Keith’s note: Dear Trump Transition Team (whoever you are): America always has been ‘Great in Space’. No “again” is needed. Just sayin’ Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: According to Blue Origin: “New Glenn safely reached its intended orbit during today’s NG-1 mission, accomplishing our primary objective. New Glenn’s seven BE-4 engines ignited on January 16, 2025, at 2:03 a.m. EST (0703 UTC) from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The second stage is in its final orbit following two successful burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving data and performing well.We lost the booster during descent.”

Keith’s note: like everyone else I stayed up to watch the New Glenn launch and did some TV talking head time too. Here’s the audio from Deutsche Welle prior to the launch scrub. I was going to be on BBC World too for post-launch coverage but then the delays changed that. Weather is going to be pacing the next launch attempt apparently. Stay tuned. [Audio]

Keith’s note: According to a Blue origin posting: “New Glenn successfully completed an integrated launch vehicle hotfire test today, the final major milestone on our road to first flight. NG-1 will carry a Blue Ring Pathfinder as its first manifested payload and will launch from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, FL.” Social media postings (as yet unconfirmed) cite a 6 January 2025 launch date target (again, unconfirmed). Soon NASA’s SLS will have two immense rockets that can out-compete it in terms of cost, performance, flight rate, and ability to be adapted and revised. And these rockets were built from scratch using 21st century experience and concepts – not a congressionally-mandated shotgun marriage of 1970s, 1980s, and early 2000’s ideas and rocket parts. Stay tuned.

Keith’s note: I just spoke with Scripps News about the upcoming flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station, the problems Boeing has had with the spacecraft, competition with SpaceX, and what is on the horizon (Blue Origin etc.) [Audio part 1] [Audio part 2]

Keith’s note: as first reported the other day the commercial space station competition is now tightening. Blue Origin seems to be losing interest and focusing their big rocket, Sierra Space seems to wants to chart its own path, and Voyager/Northrop Grumman are merging their efforts (the only effort with flight-proven and operation hardware already doing the whole space station thing). According to NASA: “As part of NASA’s efforts to foster commercially owned and operated low Earth orbit destinations, Nanoracks, part of Voyager Space’s Exploration Segment, and Northrop Grumman are teaming up to support Nanoracks’ development of the Starlab commercial space station. Rather than developing its own destination as planned under a separate Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA, the agency and Northrop Grumman agreed to withdraw from its agreement so the company can join Voyager Space and Nanoracks in providing cargo logistics services and engineering services to support the Starlab station.” According to Voyager Space Holdings: “Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft will be utilized to deliver pressurized cargo to Starlab over an initial five-year period to support future human spaceflight missions. The Cygnus spacecraft has completed 19 missions, delivering over 138,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Cygnus has already demonstrated several advanced capabilities, including the ability to function as a laboratory while docked to ISS, deploy satellites, and reboost the station’s orbit.”

“NASA announced today (May 19) that Blue Origin is the winner of the second Artemis lunar lander contract today. Initially, NASA had hoped to fund more than one lander concept for the Artemis program — the logic being similar to how NASA approached commercial crew and cargo service for the International Space Station. In both ISS cases, the redundant approach adopted for ISS has proved to be a wise one.” More.

Reliable Robotics Expands Commercial Team with Key Executive Hires “A.C. Charania, Vice President of Product Strategy … will further develop the product and service architectures for the Remotely Operated Aircraft System.” Voyager Space Announces Clay Mowry as Chief Revenue Officer “Voyager Space, a global leader in space exploration, today announced the appointment of Clay Mowry as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Mowry, a space industry veteran and seasoned business strategist, joins […]

Blue Origin Launches 6 New Astronauts Into Space, SpaceRef “The third crewed flight of a Blue Origin New Shepard launch system was conducted today. The “RSS First Step” left Earth just after 10:00 am ET for a quick flight above the Karman Line followed by a perfect landing of the booster and space capsule at the Texas launch site. On board were Dylan Taylor, Voyager Space; Michael Strahan, ABC; investor […]

Alan Shepard’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley and GMA co-anchor Michael Strahan to fly on NS-19 alongside four customers, Blue Origin “Blue Origin today announced the crew of its upcoming NS-19 flight on December 9 will include two honorary guests and four paying customers. Guests include Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly to space. […]