The Highway to Mars
Five years ago, Adalberto Roca drove down the barren stretch of Texas highway from downtown Brownsville to Boca Chica Beach to start his first day of work at SpaceX building Starship rockets bound for orbit—and, one day, Mars.
Travel
Stories about the companies making space a bucket list destination.
Blue Origin Flies Six on 28th New Shepard Mission
New Shepard’s four flights in 2024 match 2022 as the second-busiest year for the vehicle since 2021.
SpaceX Polaris Dawn Crew Completes the First Commercial Spacewalk
Early Thursday morning, the Polaris Dawn crew opened their Dragon capsule to the vacuum of space, and two private astronauts walked right out.
Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard To Fly Reality Competition Winners
SERA plans to host online voting to select applicants.
Malt, Hops, Yeast—and Stardust
They say it’s 5 o’clock somewhere—and Beau Warren, founder of Species X Beer Project, is trying to make that somewhere space. Some background: Warren considers himself a long-time space lover who grew up visiting the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in DC. He founded Species X in September 2021, and is in the process of […]
Space Travel Needs More Time to Take Off, Companies Argue
SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic may get to space differently, but they agree on one thing: the industry needs more time in the so-called “learning period” on commercial spaceflight that is set to expire Jan. 1.
Payload Pioneers 2023: Anastasia Prosina
Working in space shouldn’t require operating in a harsh, uncomfortable environment, according to Anastasia Prosina, founder and CEO of Stellar Amenities.
Payload Pioneers 2023: Owen Marr
Owen Marr, a Blue Origin systems engineer working on New Shepard, is driven to make space accessible to all.
Vast Aims to Launch World’s First Commercial Space Station by 2025
Vast, a space habitation technology company, is planning to launch the world’s first commercial space station, Haven-1, into LEO by August 2025, the company announced Wednesday. Haven-1 will initially function as an independent crewed space station before connecting with a larger Vast space station currently in development. The station, which can accommodate up to four […]
RAND Releases Human Spaceflight Regulation Report
A moratorium on regulating human commercial spaceflight—aka space tourism—is set to expire in October, and the folks at the FAA are at a crossroads: to renew or not to renew? In a report published this week by RAND, researchers determined that the commercial human spaceflight industry has progressed far enough that it’s time for the […]
Space Perspective Unveils Interior Tourism Capsule Design
The future of space tourism may look nothing like the sterile, utilitarian white rooms imagined in the sci-fi staples we grew up with. Instead, it could be comfortable, familiar, and focused on fostering human connection and empathy, according to Space Perspective cofounder, co-CEO and CTO Taber MacCallum. Space Perspective: The space-tourism-via-balloon startup aims to capture […]
World View: Ticket Sales Exceeding Expectations
World View is a Tucson, AZ-based remote-sensing and space tourism stratospheric balloon developer. The startup is on a publicity blitz, making waves recently at SXSW in Austin, appearing on The Today Show, and naming actor Adrian Grenier as “chief earth advocate.” We caught up with CEO Ryan Hartman to hear more about World View’s roadmap. […]