Video: UP Aerospace SL-10 NASA Flight Opportunities Mission “On November 6, 2015 UP Aerospace successfully executed a mission for NASA to deploy the Maraia Earth Return Capsule. The mission reached an altitude of 75 miles above Spaceport America and landed 30 miles down range on White Sands Missile Range. The missions was UP Aerospace’s 10th SpaceLoft rocket launch and the first deployment mission.”

The rarest of beasts – a used rocket. Controlled landing not easy, but done right, can look easy. Check out video: https://t.co/9OypFoxZk3 — Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) November 24, 2015 Jeff maybe unaware SpaceX suborbital VTOL flight began 2013. Orbital water landing 2014. Orbital land landing next. https://t.co/S6WMRnEFY5 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2015 There’s a major difference between SpaceX and Blue Origin that makes them incomparable, Business Insider “We […]

NASA SpaceTech-REDDI-2015 Appendix F1: NASA Flight Opportunities Now Open “The purpose of this Appendix is to provide funding for the testing or demonstration of crosscutting space technologies in relevant environments through flights on reusable suborbital launch vehicles. These flight tests should fit into an overall technology maturation plan as a bridge between laboratory testing and demonstration in Earth orbit or beyond. The proposer’s organization will purchase the proposed flight(s) on […]

Blue Origin Completes Acceptance Testing of BE-3 Engine for New Shephard Suborbital Flight “Blue Origin recently completed acceptance testing of its BE-3 rocket engine, the first new hydrogen engine to be developed in the United States in more than a decade. “The BE-3 has now been fired for more than 30,000 seconds over the course of 450 tests,” said Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin founder. “We test, learn, refine and then […]

NASA Request for Information: Commercial Microgravity Flight Services “This notice issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC), Edwards, CA is a Request for Information (RFI) for Microgravity Flight Services or MFS. The intent of this notice is to obtain information on commercial capabilities to provide brief periods of near zero, partial gravity, and hyper-gravity conditions, collectively referred to here as microgravity, […]

NASA Selects U.S. Firms to Provide Commercial Suborbital Flight Services “NASA has selected four companies to integrate and fly technology payloads on commercial suborbital reusable platforms that carry payloads near the boundary of space. The selection is part of NASA’s continuing effort to foster a viable market for American commercial reusable suborbital platforms that allow testing of new space technologies within Earth’s atmosphere.”

Virgin Galactic Reaches New Heights in Third Supersonic Test Flight “Today, Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, which is owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s aabar Investments PJS, successfully completed the third rocket-powered supersonic flight of its passenger carrying reusable space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo (SS2). In command on the flight deck of SS2 for the first time under rocket power was Virgin Galactic’s Chief Pilot Dave […]

Iran hails voyage of Fargam the space monkey, Telegraph “Iran said on Saturday that it had safely returned a monkey to Earth after blasting it into space in the second such launch this year in its controversial ballistic programme. President Hassan Rouhani congratulated the scientists involved in the mission, in a message carried by the official IRNA news agency. The report added that the rocket reached a height of 120 […]

NASA Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle (sRLV) Flight and Payload Integration Services “NASA/DFRC plans to issue a Competitive Request for Proposal (RFP)/Solicitation for the following Commercial item/services: … The anticipated release date of the Draft RFP/Solicitation NND14480735R is on or about Dec 11, 2013. The final RFP/Solicitation is expected to be released on or about Feb 12, 2014 with an anticipated Proposal due date of on or about 28 March 2014. […]

NASA Selects Innovative Technology Proposals for Suborbital Flights, NASA “NASA has selected for possible flight demonstration 10 proposals from six U.S. states for reusable, suborbital technology payloads and vehicle capability enhancements with the potential to revolutionize future space missions. After the concepts are developed, NASA may choose to fly the technologies to the edge of space and back on U.S. commercial suborbital vehicles and platforms. These types of flights provide […]

Suborbital Rocket Launches From NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, NASA “A Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital rocket carrying experiments developed by university students nationwide in the RockSat-X program was successfully launched at 6 a.m. EDT, August 13, from NASA’s launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.”

UP Aerospace’s SpaceLoft 7 Rocket Launches Flight Opportunities Program Payloads [Watch], NASA “A reusable suborbital rocket launched by UP Aerospace soared aloft from Spaceport America in New Mexico, carrying multiple technology payloads for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Flight Opportunities Program. The SpaceLoft 7 suborbital flight June 21 provided about four minutes of micro gravity for testing of seven technology experiments in a space-relevant environment.”

Media Invited to View UP Aerospace SpaceLoft 7 Launch for NASA, NASA ARC “News media representatives are invited to witness the first research flight on a suborbital rocket funded by NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program when UP Aerospace Inc.’s SpaceLoft 7 vehicle lifts off June 21, 2013, at Spaceport America near Las Cruces, New Mexico. Liftoff is scheduled to occur between 6 and 9 a.m. PDT. NASA has funded the flight […]

Suborbital Research Enters a Time of Transition, The Space Review “Several years ago, the idea of using the new generation of suborbital reusable launch vehicles under development, like Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx, for research applications was not widely accepted. These and other vehicles were seen primarily as serving the space tourism market.” “Scientists, vehicle developers, and others did come to that NSRC, and the three that followed, […]

The Flight Opportunities Program Presentation (PDF), NASA For those who did not attend and are interested NASA has provided in one PDF file their presentations from this years 2013 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference. Updated: NASA Selects New Suborbital Payloads, Total Tops 100 Experiments, NASA “NASA has selected 21 space technology payloads for flights on commercial reusable launch vehicles, balloons, and a commercial parabolic aircraft. This latest selection represents the sixth […]

Hearing Charter “The introduction of new commercial suborbital reusable launch vehicles (SRVs) in the private sector has enabled the emergence of new markets. A number of these new companies are already testing their vehicles and plan to initiate commercial operations within a few years. This hearing will examine the potential launch markets and applications for SRVs, the unique benefits that SRVs offer the scientific community for research, and the regulatory […]

Keith’s note: There will be a hearing on Wednesday at 2:00 pm EDT titled “Emerging Commercial Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle Market”. The hearing was announced several weeks ago. Yet the Commercial Spaceflight Federation has not issued a heads up or media advisory for this hearing. Nor is anything posted on their website. Not only are three of its members testifying, a representative of the CSF’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group is […]

The Crazy DIY Spaceflight Project That Just Might Work “Keith Cowing, editor of NASAWatch.com, said Copenhagen Suborbitals has yet to convince anyone that they’ve built something safe to fly in. Spine-severing vibration, blackout-inducing acceleration and catastrophic hardware failures could each doom a would-be passenger. “But the fact that I’m not making fun of this and worrying about detailed technical aspects is fascinating. We don’t giggle at it anymore,” said Cowing, […]

NASA Video: Morpheus Tether Test #16 “The Morpheus vertical test bed successfully executed a 16th tether test on June 11, 2012. This was the first flight after the team integrated ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology) into the vehicle.”