the month, it will not only carry with it one of the most capable telescopes ever made, and the astronomers' hope that we will learn more about the secrets of the Universe, but also a commemorative plaque the likes of which NASA usually deploys on hardware meant for planetary missions. The telescope…
