Travel

New Mexico Adds First Space Tourism Director

Sheli Hinds Armstrong will serve as the first director of space tourism at the SpaceValley Foundation, an Albuquerque-based nonprofit.

Travel

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.

RocketsTravel

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.

TechnologyTravel

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.

StartupsTravel

Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard To Fly Reality Competition Winners

SERA plans to host online voting to select applicants.

StartupsTravel

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…

PolicyTravel

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 2023StartupsTravel

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.

BusinessPayload Pioneers 2023Travel

Payload Pioneers 2023: Owen Marr

Owen Marr, a Blue Origin systems engineer working on New Shepard, is driven to make space accessible to all.

BusinessLEOTravel

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…

AnalysisCivilTravel

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…

StartupsTravel

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…

Q&AStartupsTravel

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. …