NASA’s proposed nuke-powered moon base

The Chinese space program has some impressive accomplishments: sending a probe to the moon, several manned flights including a space walk; and next, a probe to orbit Mars. But so much of their accomplishments depend on Russians. The Chinese manned spacecraft bears a striking resemblance to the Russian Soyuz—and Russians are heavily assisting the Chinese [...]

Working with space hotel company, Bigelow Aerospace, the experienced aeronautics and space company Boeing is planning a commercial venture. It will operate a vehicle that can carry tourists into orbit—and presumably to a space hotel owned and operated by Bigelow. The craft, with the boring designation CST-100, is supported in part by an $18 million [...]

As noted yesterday, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), a satellite designed to monitor the earth’s CO2 levels, failed to reach orbit. Instead, the satellite (or its charred remains) ended up in the ocean, somewhere near Antarctica. The loss of the $278 million satellite remind us just how hard space exploration is—sometimes things just go wrong. [...]