Lockeed-Martin has been selected to design and build a new manned spacecraft. The craft will be very much like Orion—a spacecraft that has already been designed and built and tested and paid for. How does that make sense? NASA is underfunded—but was forced to cancel Constellation, a program using Orion and a booster (called Ares) [...]

Quick! Name a rocket scientist! Yeah, maybe you thought of Robert Goddard, but most likely the name Wernher von Braun came to mind. More than 3 decades after his death, he probably remains the world’s most famous rocket scientist. So famous that an important new biography of him was published late last year. Michael J. [...]

Construction has begun on the world’s first commercial spaceport, in Sierra County, New Mexico. Supported by the New Mexico government to the tune of $200 million, the hope is that it will make the state the leader in the emerging industry of commercial spaceflight. Virgin Galactic plans to use the new spaceport as headquarters of [...]