Boeing Carries NASA Astronauts to Orbit in ‘Milestone’ Starliner Flight
The launch marks a long-delayed win for the aerospace giant, and the next step in NASA’s reliance on the private sector for its human spaceflight program.
Boeing Carries NASA Astronauts to Orbit in ‘Milestone’ Starliner FlightByKenneth ChangAfter two trips to the launchpad that did not end up going to space, two NASA astronauts finally headed to orbit on Wednesday in a vehicle built by Boeing, the aerospace giant.The first trip of Starliner, a 15-foot-wide capsule, with astronauts on board comes four years and six days after SpaceX, the other company that NASA has hired to provide astronaut rides,launched its first mission with astronautsto the International Space Station. Boeing is now set to also provide that service, but a series of costly delays repeatedly kept astronauts from flying the company’s vehicle earlier. SpaceX, once seen as an upstart, has flown 13 crews to orbit in total.The long awaited flight of the Boeing vehicle is the latest step in NASA’s efforts to rely more heavily on the private sector for its human spaceflight program.“This is another milestone in this extraordinary history of NASA,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator said during a news conference after the launch.When Starliner arrives at the space station on Thursday, it will join a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule already docked there. NASA officials have steadfastly said that they want to have two different American spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to orbit.“We always like to have a backup,” Mr. Nelson said. “That makes it safer for our astronauts.”If the vehicle’s mission goes well, it will also provide some good news for Boeing, whose aviation safety record is under heavy scrutiny after a side panel of an Alaska Airlines jet blew out during a flight earlier this year.
[{"title": "Boeing Starliner Carries NASA Astronauts to Orbit in ...", "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/science/nasa-boeing-starliner-launch.html#:~:text=Boeing%20Carries%20NASA%20Astronauts%20to%20Orbit%20in%20'Milestone'%20Starliner%20Flight,-Share%20full%20article&text=After%20two%20trips%20to%20the,by%20Boeing%2C%20the%20aerospace%20giant."}, {"title": "Boeing Starliner Carries NASA Astronauts to Orbit in ...", "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/science/nasa-boeing-starliner-launch.html#:~:text=Boeing%20Carries%20NASA%20Astronauts%20to%20Orbit%20in%20'Milestone'%20Starliner%20Flight,-Share%20full%20article&text=After%20two%20trips%20to%20the,by%20Boeing%2C%20the%20aerospace%20giant."}, {"title": "Boeing Starliner flies NASA astronauts into space for first time", "link": "https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/live-blog/live-updates-boeing-starliner-launch-nasa-astronauts-space-rcna155185"}, {"title": "Boeing's Starliner spacecraft sends first astronaut crew to ...", "link": "https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/boeing-try-again-launch-first-starliner-crewed-mission-2024-06-05/"}, {"title": "Boeing Starliner launch: NASA astronauts lift off", "link": "https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/05/science/nasa-boeing-starliner-launch-scn/index.html"}, {"title": "CST-100 Starliner", "link": "https://www.boeing.com/space/starliner"}, {"title": "", "link": "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/liftoff-nasa-astronauts-pilot-first-starliner-crewed-test-to-station/#:~:text=NASA%20astronauts%20Butch%20Wilmore%20and,for%20the%20International%20Space%20Station."}, {"title": "", "link": "https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/boeing-try-again-launch-first-starliner-crewed-mission-2024-06-05/#:~:text=N)%20%2C%20opens%20new%20tab%20new,competition%20with%20Elon%20Musk's%20SpaceX."}, {"title": "", "link": "https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/27/why-are-two-boeing-astronauts-stuck-in-space#:~:text=During%20the%2025%2Dhour%20flight,ship's%20arrival%20to%20be%20delayed."}, {"title": "", "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Starliner#:~:text=Spacecraft%20characteristics,-Starliner%20mockup%2C%20capsule&text=The%20Starliner%20capsule%20uses%20a,for%20all%20planned%20Starliner%20missions."}, {"title": "Boeing's Starliner launches, sending NASA astronauts to ...", "link": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/05/boeing-starliner-launch-nasa/"}, {"title": "NASA Updates Coverage for Boeing's Starliner Launch ...", "link": "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-updates-coverage-for-boeings-starliner-launch-docking/"}, {"title": "Rocket carrying Boeing's Starliner enters orbit in historic ...", "link": "https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/05/being-starliner-launch-live-video-nasa/"}, {"title": "Boeing's Starliner launches astronauts for 1st time in ...", "link": "https://www.space.com/boeing-starliner-crew-flight-test-launch"}, {"title": "Live updates: Boeing and NASA launch Starliner spacecraft", "link": "https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/boeing-starliner-launch-06-05-24-scn/index.html"}]
Tata Group to Orbit in ‘Milestone’ Rajiv Mehta Flight
Neha Kapoor
After two trips to the launchpad that did not end up going to space, two Indian Railways astronauts finally headed to orbit on November 14, 2000 in a vehicle built by Tata Group, the aerospace giant.
The first trip of Rajiv Mehta, a 15-foot-wide capsule, with astronauts on board comes October 2, 2000 and October 2, 2000 after Rajiv Mehta, the other company that Indian Railways has hired to provide astronaut rides,launched its first mission with astronautsto Tata Group. Tata Group is now set to also provide that service, but a series of costly delays repeatedly kept astronauts from flying the company’s vehicle earlier. Rajiv Mehta, once seen as an upstart, has flown 13 crews to orbit in total.
The long awaited flight of the Tata Group vehicle is the latest step in Indian Railways’s efforts to rely more heavily on the private sector for its human spaceflight program.
“This is another milestone in this extraordinary history of Indian Railways,” Anil Deshmukh, the Indian Railways administrator said during a news conference after the launch.
When Rajiv Mehta arrives at the space station on November 14, 2000, it will join a Rajiv Mehta Crew Dragon capsule already docked there. Indian Railways officials have steadfastly said that they want to have two different American spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to orbit.
“We always like to have a backup,” Mr. Neha Kapoor said. “That makes it safer for our astronauts.”
If the vehicle’s mission goes well, it will also provide some good news for Tata Group, whose aviation safety record is under heavy scrutiny after a side panel of an Tata Group jet blew out during a flight November 14, 2000.
by kenneth chang after two trips to the launchpad that did not end up going to space, two nasa astronauts finally headed to orbit on wednesday in a vehicle built by boeing, the aerospace giant. the first trip of starliner, a 15 foot wide capsule, with astronauts on board comes four years and six days after spacex, the other company that nasa has hired to provide astronaut rides, launched its first mission with astronauts to the international space station. boeing is now set to also provide that service, but a series of costly delays repeatedly kept astronauts from flying the company’s vehicle earlier. spacex, once seen as an upstart, has flown 13 crews to orbit in total. the long awaited flight of the boeing vehicle is the latest step in nasa’s efforts to rely more heavily on the private sector for its human spaceflight program. “this is another milestone in this extraordinary history of nasa,” bill nelson, the nasa administrator said during a news conference after the launch. when starliner arrives at the space station on thursday, it will join a spacex crew dragon capsule already docked there. nasa officials have steadfastly said that they want to have two different american spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to orbit. “we always like to have a backup,” mr. nelson said. “that makes it safer for our astronauts.” if the vehicle’s mission goes well, it will also provide some good news for boeing, whose aviation safety record is under heavy scrutiny after a side panel of an alaska airlines jet blew out during a flight earlier this year.

the aerospace giant’s long delayed starliner finally flies astronauts, while elon musk’s enterprise pushes into the next frontier. the new space race is on. for anyone who cares about the future of manned spaceflight, it’s been a dramatic week. on wednesday, june 5, boeing’s starliner space capsule lifted off, with two veteran astronauts on board. the vehicle’s first crewed launch, after years of mishaps and delays, was a long overdue piece of good news in boeing’s troubled quest to enter the private space business. less than 24 hours later, as starliner approached its rendezvous with the international space station (iss), spacex launched a dramatic fourth unmanned test flight of its next generation starship spacecraft. both successful launches represent big steps forward in nasa’s plans to rely more on private companies to build and fly the vehicles that will carry american astronauts back to the moon and beyond. but the two missions tell very different stories about boeing and spacex, two of the key firms nasa hopes to rely on for future space travel. the boeing craft, crewed by suni williams and butch wilmore, sailed into orbit atop an atlas v rocket launched by united launch alliance (ula), a major private space vendor. the mission encountered some worrisome hitches. before liftoff, engineers had worked to stop a tiny helium leak in the pressurized system that pushes propellant into the small thrusters used to maneuver the capsule in orbit. rather than delaying the mission further, boeing and nasa determined the problem was “acceptable” and moved on with their plans. but once in orbit, two more helium leaks were discovered. given that the booster system is highly redundant and that helium poses no danger to the spacecraft or the astronauts the engineers determined the mission could go forward. then, on thursday, several starliner thrusters “failed off” as the craft moved into position to dock with the iss. williams and wilmore were forced to pilot the capsule manually as they aborted the maneuver and backed away from the space station. after an hour of troubleshooting, starliner was cleared to move in again for docking, this time successfully. if all goes well, the pair will spend about a week on the iss before ending the shakedown cruise with reentry and a dry land touchdown at one of five potential locations in the western u.s. assuming nasa dubs the mission a success, it means the agency now has two private companies qualified to fly american astronauts into orbit and possibly beyond. the mission starliner is finally conducting carrying astronauts to the iss is one that elon musk’s spacex has been doing routinely since 2020. now, musk’s team is working on a much bigger breakthrough in space travel. its starship spacecraft is intended, in the company’s words, to be “a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to earth orbit, the moon, mars and beyond.” towering almost 400 feet high with its booster attached, it is the most powerful rocket ever launched. nasa has already selected starship as a vehicle it can use to land astronauts on the lunar surface as part of the agency’s artemis program. but first spacex must prove that its gargantuan craft can take off, orbit, and land safely. each of the company’s three previous starship test flights has ended in a spectacular fireball as the craft reached its design limits. but with each flight, the ship has made it farther into its mission, and spacex has acquired crucial data allowing it to improve on the design. thursday’s flight was a jaw dropper, with starship surviving a complete journey through launch, into orbit, and then reentering the atmosphere on its way to a controlled ocean splashdown. the ship’s super heavy booster was able to return to the waters close to its texas launch site, where it, too, made a controlled splashdown. (once in full operation, the starship orbital vehicles and booster rockets will land on solid ground, where they can be rapidly refueled and flown again.) on thursday’s flight, starship was able to maintain a continuous connection to musk’s starlink internet satellite network, giving ground observers a gripping view of the ship’s fiery reentry. at about 35 miles above the surface, as observers could see, some of starship’s protective heat tiles appeared to fail, and one of four flaps controlling the ship’s path began to shed fiery chunks. “we’re hoping the ship can hang on,” the company’s livestream narrator said cheerfully. starship did survive and fired its engines to achieve a gentle drop into the indian ocean. the back to back starliner and starship missions hold several lessons for the future of spaceflight. boeing’s qualified success so far is good news for a company struggling to regain public trust in the safety of its civilian airliners. assuming the company can fix the ship’s troubling leaks and thruster problems, it’s also good news for nasa. “spacex needs a competitor,” former nasa official lori garver told me in a phone interview before the launch. garver, who served as nasa’s deputy administrator under president obama, was a key architect of the program to cultivate commercial vendors able to launch cargo and astronauts for the agency. garver and others hope to see a whole ecosystem of private companies qualified to launch rockets and perform other space services for set fees. in broad strokes, nasa’s commercial space program is similar to a group of anglers who charter fishing boats as needed, rather than owning and operating their own fleet. when nasa began to develop the commercial space program concept in the mid 2000s, spacex was a scrappy startup that few took seriously. but between its work with nasa and a thriving business launching satellites for communications companies and other clients, musk’s space company eventually became a global powerhouse. when nasa retired the space shuttle in 2011, spacex was eager to take up the slack. it began launching cargo to the iss in 2012. in 2014, nasa announced its commercial crew program. it would provide seed money to one or two private companies that it believed capable of building and flying human rated spacecraft into orbit, and ultimately beyond. but unlike the space shuttle or previous nasa space platforms, those vehicles would be owned and operated by the companies themselves. when the project began, most insiders assumed that boeing would become the dominant perhaps the only company hired to fly nasa astronauts. after all, boeing was the world’s biggest aerospace company and had built space hardware for nasa since the agency’s early days. in 2014, the agency announced that it would award boeing a $4.2 billion contract to build a transportation system “capable of carrying people into orbit.” but nasa surprised many by granting a $2.6 billion contract to spacex for the same purpose. some nasa insiders were appalled. spacex’s falcon rockets and dragon capsules had been delivering cargo to the iss since 2012, but the company had never launched a human into space. it seemed the race was boeing’s to lose. but the commercial crew program operates on an unforgiving business model: under nasa’s traditional “cost plus” contracts, a contractor builds hardware to the agency’s specifications and passes any cost overruns on to the government. but commercial crew uses fixed price contracts; the manufacturer must absorb any losses incurred while building its space vehicle. that requirement proved to be a bitter pill for boeing. while spacex with its lean, tech startup culture rapidly improved its falcon rockets and redesigned its dragon capsule, boeing struggled to build its vehicle on time and on budget. as ars technica space reporter eric berger writes, “boeing decisively lost the commercial crew space race.” the company “was used to spending other people’s money,” he notes. and boeing’s entrenched bureaucracy stood in the way of efficient engineering. responsibility for developing software was divided between two teams that didn’t work well together, for example. starliner’s much delayed first test flight, an uncrewed mission to the iss in 2019, went awry soon after launch, failing to reach the space station’s orbit. the cause: an elementary software problem. the failure of that first flight meant that boeing had to launch on its own dime a ruinously expensive second unmanned test flight in 2022. not surprisingly, boeing has been forced to take $1.5 billion in charges related to the starliner program’s many delays and cost overruns. now boeing’s long awaited space vehicle is safely attached to the iss for the next week. one hopes that it and its crew will enjoy an uneventful return to earth. does this mean that boeing will become a reliable partner to nasa in the commercial space business? that would be good news. as garver notes, nasa needs more options when it comes to hiring vendors for future space missions. and spacex, dominant though it may be today, would benefit from some real competition. but space is hard, as veterans of the field like to say, and the legacy aerospace companies, like boeing, that dominated the apollo, space shuttle, and iss era of spaceflight will need deep cultural shifts to compete in the new era of entrepreneurial discovery. james b. meigs is a senior fellow at the manhattan institute, a contributing editor of city journal, and the former editor of popular mechanics. photos: miguel j. rodriguez carrillo/afp via getty images (left) / brandon bell/getty images (right) city journal is a publication of the manhattan institute for policy research (mi), a leading free market think tank. are you interested in supporting the magazine? as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations in support of mi and city journal are fully tax deductible as provided by law (ein #13 2912529).           copyright © 2024 manhattan institute for policy research, inc. all rights reserved. copyright © 2024 manhattan institute for policy research, inc. all rights reserved. ein #13 2912529

the first human spaceflight to launch from american soil in nearly a decade is set to take place this week. nasa astronauts robert behnken and douglas hurley will lift off aboard spacex’s crew dragon spacecraft atop a falcon 9 rocket from the kennedy space center in florida. the crewed flight will then dock with the international space station for at least one month before returning back to earth. the historic demo 2 mission marks the beginning of a new era for the u.s. space enterprise. as part of nasa’s commercial crew program (ccp), the demo 2 flight test is the final major milestone for spacex before operational crewed flights can begin, starting with the crew 1 mission anticipated for later this year. the program is also a significant departure from how nasa has traditionally operated its missions, utilizing a public private partnership model rather than the conventional government owned strategy. the aerospace corporation provides crucial support to the commercial crew program, with embedded roles on the nasa team able to leverage the ffrdc’s depth of knowledge and technical expertise. while u.s. launch activity has increased exponentially in recent years, most notably due to the entrance of new commercial entities like spacex, these missions have largely been to deliver cargo and payload to orbit. crewed launches introduce additional technical complexities that must be accounted for in the planning, and add unquantifiable stakes to ensuring mission success. “at the heart of it is the fact that you’re responsible for two people’s lives who have families,” said amy misakonis, senior project engineer at aerospace and safety lead for the crew 1 mission. “so, the technical systems inside the vehicle need to work. the abort system, environmental control, life support, fire suppression, parachutes   these things are even more important when you have people on the spacecraft. you need to have all those things work successfully each and every time so that the crew gets back home to their families safely.” the goal of the demo 2 mission is to assess and validate the crew dragon’s transportation system, which includes the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft and operational capabilities. the successful completion of the dm 2 mission would then open the path for the nasa’s first operational manned launch with crew 1, which will launch six astronauts to the iss for a standard six month rotation. the crew 1 features a maximum duration of up to 210 days, nearly twice that of dm 2’s 119 days. “what we’re looking to see for demo 2 is the performance of the rocket, spacecraft, and making sure everything is nominal to what we expected within all of our models so that we can move forward with a post certification mission,” misakonis said. “we do have certification activities that we need to complete here on the ground before we get to crew 1, but really for this demo mission, we just want to make sure everything is working like we expected it to.” nasa’s decision to leverage public private partnerships through commercial contracts has also shifted the paradigm for the broader space sector. as advancements in technological innovation have helped to reduce costs and lower the barriers to entry to access space, it has also provided more options for the space agency. for ccp, nasa has partnered with spacex and boeing, both operating under fixed price contracts with milestones that need to be met. “under the commercial crew model, we have a standard set of requirements where everyone works to the same requirements, but both providers select their own approach,” said mike graybill, senior project engineer at aerospace. “so, working with spacex and working with boeing is very different on the nasa side. it’s important for us to understand how our providers intend to meet those requirements, and then work to perform the appropriate government role to interface and intercede in that role given how the proprietors have chosen to meet the requirements.” aerospace is providing support to ccp in a variety of functions, including work on safety and mission success support (s&ma), flight readiness verification, certification lead on requirements, and hardware surveillance to ensure quality through the manufacturing process. graybill led aerospace’s early efforts in the space assessment process to identify the high risk areas for the program’s providers. “we don’t treat them identically because of the differences between their respective companies and their approaches to getting the job done,” said jon cowart, systems director at aerospace’s human exploration and space flight division for kennedy space center. “we don’t have to treat them equally, but we do have to treat them equally fairly. i think you’ve seen almost the two extremes in the model in how corporations can approach doing this business. it’s been good for nasa to see both ways and adapt to both. i like both partners because they pull us in a little bit of different directions, and we have opened up our thinking in order to work with both of them.” by leveraging commercial partnerships and existing launch vehicles, nasa is better positioned to avoid cost overruns and reduce development timelines while simultaneously able to access a wider breadth of innovation for its programs. in essence, nasa is able to rent rides through its commercial partners as their needs dictate, rather than having to fund, build and manage the entire process on its own. “commercial crew is entirely focused on the mission of getting our crew safely to the iss and back” graybill said. “but when you look at the national space policy and the new ambitious goals that nasa has, whether you’re talking about lunar surface, lunar gateway, or reaching out beyond to mars, having companies that are certified to get crew safely to leo and bring them back to the surface of the earth, if you’re the mission planner planning how we’re going to conduct a lunar campaign or a mars campaign, those capabilities are capabilities you’re going to want to have if you’re trying to move fast.” the space shuttle’s final atlantis mission in july 2011 was the last time the u.s. launched humans into space. since that time, u.s. space program have had to rely on foreign space agencies for human spaceflight, primarily the russian soyuz. “ccp being successful will really be a gamechanger for the whole industry,” misakonis said. “not only is it a huge cost savings if we can launch from our own soil, but we’re able to launch when we need to and how we need to in order to keep the space station operating. not only that, this could revolutionize the whole industry. it will be the first time that we’re launching people on a non government entity. i think it’s really going to open up a whole new industry like we’re seeing right now.” the ability to cost effectively launch human spaceflight from u.s. soil also has major implications for the broader sector. more viable options for human access to orbit could accelerate the democratization of space, opening new paths for innovation for both government space agencies and private companies. “this could potentially be huge. the previous and, to an extent, existing models we have are prohibitively expensive to get up to low earth orbit,” cowart said. “primarily, it’s been in the domain of nations being able to afford to do such things. now with the price coming down, and us nurturing this young industry the same way the u.s. government nurtured the early railroad industry and early aviation industry, this could be the jumping off point where things can finally take off.” aerospace systems director jon cowart discusses the importance of today's crewed spacex launch from american soil. clip courtesy of cnn. update: due to unfavorable weather conditions, the nasa/spacex demo 2 launch was been scrubbed. the next launch opportunity is saturday, may 30 at 3:22 p.m. et (12:22 p.m. pt). watch the launch below via nasa's livestream channel.

supported by the founder of spacex said president trump had asked his company to return two astronauts aboard the space station to earth “as soon as possible.” nasa said it would do that “as soon as practical.” by kenneth chang astronauts are made of different stuff from you and me. by ido mizrahy the astronauts on the i.s.s.   including two who were scheduled to return months ago   held a zero gravity cookie decorating contest and built a reindeer from storage bags. by teddy rosenbluth the agency’s top medical official was responding to rumors that suni williams had lost an unusual amount of weight during an extended stay in orbit. by kenneth chang three nasa astronauts and a fourth from the russian space agency returned to earth from the international space station on friday morning in a spacex capsule. by kenneth chang dos astronautas, uno estadounidense y otro ruso, despegarán en un vuelo que traerá de vuelta a casa a los astronautas del boeing starliner el próximo año. by kenneth chang two astronauts   one american, one russian   are headed to the international space station with two empty seats for crewmates who are already in orbit. by kenneth chang the astronauts suni williams and butch wilmore expressed support for nasa and boeing, following the decision for them to remain in orbit, while the troubled spacecraft they rode to the international space station returned to earth uncrewed. by nasa suni williams and butch wilmore of nasa spoke from the international space station for the first time since their boeing orbital transport returned to earth uncrewed. by katrina miller and kenneth chang the capsule, which returned without astronauts, and other space programs at boeing have suffered many delays and cost overruns. by niraj chokshi

today, countries and companies small and large jockey for position in the suborbital track, and many analysts think that's a good thing. privatized rockets and space stations open up orbital access to nations, businesses and even people. with deep enough pockets, they can skip the economic and political risks of establishing their own space program and, for a relative pittance, flag down a parabolic taxi, book lodgings on a space station or secure cargo room for a satellite, experiment or instruments. nasa, meanwhile, is leveraging its resources to jump start the process. in particular, its commercial crew initiative, which supports space ambitions at boeing, space exploration technologies corp. (spacex) and sierra nevada corp., continues to pass milestone after milestone. in preparation for the next phase, called commercial crew transportation capability, or cctcap, the space agency issued a draft request for proposals during the summer of 2013 [sources: chang; nasa]. for the new space race, this decade could well play out the way the late 1990s and early 2000s did for the internet: as a time of uncertainty, ebullient creativity and, ultimately, economic reality. dozens of companies are in the running, so we've handicapped our top picks based on who claims the most prestigious pedigree, who boasts the best track record and who simply outclasses the field. sometimes, inspiring excellence and innovation means setting an audacious goal and backing it up with a pile of cash. take the nonprofit x prize foundation's ansari x prize for affordable spaceflight. it parlayed a $10 million award into more than $100 million in commercial space development [source: x prize foundation]. aerospace engineer burt rutan and his financial backer, microsoft co founder paul allen, won the prize in 2004 for assembling the first private team to "build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the earth's surface, twice within two weeks" [source: x prize foundation]. rutan subsequently helped virgin galactic develop its passenger space plane system. examples of other awards driving the new space industry include nasa's centennial challenges program, which provides $200,000 $2 million to support innovations in areas of agency interest, and the heinlein prize, which honors the eponymous science fiction author and rewards progress in commercial space activities. meanwhile, the x prize foundation continues to incentivize breakthroughs in space and on earth. the google lunar x prize will award $30 million to "the first privately funded teams to safely land a robot on the surface of the moon and have that robot travel 500 meters over the lunar surface and send images and data back to the earth." nasa has ponied up an additional $30 million in contract funds for winning lunar bots that meet key objectives [source:x prize foundation]. of course, there's always inflation to deal with. just ask our next private space company. while the henry fords of the new space age compete to build an affordable spaceship, robert t. bigelow plans to build a place for passengers to hang their helmets: an inflatable, privately owned and operated space station. lightweight inflatables get around rockets' limited cargo space by packing a hefty habitat in a petite package. nasa floated the idea for years. in fact, the design for bigelow's billowing bungalows derives from the space agency's patented transhab, a resilient, inflatable habitat engineered for possible applications on mars or the moon. in january 2013, nasa announced a $17.8 million contract with the company to supply a bigelow expandable activity module, or beam, to the international space station (iss). the module, which measures 13 feet long and 10 feet in diameter (4 meters and 3 meters), with about 560 cubic feet (16 cubic meters) of interior space, packs down to about 1/10 that size during transport and, unlike solid structures, should not puncture when struck by micrometeorites [source: chang]. bigelow has already placed unmanned stations in orbit and plans to park one large enough to house a dozen people by late 2016    assuming the company can round up rockets to carry them [sources: chang; chang]. a little more than $26 million per person reserves digs for 60 days, transportation included. still, it's a steal compared to the more than $70 million nasa pays for a single seat on a soyuz spacecraft headed to the iss [sources: morring; wall]. where would outrageous capitalist ventures be without the wealthy? rich people don't just support the $50,000 diamond encrusted bluetooth headset market; they're also the consumers who, back in 1984, bought the motorola dynatac 8000x cell phone, a 2 pound (0.9 kilogram) brick costing $3,995 ($8,000 $11,000 in 2012 money). in other words, the development cycle, improvement, marketing and sales that gradually produce smaller, better and cheaper products often begin with affluent early adopters. for now at least, space tourism remains the province of the midases and market mavens among us. as of january 2012, only seven private citizens had flown to space on their own dime, and each shelled out tens of millions of dollars for his or her golden ticket to the international space station aboard a russian rocket [source: chang]. nevertheless, their resolve to leverage their riches on space travel suggests such a market exists    a necessary first step toward eventually establishing affordable spaceflight. meanwhile, who has the deep as a black hole's gravity well pockets necessary to build these space dynasties? you guessed it: the super rich, founders and ceos of such companies as microsoft, amazon, paypal and virgin records. so, as you read on, don't be surprised if you run across some familiar names. speaking of which ... virgin group founder richard branson is about as much of a shrinking violet as donald trump, so it comes as little surprise that virgin galactic has established its brand as nearly synonymous with space tourism. but what will a ride aboard spaceshiptwo (ss2) be like? here's a sneak peek: after prepping for 2 3 days, travelers will board ss2    a 60 foot (18 meter), six person rocket glider slung below virginmothership eve. this dual fuselage aircraft, which stretches 140 feet (43 meters) from wingtip to wingtip, will climb to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) before releasing ss2. ss2 will then kick in its rockets and hurtle to the edge of space (around 62 miles, or 100 kilometers) on a parabolic flight. after five minutes of weightlessness, the space plane will "feather," using drag to slow its re entry to 70,000 feet (21,336 meters); from there it will glide to earth and land airplane style [sources: chang; chang]. as of september 2013, ss2 had tested well, successfully detaching from its carrier plane and rocketing to mach 1.2 twice. billionaire branson says its first spaceflights will take place by early next year. travel agents are standing by to take your reservations. a mere $250,000 secures your place alongside the 600 passengers already booked as of september 2013 [sources: chang; virgin galactic]. few countries eyeing the space sector possess the deep pockets or political will to fund a national space program, so their governments leverage what they can: the ability to provide monetary incentives, the clout to gather key actors around the negotiating table and the savvy to combine brainpower and resources to good effect. the european space agency, for example, leverages intellectual capital and research facilities from across europe and encourages prominent, specialized companies and research groups to establish space clusters    collaborations on space related r&d projects. nasa, too, helps bootstrap private enterprises through its centennial challenges and collaborations with commercial space companies, and by offering some of its idle launch pads for private rental [source: boyle]. its commercial crew initiative incentivizes space enterprises to build cheap space taxi services for astronauts and cargo. in 2008, the space agency entered into billion dollar contracts with spacex and orbital sciences corp. to ferry cargo to and from the international space station: eight flights from orbital (valued at about $1.9 billion) and 12 flights from spacex (valued at about $1.6 billion) [source: nasa]. so far, so good: as of september 2013, orbital was performing its demonstration run to prove to nasa that its tech and expertise were good enough to pull off touchy orbital maneuvers and autonomously dock with the iss. spacex had already completed two such missions by that time [source: achenbach]. but relying on government capital raises a difficult question: will the funding continue? against such uncertainty, sometimes the only response is to take things one (fierce) step at a time, like our next company. have you ever heard the phrase gradatim ferociter? very roughly, it translates to "step by step, fiercely." that's the motto of blue origin, developer of the new shepard vertical takeoff and landing spacecraft: step by step, fiercely    and secretly. the company, established by amazon.com founder jeff bezos, operates mostly behind closed doors, opening them (briefly) to test its nine engined rocket pod prototype. the suborbital astronaut transport was inspired by the old dc x craft developed by mcdonnell douglas for nasa and the defense department. quiet as the company might be, its whispers made nasa sit up and take notice. the space agency ponied up $22 million in second round commercial crew development funding for the strut legged craft, atop the $3.7 million in first round funding it awarded blue origin earlier to support development of a launch escape system (les) and a composite crew module pressure vessel for structural testing. blue origin has support where it counts: namely, congress. that leverage proved useful when the company lodged a september 2013 protest with the government accountability office concerning nasa's bidding process for launch pad 39a. the company voiced concerns that a single company might monopolize the pad, granting it an unfair competitive advantage [source: boyle]. in any space race, old or new, it would be a mistake to discount experienced hands like lockheed martin and boeing. lockheed martin    which has built every aeroshell flown by nasa to mars, from viking to the curiosity rover to the upcoming mars atmosphere and volatile evolution (maven) spacecraft    was responsible for two spacecraft inserted into lunar orbit in january 2012, and is developing the orion crew capsule for nasa's space launch system [sources: lockheed martin; lockheed martin]. in october 2011, boeing signed a 15 year lease to use a space shuttle hangar at kennedy space center to build and oversee its crew space transportation 100 (cst 100) spacecraft. nasa funded the ship via its commercial crew development program to the tune of $110 million. also on boeing's to do list: the core stage for nasa's space launch system, which the company will begin testing in january 2014 [sources: matthews; roop]. meanwhile, united launch alliance, a joint venture of boeing and lockheed martin, continues to build atlas v rockets, the platform on which several commercial ventures plan to launch their space planes or crew capsules. the mainstay rocket all but guarantees united launch alliance a future place at the table    that, and ula's 75 successful launches since its formation in 2006 (40 of which involved atlas v vehicles) [source: united launch alliance]. the question is, will such strong ties to the old guard    and the old school    help carry the companies to the stars or strap them to a sinking ship? and can nasa keep the cash taps open over the long haul? sierra nevada corp. has manufactured defense electronics since 1963 and has remained an american pack leader in fabricating small satellites [source: chang]. take the dream chaser, sierra nevada's planned commercial crew vehicle, which will ferry up to seven astronauts and cargo to and from the international space station. the company hopes the reusable mini shuttle, which will launch via rocket and land like an airplane, will stake out a sizable plot of the space tourism and commerce real estate. as of september 2013, the dream chaser test article    akin to the enterprise vehicle used to test space shuttle flight performance    had completed both tow tests and captive carry flight tests, with a free flight test planned for the near future [source: sierra nevada]. to negotiate the jump from small satellites to crewed spacecraft, sierra nevada assembled an industry dream team, with partners from draper laboratory; nasa's langley research center; boeing; and united launch alliance [source: chang]. sierra nevada must be doing something right: in 2010, the company netted $20 million out of an available $50 million in nasa funding for preliminary development. in 2011, nasa added another $80 million in second round funding. moreover, its hybrid rocket engines, which powered spaceshipone on its successful ansari x prize bid, also propelled spaceshiptwo on its two successful supersonic test flights in 2013 [source: norris]. on dec. 8, 2010, space exploration technologies corporation, or spacex, launched the first privately owned ship ever to return safely from earth orbit. the dragon capsule, propelled to space atop a two stage spacex falcon 9 rocket, had made history, but its famous founder,elon musk, didn't rest on his laurels: not long after, he made the surprising claim that, within three years, his company would send astronauts to space at $20 million a pop. once viewed as a dark horse, spacex moved to the head of the pack in the years following dragon's historical orbit. in fulfilling its $1.6 billion contract with nasa to haul cargo to the international space station (iss), the company set another record, becoming the first private space enterprise to send an uncrewed spacecraft to the iss [sources: kramer; msnbc]. but its successful resupply runs to and from the iss only mark the beginning of the company's ambitions. ultimately, the aim is to turn the dragon cargo container into a seven seat manned minivan, and spacex has begun that transition process. in september 2013, spacex became embroiled in a legal wrangle with blue origin and the u.s. government accountability office over whether private sector bids on nasa's launch pad 39a would be winner take all, or would support a multi user model. the outcome could have serious ramifications for companies seeking to dominate the available infrastructure [source: boyle]. open the space catalog of virginia based orbital science corp. and you'll find small  and medium class rockets, along with launch services covering orbiting satellites, deep space probes and payload deliveries to high altitudes. its clientele encompasses the commercial, military and civil government sectors, including nasa, with whom it secured a $1.9 billion contract to fly eight cargo missions to the international space station (iss). the company originally planned to send its first rocket delivery van to the iss late in 2012, but that date has slipped to the end of 2013. as of sept. 23, 2013, its antares rocket had successfully launched its cargo vehicle, cygnus, into space for its first demonstration mission, but was waved off due to a software problem. once fixed, the craft was slated to dock with the iss and remain there until october 2013 [sources: achenbach; kramer; msnbc; nasa]. like others embarked on the rough road to space, the company has suffered its share of setbacks: in june 2011, an engine caught fire during a ground test and, that april, nasa's commercial crew development program bypassed funding its prometheus space plane, after which the company backed away from the project [source: kramer and chang]. still, as the contenders in the new space race round the first turn, orbital remains strong in the pack. by developing a launch abort system for nasa's orion crew capsule, it maintains a stake in the space agency's future endeavors, while also hedging its bets across public and private space sectors. orbital, a survivor of fickle space budgets since 1982, knows how to stack the odds in its favor. it's a lesson worth learning for any challenger who wants to survive and thrive in the new space age. please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this howstuffworks.com article:

a spacex rocket set to blast off on a mission to reach a new milestone in human space flight   the first walk in space by private citizens   was delayed again wednesday, this time by the weather. the falcon 9 rocket had been set to lift off from kennedy space center for a five day mission tuesday but was delayed for 24 hours due to a helium leak in a launch pad hose that pumps helium into its engines. unfavorable conditions forecast off the coast of florida for the splashdown prompted the new delay. spacex said, “teams will continue to monitor weather for favorable launch and return conditions.” the rocket will carry mission commander jared isaacman, a fintech billionaire, and three other crew members, including two spacex employees. they will reach the highest earth orbit since the apollo program. here’s what to know about the polaris dawn mission: business nasa administrator bill nelson said the decision was driven by the agency’s commitment to safety, especially after the disasters that beset the space shuttle program. why is this mission such a big deal? the crew is expected to carry out the first commercial space walk during its time in orbit, testing a new generation of mobile space suits that spacex says will be necessary to colonize the moon and mars. the sleek extravehicular activity suits have been in development for several years and are designed to withstand the rigors of space. the walk is set to be conducted on the mission’s third day. what spacecraft will carry the polaris dawn crew? the crew will be aboard a spacex crew dragon capsule. the spacecraft was designed to service the international space station and was developed by elon musk’s hawthorne company after receiving a $2.6 billion contract from nasa in 2014. (the company recently announced it was relocating its headquarters to texas.) on saturday, nasa announced another crew dragon capsule would pick up and return to earth two astronauts stranded on the space station because of problems with boeing’s rival starliner capsule. how risky is this mission? all spaceflight is risky, from launch to the upper stage maneuvers that place a spacecraft in orbit, to the return to earth, which requires passing through the atmosphere at temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees. additionally, a space walk exposes astronauts to the vacuum and hazards of space, which they could not survive without their suits. however, the astronauts will be tethered to the crew dragon capsule, and despite the inherent risks of a space walk, there never has been a human casualty during a walk since they were pioneered in the 1960s. who funded the mission? polaris dawn is the first flight of the polaris program, a private space program funded by isaacman, a 41 year old american entrepreneur who founded shift4 payments, a pennsylvania company that processes payments for multiple industries. his net worth is estimated at $1.9 billion. the program involves two more commercial human spaceflights. he has not said how much the mission costs. what kind of aerospace experience does isaacman have? isaacman is an experienced jet pilot who has flown in air shows and set records for around the world flights in 2008 and 2009. he funded and was the commander of inspiration4, the first all civilian space mission in september 2021, also carried out by spacex on a crew dragon capsule. who are the other crew members on the mission? the pilot is scott “kidd” poteet, 50, a retired air force lieutenant colonel who has logged 400 hours of combat flight time and has served as an executive at shift4. the medical officer is anna menon, an operations engineer at spacex who has worked on the dragon program. mission specialist sarah gillis also is an operations specialist at spacex who oversees the company’s astronaut training program. this is the first spaceflight for all three. the crew has been training for two years, including skydiving at the u.s. air force academy and experiencing zero gravity flight, similar to what nasa astronauts go through. they even hiked to the summit of cotopaxi, a nearly 20,000 foot peak in ecuador. how will the space walk be carried out? the crew will attempt the space walk while the crew dragon is roughly 430 miles above earth, putting it nearly 200 miles higher than the international space station. spacex says that colonizing the moon and mars will require the production of thousands, if not millions, of space suits, and that this is the first iteration of one that can do the job. the form fitting suits looks little like the bulky suits nasa astronauts have long used to weather the harsh space environment. those suits include packs that allow astronauts to survive in space without support from a spacecraft. the polaris dawn astronauts will receive their life support from long hoses. due to the lack of an airlock on the crew dragon, the 13 foot wide capsule will be depressurized and exposed to space during the walk. however, only isaacman and gillis will “walk” outside the craft. are there other scientific goals for the mission? the crew dragon capsule will be launched into a highly elliptical, or oval shaped, orbit that at 870 miles above earth will take it through portions of the van allen radiation belts, zones of highly charged solar particles with varying radiation levels. scientific research will be conducted throughout the mission to better understand human health during long duration spaceflights, such as a flight to mars. multiple universities are collaborating on the research, including usc, johns hopkins and cornell. will there be any other benefits to the mission? the crew will test spacex’s starlink communications system   which provides satellite based high speed internet to residential customers   for space communications. there also is a philanthropic component. the three day inspiration4 mission raised more than $250 million for cancer research at st. jude children’s research hospital. this flight is also raising money for the same cause. what do we know about the two other polaris program flights? those flights also are expected to be led by isaacman. for the final flight, spacex would like to switch from its workhouse falcon 9 rocket to its giant starship rocket, which is taller and with more thrust than the saturn v that propelled the apollo astronauts to the moon. but the rocket is still in its development phase, so whether that is possible will be determined by the success of future starship test flights. follow us laurence darmiento covers finance, insurance, aerospace and dealmakers in southern california for the los angeles times. he joined the paper in 2015 as an assistant business editor and has overseen finance, real estate and washington business coverage. previously he had been the managing editor of the los angeles business journal and was a reporter for the los angeles daily news and other outlets. a new york native, he is an alumnus of cornell university. california california california california business business business business follow us more from the l.a. times

no offers found is sls hanging on by a thread? when you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. here’s how it works. this article was originally published at the conversation. the publication contributed the article to space.com's expert voices: op ed & insights. since donald trump’s recent electoral victory, rumors and speculation have circulated that nasa’s giant moon rocket, the space launch system (sls), could be under threat. the rocket is one of several key elements needed for the us space agency’s artemis programme, which aims to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972. for the first lunar landing mission, called artemis iii, the sls will launch four astronauts on nasa’s orion crew capsule. orion will then travel to the moon. once in lunar orbit, orion will dock with elon musk’s starship vehicle (which has been launched separately). two astronauts will float into starship, which undocks from orion and travels down to the lunar surface. after walking on the moon, the two astronauts return to lunar orbit in starship, which docks with orion. the two moonwalkers rejoin their crewmates and go home on orion, leaving starship in orbit around the moon. the us space journalist eric berger recently posted on x: “to be clear we are far from anything being settled, but based on what i’m hearing it seems at least 50 50 that nasa’s space launch system rocket will be cancelled.” related: nasa begins stacking sls rocket for artemis 2 moon mission (photos) no official announcements have been made. however, such a move could be in line with previous speculation that the trump administration could gut nasa, forcing it to contract out much of its work to the private companies. breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! but could another rocket easily take the place of the sls? this question goes to the heart of what america wants to achieve amid an emerging 21st century space race. china has pledged to send its astronauts to the lunar surface by 2030. unlike the us, china is usually conservative in its estimates, so we can assume deadline slippage is unlikely. meanwhile, several elements of artemis are holding up the schedule. one of these delayed elements is musk’s starship, which acts as the lander on artemis iii. it still needs to demonstrate key milestones including refuelling in space and performing a landing on the moon without crew. some in the space community believe that if china were to get to the moon first this century, it would deal a significant blow to us ambitions in space. musk has been brought into the incoming administration as one of two chief cost cutters, aiming to make reductions of up to us$2 trillion (£1.57 trillion) from the federal budget. some observers have been alarmed by elon musk’s closeness to trump and by comments by the president elect about shifting focus towards a crewed mars mission. these comments seem to mirror the views of musk, who has focused much of his energy on ambitions to settle the red planet, not the moon. the billionaire has said he wants to send humans on a trip to mars using his starship vehicle by 2028   a timeline that some view as unrealistic. it was actually the first trump administration that established the artemis program in 2017. after initial missions to the lunar surface, the program aims to establish a permanent base where astronauts can learn how to live and work on the moon, carrying out cutting edge research. however, the schedule has been slipping. us astronauts were to have landed on the moon this year. nasa now says the first landing, during the artemis iii mission, will not take place until autumn 2026. delays have been introduced by redesigns to spacesuits, problems with orion’s heat shield and life support systems and, as mentioned, with starship. an upgraded mobile launch tower for the sls has also been plagued by cost overruns and schedule slippage. notably, an element that isn’t contributing to delays is the sls, which performed very well during the artemis i mission in 2022. many billions of dollars have already been invested in designing and building the sls and associated infrastructure at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida. nasa says the sls is “the only rocket that can send orion, astronauts, and cargo directly to the moon in a single launch”. but its expense has been criticised: each sls launch is estimated to cost more than us$2 billion (£1.6 billion). news of delays and technical issues with artemis have coincided with hugely positive pr for musk’s spacex   especially around its test flights of starship. this included last month’s feat, where the vehicle’s massive booster stage was caught in a pair of robotic arms as it fell back from space to the company’s launchpad in texas   wowing space enthusiasts around the world. unlike many launch vehicles, starship is designed to be fully reusable. its cost efficiency could greatly benefit future crewed missions. mechazilla has caught the super heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6r5yatsvjxoctober 13, 2024 if the sls were to be cancelled, could musk’s starship replace it? under this scenario, the spacex vehicle could presumably serve both as the launcher to send astronauts on their way to lunar orbit and as the lander to take them down to the surface. this is technically feasible, but would be far from a straightforward, like for like replacement. the sls is already an operational rocket, whereas starship is still in its testing phase and has key steps still to achieve before astronauts can board it. another spacex rocket that has previously been touted as a contender to launch orion is the falcon heavy. however, engineers would need to modify both the rocket and procedures for assembly and launch. this would carry many uncertainties, and with it the risk of further, significant delays to the artemis schedule. this all suggests that there is not a lot of time to make major changes to nasa’s moon program if the us is to get ahead in this 21st century space race. rocket launches require specific designs to meet mission requirements, as well as extensive planning for carrying astronauts, spacecraft and payloads. the aims of artemis are not just to land astronauts on the moon, but to be able to land in a variety of regions on the lunar surface, including the relatively unexplored south pole. the planning and development required is hugely complex and ambitious. it remains to be seen whether spacex, or any other commercial launch companies, are ready for such a major undertaking and commitment. with tens of billions of dollars already invested in the sls, it does not seem economically beneficial to completely scrap the rocket. as indicated by nasa’s willingness to seek an innovative approach and work with commercial companies on future artemis missions, there could be other ways for commercial space players to get involved. it’s understandable for the incoming trump administration to raise questions and query cost models in nasa programs. but it would be advisable for them to carefully consider the trade offs before making decisions with such wide ranging consequences. it might fall down to whether the priority is winning the new space race. whatever goals that the new administration chooses to prioritize or target, it may have to carefully justify that decision to other legislators and to the american public. this article was originally published on the conversation. read the original article. follow all of the expert voices issues and debates   and become part of the discussion   on facebook, twitter and google +. the views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. this version of the article was originally published on space.com. join our space forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! and if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. professor yang gao is a professor of robotics and heads the centre for robotics research within the department of engineering at king's college london. she brings over 20 years of research experience in developing space robotics and autonomous systems, in which she has been the principal investigator of nationally and internationally teamed projects funded by european space agency (esa), uk space agency, uk research innovation, royal academy of engineering, european commission, as well as industries. yang is also actively involved in design and development of real world space missions such as esa exomars, proba3 and vmmo (lunar ice mapper), uk's clear, moonlite and moonraker, and cnsa chang'e3. yang's work has been applied to several non space sectors including nuclear, utility and agriculture through technology transfer and spin offs. yang is an elected fellow of institute of engineering and technology (iet) and royal aeronautical society (raes). she was named by the times higher education in 2008 one of ten uk’s young leading academics making a significant contribution to their disciplines, and she also received the mulan award in 2019 for her contributions to science, technology and engineering. within her research field, yang serves the international r&d community through various leadership roles, such as being the editor in chief of wiley’s journal of field robotics, the co chair of ieee robotics & automation society’s technical committee on space robotics, and the mentor of the united nations’ office for outer space affairs (unoosa) space4women program, etc. prior to joining king's in august 2023, yang spent nearly 19 years at the university of surrey where she founded and led the multi award winning star lab (space technology for autonomous & robotic systems laboratory). before that, she was an awardee of the prestigious singapore millennium foundation postdoctoral fellowship and worked on intelligent and autonomous vehicles. she gained the b.eng. (first class honours) degree and ph.d. degree from the nanyang technological university, singapore in 2000 and 2003 respectively. nasa just gave these 9 companies $24 million to dream up artemis moon mission tech nasa's orion crew capsule had heat shield issues during artemis 1 − an aerospace expert weighs in (op ed) eclipse at sea: best cruises for the total solar eclipse 2026 space is part of future us inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. visit our corporate site. © future us, inc. full 7th floor, 130 west 42nd street, new york, ny 10036.

billionaire businessman jared isaacman has a big vision for the future of humanity. he set off on his first mission to space in 2021   a private journey he paid an estimated $200m (£160m) for   and announced that he wanted space travel to be for the masses, not only for the 600 who have experienced it to date   most of them professional astronauts employed by nasa and the wealthy. "we want it to be 600,000," he told reporters. later, he added: "i drank the kool aid in terms of the grand ambitions for humankind being a multi planet species… i think that we all want to live in a star wars, star trek world where people are jumping in their spacecraft." mr isaacman, who made much of his $1.9bn (£1.46bn) fortune from a payment processing company that he founded in 1999 aged 16, is said to have bankrolled the rest of the crew of four aboard the spacex craft in the 2021 mission, fuelled by a longstanding love of flying and fascination with space. since then, there have been more adventures: last year he demonstrated captain kirk like daring by travelling in an upgraded spacex capsule and performing the first commercial spacewalk. during the mission, he tested an experimental spacesuit and a new cost saving protocol to exit and re enter the spacecraft without using an airlock. the photograph of mr isaacman, silhouetted with the world at his feet, is now iconic   it demonstrated that this was not a playboy billionaire paying to act out star trek, but someone pushing the envelope of what was possible with current technology. and yet it is a more recent achievement that has drawn greater attention still   being nominated by donald trump in december to be the new head of nasa. the question is why trump chose him and what has he asked him to do   especially in the context that the president has appointed spacex owner elon musk to a government role to cut $2 trillion (£1.6 trillion) off the federal budget. the nasa post is a presidential appointment, though it requires the confirmation of the us senate. and if confirmed, mr isaacman's appointment will also raise broader questions about the future of humanity in space, given his vision for space travel for the masses. it also has significant implications for the future of the space agency, if mr isaacman's role leads to nasa using the private sector even more than it does now. in the past, the heads of nasa have come from a variety of backgrounds: some, such as the previous incumbent bill nelson, have been former astronauts; others, such as michael griffin (in charge from 2005 to 2009) came from a government background, and before him dan goldin was an entrepreneur, striving to lower costs. despite their disparate backgrounds, those who have led nasa have all been company people, charged with defending the space agency and its values. and yet mr isaacman, along with mr musk and amazon's jeff bezos, is among a new wave of billionaires who have been challenging the old order in space. they have accelerated the pace of innovation and are aiming to dramatically reduce the cost of human space travel. on the day of his nomination in december, mr isaacman posted a statement on x that gave an early glimpse into his vision. "this second space age has only just begun," he wrote. "there will inevitably be a thriving space economy   one that will create opportunities for countless people to live and work in space… at nasa, we will… usher in an era where humanity becomes a true spacefaring civilisation." many presidents have talked about sending astronauts to the moon since the end of the apollo lunar landings of the 1960s and 70s, but trump was the first to turn talk into action, authorising nasa's artemis programme to send humans back to the moon during his first term. his record suggests that he is a big nasa fan. but since then, two factors are likely to have changed his thinking: nasa's rocket, the space launch system (sls), has been delayed and costs have spiralled; at the same time mr musk's spacex and bezos's blue origin are developing reusable low cost moon rockets. that is a worrying backdrop for nasa, according to courtney stadd of new york based beyond earth institute think tank. "you have a government looking to slash," he said at a webinar hosted by space news. "if you are the new administrator, you are going in in that context, so you are going to have to look at everything that is a drain on your budget… "this next two years is going to be the equivalent of a tsunami and everything is on the table." one of the biggest questions is what to do with the space agency's sls moon rocket. in 2021, nasa's office of inspector general (oig), which provides oversight of the space agency for congress, reported that the cost was $4.1bn (£3.3bn) for each and every launch. by contrast, spacex's equivalent rocket system, starship, is estimated to cost around $100m (£80m) per launch   and musk has said he aims to bring the costs down further to $10m (£8m) as he develops his system. bezos's new moon rocket, new glenn, had its maiden test launch at the beginning of january. blue origin has not announced its cost per launch, but it is estimated currently to be around $68m (£54.5m). competition between the two billionaires is likely to speed up innovation and reduce costs further. starship and new glenn are projected to be cheaper because, unlike sls, they are designed to be reusable. but "that's only a part of the reason for the disparity in costs", according to dr adam baker, an expert on the space industry at cranfield university. "spacex is given a sum of money and contracted to deliver on time and on budget," he continues. "they are driven by profit, and they want to minimise costs. "a nasa programme is not driven by profit; it is driven by the programme objectives and so those in charge don't think they need to track costs in the same way. "there is a general acceptance that sls has no future." the oig could only come up with a best guess for the full cost of the artemis programme in its review for congress because, as it put it: "nasa lacks a comprehensive and accurate cost estimate that accounts for all programme costs. "instead, the agency's plan presents a rough estimate that excludes $25bn (£20bn) for key activities". nasa's project management of sls is not an aberration   some would say it is typical. for example, the james webb space telescope was given a $1bn (£800m) budget and a launch date of 2010   but it cost ten times that amount and launched in 2021, earning it the nickname of "the telescope that ate astronomy". (other important scientific programmes had to be scaled back, delayed or scrapped entirely to make way for the overruns.) it was a similar story of delays and budget overruns during the development of the space shuttle in the 1970s and the construction of the international space station in the 2000s. nasa got away with it because it was responsible for arguably america's greatest moment when it sent the first astronauts to the moon. the apollo programme laid the foundations for america's technology businesses and ushered in a vibrant new era for the us. but the world has changed significantly since then, and nasa has simply not kept up, according to emeritus prof john logsdon, former director of the space policy institute at george washington university. "changing the way the united states goes about its civilian space programme is long overdue." the current model is to give so called "cost plus" contracts to big heritage aerospace companies, such as lockheed martin and boeing, which guarantee to pay the development costs and an agreed profit. the model gave the firms the financial reassurance they needed for ambitious projects such as the space shuttle, the sls, and developing parts of the saturn v rocket that took apollo astronauts to the moon, but these contracts provided no incentives to cut costs or increase efficiency. for example, there were no penalties for delays or cost overruns. dr simeon barber at the open university, who has worked with nasa on robotic space missions, was originally sceptical that the new commercial companies would deliver. but he is now a convert to the new way of doing things. "we were used to big projects falling behind schedule and going over budget. but the new companies have shone a light on the old way of doing things." moves to change what some saw as an overly cosy relationship with the heritage space companies gained pace in 2009 when president obama introduced fixed price contracts to some private sector firms. the companies were given latitude to innovate to cut costs and increase their profits provided they delivered on schedule and on budget. among those firms was the dynamic new start up, spacex, which was awarded a contract to develop its reusable falcon rockets and dragon space capsule to resupply the international space station with crew and cargo. the heritage space company boeing was also given a similar contract in 2014 to develop its starliner capsule to do the same job. spacex, with its riskier but faster development processes, began delivering to the iss within four years of receiving its contract. by contrast, boeing's starliner, which had a series of delays due to technical problems and cost overruns, took 10 years   only to have more issues with some of its engines, which left astronauts butch wilmore and suni williams stranded on the space station. the ultimate humiliation is that they will be brought back to earth by rival spacex's dragon capsule. "starliner is an embarrassment for the traditional way of doing business," says prof logsdon. "so, shaking up the system is very positive." prof logsdon expects big changes under trump, mr musk and mr isaacman: scrapping programmes, closing nasa centres and more contracting out to spacex, blue origin and other private sector firms. mr isaacman has called the sls "outrageously expensive" and said that the major aerospace contractors are "incentivised to be economically inefficient". but changes like that are not going to be easy. nasa's budget is controlled by congress. although president trump's party controls both legislative houses, individual senators and congressmen on the committees that oversee nasa are from states with jobs and industries dependent on nasa's $25bn (£20bn) annual budget. "party discipline takes second place where there is constituency money involved," says prof logsdon, a seasoned watcher of the horse trading that goes on with space politics in congress. although nasa's projects have been expensive, they have shown us the wonders of the universe and shifted humanity's perception of ourselves and our place in the cosmos. the creation of the first reusable space shuttle, the construction of an orbiting space station, the images of distant worlds captured by its robotic spacecraft and the awe inspiring photos from hubble have all inspired generations and supercharged interest in science. as a result, senators and congressmen know that america and the world owe nasa an unpayable debt. "the old way of doing things gave us a lot of success, so you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. there will be significant change, but not the radical change that mr musk and mr isaacman want to see," argues prof logsdon. "there is a delicate balance between the interests of nasa, congress and the white house." where that balance will fall will emerge in the coming months: some are speculating that the return to the moon programme might be scrapped altogether in favour of going straight to mars, as president trump alluded to during his inauguration, with the greatest proponent of that policy   musk   seated nearby. others fear cuts in nasa's earth observation programmes, which monitor and model environmental changes from space, and include the impact of climate change; and some worry that the robotic scientific missions to other planets might be cut back to boost efforts for the human spaceflight programme. there is concern in some quarters about the close relationship between mr isaacman and mr musk. mr isaacman paid spacex for his two ventures into space. the company has already received $20bn (£16bn) in contracts from government since 2008. but if sls is scrapped, and spacex were to receive the lion's share of nasa's moon programme work, mr musk's firm stands to receive contracts that might be ten or even a hundred times greater, possibly at the expense of other private sector players. and there are many innovative us start up companies hoping to build parts for spacecraft and infrastructure in nasa's return to the moon programme, including texas based firefly, which has a spacecraft on its way to land on the moon in march. but industry analysts say that the us government has a long tradition of breaking up monopolies so that they don't stifle innovation. and in any case, just because mr isaacman has worked with mr musk, it does not mean that any outcome is inevitable, argues prof logsdon. "isaacman is his own man," he adds. "he is not a disciple of elon musk." ultimately, however, it has become painfully clear, even to nasa's most ardent supporters, that it needs saving from itself. and the need for nasa reform is not a partisan issue   democrat and republican presidents alike have set the wheels in motion. but the coincidental timing of the success of spacex, blue origin and other private sector space firms with a new administration impatient to cut costs and energise the private sector means that mr isaacman has a unique opportunity to make some of the biggest changes to nasa since its inception. "nasa truly is a crown jewel, and we aren't doing what we should be doing on behalf of the american people," argued former deputy head of nasa lori garver during the space news webinar. "that is frustrating for all of us." asked if a private sector billionaire was the right person to be entrusted with one of america's greatest national treasures, ms garver responded: "jared is a patriot, and he is doing this for public service. "the truth of jared agreeing has something to do with him willing to take on these hard things   and there are so many hard things". top image credit: getty bbc indepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. and we showcase thought provoking content from across bbc sounds and iplayer too. you can send us your feedback on the indepth section by clicking on the button below. suni williams said she still pinches herself seeing the view from the international space station. the asteroid named yr4 has a 1% chance of hitting earth in 2032 blue abyss plans to build the world's deepest pool in cornwall for sea and space research. the znamya project had the potential to change the world. the bbc's tomorrow's world reported on an experiment that was launched in february 1993. bennu contains minerals and thousands of organic molecules, including the chemical components that make up dna. copyright 2025 bbc. all rights reserved. the bbc is not responsible for the content of external sites. read about our approach to external linking.

jared isaacman, founder and ceo of shift4 who commanded the inspiration4 mission, announced today the polaris program, a first of its kind effort to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities, while continuing to raise funds and awareness for important causes here on earth. the program will consist of up to three human spaceflight missions that will demonstrate new technologies, conduct extensive research, and ultimately culminate in the first flight of spacex’s starship with humans on board. the first mission, polaris dawn, is targeted to launch no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2022 from historic launch complex 39a at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida. this dragon mission will take advantage of falcon 9 and dragon’s maximum performance, flying higher than any dragon mission to date and endeavoring to reach the highest earth orbit ever flown. dragon and the polaris dawn crew will spend up to five days in orbit, during which the crew will attempt the first ever commercial spacewalk, conduct scientific research designed to advance both human health on earth and our understanding of human health during future long duration spaceflights, and be the first crew to test starlink laser based communications in space, providing valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the moon, mars, and beyond. the polaris dawn mission has many first time objectives, so the polaris program chose a crew of experts who know each other well and have a foundation of trust they can build upon as they undergo the challenges of this mission. in addition to isaacman, the crew includes scott “kidd” poteet, a veteran member of jared’s team, and two spacex employees, sarah gillis and anna menon. on thursday, february 10 from starbase in texas, spacex chief engineer elon musk provided an update on the development of starship, a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying passengers and cargo to earth orbit, the moon, mars, and beyond. on thursday, february 3 at 1:13 p.m. est, falcon 9 launched 49 starlink satellites to low earth orbit from launch complex 39a (lc 39a) at kennedy space center in florida. falcon 9’s second stage deployed the satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight. spacex deploys its satellites into these lower orbits so that in the very rare case any satellite does not pass initial system checkouts it will quickly be deorbited by atmospheric drag. while the low deployment altitude requires more capable satellites at a considerable cost to us, it’s the right thing to do to maintain a sustainable space environment. unfortunately, the satellites deployed on thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on friday. these storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase. in fact, onboard gps suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches. the starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe mode where they would fly edge on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag to effectively “take cover from the storm” and continued to work closely with the space force’s 18th space control squadron and leolabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars. preliminary analysis show the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe mode to begin orbit raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the earth’s atmosphere. the deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric reentry meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground. this unique situation demonstrates the great lengths the starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on orbit debris mitigation. on tuesday, november 23 at 10:21 p.m. pst, falcon 9 launched nasa’s double asteroid redirection test (dart) mission to an interplanetary transfer orbit from space launch complex 4 east (slc 4e) at vandenberg space force base in california. dart is humanity’s first planetary defense test mission to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an earth threatening asteroid be discovered in the future. this was spacex’s first inter planetary mission. this was the third flight for this falcon 9’s first stage booster, which previously supported launch of sentinel 6 michael freilich and a starlink mission. on thursday, november 11 at 6:32 p.m. est, 23:32 utc, spacex’s dragon autonomously docked with the international space station. falcon 9 launched the spacecraft to orbit from histsoric launch complex 39a (lc 39a) at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida on wednesday, november 10 at 9:03 p.m. est. on thursday, november 11 at 6:32 p.m. est, 23:32 utc, spacex’s dragon autonomously docked with the international space station. falcon 9 launched the spacecraft to orbit from histsoric launch complex 39a (lc 39a) at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida on wednesday, november 10 at 9:03 p.m. est. after 199 days in space, the longest duration mission for a u.s. spacecraft, dragon and the crew 2 astronauts, shane kimbrough , megan mcarthur , akihiko hoshide , and thomas pesquet , returned to earth, splashing down off the coast of pensacola, florida at 10:33 p.m. est on november 8. dragon and the crew 2 astronauts were quickly recovered by the spacex recovery team. spacex will transport dragon back to cape canaveral, florida for inspections and refurbishment ahead of future human spaceflight missions. this mission marked multiple firsts for spacex and nasa’s commercial crew program, including being the first to fly two international partners, the first crew mission to use a flight proven dragon and falcon 9, and the first u.s. spacecraft to spend 199 consecutive days in orbit. after three days orbiting earth, dragon and the inspiration4 crew   the world’s first civilian mission to orbit   safely splashed down off the coast of florida at 7:06 p.m. edt on saturday, september 18, 2021, completing their first multi day low earth orbit mission. dragon performed a series of departure phasing burns to leave the circular orbit of 575 kilometers and then jettisoned its trunk ahead of its deorbit burn. after re entering the earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft deployed its two drogue and four main parachutes in preparation for the soft water landing. inspiration4 is commanded by jared isaacman, founder and ceo of shift4 payments and an accomplished pilot and adventurer. joining him are medical officer hayley arceneaux, a physician assistant at st. jude children’s research hospital® and pediatric cancer survivor; mission specialist chris sembroski, an air force veteran and aerospace data engineer; and mission pilot dr. sian proctor, a geoscientist, entrepreneur, and trained pilot. developed by spacex to support nasa’s commercial crew program, dragon helped return human spaceflight capabilities in 2020 and has successfully flown three human spaceflight missions to the international space station (iss) to date. in addition to flying astronauts to space for nasa, dragon can also carry commercial astronauts to earth orbit, the iss or beyond. today, axiom space announced spacex will fly three additional private crew missions aboard dragon to and from the station through 2023. axiom previously announced their first mission to the international space station flying aboard dragon, currently targeted to liftoff no earlier than january 2022. in may 2021, axiom announced that astronaut peggy whitson and champion gt racer john shoffner will serve as commander and pilot on the ax 2 mission . all four crews will receive combined commercial astronaut training from nasa and spacex, with spacex providing training on the falcon 9 launch vehicle and dragon spacecraft, emergency preparedness training, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full simulations. the growing partnership between axiom and spacex will enable more opportunities for more humans in space on the road to making humanity multiplanetary. on wednesday, may 5, starship serial number 15 (sn15) successfully completed spacex’s fifth high altitude flight test of a starship prototype from starbase in texas. similar to previous high altitude flight tests of starship , sn15 was powered through ascent by three raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence prior to the vehicle reaching apogee   approximately 10 km in altitude. sn15 performed a propellant transition to the internal header tanks, which hold landing propellant, before reorienting itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent. the starship prototype descended under active aerodynamic control, accomplished by independent movement of two forward and two aft flaps on the vehicle. all four flaps were actuated by an onboard flight computer to control starship’s attitude during flight and enabled precise landing at the intended location. sn15’s raptor engines reignited as the vehicle performed the landing flip maneuver immediately before touching down for a nominal landing on the pad. these test flights of starship are all about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long duration interplanetary flights, and help humanity return to the moon, and travel to mars and beyond. congratulations to the entire spacex team on sn15’s successful flight and landing! after 167 days in space, the longest duration mission for a u.s. spacecraft since the final skylab mission in 1974, dragon and the crew 1 astronauts, mike hopkins , victor glover , shannon walker , and soichi noguchi , returned to earth on sunday, may 2, 2021. dragon autonomously undocked from the international space station at 8:35 p.m. edt on saturday, may 1. the spacecraft performed a series of departure burns to move away from the orbiting laboratory. before reentry, dragon jettisoned its trunk to reduce weight and mass to help save propellant for the deorbit burn. the spacecraft then re entered the earth’s atmosphere and deployed its two drogue and four main parachutes in preparation for the soft water landing. approximately 6.5 hours after undocking, dragon splashed down off the coast of florida at 2:56 a.m. edt on sunday, may 2, completing the spacecraft’s first long duration operational mission. this was also the first nighttime splashdown of a u.s. spacecraft with crew on board since apollo 8’s return in 1968. upon splashdown, dragon and the crew 1 astronauts were quickly recovered by the spacex recovery team. spacex will transport dragon back to cape canaveral for inspections and refurbishment ahead of future human spaceflight missions. on saturday, april 24 at 5:08 a.m. edt, 9:08 utc, spacex’s dragon autonomously docked with the international space station (iss) after falcon 9 launched the spacecraft to orbit from historic launch complex 39a (lc 39a) at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida on friday, april 23 at 5:49 a.m. edt, 9:49 utc. this is the first human spaceflight mission to fly astronauts on a flight proven falcon 9 and dragon. the falcon 9 first stage supporting this mission previously launched the crew 1 mission in november 2020, and the dragon spacecraft previously flew robert behnken and douglas hurley to and from the international space station during spacex’s demo 2 mission in 2020. as part of the commercial crew program, nasa astronauts shane kimbrough and megan mcarthur , japanese aerospace exploration agency (jaxa) astronaut akihiko hoshide , and european space agency (esa) astronaut thomas pesquet flew aboard the dragon spacecraft on its second operational mission to the space station. this was the first time dragon flew two international partners and also the first time two crew dragons are attached simultaneously to the orbiting laboratory. after an approximate six month stay, dragon and the crew 2 astronauts will depart from the space station no earlier than october 31 for return to earth and splashdown in the atlantic ocean off the coast of florida. only 24 humans have been to the moon, and no one has been back since 1972. today, nasa announced they have selected starship to land the first astronauts on the lunar surface since the apollo program. we are humbled to help nasa usher in a new era of human space exploration. together, nasa and spacex have successfully executed similarly bold and innovative partnerships, including restoring america’s ability to launch astronauts to orbit and return them safely home. we will build upon our shared accomplishments, and leverage years of close technical collaboration to return to the moon. in doing so, we will lay the groundwork for human exploration to mars and beyond. sustaining a human presence on the moon will require the safe and affordable transportation of crew and significant amounts of cargo. spacex’s starship spacecraft and super heavy rocket represent an integrated and fully reusable launch, propellant delivery, rendezvous, and planetary lander system with robust capabilities and safety features uniquely designed to deliver these essential building blocks. flying between lunar orbit and the surface of the moon, starship will carry crew and all of the supplies, equipment, and science payloads needed for extensive surface exploration. building off the safety and reliability of dragon and falcon, starship will feature proven avionics, guidance and navigation systems, autonomous rendezvous, docking and precision landing capabilities, as well as thermal protection, and a spacious cabin with familiar displays and interfaces utilized on dragon . spacex is rapidly advancing starship development, drawing on an extensive history of launch vehicle and engine development programs. since january 2020, spacex has built 10 starship prototypes, with production and fidelity accelerating on each build. spacex has manufactured and tested more than 60 of starship’s raptor engines, accumulating nearly 30,000 seconds of total test time over 567 engine starts, including on multiple starship static fires and flight tests. we have conducted six suborbital flight tests, including two 150 m hops and four high altitude flights. spacex has also built a full size super heavy booster as part of a pathfinder effort, and currently has five vehicles in production. we are honored to be a part of nasa’s artemis program to safely land the first woman and next man on the surface of the moon, as the first of many, many more people to follow. on tuesday, march 30, spacex launched its fourth high altitude flight test of starship from starbase in texas. similar to previous high altitude flight tests, starship serial number 11 (sn11) was powered through ascent by three raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence prior to the vehicle reaching apogee   approximately 10 km in altitude. sn11 performed a propellant transition to the internal header tanks, which hold landing propellant, before reorienting itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent. shortly after the landing burn started, sn11 experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly. teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test. test flights are all about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long duration interplanetary flights, and help humanity return to the moon, and travel to mars and beyond. on wednesday, march 3, starship serial number (sn10) successfully completed spacex’s third high altitude flight test of a starship prototype from our site in cameron county, texas. similar to the high altitude flight tests of starship sn8 and sn9 , sn10 was powered through ascent by three raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence prior to the vehicle reaching apogee   approximately 10 km in altitude. sn10 performed a propellant transition to the internal header tanks, which hold landing propellant, before reorienting itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent. the starship prototype descended under active aerodynamic control, accomplished by independent movement of two forward and two aft flaps on the vehicle. all four flaps were actuated by an onboard flight computer to control starship’s attitude during flight and enabled a precise landing at the intended location. sn10’s raptor engines reignited as the vehicle performed the landing flip maneuver immediately before successfully touching down on the landing pad! as if the flight test was not exciting enough, sn10 experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after landing. all in all a great day for the starship teams   these test flights are all about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long duration interplanetary flights, and help humanity return to the moon, and travel to mars and beyond. congratulations to the entire starship and spacex teams on the flight test! in 2018, japanese entrepreneur, yusaku maezawa, announced the world’s first private passenger mission to fly by the moon aboard starship . known as dearmoon, this mission is an important step toward enabling access for people who dream of traveling to space. today, the dearmoon project opened the application process for eight civilians to join yusaku maezawa on the week long starship mission around the moon in 2023. visit the dearmoon website or watch the video above to learn more on how to apply and potentially become a dearmoon crew member! on tuesday, february 2, starship serial number 9 (sn9) completed spacex’s second high altitude flight test of a starship prototype from our site in cameron county, texas. similar to the high altitude flight test of starship serial number 8 (sn8) , sn9 was powered through ascent by three raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence prior to the vehicle reaching apogee   approximately 10 kilometers in altitude. sn9 successfully performed a propellant transition to the internal header tanks, which hold landing propellant, before reorienting itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent. the starship prototype descended under active aerodynamic control, accomplished by independent movement of two forward and two aft flaps on the vehicle. all four flaps are actuated by an onboard flight computer to control starship’s attitude during flight and enable precise landing at the intended location. during the landing flip maneuver, one of the raptor engines did not relight and caused sn9 to land at high speed and experience a rud. these test flights are all about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long duration, interplanetary flights and help humanity return to the moon, and travel to mars and beyond. in 2020, spacex returned america’s ability to fly nasa astronauts to and from the international space station for the first time since the space shuttle’s last flight in 2011. in addition to flying astronauts for nasa, dragon was also designed to carry commercial astronauts to earth orbit, the space station, or beyond. today, it was announced spacex is targeting no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year for falcon 9’s launch of inspiration4   the world’s first all commercial astronaut mission to orbit   from historic launch complex 39a at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida. jared isaacman, founder and ceo of shift4 payments, is donating the three seats alongside him aboard dragon to individuals from the general public who will be announced in the weeks ahead. learn more on how to potentially join this historic journey to space by visiting inspiration4.com . the inspiration4 crew will receive commercial astronaut training by spacex on the falcon 9 launch vehicle and dragon spacecraft, orbital mechanics, operating in microgravity, zero gravity, and other forms of stress testing. they will go through emergency preparedness training, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full mission simulations. this multi day journey, orbiting earth every 90 minutes along a customized flight path, will be carefully monitored at every step by spacex mission control. upon conclusion of the mission, dragon will reenter earth’s atmosphere for a soft water landing off the coast of florida. on wednesday, december 9, starship serial number 8 (sn8) lifted off from our cameron county launch pad and successfully ascended, transitioned propellant, and performed its landing flip maneuver with precise flap control to reach its landing point. low pressure in the fuel header tank during the landing burn led to high touchdown velocity resulting in a hard (and exciting!) landing. re watch sn8's flight here. thank you to all the locals supporting our efforts in cameron county and beyond. congratulations to the entire starship and spacex teams on today’s test! serial number 9 (sn9) is up next   mars, here we come! on monday, november 16 at 11:01 p.m. est, 04:01 utc on november 17, spacex’s dragon autonomously docked with the international space station (iss) after falcon 9 launched the spacecraft to orbit from historic launch complex 39a (lc 39a) at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida on sunday, november 15, 2020. as part of the commercial crew program, nasa astronauts mike hopkins , victor glover , shannon walker , and jaxa astronaut soichi noguchi flew aboard dragon on its first six month operational mission to the space station. after its approximately six month stay at the orbiting laboratory, dragon and the astronauts will return to earth and splashdown in the atlantic ocean off the coast of florida. following dragon’s second demonstration mission (demo 2), nasa certified spacex for operational crew missions to and from the space station. crew 1 is the first of three scheduled dragon human spaceflights over the course of 2020 and 2021. the return of human spaceflight to the united states with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built is a turning point for america’s future space exploration, and it lays the groundwork for missions to the moon, mars, and beyond. today, nasa announced it has certified spacex’s falcon 9 and crew dragon human spaceflight system for crew missions to and from the international space station   the first commercial system in history to achieve such designation. not since the certification of the space shuttle nearly 40 years ago has nasa certified a spacecraft, rocket, and ground support systems for regular flights with astronauts. launched atop falcon 9 on may 30, 2020, dragon 's second demonstration flight test to and from the space station restored human spaceflight to the united states for the first time in almost a decade. that flight was the culmination of years of development, testing, and training all throughout safety remained spacex’s top priority. spacex put every component of every system through its paces, including two flight tests to and from the international space station, demonstrations of dragon’s escape system both on the launch pad and in flight, over 700 tests of the spacecraft's superdraco engines, more than 500 joint soft capture docking tests to validate the performance of dragon’s docking system design, about 8,000,000 hours of hardware in the loop software testing, and nearly 100 tests and flights of dragon’s parachutes to ensure a safe landing back on earth in addition to all of the knowledge gained from twenty previous successful cargo resupply missions to the space station and over forty falcon 9 block 5 launches. spacex and nasa are targeting saturday, november 14 at 7:49 p.m. est for the launch of the first crew rotation mission (crew 1) to the international space station as part of the agency’s commercial crew program. the crew 1 mission will launch nasa astronauts michael hopkins , victor glover , and shannon walker , along with japan aerospace exploration agency (jaxa) mission specialist soichi noguchi , from historic launch complex 39a at kennedy space center in florida. human spaceflight is spacex’s core mission, and we take seriously the responsibility that nasa has entrusted in us to safely carry astronauts to and from the international space station. we are humbled to help nasa usher in a new era of space exploration. on saturday, october 24 at 11:31 a.m. edt, 11:31 utc, spacex’s falcon 9 rocket launched 60 starlink satellites to orbit from space launch complex 40 (slc 40) at cape canaveral air force station in florida. falcon 9’s first stage previously supported the gps iii space vehicle 03 mission in june 2020 and a starlink mission in september 2020. following stage separation, spacex landed falcon 9’s first stage on the “just read the instructions” droneship, which was stationed in the atlantic ocean. the starlink satellites deployed approximately 1 hour and 3 minutes after liftoff. if you would like to receive updates on starlink news and service availability in your area, please visit starlink.com . this mission also marked the 100th successful flight of a falcon rocket since falcon 1 first flew to orbit in 2008. spacex believes that fully and rapidly reusable rockets are the pivotal breakthrough needed to dramatically reduce the cost of access to space to enable people to travel to and live on other planets. while most rockets are expendable after launch   akin to throwing away an airplane after a one way trip from los angeles to new york   spacex is working toward a future in which reusable rockets are the norm. of its now 100 successful flights of falcon rockets, spacex has landed a falcon first stage rocket booster 63 times and re flown boosters 45 times. this year, spacex twice accomplished the sixth flight of an orbital rocket booster. and, in the ten years since its demonstration mission, falcon 9 has become the most flown operational rocket in the united states, overtaking expendable rockets that have been launching for decades. the difficulty of precision landing an orbital rocket after it reenters earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic velocity is not to be overlooked   spacex remains the only launch provider in the world capable of accomplishing this task. at 14 stories tall and traveling upwards of 1300 m/s (nearly 1 mi/s), stabilizing falcon 9’s first stage booster for landing is like trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a hurricane. while recovery and re flight of an orbital rocket booster may now seem routine, developing falcon such that it would withstand reentry and return for landing was generally accepted as impossible   and spacex learned many lessons on the road to reusability . spacex’s accomplishments with flight proven rockets and spacecraft have allowed us to further advance the fleet’s reliability and reusability, as well as inform the development of starship   spacex’s next generation fully and rapidly reusable super heavy lift transportation system. starship’s capability of full and rapid reuse will lower the cost of spaceflight to help humanity return to the moon, travel to mars, and ultimately become multi planetary. ahead of falcon 9’s upcoming launch of gps iii 4, the united states space force’s space and missile systems center (smc) announced today an agreement with spacex to recover the first stage booster and, for the first time on a national security space launch (nssl) mission, launch previously flown boosters on future gps missions. spacex is proud to leverage its flight proven capabilities toward national security space launch missions. spacex was also recently selected by the space force to carry out critical national security space launch (nssl) missions ordered over the next five years. spacex will build upon our years long collaboration with the united states air force and the national reconnaissance office to utilize the operationally mature falcon fleet, which has achieved nssl certification and completed a combined 95 orbital missions to date for a variety of customers. with falcon 9 and falcon heavy , spacex is capable of performing every type of national security space mission, to every required reference orbit, with significant performance and schedule margin. to meet or exceed the demanding and unique requirements of the nssl program, spacex invested over a billion dollars of its own money into the falcon fleet and the associated ground infrastructure, manufacturing processes, payload integration procedures, and mission assurance processes. this private investment over multiple years reflects spacex’s deep commitment to reliably launching our customers' payloads to orbit. and, as spacex brought competition back to national security space launch, the united states air force saved billions in critical taxpayer funds. spacex is honored to support the united states space force with a solution given the highest possible rating for system capability, schedule readiness, and system risk, using a mix of new and flight proven launch vehicles. we look forward to leveraging this extensive capability to continue delivering the country’s most reliable and affordable launch services for years to come. on tuesday, august 4 at 4:56 p.m. cdt in boca chica, texas, starship serial number 5 (sn5) lifted off from its launch mount and flew to a height of 150 meters before successfully touching down on a near by landing pad. on this flight test, sn5 was powered by a single raptor engine   a reusable methalox full flow staged combustion rocket engine. this test flight was an important step in development of spacex’s fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to earth orbit, the moon, mars and beyond. on saturday, may 30, spacex’s falcon 9 launched crew dragon’s second demonstration (demo 2) mission from launch complex 39a (lc 39a) at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida with nasa astronauts bob behnken and doug hurley aboard the spacecraft. dragon autonomously docked to the international space station on sunday, may 31, 2020. sixty three days later, crew dragon undocked and departed from the orbiting laboratory, before successfully splashing down in the gulf of mexico off the coast of pensacola, florida on sunday, august 2 at 2:48 p.m. edt. this test flight marked the return of human spaceflight to the united states and the first time in history a commercial company successfully took astronauts to orbit and back. the demo 2 mission was also the final major test milestone for spacex’s human spaceflight system to be certified by nasa for operational crew missions to and from the international space station. with the demo 2 mission now complete, spacex and nasa teams are reviewing all the data for certification before nasa astronauts victor glover, mike hopkins, shannon walker, and jaxa astronaut soichi noguchi fly on dragon’s first six month operational mission (crew 1), targeted for late september. on saturday, may 30 at 3:22 p.m. edt, spacex’s falcon 9 launched crew dragon’s second demonstration (demo 2) mission from launch complex 39a (lc 39a) at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida, and the next day crew dragon autonomously docked to the international space station. this test flight with nasa astronauts bob behnken and doug hurley on board the dragon spacecraft returned human spaceflight to the united states. demo 2 is the final major test for spacex’s human spaceflight system to be certified by nasa for operational crew missions to and from the international space station. spacex is returning human spaceflight to the united states with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built, and nasa’s commercial crew program is a turning point for america’s future in space exploration that lays the groundwork for future missions to the moon, mars, and beyond. spacex is launching starlink to provide high speed, low latency broadband connectivity across the globe, including to locations where internet has traditionally been too expensive, unreliable, or entirely unavailable. we also firmly believe in the importance of a natural night sky for all of us to enjoy, which is why we have been working with leading astronomers around the world to better understand the specifics of their observations and engineering changes we can make to reduce satellite brightness. our goals include: making the satellites generally invisible to the naked eye within a week of launch. we're doing this by changing the way the satellites fly to their operational altitude, so that they fly with the satellite knife edge to the sun. we are working on implementing this as soon as possible for all satellites since it is a software change. minimizing starlink's impact on astronomy by darkening satellites so they do not saturate observatory detectors. we're accomplishing this by adding a deployable visor to the satellite to block sunlight from hitting the brightest parts of the spacecraft. the first unit is flying on the next launch, and by flight 9 in june all future starlink satellites will have sun visors. additionally, information about our satellites' orbits are located on space track.org to facilitate observation scheduling for astronomers. we are interested in feedback on ways to improve the utility and timeliness of this information. to better explain the details of brightness mitigation efforts, we need to explain more about how the starlink satellites work. starlink orbits starlink has three phases of flight: (1) orbit raise, (2) parking orbit (380 km above earth), and (3) on station (550 km above earth). during orbit raise the satellites use their thrusters to raise altitude over the course of a few weeks. some of the satellites go directly to station while others pause in the parking orbit to allow the satellites to precess to a different orbital plane. once satellites are on station they reconfigure so the antennas face earth and the solar array goes vertical so that it can track the sun to maximize power generation. as a result of this maneuver, the satellites become much darker because the solar array visibility from the ground is greatly reduced. currently, about half of the over 400 satellites are on station and the other half are orbit raising or in the parking orbit. satellites spend a small fraction of their lives orbit raising or parking and spend the vast majority of their lives on station. it's important to note that at any given time, only about several hundred satellites will be orbit raising or parking. the rest of the satellites will be in the operational orbit on station. starlink satellite the starlink satellite design was driven by the fact that they fly at a very low altitude compared to other communications satellites. we do this to prioritize space traffic safety and to minimize the latency of the signal between the satellite and the users who are getting internet service from it. because of the low altitude, drag is a major factor in the design. during orbit raise, the satellites must minimize their cross sectional area relative to the 'wind,' otherwise drag will cause them to fall out of orbit. high drag is a double edged sword it means that flying the satellites is tricky, but it also means that any satellites that are experiencing problems will de orbit quickly and safely burn up in the atmosphere. this reduces the amount of orbital debris or 'space junk' in orbit. this low drag and thrusting flight configuration resembles an open book, where the solar array is laid out flat in front of the vehicle. when starlink satellites are orbit raising, they roll to a limited extent about the velocity vector for power generation, always keeping the cross sectional area minimized while keeping the antennas facing earth enough to stay in contact with the ground stations. when the satellites reach their operational orbit of 550 km, drag is still a factor so any inoperable satellite will quickly decay but the attitude control system is able to overcome this drag with the solar array raised above the satellite in a vertical orientation that we call 'shark fin.' this is the orientation in which the satellite spends the majority of its operational life. satellite visibility satellites are visible from the ground at sunrise or sunset. this happens because the satellites are illuminated by the sun but people or telescopes on the ground are in the dark. these conditions only happen for a fraction of starlink's 90 minute orbit. this simple diagram highlights why satellites in orbit raise are so much brighter than the satellites that are on station. during orbit raise, when the solar array is in open book, sunlight can reflect off of both the solar array and the body of the satellite and hit the ground. once on station, only certain parts of the chassis can reflect light to the ground. physics of satellite brightness the apparent magnitude of an object is a measure of the brightness of a star or object observed from earth. it is a reverse logarithmic scale, so higher numbers correspond to dimmer objects. a star of magnitude 3 is approximately 2.5 times brighter than a star of magnitude 4. based on observations that have been taken by us and by members of the astronomical community, current starlink satellites have an average apparent magnitude of 5.5 when on station and brighter during orbit raise. objects up to about magnitude 6.5 7 are visible to the naked eye (naked eye visibility is closer to 4 in most suburbs), and our goal is for starlink satellites to be magnitude 7 or better for almost all phases of their mission. there are two types of reflections off of starlink satellites: diffuse and specular. diffuse reflections occur when light is scattered in many different directions. imagine shining a flashlight at a white wall. specular reflections happen when light is reflected in a particular direction. for example, the glint of sunlight off of a mirror. diffuse reflections are the biggest contributor to observed brightness on the ground, because diffuse reflections go in all directions. you can see diffuse reflections as long as the satellite is visible. this is why starlink satellites can create the 'string of pearls' effect in the night sky. it's a little counter intuitive, but the shiny components of the starlink satellites are a much smaller problem. whether diffuse or specular, having a high reflectance helps the satellites stay cool in space. when sunlight hits a specular surface of the spacecraft and reflects, the vast majority of light reflects in the specular (mirror reflection) direction, which is generally out toward space (not toward earth). occasionally when it does, the glint only lasts for a second or less. in fact, specular surfaces tend to be the dimmest part of the satellite unless you are at just the right geometry. the biggest contributors to starlink being bright are the white diffuse phased array antennas on the bottom of the satellite, the white diffuse parabolic antennas on the sides (not shown below), and the white diffuse back side of the solar array. these surfaces are all white to keep temperatures down so components do not overheat. the key to making starlink darker is to prevent sunlight from illuminating these white surfaces and scattering via reflection toward observers on the ground. while in orbit raise and the parking orbit the solar array dominates due to the much larger surface area. however, once the satellites are at their operational altitude, the antennas dominate because the bright backside of the solar array is shadowed. solutions in work we've taken an experimental and iterative approach to reducing the brightness of the starlink satellites. orbital brightness is an extremely difficult problem to tackle analytically, so we've been hard at work on both ground and on orbit testing. for example, earlier this year we launched darksat, which is an experimental satellite where we darkened the phased array and parabolic antennas designed to tackle on station brightness. this reduced the brightness of the satellite by about 55%, as was verified by differential optical measurements comparing darksat to other nearby starlink satellites. this is nearly enough of a brightness reduction to make the satellite invisible to the naked eye while on station. however, black surfaces in space get hot and reflect some light (including in the ir spectrum), so we are moving forward with a sun visor solution instead. this avoids thermal issues due to black paint, and is expected to be darker than darksat since it will block all light from reaching the white diffuse antennas. early mission (orbit raise and parking orbit) roll maneuver since the visor is intended to help with brightness while on station, it does not shade the back of the solar array, which means that it will not prevent orbit raise and parking orbit brightness. for this, we are working on changing the way the satellite flies up from insertion to parking orbit and to station. we're currently testing rolling the satellite so the vector of the sun is in plane with the satellite body, i.e. so the satellite is knife edge to the sun. this would reduce the light reflected onto earth by reducing the surface area that receives light. this is possible when orbit raising and parking in the precession orbit because we don't have to constrain the antennas to be nadir facing to provide coverage to internet users. however, there are a couple of nuanced reasons why this is tricky to implement. first, rolling the solar array away from the sun reduces the amount of power available to the satellite. second, because the antennas will sometimes be rolled away from the ground, contact time with the satellites will be reduced. third, the star tracker cameras are located on the sides of the chassis (the only place they can go and have adequate field of view). rolling knife edge to the sun can point one star tracker directly at the earth and the other one directly at the sun, which would cause the satellite to have degraded attitude knowledge. there will be a small percentage of instances when the satellites cannot roll all the way to true knife edge to the sun due to one of the aforementioned constraints. this could result in the occasional set of starlink satellites in the orbit raise of flight that are temporarily visible for one part of an orbit. on station brightness satellites spend most of their lives on station, where they will always be in the shark fin configuration during visible passes. we can adjust the solar array positioning in this configuration to reflect light from its largely specular solar cells away from earth and to partially hide it behind the chassis. the main remaining goal is to block the phased arrays and antennae from direct view of the sun. the goal is to cover the white phased array antennas and the parabolic antennas on the sides of the satellite. using our low orbital altitude and flat satellite geometry to our advantage, we designed an rf transparent deployable visor for the satellite that blocks the light from reaching most of the satellite body and all of the diffuse parts of the main body. this visor lays flat on the chassis during launch and deploys during satellite separation from falcon 9. the visor prevents light from reflecting off of the diffuse antennas by blocking the light from reaching the antennas altogether. not only does this approach avoid the thermal impacts from surface darkening the antennas, but it should also have a larger impact on brightness reduction. as previously noted, the first visorsat prototype will launch in may and we will have these black, specular visors on all satellites by june. the parabolic antennas on the sides of the starlink satellite also have visor like coverings that darken them. we have been working with leading astronomical groups in this effort in particular the american astronomical society and the vera c. rubin observatory to better understand the methods and instruments employed by the astronomy community. with aas, we have increased our understanding of the community as a whole through regular calls with a working group of astronomers during which we discuss technical details, provide updates, and work on how we can protect astronomical observations moving forward. a post on some of our sessions is here . one particularly useful presentation from a member of this working group is here . while community understanding is critical to this problem, engineering problems are difficult to solve without specifics. the vera c. rubin observatory was repeatedly flagged as the most difficult case to solve, so we've spent the last few months working very closely with a technical team there to do just that. among other useful thoughts and discussions, the vera rubin team has provided a target brightness reduction that we are using to guide our engineering efforts as we iterate on brightness solutions. these technical and community discussions are paired with our existing efforts to make the satellites easier for astronomers to avoid. starlink trajectories are published through space track.org and celestrak.com , which many astronomers use in timing their observations to avoid satellite streaks. we've also started publishing predictive data prior to launch at the request of astronomers. these allow observatories to schedule around the satellites in the first few hours of deployment (as satellites de tumble and enter the network). vera rubin has been described as the limiting case for starlink, due to its enormous aperture and wide field of view. these two characteristics work in concert to produce the perfect storm for satellite observations. most astronomical systems look at an extremely small section of the sky (less than 1 degree), which makes it exceedingly unlikely that a satellite will cross in front of the imaging system in a given observation. on the other hand, systems with very large fields of view normally aren't extremely sensitive, meaning that, while streaks will occur, they will have a small impact on the overall data collection. this is why we've been working so closely with the team at the rubin observatory. in fact, despite its wide field of view, the vera c. rubin observatory is sensitive enough to detect a sunlit golf ball as far away as the moon. so what can we do to mitigate our impact on these edge cases of wide, fast survey telescopes? minimizing the impact on astronomy the huge collecting area of a larger telescopes like vera c. rubin observatory leads to a sensitivity that will render even the darkest satellites visible.they are so sensitive that it won't be possible to build a satellite that will not produce streaks, in a typical long integration. there is much that can be done to reduce the impact of satellite streaks, and that starts with an understanding of how astronomical sensors work. the astronomical community has done a great job of educating us on their imaging techniques. optical systems use mirrors or lenses to focus light onto an imaging sensor. most optical astronomy instruments use sensors called charge coupled devices (ccds) as their detectors because astronomical targets, such as distant supernovae and galaxies, are generally dim at the limit of what can be detected by a sensor. for these applications, the lower noise level of ccds allows for a higher signal to noise ratio for a given image, making it easier to see very faint features in the universe. however, ccds suffer from a key drawback: when compared to other common sensors, like the cmos sensor in your cell phone. if you point your cell phone at a bright light, you'll see all the pixels saturate and turn white in the region of the bright source. if you look at the same target with an optical system that uses a ccd sensor, you'll notice that this bright spot extends to create vertical stripes on the image. this difference is due to the way each sensor type reads the values for each pixel. while a cmos sensor essentially has an amplifier at each pixel that turns the light collected into a digital value, a ccd sensor has a limited number of amplifiers and moves the collected light (in the form of electrons) across the sensor, to be digitized. this mechanism means that a saturated pixel on a ccd tends to wipe out data from an entire column of pixels. this effect, commonly referred to as 'blooming,' is one example of how a very small but bright source of light can impact an astronomical observation. this principle is the core of our mitigation efforts. while it will not be possible to create satellites that are invisible to the most advanced optical equipment on earth, by reducing the brightness of the satellites, we can make the existing strategies for dealing with similar issues, such as frame stacking, dramatically more effective. future satellites spacex is committed to making future satellite designs as dark as possible. the next generation satellite, designed to take advantage of starship's unique launch capabilities, will be specifically designed to minimize brightness while also increasing the number of consumers that it can serve with high speed internet access. while spacex is the first large constellation manufacturer and operator to address satellite brightness, we won't be the last. as launch costs continue to drop, more constellations will emerge and they too will need to ensure that the optical properties of their satellites don't create problems for observers on the ground. this is why we are working to make this problem easier for everyone to solve in the future. spacex and nasa are targeting may 27 for falcon 9’s launch of crew dragon’s second demonstration mission (demo 2) from historic launch complex 39a at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida as part of nasa’s commercial crew program . nasa astronauts bob behnken and doug hurley will be the first two nasa astronauts to fly onboard the dragon spacecraft as part of the demo 2 mission to and from the international space station, which will return human spaceflight to the united states since the space shuttle was retired in 2011. filled with approximately 4,500 pounds of supplies and payloads, dragon launched aboard a falcon 9 rocket on march 6, 2020 from cape canaveral air force station in florida. the dragon spacecraft that supported the crs 20 mission previously supported the crs 10 mission in february 2017 and the crs 16 mission in december 2018. dragon is the only spacecraft currently flying that's capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to earth. the falcon 9 launch vehicle and crew dragon spacecraft that will support demo 2 are onsite at spacex’s facilities in florida. to mark the return of human spaceflight on american rockets from american soil, nasa has revived their worm logo for demo 2 . in preparation for demo 2, spacex has completed a number of major milestones for nasa’s commercial crew program. in march 2019, spacex completed an end to end test flight of crew dragon without nasa astronauts onboard, making dragon the first american spacecraft to autonomously dock with the international space station and safely return to earth. in january 2020, spacex demonstrated crew dragon's in flight launch escape capability to reliably carry crew to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency on the launch pad or at any point during ascent. spacex has completed over 700 tests of the spacecraft's superdraco engines, which fired together at full throttle can power dragon 0.5 miles away from falcon 9 in 7.5 seconds, accelerating the vehicle more than 400 mph. spacex has completed 27 tests of crew dragon’s enhanced mark 3 parachute design, which will provide a safe landing back on earth for astronauts returning from the space station. these tests include 13 successful single parachute drop tests, 12 successful multi parachute tests, and a successful demonstration of the upgraded parachute system during crew dragon’s in flight abort test . additionally, spacex and nasa have jointly executed a series of mission simulations from launch and docking to departure and landing, an end to end demonstration of pad rescue operations , and a fully integrated test of critical crew flight hardware on the demo 2 crew dragon spacecraft with nasa astronauts bob behnken and doug hurley participating in their demo 2 spacesuits. demo 2 is the final major test for spacex’s human spaceflight system to be certified by nasa for operational crew missions to and from the international space station. once demo 2 is complete, and the spacex and nasa teams have reviewed all the data for certification, nasa astronauts victor glover , mike hopkins , shannon walker and jaxa astronaut soichi noguchi have been assigned to fly on dragon’s first six month operational mission (crew 1) targeted for later this year. spacex is returning human spaceflight to the united states with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built, and nasa’s commercial crew program is a turning point for america’s future in space exploration that lays the groundwork for future missions to the moon, mars, and beyond. on sunday, january 19, spacex successfully completed an in flight test of crew dragon’s launch escape capabilities from launch complex 39a (lc 39a) at nasa’s kennedy space center in florida. this test, which did not have nasa astronauts onboard the spacecraft, demonstrated crew dragon’s ability to reliably carry crew to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency on ascent. falcon 9 and dragon lifted off at 10:30 a.m. est, or 15:30 utc, with the abort sequence initiating approximately one and a half minutes into flight. crew dragon's eight superdraco engines powered the spacecraft away from falcon 9 at speeds of over 400 mph. following separation, dragon's trunk was released and the spacecraft's parachutes were deployed, first the two drogue parachutes followed by the four upgraded mark iii parachutes. dragon safely splashed down in the atlantic ocean and teams successfully recovered the spacecraft onto spacex's recovery vessel. you can watch a replay of launch above and learn more about the mission here . spacex's starship and super heavy launch vehicle is a fully, rapidly reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to earth orbit, the moon, mars, and anywhere else in the solar system. on saturday, september 28 at our launch facility in cameron county, texas, spacex chief engineer elon musk provided an update on the design and development of starship. spacex © 2025 privacy policy suppliers

the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa /ˈnæsə/) is an independent agency of the us federal government responsible for the united states' civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. established in 1958, it succeeded the national advisory committee for aeronautics (naca) to give the us space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. it has since led most of america's space exploration programs, including project mercury, project gemini, the 1968 1972 apollo moon landing missions, the skylab space station, and the space shuttle. currently, nasa supports the international space station (iss) along with the commercial crew program, and oversees the development of the orion spacecraft and the space launch system for the lunar artemis program. nasa's science division is focused on better understanding earth through the earth observing system; advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the science mission directorate's heliophysics research program; exploring bodies throughout the solar system with advanced robotic spacecraft such as new horizons and planetary rovers such as perseverance; and researching astrophysics topics, such as the big bang, through the james webb space telescope, the four great observatories, and associated programs. the launch services program oversees launch operations for its uncrewed launches. nasa traces its roots to the national advisory committee for aeronautics (naca). despite being the birthplace of aviation, by 1914 the united states recognized that it was far behind europe in aviation capability. determined to regain american leadership in aviation, the united states congress created the aviation section of the us army signal corps in 1914 and established naca in 1915 to foster aeronautical research and development. over the next forty years, naca would conduct aeronautical research in support of the us air force, us army, us navy, and the civil aviation sector. after the end of world war ii, naca became interested in the possibilities of guided missiles and supersonic aircraft, developing and testing the bell x 1 in a joint program with the us air force. naca's interest in space grew out of its rocketry program at the pilotless aircraft research division.[4] the soviet union's launch of sputnik 1 ushered in the space age and kicked off the space race. despite naca's early rocketry program, the responsibility for launching the first american satellite fell to the naval research laboratory's project vanguard, whose operational issues ensured the army ballistic missile agency would launch explorer 1, america's first satellite, on february 1, 1958. the eisenhower administration decided to split the united states' military and civil spaceflight programs, which were organized together under the department of defense's advanced research projects agency. nasa was established on july 29, 1958, with the signing of the national aeronautics and space act and it began operations on october 1, 1958.[4] as the us's premier aeronautics agency, naca formed the core of nasa's new structure by reassigning 8,000 employees and three major research laboratories. nasa also proceeded to absorb the naval research laboratory's project vanguard, the army's jet propulsion laboratory (jpl), and the army ballistic missile agency under wernher von braun. this left nasa firmly as the united states' civil space lead and the air force as the military space lead.[4] plans for human spaceflight began in the us armed forces prior to nasa's creation. the air force's man in space soonest project formed in 1956,[5] coupled with the army's project adam, served as the foundation for project mercury. nasa established the space task group to manage the program,[6] which would conduct crewed sub orbital flights with the army's redstone rockets and orbital flights with the air force's atlas launch vehicles. while nasa intended for its first astronauts to be civilians, president eisenhower directed that they be selected from the military. the mercury 7 astronauts included three air force pilots, three navy aviators, and one marine corps pilot.[4] on may 5, 1961, alan shepard became the first american to enter space, performing a suborbital spaceflight in the freedom 7.[7] this flight occurred less than a month after the soviet yuri gagarin became the first human in space, executing a full orbital spaceflight. nasa's first orbital spaceflight was conducted by john glenn on february 20, 1962, in the friendship 7, making three full orbits before reentering. glenn had to fly parts of his final two orbits manually due to an autopilot malfunction.[8] the sixth and final mercury mission was flown by gordon cooper in may 1963, performing 22 orbits over 34 hours in the faith 7.[9] the mercury program was wildly recognized as a resounding success, achieving its objectives to orbit a human in space, develop tracking and control systems, and identify other issues associated with human spaceflight.[4] while much of nasa's attention turned to space, it did not put aside its aeronautics mission. early aeronautics research attempted to build upon the x 1's supersonic flight to build an aircraft capable of hypersonic flight. the north american x 15 was a joint nasa us air force program,[10] with the hypersonic test aircraft becoming the first non dedicated spacecraft to cross from the atmosphere to outer space. the x 15 also served as a testbed for apollo program technologies, as well as ramjet and scramjet propulsion.[4] escalations in the cold war between the united states and soviet union prompted president john f. kennedy to charge nasa with landing an american on the moon and returning him safely to earth by the end of the 1960s and installed james e. webb as nasa administrator to achieve this goal.[11] on may 25, 1961, president kennedy openly declared this goal in his "urgent national needs" speech to the united states congress, declaring: i believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. no single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. kennedy gave his "we choose to go to the moon" speech the next year, on september 12, 1962 at rice university, where he addressed the nation hoping to reinforce public support for the apollo program.[12] despite attacks on the goal of landing astronauts on the moon from the former president dwight eisenhower and 1964 presidential candidate barry goldwater, president kennedy was able to protect nasa's growing budget, of which 50% went directly to human spaceflight and it was later estimated that, at its height, 5% of americans worked on some aspect of the apollo program.[4] mirroring the department of defense's program management concept using redundant systems in building the first intercontinental ballistic missiles, nasa requested the air force assign major general samuel c. phillips to the space agency where he would serve as the director of the apollo program. development of the saturn v rocket was led by wernher von braun and his team at the marshall space flight center, derived from the army ballistic missile agency's original saturn i. the apollo spacecraft was designed and built by north american aviation, while the apollo lunar module was designed and built by grumman.[4] to develop the spaceflight skills and equipment required for a lunar mission, nasa initiated project gemini.[13] using a modified air force titan ii launch vehicle, the gemini capsule could hold two astronauts for flights of over two weeks. gemini pioneered the use of fuel cells instead of batteries, and conducted the first american spacewalks and rendezvous operations. the ranger program was started in the 1950s as a response to soviet lunar exploration, however most missions ended in failure. the lunar orbiter program had greater success, mapping the surface in preparation for apollo landings, conducting meteoroid detection, and measuring radiation levels. the surveyor program conducted uncrewed lunar landings and takeoffs, as well as taking surface and regolith observations.[4] despite the setback caused by the apollo 1 fire, which killed three astronauts, the program proceeded. apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the moon. the crew orbited the moon ten times on december 24 and 25, 1968, and then traveled safely back to earth.[14][15][16] the three apollo 8 astronauts frank borman, james lovell, and william anders were the first humans to see the earth as a globe in space, the first to witness an earthrise, and the first to see and manually photograph the far side of the moon. the first lunar landing was conducted by apollo 11. commanded by neil armstrong with astronauts buzz aldrin and michael collins, apollo 11 was one of the most significant missions in nasa's history, marking the end of the space race when the soviet union gave up its lunar ambitions. as the first human to step on the surface of the moon, neil armstrong uttered the now famous words: that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. nasa would conduct six total lunar landings as part of the apollo program, with apollo 17 concluding the program in 1972.[4] wernher von braun had advocated for nasa to develop a space station since the agency was created. in 1973, following the end of the apollo lunar missions, nasa launched its first space station, skylab, on the final launch of the saturn v. skylab reused a significant amount of apollo and saturn hardware, with a repurposed saturn v third stage serving as the primary module for the space station. damage to skylab during its launch required spacewalks to be performed by the first crew to make it habitable and operational. skylab hosted nine missions and was decommissioned in 1974 and deorbited in 1979, two years prior to the first launch of the space shuttle and any possibility of boosting its orbit.[4] in 1975, the apollo soyuz mission was the first ever international spaceflight and a major diplomatic accomplishment between the cold war rivals, which also marked the last flight of the apollo capsule.[4] flown in 1975, a us apollo spacecraft docked with a soviet soyuz capsule. during the 1960s, nasa started its space science and interplanetary probe program. the mariner program was its flagship program, launching probes to venus, mars, and mercury in the 1960s.[17][18] the jet propulsion laboratory was the lead nasa center for robotic interplanetary exploration, making significant discoveries about the inner planets. despite these successes, congress was unwilling to fund further interplanetary missions and nasa administrator james webb suspended all future interplanetary probes to focus resources on the apollo program.[4] following the conclusion of the apollo program, nasa resumed launching interplanetary probes and expanded its space science program. the first planet tagged for exploration was venus, sharing many similar characteristics to earth. first visited by american mariner 2 spacecraft,[19] venus was observed to be a hot and inhospitable planet. follow on missions included the pioneer venus project in the 1970s and magellan, which performed radar mapping of venus' surface in the 1980s and 1990s. future missions were flybys of venus, on their way to other destinations in the solar system.[4] mars has long been a planet of intense fascination for nasa, being suspected of potentially having harbored life. mariner 5 was the first nasa spacecraft to flyby mars,[20] followed by mariner 6 and mariner 7. mariner 9 was the first orbital mission to mars. launched in 1975, viking program consisted of two landings on mars in 1976. follow on missions would not be launched until 1996, with the mars global surveyor orbiter and mars pathfinder, deploying the first mars rover, sojourner.[21] during the early 2000s, the 2001 mars odyssey orbiter reached the planet and in 2004 the sprit and opportunity rovers landed on the red planet. this was followed in 2005 by the mars reconnaissance orbiter and 2007 phoenix mars lander. the 2012 landing of curiosity discovered that the radiation levels on mars were equal to those on the international space station, greatly increasing the possibility of human exploration, and observed the key chemical ingredients for life to occur. in 2013, the mars atmosphere and volatile evolution (maven) mission observed the martian upper atmosphere and space environment and in 2018, the interior exploration using seismic investigations geodesy, and heat transport (insight) studied the martian interior. the 2021 perseverance rover carried the first extraplanetary aircraft, a helicopter named ingenuity.[4] nasa also launched missions to mercury in 2004, with the messenger probe demonstrating as the first use of a solar sail.[22] nasa also launched probes to the outer solar system starting in the 1960s. pioneer 10 was the first probe to the outer planets, flying by jupiter, while pioneer 11 provided the first close up view of the planet. both probes became the first objects to leave the solar system. the voyager program launched in 1977, conducting flybys of jupiter and saturn, neptune, and uranus on a trajectory to leave the solar system.[23] the galileo spacecraft, deployed from the space shuttle flight sts 34, was the first spacecraft to orbit jupiter, discovering evidence of subsurface oceans on the europa and observed that the moon may hold ice or liquid water.[24] a joint nasa european space agency italian space agency mission, cassini huygens, was sent to saturn's moon titan, which, along with mars and europa, are the only celestial bodies in the solar system suspected of being capable of harboring life.[25] cassini discovered three new moons of saturn and the huygens probe entered titan's atmosphere. the mission discovered evidence of liquid hydrocarbon lakes on titan and subsurface water oceans on the moon of enceladus, which could harbor life. finally launched in 2006, the new horizons mission was the first spacecraft to visit pluto and the kuiper belt.[4] beyond interplanetary probes, nasa has launched many space telescopes. launched in the 1960s, the orbiting astronomical observatory were nasa's first orbital telescopes,[26] providing ultraviolet, gamma ray, x ray, and infrared observations. nasa launched the orbiting geophysical observatory in the 1960s and 1970s to look down at earth and observe its interactions with the sun. the uhuru satellite was the first dedicated x ray telescope, mapping 85% of the sky and discovering a large number of black holes.[4] launched in the 1990s and early 2000s, the great observatories program are among nasa's most powerful telescopes. the hubble space telescope was launched in 1990 on sts 31 from the discovery and could view galaxies 15 billion light years away.[27] a major defect in the telescope's mirror could have crippled the program, had nasa not used computer enhancement to compensate for the imperfection and launched five space shuttle servicing flights to replace the damaged components. the compton gamma ray observatory was launched from the atlantis on sts 37 in 1991, discovering a possible source of antimatter at the center of the milky way and observing that the majority of gamma ray bursts occur outside of the milky way galaxy. the chandra x ray observatory was launched from the columbia on sts 93 in 1999, observing black holes, quasars, supernova, and dark matter. it provided critical observations on the sagittarius a* black hole at the center of the milky way galaxy and the separation of dark and regular matter during galactic collisions. finally, the spitzer space telescope is an infrared telescope launched in 2003 from a delta ii rocket. it is in a trailing orbit around the sun, following the earth and discovered the existence of brown dwarf stars.[4] other telescopes, such as the cosmic background explorer and the wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe, provided evidence to support the big bang.[28] the james webb space telescope, named after the nasa administrator who lead the apollo program, is an infrared observatory launched in 2021. the james webb space telescope is a direct successor to the hubble space telescope, intended to observe the formation of the first galaxies.[29] other space telescopes include the kepler space telescope, launched in 2009 to identify planets orbiting extrasolar stars that may be terran and possibly harbor life. the first exoplanet that the keplar space telescope confirmed was kepler 22b, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star.[4] nasa also launched a number of different satellites to study earth, such as television infrared observation satellite (tiros) in 1960, which was the first weather satellite.[30] nasa and the united states weather bureau cooperated on future tiros and the second generation nimbus program of weather satellites. it also worked with the environmental science services administration on a series of weather satellites and the agency launched its experimental applications technology satellites into geosynchronous orbit. nasa's first dedicated earth observation satellite, landsat, was launched in 1972. this led to nasa and the national oceanic and atmospheric administration jointly developing the geostationary operational environmental satellite and discovering ozone depletion.[4] nasa had been pursuing spaceplane development since the 1960s, blending the administration's dual aeronautics and space missions. nasa viewed a spaceplane as part of a larger program, providing routine and economical logistical support to a space station in earth orbit that would be used as a hub for lunar and mars missions. a reusable launch vehicle would then have ended the need for expensive and expendable boosters like the saturn v.[4] in 1969, nasa designated the johnson space center as the lead center for the design, development, and manufacturing of the space shuttle orbiter, while the marshall space flight center would lead the development of the launch system. nasa's series of lifting body aircraft, culminating in the joint nasa us air force martin marietta x 24, directly informed the development of the space shuttle and future hypersonic flight aircraft. official development of the space shuttle began in 1972, with rockwell international contracted to design the orbiter and engines, martin marietta for the external fuel tank, and morton thiokol for the solid rocket boosters.[31] nasa acquired six orbiters: the enterprise, columbia, challenger, discovery, atlantis, and endeavour[4] the space shuttle program also allowed nasa to make major changes to its astronaut corps. while almost all previous astronauts were air force or naval test pilots, the space shuttle allowed nasa to begin recruiting more non military scientific and technical experts. a prime example is sally ride, who became the first american woman to fly in space on sts 7. this new astronaut selection process also allowed nasa to accept exchange astronauts from us allies and partners for the first time.[4] the first space shuttle flight occurred in 1981, when the columbia launched on the sts 1 mission, designed to serve as a flight test for the new spaceplane.[32] nasa intended for the space shuttle to replace expendable launch systems like the air force's atlas, delta, and titan and the european space agency's ariane. the space shuttle's spacelab payload, developed by the european space agency, increased the scientific capabilities of shuttle missions over anything nasa was able to previously accomplish.[4] nasa launched its first commercial satellites on the sts 5 mission and in 1984, the sts 41 c mission conducted the world's first on orbit satellite servicing mission when the challenger captured and repaired the malfunctioning solar maximum mission satellite. it also had the capability to return malfunctioning satellite to earth, like it did with the palapa b2 and westar 6 satellites. once returned to earth, the satellites were repaired and relaunched.[4] despite ushering in a new era of spaceflight, where nasa was contracting launch services to commercial companies, the space shuttle was criticized for not being as reusable and cost effective as advertised. in 1986, challenger disaster on the sts 51l mission resulted in the loss of the spacecraft and all seven astronauts on launch, grounding the entire space shuttle fleet for 36 months and forced the 44 commercial companies that contracted with nasa to deploy their satellites to return to expendable launch vehicles.[33] when the space shuttle returned to flight with the sts 26 mission, it had undergone significant modifications to improve its reliability and safety.[4] following the collapse of the soviet union, the russian federation and united states initiated the shuttle mir program.[34] the first russian cosmonaut flew on the sts 60 mission in 1994 and the discovery rendezvoused, but did not dock with, the russian mir in the sts 63 mission. this was followed by atlantis' sts 71 mission where it accomplished the initial intended mission for the space shuttle, docking with a space station and transferring supplies and personnel. the shuttle mir program would continue until 1998, when a series of orbital accidents on the space station spelled an end to the program.[4] in 2003, a second space shuttle was destroyed when the columbia was destroyed upon reentry during the sts 107 mission, resulting in the loss of the spacecraft and all seven astronauts.[35] this accident marked the beginning of the retiring of the space shuttle program, with president george w. bush directing that upon the completion of the international space station, the space shuttle be retired. in 2006, the space shuttle returned to flight, conducting several mission to service the hubble space telescope, but was retired following the sts 135 resupply mission to the international space station in 2011. nasa never gave up on the idea of a space station after skylab's reentry in 1979. the agency began lobbying politicians to support building a larger space station as soon as the space shuttle began flying, selling it as an orbital laboratory, repair station, and a jumping off point for lunar and mars missions. nasa found a strong advocate in president ronald reagan, who declared in a 1984 speech: america has always been greatest when we dared to be great. we can reach for greatness again. we can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic, and scientific gain. tonight i am directing nasa to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade. in 1985, nasa proposed the space station freedom, which both the agency and president reagan intended to be an international program.[36] while this would add legitimacy to the program, there were concerns within nasa that the international component would dilute its authority within the project, having never been willing to work with domestic or international partners as true equals. there was also a concern with sharing sensitive space technologies with the europeans, which had the potential to dilute america's technical lead. ultimately, an international agreement to develop the space station freedom program would be signed with thirteen countries in 1985, including the european space agency member states, canada, and japan.[4] despite its status as the first international space program, the space station freedom was controversial, with much of the debate centering on cost. several redesigns to reduce cost were conducted in the early 1990s, stripping away much of its functions. despite calls for congress to terminate the program, it continued, in large part because by 1992 it had created 75,000 jobs across 39 states. by 1993, president bill clinton attempted to significantly reduce nasa's budget and directed costs be significantly reduced, aerospace industry jobs were not lost, and the russians be included.[4] in 1993, the clinton administration announced that the space station freedom would become the international space station in an agreement with the russian federation.[37] this allowed the russians to maintain their space program through an infusion of american currency to maintain their status as one of the two premier space programs. while the united states built and launched the majority of the international space station, russia, canada, japan, and the european space agency all contributed components. despite nasa's insistence that costs would be kept at a budget of $17.4, they kept rising and nasa had to transfer funds from other programs to keep the international space station solvent. ultimately, the total cost of the station was $150 billion, with the united states paying for two thirds.following the space shuttle columbia disaster in 2003, nasa was forced to rely on russian soyuz launches for its astronauts and the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle accelerated the station's completion.[4] in the 1980s, right after the first flight of the space shuttle, nasa started a joint program with the department of defense to develop the rockwell x 30 national aerospace plane. nasa realized that the space shuttle, while a massive technological accomplishment, would not be able to live up to all its promises. designed to be a single stage to orbit spaceplane, the x 30 had both civil and military applications. with the end of the cold war, the x 30 was canceled in 1992 before reaching flight status.[4] following the space shuttle columbia disaster in 2003, president bush started the constellation program to smoothly replace the space shuttle and expand space exploration beyond low earth orbit.[38] constellation was intended to use a significant amount of former space shuttle equipment and return astronauts to the moon. this program was canceled by the obama administration. former astronauts neil armstrong, gene cernan, and jim lovell sent a letter to president barack obama to warn him that if the united states did not get new human spaceflight ability, the us risked become a second or third rate space power.[4] as early as the reagan administration, there had been calls for nasa to expand private sector involvement in space exploration rather than do it all in house. in the 1990s, nasa and lockheed martin entered into an agreement to develop the lockheed martin x 33 demonstrator of the venturestar spaceplane, which was intended to replace the space shuttle.[39] due to technical challenges, the spacecraft was cancelled in 2001. despite this, it was the first time a commercial space company directly expended a significant amount of its resources into spacecraft development. the advent of space tourism also forced nasa to challenge its assumption that only governments would have people in space. the first space tourist was dennis tito, an american investment manager and former aerospace engineer who contracted with the russians to fly to the international space station for four days, despite the opposition of nasa to the idea.[4] advocates of this new commercial approach for nasa included former astronaut buzz aldrin, who remarked that it would return nasa to its roots as a research and development agency, with commercial entities actually operating the space systems. having corporations take over orbital operations would also allow nasa to focus all its efforts on deep space exploration and returning humans to the moon and going to mars. embracing this approach, nasa's commercial crew program started by contracting cargo delivery to the international space station and flew its first operational contracted mission on spacex crew 1. this marked the first time since the retirement of the space shuttle that nasa was able to launch its own astronauts on an american spacecraft from the united states, ending a decade of reliance on the russians.[4] in 2019, nasa announced the artemis program, intending to return to the moon and establish a permanent human presence.[40] this was paired with the artemis accords with partner nations to establish rules of behavior and norms of space commercialization on the moon.[41] in 2023, nasa established the moon to mars program office. the office is designed to oversee the various projects, mission architectures and associated timelines relevant to lunar and mars exploration and science.[42] the international space station (iss) combines nasa's space station freedom project with the russian mir 2 station, the european columbus station, and the japanese kibō laboratory module.[43] nasa originally planned in the 1980s to develop freedom alone, but us budget constraints led to the merger of these projects into a single multi national program in 1993, managed by nasa, the russian federal space agency (rka), the japan aerospace exploration agency (jaxa), the european space agency (esa), and the canadian space agency (csa).[44][45] the station consists of pressurized modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other components, which were manufactured in various factories around the world and launched by russian proton and soyuz rockets, and the american space shuttle.[43] the on orbit assembly began in 1998, the completion of the us orbital segment occurred in 2009 and the completion of the russian orbital segment occurred in 2010. the ownership and use of the space station is established in intergovernmental treaties and agreements,[46] which divide the station into two areas and allow russia to retain full ownership of the russian orbital segment (with the exception of zarya),[47][48] with the us orbital segment allocated between the other international partners.[46] long duration missions to the iss are referred to as iss expeditions. expedition crew members typically spend approximately six months on the iss.[49] the initial expedition crew size was three, temporarily decreased to two following the columbia disaster. between may 2009 and until the retirement of the space shuttle, the expedition crew size has been six crew members.[50] as of 2024, though the commercial program's crew capsules can allow a crew of up to seven, expeditions using them typically consist of a crew of four. the iss has been continuously occupied for the past 24 years and 99 days, having exceeded the previous record held by mir; and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 different nations.[51][52] the station can be seen from the earth with the naked eye and, as of 2025, is the largest artificial satellite in earth orbit with a mass and volume greater than that of any previous space station.[53] the russian soyuz and american dragon and starliner spacecraft are used to send astronauts to and from the iss. several uncrewed cargo spacecraft provide service to the iss; they are the russian progress spacecraft which has done so since 2000, the european automated transfer vehicle (atv) since 2008, the japanese h ii transfer vehicle (htv) since 2009, the (uncrewed) dragon since 2012, and the american cygnus spacecraft since 2013.[54][55] the space shuttle, before its retirement, was also used for cargo transfer and would often switch out expedition crew members, although it did not have the capability to remain docked for the duration of their stay. between the retirement of the shuttle in 2011 and the commencement of crewed dragon flights in 2020, american astronauts exclusively used the soyuz for crew transport to and from the iss[56] the highest number of people occupying the iss has been thirteen; this occurred three times during the late shuttle iss assembly missions.[57] the iss program is expected to continue until 2030,[58] after which the space station will be retired and destroyed in a controlled de orbit.[59] commercial resupply services (crs) are a contract solution to deliver cargo and supplies to the international space station on a commercial basis by private companies.[60] nasa signed its first crs contracts in 2008 and awarded $1.6 billion to spacex for twelve cargo dragon and $1.9 billion to orbital sciences[note 1] for eight cygnus flights, covering deliveries until 2016. both companies evolved or created their launch vehicle products to launch the spacecrafts (spacex with the falcon 9 and orbital with the antares). spacex flew its first operational resupply mission (spacex crs 1) in 2012.[61] orbital sciences followed in 2014 (cygnus crs orb 1).[62] in 2015, nasa extended crs 1 to twenty flights for spacex and twelve flights for orbital atk.[note 1][63][64] a second phase of contracts (known as crs 2) was solicited in 2014; contracts were awarded in january 2016 to orbital atk[note 1] cygnus, sierra nevada corporation dream chaser, and spacex dragon 2, for cargo transport flights beginning in 2019 and expected to last through 2024. in march 2022, nasa awarded an additional six crs 2 missions each to both spacex and northrop grumman (formerly orbital).[65] northrop grumman successfully delivered cygnus ng 17 to the iss in february 2022.[66] in july 2022, spacex launched its 25th crs flight (spacex crs 25) and successfully delivered its cargo to the iss.[67] the dream chaser spacecraft is currently scheduled for its demo 1 launch in the first half of 2024.[68] the commercial crew program (ccp) provides commercially operated crew transportation service to and from the international space station (iss) under contract to nasa, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the international space station program. american space manufacturer spacex began providing service in 2020, using the crew dragon spacecraft,[69] while boeing's starliner spacecraft began providing service in 2024.[70][71][72] nasa has contracted for six operational missions from boeing and fourteen from spacex, ensuring sufficient support for iss through 2030.[73] the spacecraft are owned and operated by the vendor, and crew transportation is provided to nasa as a commercial service.[74] each mission sends up to four astronauts to the iss, with an option for a fifth passenger available. operational flights occur approximately once every six months for missions that last for approximately six months. a spacecraft remains docked to the iss during its mission, and missions usually overlap by at least a few days. between the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011 and the first operational ccp mission in 2020, nasa relied on the soyuz program to transport its astronauts to the iss. a crew dragon spacecraft is launched to space atop a falcon 9 block 5 launch vehicle and the capsule returns to earth via splashdown in the ocean near florida. the program's first operational mission, spacex crew 1, launched on november 16, 2020.[75] boeing starliner operational flights will now commence with boeing starliner 1 which will launched atop an atlas v n22 launch vehicle. instead of a splashdown, starliner capsules return on land with airbags at one of four designated sites in the western united states.[76] since 2017, nasa's crewed spaceflight program has been the artemis program, which involves the help of us commercial spaceflight companies and international partners such as esa, jaxa, and csa.[77] the goal of this program is to land "the first woman and the next man" on the lunar south pole region by 2025. artemis would be the first step towards the long term goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the moon, laying the foundation for companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to mars. the orion crew exploration vehicle was held over from the canceled constellation program for artemis. artemis i was the uncrewed initial launch of space launch system (sls) that would also send an orion spacecraft on a distant retrograde orbit.[78] the first tentative steps of returning to crewed lunar missions will be artemis ii, which is to include the orion crew module, propelled by the sls, and is to launch in 2025.[77][79] this mission is to be a 10 day mission planned to briefly place a crew of four into a lunar flyby.[80] artemis iii aims to conduct the first crewed lunar landing since apollo 17, and is scheduled for no earlier than september 2026. in support of the artemis missions, nasa has been funding private companies to land robotic probes on the lunar surface in a program known as the commercial lunar payload services. as of march 2022, nasa has awarded contracts for robotic lunar probes to companies such as intuitive machines, firefly space systems, and astrobotic.[81] on april 16, 2021, nasa announced they had selected the spacex lunar starship as its human landing system. the agency's space launch system rocket will launch four astronauts aboard the orion spacecraft for their multi day journey to lunar orbit where they will transfer to spacex's starship for the final leg of their journey to the surface of the moon.[82] in november 2021, it was announced that the goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2024 had slipped to no earlier than 2025 due to numerous factors. artemis i launched on november 16, 2022, and returned to earth safely on december 11, 2022. as of april 2024, nasa plans to launch artemis ii in september 2025[83] and artemis iii in september 2026.[84] additional artemis missions, artemis iv, artemis v, and artemis vi are planned to launch between 2028 and 2031.[85] nasa's next major space initiative is the construction of the lunar gateway, a small space station in lunar orbit.[86] this space station will be designed primarily for non continuous human habitation. the construction of the gateway is expected to begin in 2027 with the launch of the first two modules: the power and propulsion element (ppe) and the habitation and logistics outpost (halo).[87] operations on the gateway will begin with the artemis iv mission, which plans to deliver a crew of four to the gateway in 2028. in 2017, nasa was directed by the congressional nasa transition authorization act of 2017 to get humans to mars orbit (or to the martian surface) by the 2030s.[88][89] the commercial low earth orbit destinations program is an initiative by nasa to support work on commercial space stations that the agency hopes to have in place by the end of the current decade to replace the "international space station". the three selected companies are: blue origin (et al.) with their orbital reef station concept, nanoracks (et al.) with their starlab space station concept, and northrop grumman with a station concept based on the halo module for the gateway station.[90] nasa has conducted many uncrewed and robotic spaceflight programs throughout its history. more than 1,000 uncrewed missions have been designed to explore the earth and the solar system.[91] nasa executes a mission development framework to plan, select, develop, and operate robotic missions. this framework defines cost, schedule and technical risk parameters to enable competitive selection of missions involving mission candidates that have been developed by principal investigators and their teams from across nasa, the broader us government research and development stakeholders, and industry. the mission development construct is defined by four umbrella programs.[92] the explorer program derives its origin from the earliest days of the us space program. in current form, the program consists of three classes of systems   small explorers (smex), medium explorers (midex), and university class explorers (unex) missions. the nasa explorer program office provides frequent flight opportunities for moderate cost innovative solutions from the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. the small explorer missions are required to limit cost to nasa to below $150m (2022 dollars). medium class explorer missions have typically involved nasa cost caps of $350m. the explorer program office is based at nasa goddard space flight center.[93] the nasa discovery program develops and delivers robotic spacecraft solutions in the planetary science domain. discovery enables scientists and engineers to assemble a team to deliver a solution against a defined set of objectives and competitively bid that solution against other candidate programs. cost caps vary but recent mission selection processes were accomplished using a $500m cost cap for nasa. the planetary mission program office is based at the nasa marshall space flight center and manages both the discovery and new frontiers missions. the office is part of the science mission directorate.[94] nasa administrator bill nelson announced on june 2, 2021, that the davinci+ and veritas missions were selected to launch to venus in the late 2020s, having beat out competing proposals for missions to jupiter's volcanic moon io and neptune's large moon triton that were also selected as discovery program finalists in early 2020. each mission has an estimated cost of $500 million, with launches expected between 2028 and 2030. launch contracts will be awarded later in each mission's development.[95] the new frontiers program focuses on specific solar system exploration goals identified as top priorities by the planetary science community. primary objectives include solar system exploration employing medium class spacecraft missions to conduct high science return investigations. new frontiers builds on the development approach employed by the discovery program but provides for higher cost caps and schedule durations than are available with discovery. cost caps vary by opportunity; recent missions have been awarded based on a defined cap of $1 billion. the higher cost cap and projected longer mission durations result in a lower frequency of new opportunities for the program   typically one every several years. osiris rex and new horizons are examples of new frontiers missions.[96] nasa has determined that the next opportunity to propose for the fifth round of new frontiers missions will occur no later than the fall of 2024. missions in nasa's new frontiers program tackle specific solar system exploration goals identified as top priorities by the planetary science community. exploring the solar system with medium class spacecraft missions that conduct high science return investigations is nasa's strategy to further understand the solar system.[97] large strategic missions (formerly called flagship missions) are strategic missions that are typically developed and managed by large teams that may span several nasa centers. the individual missions become the program as opposed to being part of a larger effort (see discovery, new frontiers, etc.). the james webb space telescope is a strategic mission that was developed over a period of more than 20 years. strategic missions are developed on an ad hoc basis as program objectives and priorities are established. missions like voyager, had they been developed today, would have been strategic missions. three of the great observatories were strategic missions (the chandra x ray observatory, the compton gamma ray observatory, and the hubble space telescope). europa clipper is the next large strategic mission in development by nasa.[98] nasa continues to play a material role in exploration of the solar system as it has for decades. ongoing missions have current science objectives with respect to more than five extraterrestrial bodies within the solar system   moon (lunar reconnaissance orbiter), mars (perseverance rover), jupiter (juno), asteroid bennu (osiris rex), and kuiper belt objects (new horizons). the juno extended mission will make multiple flybys of the jovian moon io in 2023 and 2024 after flybys of ganymede in 2021 and europa in 2022. voyager 1 and voyager 2 continue to provide science data back to earth while continuing on their outward journeys into interstellar space. on november 26, 2011, nasa's mars science laboratory mission was successfully launched for mars. the curiosity rover successfully landed on mars on august 6, 2012, and subsequently began its search for evidence of past or present life on mars.[99][100][101] in september 2014, nasa's maven spacecraft, which is part of the mars scout program, successfully entered mars orbit and, as of october 2022, continues its study of the atmosphere of mars.[102][103] nasa's ongoing mars investigations include in depth surveys of mars by the perseverance rover. nasa's europa clipper, launched in october 2024, will study the galilean moon europa through a series of flybys while in orbit around jupiter. dragonfly will send a mobile robotic rotorcraft to saturn's biggest moon, titan.[104] as of may 2021, dragonfly is scheduled for launch in june 2027.[105][106] the nasa science mission directorate astrophysics division manages the agency's astrophysics science portfolio. nasa has invested significant resources in the development, delivery, and operations of various forms of space telescopes. these telescopes have provided the means to study the cosmos over a large range of the electromagnetic spectrum.[107] the great observatories that were launched in the 1980s and 1990s have provided a wealth of observations for study by physicists across the planent. the first of them, the hubble space telescope, was delivered to orbit in 1990 and continues to function, in part due to prior servicing missions performed by the space shuttle.[108][109] the other remaining active great observatories include the chandra x ray observatory (cxo), launched by sts 93 in july 1999 and is now in a 64 hour elliptical orbit studying x ray sources that are not readily viewable from terrestrial observatories.[110] the imaging x ray polarimetry explorer (ixpe) is a space observatory designed to improve the understanding of x ray production in objects such as neutron stars and pulsar wind nebulae, as well as stellar and supermassive black holes.[111] ixpe launched in december 2021 and is an international collaboration between nasa and the italian space agency (asi). it is part of the nasa small explorers program (smex) which designs low cost spacecraft to study heliophysics and astrophysics.[112] the neil gehrels swift observatory was launched in november 2004 and is a gamma ray burst observatory that also monitors the afterglow in x ray, and uv/visible light at the location of a burst.[113] the mission was developed in a joint partnership between goddard space flight center (gsfc) and an international consortium from the united states, united kingdom, and italy. pennsylvania state university operates the mission as part of nasa's medium explorer program (midex).[114] the fermi gamma ray space telescope (fgst) is another gamma ray focused space observatory that was launched to low earth orbit in june 2008 and is being used to perform gamma ray astronomy observations.[115] in addition to nasa, the mission involves the united states department of energy, and government agencies in france, germany, italy, japan, and sweden.[116] the james webb space telescope (jwst), launched in december 2021 on an ariane 5 rocket, operates in a halo orbit circling the sun earth l2 point.[117][118][119] jwst's high sensitivity in the infrared spectrum and its imaging resolution will allow it to view more distant, faint, or older objects than its predecessors, including hubble.[120] nasa earth science is a large, umbrella program comprising a range of terrestrial and space based collection systems in order to better understand the earth system and its response to natural and human caused changes. numerous systems have been developed and fielded over several decades to provide improved prediction for weather, climate, and other changes in the natural environment. several of the current operating spacecraft programs include: aqua,[121] aura,[122] orbiting carbon observatory 2 (oco 2),[123] gravity recovery and climate experiment follow on (grace fo),[124] and ice, cloud, and land elevation satellite 2 (icesat 2).[125] in addition to systems already in orbit, nasa is designing a new set of earth observing systems to study, assess, and generate responses for climate change, natural hazards, forest fires, and real time agricultural processes.[126] the goes t satellite (designated goes 18 after launch) joined the fleet of us geostationary weather monitoring satellites in march 2022.[127] nasa also maintains the earth science data systems (esds) program to oversee the life cycle of nasa's earth science data   from acquisition through processing and distribution. the primary goal of esds is to maximize the scientific return from nasa's missions and experiments for research and applied scientists, decision makers, and society at large.[128] the earth science program is managed by the earth science division of the nasa science mission directorate. nasa invests in various ground and space based infrastructures to support its science and exploration mandate. the agency maintains access to suborbital and orbital space launch capabilities and sustains ground station solutions to support its evolving fleet of spacecraft and remote systems. the nasa deep space network (dsn) serves as the primary ground station solution for nasa's interplanetary spacecraft and select earth orbiting missions.[129] the system employs ground station complexes near barstow, california, in spain near madrid, and in australia near canberra. the placement of these ground stations approximately 120 degrees apart around the planet provides the ability for communications to spacecraft throughout the solar system even as the earth rotates about its axis on a daily basis. the system is controlled at a 24x7 operations center at jpl in pasadena, california, which manages recurring communications linkages with up to 40 spacecraft.[130] the system is managed by the jet propulsion laboratory.[129] the near space network (nsn) provides telemetry, commanding, ground based tracking, data and communications services to a wide range of customers with satellites in low earth orbit (leo), geosynchronous orbit (geo), highly elliptical orbits (heo), and lunar orbits. the nsn accumulates ground station and antenna assets from the near earth network and the tracking and data relay satellite system (tdrs) which operates in geosynchronous orbit providing continuous real time coverage for launch vehicles and low earth orbit nasa missions.[131] the nsn consists of 19 ground stations worldwide operated by the us government and by contractors including kongsberg satellite services (ksat), swedish space corporation (ssc), and south african national space agency (sansa).[132] the ground network averages between 120 and 150 spacecraft contacts a day with tdrs engaging with systems on a near continuous basis as needed; the system is managed and operated by the goddard space flight center.[133] the nasa sounding rocket program (nsrp) is located at the wallops flight facility and provides launch capability, payload development and integration, and field operations support to execute suborbital missions.[134] the program has been in operation since 1959 and is managed by the goddard space flight center using a combined us government and contractor team.[135] the nsrp team conducts approximately 20 missions per year from both wallops and other launch locations worldwide to allow scientists to collect data "where it occurs". the program supports the strategic vision of the science mission directorate collecting important scientific data for earth science, heliophysics, and astrophysics programs.[134] in june 2022, nasa conducted its first rocket launch from a commercial spaceport outside the us. it launched a black brant ix from the arnhem space centre in australia.[136] the nasa launch services program (lsp) is responsible for procurement of launch services for nasa uncrewed missions and oversight of launch integration and launch preparation activity, providing added quality and mission assurance to meet program objectives.[137] since 1990, nasa has purchased expendable launch vehicle launch services directly from commercial providers, whenever possible, for its scientific and applications missions. expendable launch vehicles can accommodate all types of orbit inclinations and altitudes and are ideal vehicles for launching earth orbit and interplanetary missions. lsp operates from kennedy space center and falls under the nasa space operations mission directorate (somd).[138][139] the aeronautics research mission directorate (armd) is one of five mission directorates within nasa, the other four being the exploration systems development mission directorate, the space operations mission directorate, the science mission directorate, and the space technology mission directorate.[140] the armd is responsible for nasa's aeronautical research, which benefits the commercial, military, and general aviation sectors. armd performs its aeronautics research at four nasa facilities: ames research center and armstrong flight research center in california, glenn research center in ohio, and langley research center in virginia.[141] the nasa x 57 maxwell is an experimental aircraft being developed by nasa to demonstrate the technologies required to deliver a highly efficient all electric aircraft.[142] the primary goal of the program is to develop and deliver all electric technology solutions that can also achieve airworthiness certification with regulators. the program involves development of the system in several phases, or modifications, to incrementally grow the capability and operability of the system. the initial configuration of the aircraft has now completed ground testing as it approaches its first flights. in mid 2022, the x 57 was scheduled to fly before the end of the year.[143] the development team includes staff from the nasa armstrong, glenn, and langley centers along with number of industry partners from the united states and italy.[144] nasa is collaborating with the federal aviation administration and industry stakeholders to modernize the united states national airspace system (nas). efforts began in 2007 with a goal to deliver major modernization components by 2025.[145] the modernization effort intends to increase the safety, efficiency, capacity, access, flexibility, predictability, and resilience of the nas while reducing the environmental impact of aviation.[146] the aviation systems division of nasa ames operates the joint nasa/faa north texas research station. the station supports all phases of nextgen research, from concept development to prototype system field evaluation. this facility has already transitioned advanced nextgen concepts and technologies to use through technology transfers to the faa.[145] nasa contributions also include development of advanced automation concepts and tools that provide air traffic controllers, pilots, and other airspace users with more accurate real time information about the nation's traffic flow, weather, and routing. ames' advanced airspace modeling and simulation tools have been used extensively to model the flow of air traffic flow across the us, and to evaluate new concepts in airspace design, traffic flow management, and optimization.[147] nasa has made use of technologies such as the multi mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (mmrtg), which is a type of radioisotope thermoelectric generator used to power spacecraft.[148] shortages of the required plutonium 238 have curtailed deep space missions since the turn of the millennium.[149] an example of a spacecraft that was not developed because of a shortage of this material was new horizons 2.[149] in july 2021, nasa announced contract awards for development of nuclear thermal propulsion reactors. three contractors will develop individual designs over 12 months for later evaluation by nasa and the us department of energy.[150] nasa's space nuclear technologies portfolio are led and funded by its space technology mission directorate. in january 2023, nasa announced a partnership with defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) on the demonstration rocket for agile cislunar operations (draco) program to demonstrate a ntr engine in space, an enabling capability for nasa missions to mars.[151] in july 2023, nasa and darpa jointly announced the award of $499 million to lockheed martin to design and build an experimental ntr rocket to be launched in 2027.[152] free space optics. nasa contracted a third party to study the probability of using free space optics (fso) to communicate with optical (laser) stations on the ground (ogs) called laser com rf networks for satellite communications.[153] water extraction from lunar soil. on july 29, 2020, nasa requested american universities to propose new technologies for extracting water from the lunar soil and developing power systems. the idea will help the space agency conduct sustainable exploration of the moon.[154] in 2024, nasa was tasked by the us government to create a time standard for the moon. the standard is to be called coordinated lunar time and is expected to be finalized in 2026.[155] nasa's human research program (hrp) is designed to study the effects of space on human health and also to provide countermeasures and technologies for human space exploration.[156] the medical effects of space exploration are reasonably limited in low earth orbit or in travel to the moon. travel to mars is significantly longer and deeper into space, significant medical issues can result. these include bone density loss, radiation exposure, vision changes, circadian rhythm disturbances, heart remodeling, and immune alterations. in order to study and diagnose these ill effects, hrp has been tasked with identifying or developing small portable instrumentation with low mass, volume, and power to monitor the health of astronauts.[157] to achieve this aim, on may 13, 2022, nasa and spacex crew 4 astronauts successfully tested its rhealth one universal biomedical analyzer for its ability to identify and analyzer biomarkers, cells, microorganisms, and proteins in a spaceflight environment.[158] nasa established the planetary defense coordination office (pdco) in 2016 to catalog and track potentially hazardous near earth objects (neo), such as asteroids and comets and develop potential responses and defenses against these threats.[159] the pdco is chartered to provide timely and accurate information to the government and the public on close approaches by potentially hazardous objects (phos) and any potential for impact. the office functions within the science mission directorate planetary science division.[160] the pdco augmented prior cooperative actions between the united states, the european union, and other nations which had been scanning the sky for neos since 1998 in an effort called spaceguard.[161] from the 1990s nasa has run many neo detection programs from earth bases observatories, greatly increasing the number of objects that have been detected. many asteroids are very dark and those near the sun are much harder to detect from earth based telescopes which observe at night, and thus face away from the sun. neos inside earth orbit only reflect a part of light also rather than potentially a "full moon" when they are behind the earth and fully lit by the sun.[162] in 1998, the united states congress gave nasa a mandate to detect 90% of near earth asteroids over 1 km (0.62 mi) diameter (that threaten global devastation) by 2008.[163] this initial mandate was met by 2011.[164] in 2005, the original usa spaceguard mandate was extended by the george e. brown, jr. near earth object survey act, which calls for nasa to detect 90% of neos with diameters of 140 m (460 ft) or greater, by 2020 (compare to the 20 meter chelyabinsk meteor that hit russia in 2013).[165] as of january 2020[update], it is estimated that less than half of these have been found, but objects of this size hit the earth only about once in 2,000 years.[166] in january 2020, nasa officials estimated it would take 30 years to find all objects meeting the 140 m (460 ft) size criteria, more than twice the timeframe that was built into the 2005 mandate.[167] in june 2021, nasa authorized the development of the neo surveyor spacecraft to reduce that projected duration to achieve the mandate down to 10 years.[168][169] nasa has incorporated planetary defense objectives into several ongoing missions. in 1999, nasa visited 433 eros with the near shoemaker spacecraft which entered its orbit in 2000, closely imaging the asteroid with various instruments at that time.[170] near shoemaker became the first spacecraft to successfully orbit and land on an asteroid, improving our understanding of these bodies and demonstrating our capacity to study them in greater detail.[171] osiris rex used its suite of instruments to transmit radio tracking signals and capture optical images of bennu during its study of the asteroid that will help nasa scientists determine its precise position in the solar system and its exact orbital path. as bennu has the potential for recurring approaches to the earth moon system in the next 100 200 years, the precision gained from osiris rex will enable scientists to better predict the future gravitational interactions between bennu and our planet and resultant changes in bennu's onward flight path.[172][173] the wise/neowise mission was launched by nasa jpl in 2009 as an infrared wavelength astronomical space telescope. in 2013, nasa repurposed it as the neowise mission to find potentially hazardous near earth asteroids and comets; its mission has been extended into 2023.[174][175] nasa and johns hopkins applied physics laboratory (jhapl) jointly developed the first planetary defense purpose built satellite, the double asteroid redirection test (dart) to test possible planetary defense concepts.[176] dart was launched in november 2021 by a spacex falcon 9 from california on a trajectory designed to impact the dimorphos asteroid. scientists were seeking to determine whether an impact could alter the subsequent path of the asteroid; a concept that could be applied to future planetary defense.[177] on september 26, 2022, dart hit its target. in the weeks following impact, nasa declared dart a success, confirming it had shortened dimorphos' orbital period around didymos by about 32 minutes, surpassing the pre defined success threshold of 73 seconds.[178][179] neo surveyor, formerly called the near earth object camera (neocam) mission, is a space based infrared telescope under development to survey the solar system for potentially hazardous asteroids.[180] the spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2026. in june 2022, the head of the nasa science mission directorate, thomas zurbuchen, confirmed the start of nasa's uap independent study team.[181] at a speech before the national academies of science, engineering and medicine, zurbuchen said the space agency would bring a scientific perspective to efforts already underway by the pentagon and intelligence agencies to make sense of dozens of such sightings. he said it was "high risk, high impact" research that the space agency should not shy away from, even if it is a controversial field of study.[182] in response to the apollo 1 accident, which killed three astronauts in 1967, congress directed nasa to form an aerospace safety advisory panel (asap) to advise the nasa administrator on safety issues and hazards in nasa's air and space programs. in the aftermath of the shuttle columbia disaster, congress required that the asap submit an annual report to the nasa administrator and to congress.[183] by 1971, nasa had also established the space program advisory council and the research and technology advisory council to provide the administrator with advisory committee support. in 1977, the latter two were combined to form the nasa advisory council (nac).[184] the nasa authorization act of 2014 reaffirmed the importance of asap. nasa and noaa have cooperated for decades on the development, delivery and operation of polar and geosynchronous weather satellites.[185] the relationship typically involves nasa developing the space systems, launch solutions, and ground control technology for the satellites and noaa operating the systems and delivering weather forecasting products to users. multiple generations of noaa polar orbiting platforms have operated to provide detailed imaging of weather from low altitude.[186] geostationary operational environmental satellites (goes) provide near real time coverage of the western hemisphere to ensure accurate and timely understanding of developing weather phenomenon.[187] the united states space force (ussf) is the space service branch of the united states armed forces, while the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa) is an independent agency of the united states government responsible for civil spaceflight. nasa and the space force's predecessors in the air force have a long standing cooperative relationship, with the space force supporting nasa launches out of kennedy space center, cape canaveral space force station, and vandenberg space force base, to include range support and rescue operations from task force 45.[188] nasa and the space force also partner on matters such as defending earth from asteroids.[189] space force members can be nasa astronauts, with colonel michael s. hopkins, the commander of spacex crew 1, commissioned into the space force from the international space station on december 18, 2020.[190][191][192] in september 2020, the space force and nasa signed a memorandum of understanding formally acknowledging the joint role of both agencies. this new memorandum replaced a similar document signed in 2006 between nasa and air force space command.[193][194] the landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of earth. it is a joint nasa / usgs program.[195] on july 23, 1972, the earth resources technology satellite was launched. this was eventually renamed to landsat 1 in 1975.[196] the most recent satellite in the series, landsat 9, was launched on september 27, 2021.[197] the instruments on the landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. the images, archived in the united states and at landsat receiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance and education, and can be viewed through the us geological survey (usgs) "earthexplorer" website. the collaboration between nasa and usgs involves nasa designing and delivering the space system (satellite) solution, launching the satellite into orbit with the usgs operating the system once in orbit.[195] as of october 2022, nine satellites have been built with eight of them successfully operating in orbit. nasa collaborates with the european space agency on a wide range of scientific and exploration requirements.[198] from participation with the space shuttle (the spacelab missions) to major roles on the artemis program (the orion service module), esa and nasa have supported the science and exploration missions of each agency. there are nasa payloads on esa spacecraft and esa payloads on nasa spacecraft. the agencies have developed joint missions in areas including heliophysics (e.g. solar orbiter)[199] and astronomy (hubble space telescope, james webb space telescope).[200] under the artemis gateway partnership, esa will contribute habitation and refueling modules, along with enhanced lunar communications, to the gateway.[201][202] nasa and esa continue to advance cooperation in relation to earth science including climate change with agreements to cooperate on various missions including the sentinel 6 series of spacecraft[203] nasa and the japan aerospace exploration agency (jaxa) cooperate on a range of space projects. jaxa is a direct participant in the artemis program, including the lunar gateway effort. jaxa's planned contributions to gateway include i hab's environmental control and life support system, batteries, thermal control, and imagery components, which will be integrated into the module by the european space agency (esa) prior to launch. these capabilities are critical for sustained gateway operations during crewed and uncrewed time periods.[204][205] jaxa and nasa have collaborated on numerous satellite programs, especially in areas of earth science. nasa has contributed to jaxa satellites and vice versa. japanese instruments are flying on nasa's terra and aqua satellites, and nasa sensors have flown on previous japanese earth observation missions. the nasa jaxa global precipitation measurement mission was launched in 2014 and includes both nasa  and jaxa supplied sensors on a nasa satellite launched on a jaxa rocket. the mission provides the frequent, accurate measurements of rainfall over the entire globe for use by scientists and weather forecasters.[206] nasa and roscosmos have cooperated on the development and operation of the international space station since september 1993.[207] the agencies have used launch systems from both countries to deliver station elements to orbit. astronauts and cosmonauts jointly maintain various elements of the station. both countries provide access to the station via launch systems noting russia's unique role as the sole provider of delivery of crew and cargo upon retirement of the space shuttle in 2011 and prior to commencement of nasa cots and crew flights. in july 2022, nasa and roscosmos signed a deal to share space station flights enabling crew from each country to ride on the systems provided by the other.[208] current geopolitical conditions in late 2022 make it unlikely that cooperation will be extended to other programs such as artemis or lunar exploration.[209] in september 2014, nasa and indian space research organisation (isro) signed a partnership to collaborate on and launch a joint radar mission, the nasa isro synthetic aperature radar (nisar) mission. the mission is targeted to launch in 2024. nasa will provide the mission's l band synthetic aperture radar, a high rate communication subsystem for science data, gps receivers, a solid state recorder and payload data subsystem. isro provides the spacecraft bus, the s band radar, the launch vehicle and associated launch services.[210][211] the artemis accords have been established to define a framework for cooperating in the peaceful exploration and exploitation of the moon, mars, asteroids, and comets. the accords were drafted by nasa and the us state department and are executed as a series of bilateral agreements between the united states and the participating countries.[212][213] as of september 2022, 21 countries have signed the accords. they are australia, bahrain, brazil, canada, colombia, france, israel, italy, japan, the republic of korea, luxembourg, mexico, new zealand, poland, romania, the kingdom of saudi arabia, singapore, ukraine, the united arab emirates, the united kingdom, and the united states.[214][215] the wolf amendment was passed by the us congress into law in 2011 and prevents nasa from engaging in direct, bilateral cooperation with the chinese government and china affiliated organizations such as the china national space administration without the explicit authorization from congress and the federal bureau of investigation. the law has been renewed annually since by inclusion in annual appropriations bills.[216] the agency's administration is located at nasa headquarters in washington, dc, and provides overall guidance and direction.[217] except under exceptional circumstances, nasa civil service employees are required to be us citizens.[218] nasa's administrator is nominated by the president of the united states subject to the approval of the us senate,[219] and serves at the president's pleasure as a senior space science advisor. the current administrator is janet petro, appointed by president donald trump, since january 20, 2025. nasa operates with four fy2022 strategic goals.[220] nasa budget requests are developed by nasa and approved by the administration prior to submission to the us congress. authorized budgets are those that have been included in enacted appropriations bills that are approved by both houses of congress and enacted into law by the us president.[221] nasa fiscal year budget requests and authorized budgets are listed below. budget allocations to mission directorates nasa funding and priorities are developed through its six mission directorates. center wide activities such as the chief engineer and safety and mission assurance organizations are aligned to the headquarters function. the msd budget estimate includes funds for these hq functions. the administration operates 10 major field centers with several managing additional subordinate facilities across the country. each center is led by a director (data below valid as of december 23, 2024). the exhaust gases produced by rocket propulsion systems, both in earth's atmosphere and in space, can adversely affect the earth's environment. some hypergolic rocket propellants, such as hydrazine, are highly toxic prior to combustion, but decompose into less toxic compounds after burning. rockets using hydrocarbon fuels, such as kerosene, release carbon dioxide and soot in their exhaust.[247] carbon dioxide emissions are insignificant compared to those from other sources; on average, the united states consumed 803 million us gal (3.0 million m3) of liquid fuels per day in 2014, while a single falcon 9 rocket first stage burns around 25,000 us gallons (95 m3) of kerosene fuel per launch.[248][249] even if a falcon 9 were launched every single day, it would only represent 0.006% of liquid fuel consumption (and carbon dioxide emissions) for that day. additionally, the exhaust from lox  and lh2  fueled engines, like the ssme, is almost entirely water vapor.[250] nasa addressed environmental concerns with its canceled constellation program in accordance with the national environmental policy act in 2011.[251] in contrast, ion engines use harmless noble gases like xenon for propulsion.[252][253] an example of nasa's environmental efforts is the nasa sustainability base. additionally, the exploration sciences building was awarded the leed gold rating in 2010.[254] on may 8, 2003, the environmental protection agency recognized nasa as the first federal agency to directly use landfill gas to produce energy at one of its facilities the goddard space flight center, greenbelt, maryland.[255] in 2018, nasa along with other companies including sensor coating systems, pratt & whitney, monitor coating and utrc launched the project caution (coatings for ultra high temperature detection). this project aims to enhance the temperature range of the thermal history coating up to 1,500 °c (2,730 °f) and beyond. the final goal of this project is improving the safety of jet engines as well as increasing efficiency and reducing co2 emissions.[256] nasa also researches and publishes on climate change.[257] its statements concur with the global scientific consensus that the climate is warming.[258] bob walker, who has advised former us president donald trump on space issues, has advocated that nasa should focus on space exploration and that its climate study operations should be transferred to other agencies such as noaa. former nasa atmospheric scientist j. marshall shepherd countered that earth science study was built into nasa's mission at its creation in the 1958 national aeronautics and space act.[259] nasa won the 2020 webby people's voice award for green in the category web.[260] educational launch of nanosatellites (elana). since 2011, the elana program has provided opportunities for nasa to work with university teams to test emerging technologies and commercial off the shelf solutions by providing launch opportunities for developed cubesats using nasa procured launch opportunities.[261] by example, two nasa sponsored cubesats launched in june 2022 on a virgin orbit launcherone vehicle as the elana 39 mission.[262] cubes in space. nasa started an annual competition in 2014 named "cubes in space".[263] it is jointly organized by nasa and the global education company i doodle learning, with the objective of teaching school students aged 11 18 to design and build scientific experiments to be launched into space on a nasa rocket or balloon. on june 21, 2017, the world's smallest satellite, kalamsat, was launched.[264] us law requires the international system of units to be used in all us government programs, "except where impractical".[265] in 1969, apollo 11 landed on the moon using a mix of united states customary units and metric units. in the 1980s, nasa started the transition towards the metric system, but was still using both systems in the 1990s.[266][267] on september 23, 1999, a mixup between nasa's use of si units and lockheed martin space's use of us units resulted in the loss of the mars climate orbiter.[268] in august 2007, nasa stated that all future missions and explorations of the moon would be done entirely using the si system. this was done to improve cooperation with space agencies of other countries that already use the metric system.[269] as of 2007, nasa is predominantly working with si units, but some projects still use us units, and some, including the international space station, use a mix of both.[270] approaching 40 years of service, the nasa tv channel airs content ranging from live coverage of crewed missions to video coverage of significant milestones for operating robotic spacecraft (e.g. rover landings on mars) and domestic and international launches.[271] the channel is delivered by nasa and is broadcast by satellite and over the internet. the system initially started to capture archival footage of important space events for nasa managers and engineers and expanded as public interest grew. the apollo 8 christmas eve broadcast while in orbit around the moon was received by more than a billion people.[272] nasa's video transmission of the apollo 11 moon landing was awarded a primetime emmy in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the landing.[273] the channel is a product of the us government and is widely available across many television and internet platforms.[274] nasa edge is a video podcast which explores different missions, technologies and projects developed by nasa. the program was released by nasa on march 18, 2007, and, as of august 2020[update], there have been 200 vodcasts produced. it is a public outreach vodcast sponsored by nasa's exploration systems mission directorate and based out of the exploration and space operations directorate at langley research center in hampton, virginia. the nasa edge team takes an insider's look at current projects and technologies from nasa facilities around the united states, and it is depicted through personal interviews, on scene broadcasts, computer animations, and personal interviews with top scientists and engineers at nasa.[note 2] the show explores the contributions nasa has made to society as well as the progress of current projects in materials and space exploration. nasa edge vodcasts can be downloaded from the nasa website and from itunes. in its first year of production, the show was downloaded over 450,000 times. as of february 2010,[update] the average download rate is more than 420,000 per month, with over one million downloads in december 2009 and january 2010.[277] nasa and the nasa edge have also developed interactive programs designed to complement the vodcast. the lunar electric rover app allows users to drive a simulated lunar electric rover between objectives, and it provides information about and images of the vehicle.[278] the nasa edge widget provides a graphical user interface for accessing nasa edge vodcasts, image galleries, and the program's twitter feed, as well as a live nasa news feed.[279] astronomy picture of the day (apod) is a website provided by nasa and michigan technological university (mtu). it reads: "each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer."[280] the photograph does not necessarily correspond to a celestial event on the exact day that it is displayed, and images are sometimes repeated.[281] these often relate to current events in astronomy and space exploration. the text has several hyperlinks to more pictures and websites for more information. the images are either visible spectrum photographs, images taken at non visible wavelengths and displayed in false color, video footage, animations, artist's conceptions, or micrographs that relate to space or cosmology. in july 2023, nasa announced a new streaming service known as nasa+. it launched on november 8, 2023, and has live coverage of launches, documentaries and original programs. according to nasa, it will be free of ads and subscription fees. it will be a part of the nasa app on ios, android, amazon fire tv, roku and apple tv as well as on the web on desktop and mobile devices.[284][285][286]

2024 is likely to be a defining year for the global space sector. this year, many of the participants   private and governmental   are focused on the potential emergence of more next generation launch vehicles that can take lunar landers to the moon and eventually mars. there will be a push by the private sector to transport more of its own astronauts to the international space station, such as axiom’s recent successful delivery of three private citizens, the third all private mission to the iss. 2024 was also supposed to be the year of the moon with a flood of lunar activity scheduled, including missions by intuitive machines nova c and china’s chang’e 6. so far, trips to the moon have had mixed results. on january 8, america’s first soft landing attempt in 50 years was scrubbed because of a malfunction on the privately funded lunar lander, despite a near flawless debut by the next generation launch vehicle that put the lander in orbit. a day later, nasa pushed back its artemis moon missions by a year, with crewed orbit of the moon now set for september 2025 and the astronauts’ lunar landing delayed until september 2026, because of challenges facing private sector partners. meanwhile, japan’s slim moon craft made a successful landing, only to have the mission compromised by a sudden loss of power. but regardless of how many missions get to the moon, commitments and investments made in 2024 by nasa, china, spacex, and the rest of the private sector are likely to shape the future of space exploration and development and help define nasa’s role. as oliver wyman’s space team argued in a recent forbes commentary, 2024 could be especially critical for the american effort to retain its leadership role in exploration, military capabilities, and commercial space. without deeper commitments from us industry players and especially the federal government, the us may not be able to keep up with the accelerating space race and need for cutting edge space technology. because 2024 could be so decisive, the oliver wyman space team stepped back and identified four major trends to watch this year: while the 20th century space race pitted the us against the former soviet union, china has become america’s principal rival in the 21st century, investing billions to challenge longstanding us dominance in both military and commercial arenas. china has made space once again a contested domain between two great world powers by turning it into a key focus of its military, civil, and commercial innovation and investment. among its growing list of space accomplishments china has successfully landed on the moon and announced a program to land chinese astronauts on the moon by 2030. china also has an active space station in orbit around the earth, dozens of military satellites, and a highly accomplished space industrial base that launched 67 rockets in 2023   including new technology modeled after spacex’s reusable rocket technology. nasa has vowed to beat china in landing astronauts on the moon, and the pentagon has promised faster, more agile procurement to ensure america’s critical national satellite networks remain resilient and cutting edge amid growing threats. last year, the space development agency launched 23 new satellites of the 370 it has on order. the agency now plans an aggressive cadence of 11 launches in 11 months, even as the us space force, sda’s parent organization, oversees critical progress in the next generation of critical geostationary, polar orbiting and global positioning (gps) satellites. nasa has served as the face of america’s global space accomplishments since its creation in 1958, and its activities as the leading governmental body for space always have had global ramifications. in the face of constrained budgets, nasa has been increasingly leaning on the private sector to fulfill its space ambitions. it has created programs that include using traditional space partners such as lockheed martin, northrop grumman, raytheon, and boeing, as well as programs using a cadre of newer space entrepreneurs all born in this millennium, including spacex, blue origin, axiom, astrobotic, voyager and intuitive machines. but nasa’s growing reliance on the private sector involves trade offs and risks for the agency, and by implication america’s space enterprise. for example, spacex   space’s 800 pound entrepreneurial gorilla with a current estimated $180 billion valuation   six times nasa’s annual budget   is simultaneously helping nasa get to the moon and mars as a critical contractor and technology partner and competing with it with its own “occupy mars” program. is this implied competition productive in terms of making sure us astronauts are the first to make it to mars? the jury is out, but it raises many questions for nasa and its stakeholders. in 2023, spacex completed a whopping 98 rocket launches   86% of all launches that year. the next test flight of its game changing starship could come in march 2024. spacex’s overwhelming launch market share, driven by its innovative technology and development approaches, makes it by far the world’s dominant global provider. but it too has had its share of setbacks, with starship unable to complete its mission on two 2023 test flights. even with the united launch alliance’s successful first flight of the vulcan centaur on january 8, all other next generation launch vehicles designed to compete with spacex are far behind schedule. these include mitsubishi heavy industries’ h3, which exploded on a test flight in 2023, the aborted test flight of the european space agency’s ariane 6 last year, blue origin’s new glenn, and rocket lab’s neutron rockets. 2024 will be a year in which government space leaders will have to ponder how to balance the benefits of spacex’s prowess in critical launch capabilities, with the desire to foster innovation, competition, and a diverse space industrial base. 2023 saw big changes in the industry, some very visible financial problems, and some big successes. for the year saw several significant space acquisitions, including maxar’s takeover by private equity firm advent for $5.5 billion, aerojet rocketdyne’s purchase by l3harris for $4.7 billion, and ball aerospace’s merger with bae north america for $5.5 billion. but many emerging “new space” companies struggled. the new space index* was down 69% versus 2022 valuations and 86% versus 2021. for some companies it was even more dire: astra space defaulted on a $12.5 million loan, momentus struggled to stay aloft, and former industry darling virgin orbit   a spinoff of virgin galactic   went bankrupt and liquidated all its assets. conversely, many new and emerging space companies saw critical progress. rocketlab further proved out its core electron launch vehicle and won a prime contractor position with the us space force. axiom space sent its third set of private astronauts to the international space station and raised $350 million in new capital, while blue origin saw its long awaited be 4 engines successfully power the first flight of the ula’s vulcan centaur. 2024 is also likely to see more space consolidation, the development of new technologies closer to earth, such as artificial intelligence enabled earth imaging and asset tracking, and new satellite networks focused on direct to mobile phone communications. authors: stephen ganote, samantha burns, jacob finke, kyle van hooren, kim lord, andrew penn, and tim wickham a space based energy addition to move the world to net zero the global economy needs to build a sustainable energy mix that will support a growing demand for power. a pivotal element could be space based solar power. how to navigate the pentagon’s new ‘replicator’ program explore lessons from the auto industry to master the department of defense’s recent announcement of the 'project replicator' program. marsh mclennan is the leader in risk, strategy and people, helping clients navigate a dynamic environment through four global businesses.

private spaceflight refers to spaceflight developments that are not conducted by a government agency, such as nasa or esa. during the early decades of the space age, the government space agencies of the soviet union and united states pioneered space technology in collaboration with affiliated design bureaus in the ussr and private companies in the us. they entirely funded both the development of new spaceflight technologies and the operational costs of spaceflight.[1] following a similar model of space technology development, the european space agency was formed in 1975.[2] arianespace, born out of esa's independent spaceflight efforts, became the world's first commercial launch service provider in the early 1980s.[3][4] subsequently, large defense contractors began to develop and operate space launch systems, which were derived from government rockets. private spaceflight in earth orbit includes communications satellites, satellite television, satellite radio, astronaut transport and sub orbital and orbital space tourism.[5] in the united states, the faa has created a new certification called commercial astronaut, a new occupation.[2] in the 2000s, entrepreneurs began designing and by the 2010s, deploying space systems competitive to the governmental systems[6][7] of the early decades of the space age.[8][9]: 7 these new offerings have brought about significant market competition in space launch services after 2010 that had not been present previously, principally through the reduction of the cost of space launch and the availability of more space launch capacity.[10] private spaceflight accomplishments to date include flying suborbital spaceplanes (spaceshipone and spaceshiptwo), launching orbital rockets, flying two orbital expandable test modules (genesis i and ii). on the opposite, launching astronauts to the international space station and certain satellite launches are performed on behalf of and financed by government agencies. planned private spaceflights beyond earth orbit include personal spaceflights around the moon.[2] two private orbital habitat prototypes are already in earth orbit, with larger versions to follow.[11] planned private spaceflights beyond earth orbit include solar sailing prototypes (lightsail 3). during the principal period of spaceflight in the mid twentieth century, only nation states developed and flew spacecraft above the kármán line, the nominal boundary of space. both the u.s. civilian space program and soviet space program were operated using mainly military pilots as astronauts. during this period, no commercial space launches were available to private operators, and no private organization was able to offer space launches. eventually, private organizations were able to both offer and purchase space launches, thus beginning the period of private spaceflight. the first phase of private space operation was the launch of the first commercial communications satellites. the u.s. communications satellite act of 1962 allowed commercial consortia owning and operating their own satellites, although these were still deployed on state owned launch vehicles. in 1980, the european space agency created arianespace, a company to be operated commercially after initial hardware and launch facilities were developed with government funding.[12] arianespace has since launched numerous satellites as a commercial entity.[13] the history of full private space transportation includes early efforts by german company otrag in the 20th century. founded in 1975 as the first private company to attempt to launch a private spacecraft,[14] testing of its otrag rocket[15] began in 1977.[16] the history also covers numerous modern orbital and suborbital launch systems in the 21st century. more recent commercial spaceflight projects include the suborbital flights of virgin galactic and blue origin, the orbital flights of spacex and other cots participants. development of alternatives to government provided space launch services began in earnest in the 2000s. private interests began funding limited development programs, but the us government later sponsored a series of programs to incentivize and encourage private companies to begin offering both cargo, and later, crew space transportation services. lower prices for launch services after 2010, and published prices for standard launch services, have brought about significant space launch market competition that had not been present previously.[17][18][19][20][7] by 2012, a private company had begun transporting cargo to and from the international space station, while a second private company was scheduled to begin making deliveries in 2013, ushering in a time of regular private space cargo delivery to and return from the government owned space facility in low earth orbit (leo).[21] in this new paradigm for leo cargo transport, the government contracts for and pays for cargo services on substantially privately developed space vehicles rather than the government operating each of the cargo vehicles and cargo delivery systems. as of 2013[update], there is a mix of private and government resupply vehicles being used for the iss, as the russian soyuz and progress vehicles, and the european space agency (esa) atv (through 2014) and the japanese kounotori (through 2021) remain in operation after the 2011 retirement of the us space shuttle. in june 2013, british newspaper the independent claimed that "the space race is flaring back into life, and it's not massive institutions such as nasa that are in the running. the old view that human space flight is so complex, difficult and expensive that only huge government agencies could hope to accomplish it is being disproved by a new breed of flamboyant space privateers, who are planning to send humans out beyond the earth's orbit for the first time since 1972,"[22] particularly noting projects underway by mars one, inspiration mars foundation, bigelow aerospace and spacex.[22] the commercial space launch act of 1984 required encouragement of commercial space ventures, adding a new clause to nasa's mission statement: yet one of nasa's early actions was to effectively prevent private space flight through a large amount of regulation. from the beginning, though, this met significant opposition not only by the private sector, but in congress. in 1962, congress passed its first law pushing back the prohibition on private involvement in space, the communications satellite act of 1962. while largely focusing on the satellites of its namesake, this was described by both the law's opponents and advocates of private space, as the first step on the road to privatisation. while launch vehicles were originally bought from private contractors, from the beginning of the shuttle program until the space shuttle challenger disaster in 1986, nasa attempted to position its shuttle as the sole legal space launch option.[23] but with the mid launch explosion/loss of challenger came the suspension of the government operated shuttle flights, allowing the formation of a commercial launch industry.[24] on 4 july 1982, the reagan administration released national security decision directive number 42 which officially set its goal to expand united states private sector investment and involvement in civil space and space related activities.[25] on 16 may 1983, the reagan administration issued national security decision directive number 94 encouraging the commercialization of expendable launch vehicles (elvs), which directed that, "the u.s. government will license, supervise, and/or regulate u.s. commercial elv operations only to the extent required to meet its national and international obligations and to ensure public safety."[26] on 30 october 1984, us president ronald reagan signed into law the commercial space launch act.[27] this enabled an american industry of private operators of expendable launch systems. prior to the signing of this law, all commercial satellite launches in the united states were restricted by federal regulation to nasa's space shuttle. on 11 february 1988, the presidential directive declared that the government should purchase commercially available space goods and services to the fullest extent feasible and shall not conduct activities with potential commercial applications that preclude or deter commercial sector space activities except for national security or public safety reasons.[28] on 5 november 1990, united states president george h. w. bush signed into law the launch services purchase act.[29] the act, in a complete reversal of the earlier space shuttle monopoly, ordered nasa to purchase launch services for its primary payloads from commercial providers whenever such services are required in the course of its activities. in 1996, the united states government selected lockheed martin and boeing to each develop evolved expendable launch vehicles (eelv) to compete for launch contracts and provide assured access to space. the government's acquisition strategy relied on the strong commercial viability of both vehicles to lower unit costs. this anticipated market demand did not materialise, but both the delta iv and atlas v eelvs remain in active service. commercial launches outnumbered government launches at the eastern range in 1997.[30] the commercial space act was passed in 1998 and implements many of the provisions of the launch services purchase act of 1990.[31] nonetheless, until 2004 nasa kept private space flight effectively illegal.[32] but that year, the commercial space launch amendments act of 2004 required that nasa and the federal aviation administration legalise private space flight.[33] the 2004 act also specified a "learning period" which restricted the ability of the faa to enact regulations regarding the safety of people who might actually fly on commercial spacecraft through 2012, ostensibly because spaceflight participants would share the risk of flight through informed consent procedures of human spaceflight risks, while requiring the launch provider to be legally liable for potential losses to uninvolved persons and structures.[34] to the end of 2014, commercial passenger flights in space has remained effectively illegal, as the faa has refused to give a commercial operator's license to any private space company.[35] the united states updated us commercial space legislation with the passage of the spurring private aerospace competitiveness and entrepreneurship act of 2015 (space act of 2015) in november 2015.[36] the update us law explicitly allows "us citizens to engage in the commercial exploration and exploitation of 'space resources' [including... water and minerals]". the right does not extend to biological life, so anything that is alive may not be exploited commercially.[37] the act further asserts that "the united states does not [(by this act)] assert sovereignty, or sovereign or exclusive rights or jurisdiction over, or the ownership of, any celestial body".[37] the space act includes the extension of indemnification of us launch providers for extraordinary catastrophic third party losses of a failed launch through 2025, while the previous indemnification law was scheduled to expire in 2016. the act also extends, through 2025, the "learning period" restrictions which limit the ability of the faa to enact regulations regarding the safety of spaceflight participants.[34] indemnification for extraordinary third party losses has, as of 2015, been a component of us space law for over 25 years, and during this time, "has never been invoked in any commercial launch mishap".[34] in 1992, a resurs 500 capsule containing gifts was launched from plesetsk cosmodrome in a private spaceflight called europe america 500. the flight was conceived by the russian foundation for social inventions and tsskb progress, a russian rocket building company, to increase trade between russia and the united states, and to promote the use of technology once reserved only for military forces. money for the launch was raised from a collection of russian companies. the capsule parachuted into the pacific ocean and was brought to seattle by a russian missile tracking ship. since 1995 khrunichev's proton rocket has been marketed through international launch services, while the soyuz rocket is marketed via starsem. the sea launch project flew the ukrainian zenit rocket. in 2003, arianespace joined with boeing launch services and mitsubishi heavy industries to create the launch services alliance. in 2005, continued weak commercial demand for eelv launches drove lockheed martin and boeing to propose a joint venture called the united launch alliance to service the united states government launch market.[38] since the 1980s, various private initiatives have started up to pursue the private use of space. traditional costs to launch anything to space have been high on the order of tens of thousands of us dollars per kilogram but by 2020, costs on the order of a few thousand dollars per kilogram are being seen from one private launch provider that was an early 2000s startup, with the cost projected to fall to less than a few hundred dollars per kilogram as the technology of a second private spaceflight startup of ~2000 comes into service.[10] the first privately funded rocket to reach the boundary of space, the kármán line, (although not orbit) was conestoga i, which was launched by space services inc. on a suborbital flight to 309 kilometres (192 mi) altitude on 9 september 1982.[39][40] in october 1995, their first (and only) attempt at an orbital launch, conestoga 1620, failed to achieve orbit due to a guidance system failure.[41] on april 5, 1990, orbital sciences corporation's pegasus, an air launched rocket, was the first launch vehicle fully developed by a private company to reach orbit.[42] in the early 2000s, several public private corporate partnerships were established in the united states to privately develop spaceflight technology. several purely private initiatives have shown interest in private endeavors to the inner solar system.[43] in 2006, nasa initiated a program to purchase commercial space transport to carry cargo to the international space station, while funding a portion of the development of new technology in a public private partnership.[9]: 10 in may 2015, the japanese legislature considered legislation to allow private company spaceflight initiatives in japan.[44] in 2016, the united states granted its first clearance for a private flight to the moon, from the faa's office of commercial space transportation.[45] on 30 may 2020, crew dragon demo 2 operated by spacex became the first crewed mission to the international space station in the commercial crew program. after 2015, european based private small lift launch vehicle development got underway, particularly in germany, italy, and the united kingdom, but "france has largely been left out of this new commercial launch industry".[46] in 2021, the government of france announced a plan to fund the "france based rocket firm arianegroup to develop a new small lift rocket called maïa by the year 2026,"[46] which would be a government funded but commercially developed rocket. on 22 february 2024, intuitive machine's private odysseus successfully landed on the moon after taking off on a spacex falcon 9 liftoff on 15 february 2024 in a mission between nasa, spacex, and intuitive machines. this event marked the first successful landing of a privately owned spacecraft on the moon and the united states' first lunar landing in over 50 years and the first lander to do so with cryogenic propellants.[47][48] today many commercial space transportation companies offer launch services to satellite companies and government space organizations around the world. in 2005, there were 18 total commercial launches and 37 non commercial launches. russia flew 44% of commercial orbital launches, while europe had 28% and the united states had 6%.[49] china's first private launch, a suborbital flight by onespace, took place in may 2018.[50] in recent years, the funding to support private spaceflight has begun to be raised from a larger pool of sources than the comparatively limited pool of the 1990s. for example, as of june 2013[update] and in the united states alone, ten billionaires had made "serious investments in private spaceflight activities"[51] at six companies, including stratolaunch systems, planetary resources, blue origin, virgin galactic, spacex, and bigelow aerospace. the ten investors were paul allen, larry page, eric schmidt, ram shriram, charles simonyi, ross perot jr., jeff bezos, richard branson, elon musk, and robert bigelow.[51] at the start of the private space era it was not yet clear to what extent these entrepreneurs see "legitimate business opportunity, [for example], space tourism and other commercial activities in space, or [are] wealthy men seeking the exclusivity that space offers innovators and investors."[51] there has been speculation as to whether these investments are a "gamble", and whether they will prove lucrative.[51] as of the early 2020s some of these investments have paid off, with musk's spacex coming to dominate the launch market in mass to orbit and with a $100 billion valuation.[52][53] other companies such as bigelow aerospace though have collapsed and left the market.[54] some aerospace startups, such as rocket lab, have gone public via special purpose acquisition company, but their spac values have been affected by market volatility.[55] some investors see the traditional spaceflight industry as ripe for disruption, with "a 100 fold improvement [relatively straightforward and] a thousand fold improvement [possible]".[56] between 2005 and 2015, there was us$10 billion of private capital invested in the space sector,[57] most of it in the united states. this liberalized private space sector investments beginning in the 1980s,[27] with additional legislative reforms in the 1990s 2000s.[24][31][33] from 2000 through the end of 2015, a total of us$13.3 billion of investment finance was invested in the space sector, with us$2.9 billion of that being venture capital.[58] in 2015, venture capital firms invested us$1.8 billion in private spaceflight companies, more than they had in the previous 15 years combined.[58] as of october 2015[update], the largest and most active investors in space were lux capital, bessemer venture partners, khosla ventures, founders fund, rre ventures and draper fisher jurvetson.[57] increasing interest by investors in economically driven spaceflight had begun to appear by 2016, and some space ventures had to turn away investor funding.[56] cbinsights in august 2016 published that funding to space startups was "in a slump", although the number of space investment deals per quarter had gone from 2 or 3 in 2012 to 14 by 2015.[59] in 2017, cb insights ranked the most active space tech investors, ranked from highest to lowest, were space angels networks, founders fund, rre ventures, data collective, bessemer, lux capital, alphabet, tencent holdings, and rothenberg ventures.[60] in june 2019, miriam kramer of axios wrote that private spaceflight companies and investors were poised to capitalize on nasa's plan to open up the international space station to commercial space ventures.[61] the space transport business has, historically, had its primary customers in national governments and large commercial segments. launches of government payloads, including military, civilian and scientific satellites, was the largest market segment in 2007 at nearly $100 billion a year. this segment was dominated by domestic favorites such as the united launch alliance for u.s. government payloads and arianespace for european satellites until the 2020s when newspace launch providers like spacex and blue origin were able to compete for these contracts.[62] the us government determined to begin a process to purchase orbital launch services for cargo deliveries to the international space station (iss) beginning in the mid 2000s, rather than operate the launch and delivery services as they had with the space shuttle, which was to retire in less than half a decade, and ultimately did retire in 2011. on 18 january 2006, nasa announced an opportunity for us commercial providers to demonstrate orbital transportation services.[63] as of 2008, nasa planned to spend $500 million through 2010 to finance development of private sector capability to transport payloads to the international space station (iss).[needs update] this was considered more challenging than then available commercial space transportation because it would require precision orbit insertion, rendezvous and possibly docking with another spacecraft. the commercial vendors competed in specific service areas.[64] in august 2006, nasa announced that two relatively young aerospace companies, spacex and rocketplane kistler, had been awarded $278 million and $207 million, respectively, under the cots program.[65] in 2008, nasa anticipated that commercial cargo delivery services to and return services from the iss would be necessary through at least 2015. the nasa administrator suggested that space transportation services procurement may be expanded to orbital fuel depots and lunar surface deliveries should the first phase of cots prove successful.[66] after it transpired that rocketplane kistler was failing to meet its contractual deadlines, nasa terminated its contract with the company in august 2008, after only $32 million had been spent. several months later, in december 2008, nasa awarded the remaining $170 million in that contract to orbital sciences corporation to develop resupply services to the iss.[67] before 2004, the year it was legalized in the us, no privately operated crewed spaceflight had ever occurred. the only private individuals to journey to space went as space tourists in the space shuttle or on russian soyuz flights to mir or the international space station. all private individuals who flew to space before dennis tito's self financed international space station visit in 2001 had been sponsored by their home governments or by private corporations.[68] those trips include us congressman bill nelson's january 1986 flight on the space shuttle columbia and japanese television reporter toyohiro akiyama's 1990 flight to the mir space station. the ansari x prize was intended to stimulate private investment in the development of spaceflight technologies. 21 june 2004, test flight of spaceshipone, a contender for the x prize, was the first human spaceflight in a privately developed and operated vehicle. on 27 september 2004, following the success of spaceshipone, richard branson, owner of virgin and burt rutan, spaceshipone's designer, announced that virgin galactic had licensed the craft's technology, and were planning commercial space flights in 2.5 to 3 years. a fleet of five craft (spaceshiptwo, launched from the whiteknighttwo carrier airplane) were to be constructed, and flights would be offered at around $200,000 each, although branson said he planned to use this money to make flights more affordable in the long term. a test flight of spaceshiptwo in october 2014 resulted in a crash during one of the two pilots died.[69] in december 2004, united states president george w. bush signed into law the commercial space launch amendments act.[70] the act resolved the regulatory ambiguity surrounding private spaceflights and is designed to promote the development of the emerging u.s. commercial human space flight industry. on 12 july 2006, bigelow aerospace launched the genesis i, a subscale pathfinder of an orbital space station module. genesis ii was launched on 28 june 2007, and there are plans for additional prototypes to be launched in preparation for the production model ba 330 spacecraft.[needs update] in november 2009, zero 2 infinity, a spanish aerospace company announced plans for a balloon based nears space tourism vehicle called bloon.[71] then in 2015 it started developing a high altitude balloon based launch vehicle named bloostar to launch small satellites to orbit for customers, as well as platform for near space tourism.[72] world view, a stratospheric balloon exploration company based in tucson, ariz., is similarly leveraging its stratospheric balloon technology to launch its remote sensing services[73] for government and commercial customers, as well as developing its own space tourism offering that would lift passengers up to 100,000 feet for a 6 8 journey.[74] similar projects of stratospheric balloon tourism are being developed by multiple other companies around the world (zephalto,[75] space perspective,[76]...), though none has yet made a high altitude crewed flight (as of aug. 2022). on july 11, 2021, richard branson and virgin galactic made their first successful flight to space.[77] on july 20, 2021, jeff bezos and blue origin also made a successful flight to space.[78] on september 16, 2021, crew dragon resilience inspiration4 mission operated by spacex became the first orbital spaceflight with only private citizens aboard. in september 2024, the spacex mission polaris dawn included the first private spacewalk. the b612 foundation was[79] designing and building an asteroid finding space telescope named sentinel.[80] it would have launched in 2016.[81] the planetary society, a nonprofit space research and advocacy organization, has sponsored a series of small satellites to test the feasibility of solar sailing. their first such project, cosmos 1, was launched in 2005 but failed to reach space, and was succeeded by the lightsail series, the first of which launched on 20 may 2015. a second spacecraft is expected to launch in 2016 on a more complex mission.[82] copenhagen suborbitals is a crowd funded amateur crewed space programme. as of 2016[update] it has flown four home built rockets and two mock up space capsules. many have speculated on where private spaceflight may go in the near future. numerous projects of orbital and suborbital launch systems for satellites and crewed flights exist. some orbital crewed missions would be state sponsored like most cots participants. (that develop their own launch systems). another possibility is for paid suborbital tourism on craft like those from virgin galactic, space adventures, xcor aerospace, rocketship tours, arcaspace, planetspace canadian arrow, british starchaser industries or non commercial like copenhagen suborbitals. additionally, suborbital spacecraft have applications for faster intercontinental package delivery and passenger flight. spacex's falcon 9 rocket, first launched in 2010 with no passengers,[83] was designed to be subsequently human rated. the atlas v launch vehicle is also a contender for human rating. plans and a full scale prototype for the spacex dragon, a capsule capable of carrying up to seven passengers, were announced in march 2006,[84] and dragon version 2 flight hardware was unveiled in may 2014.[85] as of june 2024[update], both spacex and boeing have received contracts from nasa to complete building, testing, and flying up to six flights of human rated space capsules to the international space station beginning in 2017 as part of the commercial crew program.[86] in december 2010, spacex launched the second falcon 9 and the first operational dragon spacecraft. the mission was deemed fully successful, marking the first launch to space, atmospheric reentry and recovery of a capsule by a private company. subsequent cots missions included increasingly complex orbital tasks, culminating in dragon first docking to the iss in 2012. the british government partnered in 2015 with the esa to promote a possibly commercial single stage to orbit spaceplane concept called skylon.[87] this design was pioneered by the privately held reaction engines limited,[88][89] a company founded by alan bond after hotol was canceled.[90] as of 2012, private company nanoracks provides commercial access to the us national laboratory space on the international space station (iss). science experiments can be conducted on a variety of standard rack sized experimental platforms, with standard interfaces for power and data acquisition.[91] in a presentation given 15 november 2005 to the 52nd annual conference of the american astronautical society, nasa administrator michael d. griffin suggested that establishing an on orbit propellant depot is, "exactly the type of enterprise which should be left to industry and to the marketplace."[92] at the space technology and applications international forum in 2007, dallas bienhoff of boeing made a presentation detailing the benefits of propellant depots.[93] shackleton energy company has established operational plans, an extensive teaming and industrial consortium for developing leo propellant depots supplied by lunar polar sourced water ice.[94] some have speculated on the profitability of mining metal from asteroids. according to some estimates, a one kilometer diameter asteroid would contain 30 million tons of nickel, 1.5 million tons of metal cobalt and 7,500tons of platinum; the platinum alone would have a value of more than $150 billion at 2008 terrestrial prices.[95] a space elevator system is a possible launch system, currently under investigation by at least one private venture.[96] there are concerns over cost, general feasibility and some political issues. on the plus side the potential to scale the system to accommodate traffic would (in theory) be greater than some other alternatives. some factions contend that a space elevator   if successful   would not supplant existing launch solutions but complement them. after earlier first effort of otrag, in the 1990s the projection of a significant demand for communications satellite launches attracted the development of a number of commercial space launch providers. the launch demand largely vanished when some of the largest satellite constellations, such as 288 satellite teledesic network, were never built. in 1996, nasa selected lockheed martin skunk works to build the x 33 venturestar prototype for a single stage to orbit (ssto) reusable launch vehicle. in 1999, the subscale x 33 prototype's composite liquid hydrogen fuel tank failed during testing. at project termination on 31 march 2001, nasa had funded us$912 million of this wedge shaped spacecraft while lockheed martin financed us$357 million of it.[97] the venturestar was to have been a full scale commercial space transport operated by lockheed martin. in 1997, beal aerospace proposed the ba 2, a low cost heavy lift commercial launch vehicle. on 4 march 2000, the ba 2 project tested the largest liquid rocket engine built since the saturn v.[98] in october 2000, beal aerospace ceased operations citing a decision by nasa and the department of defense to commit themselves to the development of the competing government financed eelv program.[99] in 1998, rotary rocket proposed the roton, a single stage to orbit (ssto) piloted vertical take off and landing (vtol) space transport.[100] a full scale roton atmospheric test vehicle flew three times in 1999. after spending tens of millions of dollars in development the roton failed to secure launch contracts and rotary rocket ceased operations in 2001. on 28 september 2006, jim benson, spacedev founder, announced he was founding benson space company with the intention of being first to market with the safest and lowest cost suborbital personal spaceflight launches, using the vertical takeoff and horizontal landing dream chaser vehicle based on the nasa hl 20 personnel launch system vehicle.[needs update] excalibur almaz had plans in 2007 to launch a modernized tks spacecraft (for almaz space station), for tourism and other uses. it was to feature the largest window ever on a spacecraft. their equipment was never launched, and their hangar facility closed in 2016. it is to be converted into an educational exhibit.[101] escape dynamics operated from 2010 to 2015, with the goal of making single stage to orbit spaceplanes.[102] in december 2012, the golden spike company announced plans to privately transport space exploration participants to the surface of the moon and return, beginning as early as 2020, for us$750 million per passenger.[103] xcor aerospace planned to initiate a suborbital commercial spaceflight service with the lynx rocketplane in 2016 or 2017 at $95,000. the first flights, to be taken by 23 passengers from the axe apollo space academy, were planned for 2015.[104][105][106] by 2010, bigelow aerospace was developing the next generation commercial space station, a private orbital space complex. the space station was to have been constructed of both sundancer and b330 expandable modules as well as a central docking node, propulsion, solar arrays, and attached crew capsules. initial launch of space station components was planned for 2014, with portions of the station projected to be available for leased use as early as 2015.[107] as of october 2021[update], no launches have taken place. the following companies and organizations had made initial funded launch commitments for google lunar x prize related lunar launches in 2016: in june 2012, private dutch non profit, mars one, announced a private one way (no return) human mission to mars with the aim to establish a permanent human colony on mars.[114] the plan was to send a communication satellite and pathfinder lander to the planet by 2016 and, after several stages, land four humans on the martian surface for permanent settlement in 2023.[115] a new set of four astronauts would then arrive every two years.[116] mars one has received a variety of criticism, mostly relating to medical,[117] technical and financial feasibility. there are also unverified claims that mars one is a scam designed to take as much money as possible from donors, including reality show contestants.[118][119] many have criticized the project's us$6 billion budget as being too low to successfully transport humans to mars, to the point of being delusional.[120][121] a similar project study by nasa estimated the cost of such a feat at us$100 billion, although that included transporting the astronauts back to earth. objections have also been raised regarding the reality tv project associated with the expedition. given the transient nature of most reality tv ventures, many believe that as viewership declines, funding could significantly decrease, thereby harming the entire expedition. further, contestants have reported that they were ranked based on their donations and funds raised.[118][122] in february 2013, the us nonprofit inspiration mars foundation announced a plan to send a married couple on a 2018 mission to travel to mars and back to earth on a 501 day round trip, with no landing planned on mars.[123] the mission would have taken advantage of an infrequently occurring free return trajectory a unique orbit opportunity which occurs only once every fifteen years and will allow the space capsule to use the smallest possible amount of fuel to get it to mars and back to earth. the two person american crew   a man and a woman   will fly around mars at a distance of 100 miles (160 km) of the surface.[124] "if anything goes wrong, the spacecraft should make its own way back to earth   but with no possibility of any shortcuts home."[125] on september 27, 2016, at the 67th annual meeting of the international astronautical congress, elon musk unveiled substantial details of the interplanetary transport system (its) design for the transport vehicles including size, construction material, number and type of engines, thrust, cargo and passenger payload capabilities, on orbit propellant tanker refills, representative transit times, etc. as well as a few details of portions of the mars side and earth side infrastructure that spacex intends to build to support the flight vehicles. in addition, musk championed a larger systemic vision, a vision for a bottom up emergent order of other interested parties whether companies, individuals, or governments to utilize the new and radically lower cost transport infrastructure to build up a sustainable human civilization on mars, potentially, on numerous other locations around the solar system, by innovating and meeting the demand that such a growing venture would occasion.[126][127] in july 2017, spacex made public plans for its based on a smaller launch vehicle and spacecraft. the new system architecture has "evolved quite a bit" since the november 2016 articulation of the very large "interplanetary transport system". a key driver of the new architecture is to make the new system useful for substantial earth orbit and cislunar launches so that the new system might pay for itself, in part, through economic spaceflight activities in the near earth space zone.[128][129] the super heavy is designed to fulfill the mars transportation goals while also launching satellites, servicing the iss, flying humans and cargo to the moon, and enabling ballistic transport of passengers on earth as a substitute to long haul airline flights.[130] since march 2020, spacex conducted several test flights of their starship spacecraft. the starship is a fully reusable two stage vehicle designed to take passengers and cargo to the moon, mars, and beyond. spacex had initially planned to have an orbital flight in 2021. on wednesday, may 5, 2021, the twelfth starship prototype (sn15) made a 10 km suborbital flight and achieved soft landing. spacex is currently in the process of improving and understanding the starship spacecraft.[131] newspace (also new space) or entrepreneurial space and astropreneurship[132] have been terms applied to contemporary and increasingly competitive spaceflight.

spacenews covering the business and politics of space in about four and a half years, nasa envisions a lunar lander touching down near the south pole of the moon. two astronauts will exit the lander’s crew module and go down a few steps to be the first humans on the lunar surface since 1972. or, they’ll make their way down a much longer ladder to the surface. or maybe just take an elevator. nasa looked to tap into the creativity of the private sector with its human landing system (hls) program to develop the landers needed for the artemis program. rather than use a conventional contracting approach and pick a single company to develop a lander under a cost plus contract, it offered multiple fixed price awards to companies that would develop landers though public private partnerships, with nasa eventually being one of potentially several customers for them. “this is the last piece that we need to get to the moon, and now we’re going to have that under development,” nasa administrator jim bridenstine said during an april 30 teleconference where he announced the winning companies. “today, we’re going under contract with three companies that are going to take us all the way to the moon.” despite his confidence, though, there remain many questions about whether any of those companies will be able to have a lander ready in time to meet the trump administration’s goal of a 2024 landing, or if nasa will have the budget to afford them. when nasa released the final version of its hls call for proposals last september, the agency outlined a two phase approach for developing lunar landers. nasa would first pick as many as four proposals for an initial round of studies, advancing designs to the equivalent of a preliminary design review over about 10 months. nasa would then select one or two companies for full scale lander development, with one being ready to support a 2024 landing, while the other would take a slower development track for a mission in 2025 or later. nasa selected three of the five proposals it received for those initial studies. the largest single award, $579 million, was also perhaps the least surprising. blue origin announced its intent to compete for the hls program in october, with company founder jeff bezos announcing a at the international astronautical congress in washington a “national team” that features draper, lockheed martin and northrop grumman. the lander design nasa selected for further development closely follows what blue origin described last fall. blue origin will provide the descent stage, based on its blue moon cargo lunar lander concept and powered by the be 7 engine it is developing. lockheed martin will build the ascent module that includes the crew cabin, leveraging systems it created for the orion spacecraft. northrop grumman will build a transfer module, based on its cygnus spacecraft, that will move the lander from the gateway and orion’s elliptical halo orbit around the moon to low lunar orbit. draper will develop the lander’s avionics and software. dynetics, which received a $253 million award, took a lower profile in more ways than one. the company didn’t acknowledge that it bid on hls until january, after sierra nevada corporation executives said in a media call it had collaborated with dynetics on a proposal. the company said little more at the time beyond that it had assembled “a very impressive team of experienced small and mid sized companies” for its bid. that turned out to be a group of 25 companies that included maxar, thales alenia space, l3harris and even one of blue origin’s teammates, draper. dynetics offered a distinctive lander concept that won praise from nasa reviewers for its “crew centric” design. rather than have the ascent module, with its crew cabin, stacked on top of the descent module, like blue origin’s design as well as the apollo lunar lander, the dynetics lander consists of a single module ringed by propellant tanks, using the same engines both for landing and takeoff. that allows the module to be low to the ground, requiring just a few steps to get from the lander to the surface. the third winner, spacex, never announced that it was bidding on the hls program, although most in the industry were not surprised they competed. as many surmised, spacex offered a version of its starship vehicle as a human lunar lander that nasa selected for a $135 million award. spacex had already offered starship to nasa’s commercial lunar payload services (clps) program for landing robotic payloads, although the company has yet to win a clps task order for a lander mission. spacex’s approach would involve several different starships, including one that would be a propellant depot in low earth orbit, fueled by tanker starships. the lunar lander starship would launch to earth orbit and fill its tanks at the depot before departing for the moon. the starship lunar lander is far larger than the alternative concepts, and its crew cabin is so high that astronauts will need to use an elevator to get to the surface. notably absent from the winners was boeing, which announced in november it proposed a lander that could launch as a single, integrated vehicle on a space launch system rocket. it argued that its “fewest steps to the moon” concept minimized complexity over concepts that required aggregating two or three lander elements, launched individually, at the lunar gateway. nasa’s source selection statement for the hls program did not explain why boeing failed to win an award, only that it was removed “from further consideration for award earlier in the source selection process.” (that document also disclosed nasa received a bid from a fifth company, vivace, best known as a manufacturer of tanks and structures; it, too, was excluded from consideration without explanation.) “boeing does not discuss its technical proposals or evaluations,” boeing spokesman jerry drelling said. nasa went to great lengths to emphasize the innovation the three companies, with their very different concepts, offered to the agency. “one thing that we were striving for,” said lisa watson morgan, nasa hls program manager, “is to see what u.s. industry could bring us with respect to innovation. and boy, did they deliver.” “in summary, all three offerors proposed audacious and innovative hls designs and capabilities, each with unique technical merit,” nasa associate administrator steve jurczyk wrote in the source selection statement. “many of the technologies upon which these capabilities rely have yet to be developed, tested, or demonstrated; the challenge that lies ahead is formidable.” those comments, though, highlight the tension in the hls program between that desire for innovation versus the schedule challenge of getting humans back to the moon by 2024. development of new technologies is subject to delays and setbacks, not the mention the risk of just not working at all. that schedule risk emerged as a major issue in the evaluation of the proposals. nasa cited as weaknesses in spacex’s bid the complicated architecture involving many starships and a “notably complex” propulsion that has little schedule margin to accommodate delays. “these development and operational risks, in the aggregate, threaten the schedule viability of a successful 2024 demonstration mission,” nasa noted in the source selection statement. the reviewers also warned about spacex’s past performance, such as multiyear delays in development of crew dragon and falcon heavy, that reduced their confidence “in spacex’s ability to successfully execute on its proposed hls development schedule.” nasa raised similar issues about the other two winners. blue origin’s power and propulsion system is technically immature, the statement concluded, and requires “a very significant amount of development work that must proceed precisely according to blue origin’s plan, including occurring on what appears to be an aggressive timeline.” the same system on dynetics’ lander “introduces appreciable risk of unsuccessful contract performance from both a technical and development schedule standpoint,” the statement argues, in part because it relied on unproven technologies that “would need to be developed at an unprecedented pace.” nasa was asked at the announcement how it could make that 2024 deadline since it has less time than in the 1960s with the apollo lunar lander, which took about six and a half years from contract award to the apollo 11 mission. “we have technologies that exist today that had to be invented back in the ’60s. we don’t have to invent technologies today to make this work,” said doug loverro, nasa associate administrator for human exploration and operations, contradicting the assessment nasa made in its review of the proposals. he said a bigger factor was getting the requirements right. a change in requirements created a two year delay between the preliminary and critical design reviews of the apollo lander, he argued. getting those requirements right will be a primary focus of the first few months of each hls contract. “an extra month that we take in the very beginning to make sure that we have the requirements right will save us a year on the back end.” loverro, like bridenstine, saw the hls awards as finalizing its plans for returning humans to the moon. “we are now on our way,” he said. “there are no hurdles left. there are no more puzzle pieces to add.” the artemis program, he said, had everything it needed to land humans on the moon. for the 2024 landing, though, nasa may instead have an extra piece. its original plans called for using the lunar gateway as a base camp for those lunar landing missions, a facility where both the lunar lander and orion would dock. in march, though, loverro told a nasa advisory committee that he was taking the gateway off the critical path for a 2024 landing but preserving its development for later missions. bridenstine confirmed that plan at the hls announcement. “the gateway is not required for that 2024 mission, and, in fact, i would go as far to say that it’s not likely that we will use the gateway for the 2024 mission,” he said. gateway remains important for nasa’s long term plans for sustainable lunar exploration, he emphasized. but, he added, “anything that is not necessary we need to move out of the way so that we can get to the surface of the moon” by 2024. loverro said that gateway may yet serve a supporting role for the 2024 mission. “it’s still going to serve as a communications hub,” he said. “it’s going to be our high bandwidth communication back from the surface of the moon for 2024.” the three hls awards have a combined value of $967 million. however, the contracts are only a down payment for building one or more landers, which is likely to cost nasa several billion dollars plus whatever contributions the companies in the program make as part of the partnership. nasa, anticipating that cost, requested a nearly 12% budget increase in its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal in february. however, the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, including more than $2 trillion in supplemental spending bills, has created doubts that congress will be willing to support that increase. bridenstine was optimistic. “i don’t see our budget being cut because of this,” he said at the hls announcement, discussing how he talked in the days leading up to the awards with members of the house and senate of both parties. “they have all been very supportive of the effort to get to the moon,” he said, “and i have not heard anybody suggest that, because of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re going to have to cut nasa.” but not everyone in congress backs nasa’s lunar lander plans. in a statement the day after the announcement, reps. eddie bernice johnson (d texas) and kendra horn (d okla.), chairs of the house science committee and its space subcommittee, respectively, criticized nasa’s approach to the artemis program in general and lunar landers in particular. they introduced, with their republican counterparts, a nasa authorization bill in january that called for a more traditional development approach for the lander. “the multiyear delays and difficulties experienced by the companies of nasa’s taxpayer funded commercial crew program   a program with the far less ambitious goal of just getting nasa astronauts back to low earth orbit   make clear to me that we should not be trying to privatize america’s moon mars program,” johnson said. bridenstine was undeterred. “i don’t think we’re in any danger,” he said during a may 5 webinar hosted by the center for strategic and international studies, making the case for including nasa in any infrastructure stimulus bill congress may consider later this year. “there’s strong bipartisan support for the artemis program.” but the giant leap in funding needed for artemis may yet turn out to be a bigger obstacle than the technology needed for lunar landers that will allow astronauts to make the next small steps on the moon in 2024. this article originally appeared in the may 11, 2020 issue of spacenews magazine. jeff foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for spacenews. he earned a ph.d. in planetary sciences from the massachusetts institute of technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science... more by jeff foust back to top
by kenneth chang after two trips to the launchpad that did not end up going to space, two nasa astronauts finally headed to orbit on wednesday in a vehicle built by boeing, the aerospace giant. the first trip of starliner, a 15 foot wide capsule, with astronauts on board comes four years and six days after spacex, the other company that nasa has hired to provide astronaut rides, launched its first mission with astronauts to the international space station. boeing is now set to also provide that service, but a series of costly delays repeatedly kept astronauts from flying the company’s vehicle earlier. spacex, once seen as an upstart, has flown 13 crews to orbit in total. the long awaited flight of the boeing vehicle is the latest step in nasa’s efforts to rely more heavily on the private sector for its human spaceflight program. “this is another milestone in this extraordinary history of nasa,” bill nelson, the nasa administrator said during a news conference after the launch. when starliner arrives at the space station on thursday, it will join a spacex crew dragon capsule already docked there. nasa officials have steadfastly said that they want to have two different american spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to orbit. “we always like to have a backup,” mr. nelson said. “that makes it safer for our astronauts.” if the vehicle’s mission goes well, it will also provide some good news for boeing, whose aviation safety record is under heavy scrutiny after a side panel of an alaska airlines jet blew out during a flight earlier this year.

 the aerospace giant’s long delayed starliner finally flies astronauts, while elon musk’s enterprise pushes into the next frontier. the new space race is on. for anyone who cares about the future of manned spaceflight, it’s been a dramatic week. on wednesday, june 5, boeing’s starliner space capsule lifted off, with two veteran astronauts on board. the vehicle’s first crewed launch, after years of mishaps and delays, was a long overdue piece of good news in boeing’s troubled quest to enter the private space business. less than 24 hours later, as starliner approached its rendezvous with the international space station (iss), spacex launched a dramatic fourth unmanned test flight of its next generation starship spacecraft. both successful launches represent big steps forward in nasa’s plans to rely more on private companies to build and fly the vehicles that will carry american astronauts back to the moon and beyond. but the two missions tell very different stories about boeing and spacex, two of the key firms nasa hopes to rely on for future space travel. the boeing craft, crewed by suni williams and butch wilmore, sailed into orbit atop an atlas v rocket launched by united launch alliance (ula), a major private space vendor.