This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareAfter a top NASA official improperly contacted a senior Boeing executive about a bid to win a contract potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the company attempted to amend its proposal past the deadline for doing so, according to people with knowledge of the matter.That raised alarm bells inside the space agency, where officials were concerned that Boeing was attempting to take advantage of inside information. Ultimately, the matter was referred to NASA’s inspector general office, and NASA’s leadership last...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareAfter a top NASA official improperly contacted a senior Boeing executive about a bid to win a contract potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the company attempted to amend its proposal past the deadline for doing so, according to people with knowledge of the matter.That raised alarm bells inside the space agency, where officials were concerned that Boeing was attempting to take advantage of inside information. Ultimately, the matter was referred to NASA’s inspector general office, and NASA’s leadership last...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareLanding a spacecraft on Mars is hard enough. Doing it during a global pandemic makes the hair-raising task — “terror” is a word often associated with Mars landings — even more difficult. But NASA is pushing ahead with its plans to send a rover to Mars and remains on track to launch the spacecraft next month from Cape Canaveral, Fla., officials said Wednesday.Then again, NASA is facing a tight deadline.Mars and Earth are only on the same side of the sun every 26 months, meaning NASA has a limited window to launch the...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareLanding a spacecraft on Mars is hard enough. Doing it during a global pandemic makes the hair-raising task — “terror” is a word often associated with Mars landings — even more difficult. But NASA is pushing ahead with its plans to send a rover to Mars and remains on track to launch the spacecraft next month from Cape Canaveral, Fla., officials said Wednesday.Then again, NASA is facing a tight deadline.Mars and Earth are only on the same side of the sun every 26 months, meaning NASA has a limited window to launch the...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareNASA on Thursday awarded three companies contracts to build spacecraft capable of landing humans on the moon, sparking a new space race that NASA hopes will propel the United States back to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.Blue Origin, the ; Dynetics, a subsidiary of Leidos, a Reston, Va.-based information technology firm; and won contracts, giving NASA three options that would compete against each other as NASA scrambles to meet an ambitious White House mandate to put humans on the moon by 2024. (Bezos...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareNASA on Thursday awarded three companies contracts to build spacecraft capable of landing humans on the moon, sparking a new space race that NASA hopes will propel the United States back to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.Blue Origin, the ; Dynetics, a subsidiary of Leidos, a Reston, Va.-based information technology firm; and won contracts, giving NASA three options that would compete against each other as NASA scrambles to meet an ambitious White House mandate to put humans on the moon by 2024. (Bezos...WW…

This article was published more than 3 years agoCommentGift ShareThis article is free to access.Why?The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service.Follow this story and more by The White House announced Saturday that its sweeping travel restrictions will be expanded to include the United Kingdom and Ireland, as countries around the globe struggled to intensify efforts to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus.The United States is limiting travel from 28 nations across Europe, though U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are exempted. The...…This article was published more than 3 years agoCommentGift ShareThis article is free to access.Why?The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service.Follow this story and more by The White House announced Saturday that its sweeping travel restrictions will be expanded to include the United Kingdom and Ireland, as countries around the globe struggled to intensify efforts to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus.The United States is limiting travel from 28 nations across Europe, though U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are exempted. The...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThe Trump trumpeting NASA’s return to human spaceflight, after harsh criticism that it was politicizing the event and violating NASA advertising rules.The video featured Trump watching last week’s launch from the Kennedy Space Center along with the slogan “Make Space Great Again” and historic footage from the Apollo era.On Twitter, Karen Nyberg, a former astronaut and wife of Doug Hurley, who was carried to the International Space Station by the SpaceX launch, blasted the advertisement, saying she found “it disturbing...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThe Trump trumpeting NASA’s return to human spaceflight, after harsh criticism that it was politicizing the event and violating NASA advertising rules.The video featured Trump watching last week’s launch from the Kennedy Space Center along with the slogan “Make Space Great Again” and historic footage from the Apollo era.On Twitter, Karen Nyberg, a former astronaut and wife of Doug Hurley, who was carried to the International Space Station by the SpaceX launch, blasted the advertisement, saying she found “it disturbing...WW…

Listen12 minCommentGift ShareBy 2014, United Launch Alliance wasn’t the rocket industry stalwart it had been since its founding almost a decade earlier, when it had a monopoly on lucrative Pentagon contracts to lift national security satellites into orbit.Instead, the company was under intense pressure — were on the prowl, disrupting the industry and threatening to take a large chunk of ULA’s government business. the Russian-made engine the company used in its workhorse rocket. ULA’s parent companies, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, were growing desperate, and there were fears that they might...…Listen12 minCommentGift ShareBy 2014, United Launch Alliance wasn’t the rocket industry stalwart it had been since its founding almost a decade earlier, when it had a monopoly on lucrative Pentagon contracts to lift national security satellites into orbit.Instead, the company was under intense pressure — were on the prowl, disrupting the industry and threatening to take a large chunk of ULA’s government business. the Russian-made engine the company used in its workhorse rocket. ULA’s parent companies, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, were growing desperate, and there were fears that they might...WW…

Listen13 minCommentGift ShareSEATTLE — In 2019, a mid-level employee at Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin had grown fed up with the company, and as he left, he wrote a long memo that he sent to Bezos, chief executive Bob Smith and other senior leaders: “Our current culture is toxic to our success and many can see it spreading throughout the company.” The problems at the spaceflight company were “systemic,” according to the memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post and verified by two former employees familiar with the matter, and “the loss of trust in Blue’s leadership is common.”It was one of...…Listen13 minCommentGift ShareSEATTLE — In 2019, a mid-level employee at Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin had grown fed up with the company, and as he left, he wrote a long memo that he sent to Bezos, chief executive Bob Smith and other senior leaders: “Our current culture is toxic to our success and many can see it spreading throughout the company.” The problems at the spaceflight company were “systemic,” according to the memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post and verified by two former employees familiar with the matter, and “the loss of trust in Blue’s leadership is common.”It was one of...WW…

This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareNASA on Friday selected Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build spacecraft that would land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission.The award to SpaceX for the “human landing system” was a stunning announcement that marked another major victory for the hard-charging company that vaults it to the top tier of the nation’s aerospace companies and solidifies it as one of the space agency’s most trusted partners.In winning the $2.9 billion contract, SpaceX beat out Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, which had formed...…This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareNASA on Friday selected Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build spacecraft that would land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission.The award to SpaceX for the “human landing system” was a stunning announcement that marked another major victory for the hard-charging company that vaults it to the top tier of the nation’s aerospace companies and solidifies it as one of the space agency’s most trusted partners.In winning the $2.9 billion contract, SpaceX beat out Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, which had formed...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareStormtroopers wouldn’t have worked. Plus, it was taken by the , anyway.So Guardians it is. The Army has soldiers. The Navy has sailors. The Marines have, well, you know. And now the Space Force has Guardians.In a speech at the White House on Friday afternoon commemorating the one-year anniversary of the newest branch of the Armed Forces, Vice President Pence made the announcement, saying the Guardians would “ensure that America remains as dominant in space, and from space, as we are on land and sea and air.”No, it had...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareStormtroopers wouldn’t have worked. Plus, it was taken by the , anyway.So Guardians it is. The Army has soldiers. The Navy has sailors. The Marines have, well, you know. And now the Space Force has Guardians.In a speech at the White House on Friday afternoon commemorating the one-year anniversary of the newest branch of the Armed Forces, Vice President Pence made the announcement, saying the Guardians would “ensure that America remains as dominant in space, and from space, as we are on land and sea and air.”No, it had...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareWALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — Over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, down past Chincoteague toward the southern tip of the Eastern Shore, sits an isolated spit of shoreline, near a wildlife refuge, that is home to one of the most unusual, and little known, rocket launch sites in the country.Born as a Navy air station during World War II, it has launched more than 16,000 rockets, most of them small sounding vehicles used for scientific research. But the Wallops Flight Facility, which at the dawn of the Space Age played a role as a test...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareWALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — Over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, down past Chincoteague toward the southern tip of the Eastern Shore, sits an isolated spit of shoreline, near a wildlife refuge, that is home to one of the most unusual, and little known, rocket launch sites in the country.Born as a Navy air station during World War II, it has launched more than 16,000 rockets, most of them small sounding vehicles used for scientific research. But the Wallops Flight Facility, which at the dawn of the Space Age played a role as a test...WW…