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☆ SpaceX, US FAA close Starship launch probe with dozens of fixes
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica," the agency said, referring to SpaceX's sprawling Starship launch site in south Texas. It was unclear how many of the corrective actions SpaceX has already implemented, which will impact Starship's next launch timeline. Later on Friday, SpaceX's CEO and founder Elon Musk asked the FAA "what are the 63 corrective actions?" In line with FAA regulations, Musk's space company led the Starship investigation and largely created the list of 63 corrective actions for the FAA to approve. The agency requires SpaceX complete those actions before it can obtain a new Starship launch license.

Persons: SpaceX's, Joe Skipper, Elon Musk, Musk, Joey Roulette, Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Porter, Josie Kao, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Boca Chica, REUTERS, Rights, U.S . Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX's, FAA, SpaceX, NASA, Boca, Thomson Locations: Brownsville , Texas, U.S, Texas, Boca Chica

PERRY, Florida, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Cleanup and recovery from Hurricane Idalia began on Thursday along Florida's Gulf Coast, where property damage, loss of life and power disruptions paled in comparison to the last major hurricane that struck the state nearly a year ago. "The bad news type calls we were accustomed to during Ian, those were not happening during this storm," DeSantis said at a late-afternoon news conference on Wednesday. Florida Highway Patrol reported that two motorists had died in separate rain-related crashes early Wednesday before Idalia made landfall. Reuters Graphics[1/3]A vehicle is seen in a canal after the arrival of Hurricane Idalia in Horseshoe Beach, Florida, U.S., August 30, 2023. The same region, featuring a marshy coast and threaded with freshwater springs and rivers, was devastated by a major hurricane in 1896.

Persons: Hurricane Idalia, Idalia, Ron DeSantis, Perry, Ian, DeSantis, Cheney Orr, Jared Perdue, Casey DeSantis, Maria Alejandra Cardona, Marco Bello, Joey Roulette, Rich McKay, Brendan O'Brien, Brad Brooks, Kanishka Singh, Jeff Mason, Nandita Bose, Steve Gorman, Michael Perry Organizations: Hurricane, National Guard, UBS, Florida Highway Patrol, Reuters, REUTERS, HIT, state's Transportation Department, Reuters Graphics Reuters, National Hurricane Center, NHC, Thomson Locations: PERRY, Florida, Gulf Coast, Keaton, Florida's Big Bend, Taylor, Hernando counties, St . Petersburg, Georgia, Horseshoe Beach , Florida, U.S, Florida's, Big Bend, Gulf, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Bend, Hillsborough County, Tampa, Gulf of Mexico, Cuba, South Carolina, North Carolina, Steinhatchee , Florida, Cedar Key , Florida, Tampa , Florida, Atlanta, Chicago, Longmont , Colorado, Washington

STEINHATCHEE, Florida, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Florida's Gulf Coast braced on Wednesday for fierce winds, torrential rain and surging seawater from Idalia, forecast to become "an extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane, as it swirled toward a direct hit on the state's Big Bend region. Most of Florida's 21 million residents, and many in the adjacent states of Georgia and South Carolina, were under hurricane warnings and other storm-related advisories. Any storm reaching Category 3 or higher is considered a major hurricane. 1 killer in all of these storms is water," Deanne Criswell, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's administrator, said on CNN. Idalia-related disruptions extended to Florida's Atlantic coast at Cape Canaveral, where the Tuesday launch of a rocket carrying a U.S. Space Force intelligence satellite was delayed indefinitely.

Persons: Kevin Guthrie, Rene Hoffman, Idalia, Steve Pizzano, Adrees Latif, Biden, Ron DeSantis, Irma, Michael, Ian, DeSantis, Milton Bontrager, Maria Alejandra Cardona, Marco Bello, Joey Roulette, Rich McKay, Nelson Acosta, Dave Sherwood, Brad Brooks, Brendan O'Brien, Nandita Bose, Steve Gorman, Gerry Doyle Organizations: Reuters Graphics Reuters, National Hurricane Center, NHC, REUTERS, Federal Emergency Management, CNN, White, Florida, Republican, U.S . Space Force, Tampa International Airport, National Guard, Thomson Locations: STEINHATCHEE, Florida, Idalia, Bend, Gulf of Mexico, Georgia, South Carolina, Steinhatchee , Florida, Miami, Cedar Key , Florida, Gulf Coast, North, Sarasota, Apalachicola Bay ., Clearwater Beach , Florida, U.S, Gulf, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Tampa, St, Petersburg, Cape Canaveral, Cuba, Tampa , Florida, Atlanta, Havana, Guanimar, Longmont , Colorado, Chicago, Washington

☆ Explainer: Why are countries racing to the moon's heavily cratered south pole?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

In the same year, another NASA probe that hit the south pole found ice below the moon's surface. WHAT MAKES THE SOUTH POLE ESPECIALLY TRICKY? Russia's Luna-25 craft had been scheduled to land on the south pole but spun out of control on approach and crashed on Sunday. The south pole - far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions, including the crewed Apollo landings - is full of craters and deep trenches. Both the United States and China have planned missions to the south pole.

Persons: India's, Russia's Luna, Nivedita, Joey Roulette, Kevin Krolicki, Gerry Doyle, Nick Macfie Organizations: Soviet Union, Apollo, Brown University, NASA, Indian Space Research, ISRO, Handout, REUTERS, Artemis Accords, Thomson Locations: BENGALURU, WASHINGTON, Soviet, United States, China, U.S, Russia, Bengaluru, Washington

India's Chandrayaan-3 is heading for a landing on the lunar south pole on Wednesday. NASA, by comparison, is on track to spend roughly $93 billion on its Artemis moon programme through 2025, the U.S. space agency's inspector general has estimated. Russia had been considering a role in NASA’s Artemis programme until 2021, when it said it would partner instead on China's moon programme. Space research firm Euroconsult estimates China spent $12 billion on its space programme in 2022. India’s last attempt to land failed in 2019, the same year an Israeli startup failed at what would have been the first privately funded moon landing.

Persons: India's, Russia's Luna, Narendra Modi, Ajey Lele, Luna, Vadim Lukashevich, NASA'S, Elon Musk’s, Musk, Jeff Bezos, ”, Bethany Ehlmann, Kevin Krolicki, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: REUTERS Acquire, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, NASA, New, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, SpaceX, International Space, California Institute of Technology, Thomson Locations: Handout, BENGALURU, WASHINGTON, India, United States, Soviet Union, U.S, Ukraine, Russia, Moscow, China, Saudi, South Korean

☆ Why are space agencies racing to the moon's south pole?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

India's much-awaited moon mission Chandrayaan-3 has been scheduled for launch on July 14, 2023. In the same year, another NASA probe that hit the south pole found water ice below the moon's surface. Russia's Luna-25 craft had been scheduled to land on the south pole this week but spun out of control on approach and crashed on Sunday. The south pole - far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions, including the crewed Apollo landings - is full of craters and deep trenches. Both the United States and China have planned missions to the south pole.

Persons: India's, Russia's Luna, Nivedita, Joey Roulette, Kevin Krolicki, Gerry Doyle Organizations: ISRO, Handout, REUTERS, Soviet Union, Apollo, Brown University, NASA, Indian Space Research, United Nations, Artemis Accords, Chandrayaan, Thomson Locations: BENGALURU, WASHINGTON, Soviet, United States, China, U.S, Russia, Bengaluru, Washington

☆ Explainer: Why are space agencies racing to the moon's south pole?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

BENGALURU/WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - India's space agency is attempting to land a spacecraft on the moon's south pole, a mission that could advance India's space ambitions and expand knowledge of lunar water ice, potentially one of the moon's most valuable resources. India's much-awaited moon mission Chandrayaan-3 has been scheduled for launch on July 14, 2023. In the same year, another NASA probe that hit the south pole found water ice below the moon's surface. Russia's Luna-25 craft had been scheduled to land on the south pole this week but spun out of control on approach and crashed on Sunday. The south pole - far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions, including the crewed Apollo landings - is full of craters and deep trenches.

Persons: India's, Russia's Luna, Nivedita, Joey Roulette, Kevin Krolicki, Gerry Doyle Organizations: Soviet Union, Apollo, Brown University, NASA, Indian Space Research, ISRO, Handout, REUTERS Acquire, United Nations, Artemis Accords, Chandrayaan, Thomson Locations: BENGALURU, WASHINGTON, Soviet, United States, China, U.S, Russia, Bengaluru, Washington

☆ Focus: US space startups' latest struggles marked by layoffs, shake-ups
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Mike Blake/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Aug 15 (Reuters) - U.S. space startups have slashed workforces and restructured operations to survive amid an investment drought that has grounded once-lofty aspirations. Those struggles follow the April bankruptcy filing by satellite launch firm Virgin Orbit, which was owned by billionaire Richard Branson. "The focus for investors in this space is very different than what it was a couple years ago. The financial headwinds faced by rocket startups have triggered pain elsewhere as well. It shifted much of its focus to government defense programs as its commercial customers face tight capital markets, CEO Laurienti said.

Persons: Mike Blake, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Joe Laurienti, Caleb Henry, Chris Kemp, Will Marshall, Quilty's Henry, Laurienti, Joey Roulette, Ben Klayman, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Elon, SpaceX, Astra, Labs, Ursa, Reuters, Planet Labs, Thomson Locations: Long Beach , California, U.S, Denver, Washington

☆ Amazon switches rockets for first test satellites to avoid launch delay
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, November 15, 2022. Amazon last year announced plans to launch the satellite pair aboard the first flight of ULA's new Vulcan rocket, moving them off previously planned rockets from launch startup ABL Space to avoid delays in ABL's rocket development. But delays with Vulcan have prompted Amazon to again switch rides as the e-commerce giant faces a 2026 regulatory deadline to deploy half of the 3,200 satellites planned for its Kuiper internet network. ULA in 2021 stopped selling the Atlas V and has 19 more missions to fly before the rocket retires, ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said. It was unclear whether the Atlas V launch planned for September counts as one of the nine that Amazon previously procured.

Persons: Pascal, James Watkins, ULA, Jessica Rye, Joey Roulette, Leslie Adler, Aurora Ellis Organizations: REUTERS, Amazon.com Inc, Boeing, Lockheed, United Launch, Amazon, Vulcan, Elon Musk's SpaceX, Atlas V, NASA, Atlas, Thomson Locations: Lauwin, France, U.S, ULA

☆ Virgin Galactic launches tourists to edge of space
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

VSS Unity rocket operated by Virgin Galactic lands after the company's first commercial flight to the edge of space, at the Spaceport America facility, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, U.S., June 29, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Virgin Galactic on Thursday blasted three tourists to the edge of space aboard its air-launched VSS Unity spaceplane, a live stream showed, the Richard Branson-founded company's second commercial mission as it starts routine flights. The rocket-powered VSS Unity craft dropped from the carrier plane over New Mexico around 9:20 a.m. local time and blasted its four passengers, a company instructor and three tourists, to an altitude of roughly 55 miles (88.51 km). Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Mark Porter and Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Jose Luis Gonzalez, Richard Branson, Joey Roulette, Mark Porter, Richard Chang Organizations: VSS Unity, Virgin Galactic, America, REUTERS, Galactic, VSS, Thomson Locations: New Mexico, U.S

☆ Russia launches moon lander in race to find water on moon
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage and the lunar landing spacecraft Luna-25 blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, in this still image from video taken August 11, 2023. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERSWASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years on Thursday, in a bid to be the first power to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole, a region believed to hold coveted deposits of water ice. The launch was livestreamed by Russia's space agency. Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Jamie FreedOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Joey Roulette, Jamie Freed Organizations: 2.1b, Vostochny, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Amur, Russia, Handout, REUTERS WASHINGTON

The Russian lunar mission, the first since 1976, is racing against India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month, and more broadly with the United States and China, both of which have advanced lunar exploration programs targeting the lunar south pole. The lander is expected to touch down on the moon on Aug. 21, Russia's space chief Yuri Borisov told Interfax on Friday. I hope that a highly precise soft landing on the moon will happen," Borisov told workers at the Vostochny cosmodrome after the launch, according to Interfax. A Japanese lunar landing failed last year and an Israeli mission failed in 2019. No country has made a soft landing on the south pole.

Persons: Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, Borisov, Luna, Asif Siddiqi, Neil Armstrong, Maxim Litvak, Guy Faulconbridge, Joey Roulette, Leslie Adler, Gerry Doyle Organizations: India, Soyuz, Luna, Vostochny, NASA, Kremlin, Space, European Space Agency, Fordham University, Reuters, 2.1b, REUTERS U.S, European Union, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, United States, China, Vostochny cosmodrome, Moscow, Ukraine, Russian, Amur, Handout, Soviet, Soviet Union, India, Japan, Washington

☆ Amazon switches rockets for first test satellites for sooner launch
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, November 15, 2022. The company will launch the two satellites, the first in Amazon's Kuiper program to offer internet globally from space, aboard a dedicated Atlas V rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed (BA.N), (LMT.N) joint venture United Launch Alliance, spokesman James Watkins said. Amazon last year announced plans to launch the satellite pair aboard the first flight of ULA's new Vulcan rocket, moving them off previously planned rockets from launch startup ABL Space to avoid delays in ABL's rocket development. But delays with Vulcan have prompted Amazon to again switch rides. Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Pascal, James Watkins, ULA, Joey Roulette, Leslie Adler Organizations: REUTERS, Amazon.com Inc, Boeing, Lockheed, United Launch Alliance, Amazon, Vulcan, Thomson Locations: Lauwin, France

REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File PhotoPARIS, Aug 2 (Reuters) - U.S. space venture company Voyager Space and Airbus (AIR.PA) said on Wednesday they will co-operate more closely in the race to build a private version of the International Space Station. Voyager Space also declined to discuss funding plans. "Lockheed will likely still have a role to play somewhere within the supply chain," Dylan Taylor, CEO of Voyager Space told reporters. Lockheed remains an important customer for Voyager and Starlab will remain U.S.-led, he added. Voyager Space and Airbus have said Starlab would deploy in 2028, but backed away from a specific timeline on Wednesday.

Persons: Joe Skipper, Voyager's Starlab, Lockheed Martin, Dylan Taylor, Jeff Bezos, we're, Taylor, Tim Hepher, Joey Roulette, Jane Merriman Organizations: NASA, Vehicle, Kennedy Space Center, REUTERS, Space, Airbus, International Space, Lockheed, Voyager Space, Thomson Locations: Cape Canaveral , Florida, U.S, Columbus, Europe

☆ Amazon builds $120 million satellite processing hub in Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O) is building a $120 million processing facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its thousands of planned Kuiper internet satellites, the company and state officials said Friday. The Kuiper internet network, which will largely compete with Starlink from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is expected to complement Amazon’s web services powerhouse. The Florida facility will employ 50 staff and be a last stop for Amazon's Kuiper satellites before they go to space, after being manufactured at the Kuiper project's primary plant in Redmond, Washington. The company has bagged 77 heavy-lift rocket launch contracts, potentially worth billions of dollars combined, mostly from the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance and Jeff Bezos's space company Blue Origin. Anna Farrar, a spokeswoman for Space Florida, a state-funded entity to attract space businesses to Florida, said Amazon is eligible to receive funds under a state grant for transportation-related projects but "has not received any funding to date."

Persons: Steve Metayer, Jeff Bezos's, Anna Farrar, Joey Roulette, Deepa Babington Organizations: Kennedy Space Center, Amazon, Starlink, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Kuiper Production, Boeing, Lockheed, United Launch Alliance, Origin, Space, Thomson Locations: Florida, Redmond , Washington, Space Florida

Senator Tim Kaine and Representative Barbara Lee raised concerns on Sunday over the decision by President Joe Biden's administration to send cluster bombs to Ukraine to combat the Russian invasion. "Cluster bombs should never be used. That's crossing a line," she told CNN on Sunday, adding the United States risked losing its "moral leadership" by sending cluster bombs to Ukraine. He added that Russia is using cluster munitions in Ukraine and "indiscriminately killing civilians," while the Ukrainians will be using them to defend their own territory. U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said Ukraine's counteroffensive was going slowly and that the cluster bombs could be a "game changer" for the Ukrainians.

Persons: Gabriel Jenko, Tim Kaine, Barbara Lee, Joe Biden's, Antonio Guterres, Kaine, Biden, Lee, John Kirby, Kirby, Michael McCaul, McCaul, Kanishka Singh, Joey Roulette, Doina Chiacu, Scott Malone, Andrea Ricci Organizations: Munitions, U.S . Army, REUTERS, WASHINGTON, Democratic U.S, United, United Nations, Fox News, Senate Armed Services Committee, White, Cluster Munitions, CNN, White House, Democratic, Republican, U.S, Representatives Foreign, Sunday, Thomson Locations: Hovey, South Korea, Handout, Ukraine, Russian, United States, Russia, United

☆ Analysis: Boeing, Northrop face obstacles in commercializing flagship US rocket
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/3] NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with its Orion crew capsule perched on top, is shown on its launch pad as it is prepared for launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. November 12, 2022. NASA's SLS vision has its skeptics. NASA currently manages SLS production, with Boeing and Northrop its top contractors, each having contracts under which the space agency bears any delay costs. Boeing and Northrop executives have declined to discuss plans for cutting SLS costs under the proposed commercial contract. Boeing has said the SLS program has created 28,000 jobs.

Persons: Joe Skipper, Colonel Douglas Pentecost, Glenn, Jeff Bezos's, Cristina, Jim Free, Artemis, Amit Kshatriya, Kshatriya, Joey Roulette, Will Dunham, Ben Klayman Organizations: Orion, REUTERS, WASHINGTON, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Pentagon, Northrup, U.S . Department of Defense, DoD, U.S, military's Space Force, NASA, SLS, Elon Musk's SpaceX, Office, U.S . Congress, Northrop, Artemis, Space, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Cape Canaveral , Florida, U.S, Florida

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - SpaceX's Starlink, the satellite communications service started by billionaire Elon Musk, now has a Department of Defense contract to buy those satellite services for Ukraine, the Pentagon said on Thursday. "We continue to work with a range of global partners to ensure Ukraine has the resilient satellite and communication capabilities they need. Satellite communications constitute a vital layer in Ukraine's overall communications network and the department contracts with Starlink for services of this type," the Pentagon said in a statement. The Pentagon contract is a boon for SpaceX after Musk, the company's CEO, said in October it could not afford to indefinitely fund Starlink in Ukraine, an effort he said cost $20 million a month to maintain. Russia has tried to cut off and jam internet services in Ukraine, including attempts to block Starlink in the region, though SpaceX has countered those attacks by hardening the service's software.

Persons: Starlink, Elon Musk, Mike Stone, Joey Roulette, Franklin Paul, Paul Simao Organizations: Department of Defense, Pentagon, SpaceX, Musk, Bloomberg, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Washington

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) - A NASA panel formed last year to study what the government calls "unidentified aerial phenomena," commonly termed UFOs, was due to hold its first public meeting on Wednesday, ahead of a report expected in coming weeks. The focus of Wednesday's four-hour public session "is to hold final deliberations before the agency's independent study team publishes a report this summer," NASA said in announcing the meeting. The panel represents the first such inquiry ever conducted under the auspices of the U.S. space agency for a subject the government once consigned to the exclusive and secretive purview of military and national security officials. The NASA study is separate from a newly formalized Pentagon-based investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, documented in recent years by military aviators and analyzed by U.S. defense and intelligence officials. "There is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin," NASA said in announcing the panel's formation last June.

Persons: Joey Roulette, Steve Gorman, Robert Birsel Organizations: NASA, U.S, Pentagon, UAP, Thomson Locations: U.S, Washington, Los Angeles

"And the Russians are dying," Graham said, according to a video supplied by the Ukrainian presidential press service. In the next part of the video edit, Graham says with a smile: "It's the best money we've ever spent." The exact chronology of Graham's remarks was unclear from the video supplied by the Ukrainian presidential press service. "The old fool Senator Lindsey Graham said that the United States has never spent money so successfully as on the murder of Russians," said Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev. It has been a good investment by the United States to help liberate Ukraine from Russian war criminals."

☆ Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin wins NASA contract to build astronaut lunar lander
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of Amazon Jeff Bezos unveils his space company Blue Origin's space exploration lunar lander rocket called Blue Moon during an unveiling event in Washington,... Read moreWASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - A team led by Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin won a coveted NASA contract to build a spacecraft to send astronauts to and from the moon's surface, NASA's chief announced on Friday, capping a high-stakes contest. NASA's decision will give the agency a second ride to the moon under its Artemis program, after it awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX $3 billion in 2021 to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972. Those initial missions using SpaceX's Starship system are slated for later this decade. Reporting by Joey Roulette, editing by Ben Klayman and Nick ZieminskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bezos' Blue Origin wins NASA contract to build astronaut lunar lander
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Blue Origin contract is valued roughly $3.4 billion, NASA's exploration chief Jim Free said, with Blue Origin privately contributing "well north" of that amount, Blue Origin's lunar lander head John Couluris said. Blue Origin plans to build its 52-foot (16-meter) tall Blue Moon lander in a partnership with Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), Boeing(BA.N), spacecraft software firm Draper, and robotics firm Astrobotic. Friday's announcement in Washington was a long-awaited outcome for Blue Origin, which had unsuccessfully had competed for past contracts. After losing in 2021, Blue Origin unsuccessfully fought to overturn NASA's decision to ignore its Blue Moon lander, first with a watchdog agency and then in court. Blue Origin and lawmakers had pressured NASA to award a second lunar lander contract to promote commercial competition and ensure the agency has a backup ride to the moon.

☆ SpaceX hires former NASA human spaceflight chief for Starship role
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX has tapped NASA's former human spaceflight boss Kathy Lueders to help oversee development of the company's moon and Mars rocket called Starship, a person familiar with the hire said on Monday. Lueders, the second former NASA human spaceflight chief to retire and move to SpaceX in recent years, represents another key hire for the company as it races to develop and use Starship for landing NASA astronauts on the moon within the next decade. As the head of NASA's human spaceflight wing, Lueders oversaw development of SpaceX's Crew Dragon, the company's flagship cargo and astronaut taxi that has become the agency's primary ride to and from the International Space Station. A major agency reorganization later in 2021 moved Lueders away from overseeing the moon program and placed her as NASA's space operations chief, a post with oversight on ISS activities. At SpaceX, Lueders will join her former NASA boss Bill Gerstenmaier, who in 2020 retired from the agency as its human spaceflight chief to join SpaceX for a similar Starship role.

Starship is SpaceX's next-generation rocket crucial for the company's commercial launch business and Musk's aim to start human colonies on Mars. The U.S. offers few such options and export controls would make building a foreign launch site difficult. SpaceX has eyed another Kennedy Space Center launch site for future Starship launches, LC-49, a few miles from LC-39A. But that location is in the midst of a lengthy environmental review that could take years. Plans for that orbital launch site, Spaceport Camden, were nixed by a local referendum after a lawsuit raised concerns about its environmental impact.

☆ Families of US detainees urge Biden to do more to deter hostage-taking
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Humeyra Pamuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Speaking at an event organized by the "Bring Our Families Home" campaign, an advocacy group set up largely by the families of American citizens detained abroad, relatives called on Biden to do more to bring home their loved ones but also deter "hostage-taking" by foreign governments and groups. Proponents of "Bring Our Families Home" are urging Biden to take steps including more swaps of prisoners and easing of sanctions against countries that are holding U.S. detainees. Most recently, Russia has detained U.S. citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges, which he denies. The Biden administration has carried out two prisoner swaps with Russia and one with Venezuela. Families also repeated a call to meet with Biden, a plea that went unanswered for many of them for over a year.

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