Space & Aerospace
Launch, satellites, astronomy and aviation.
The Myth of Certainty: Why the NASA Commercial Crew Program and Others Can't Escape Slippage
A commentary on the endemic nature of delays in the rocket industry, focusing on the NASA Commercial Crew Program and the broader reality that launch dates are rarely hit.
Lineage Matters: Why Hyena Matriarchs Accumulate Long-Term Success
A deep dive into how generational pedigree analysis in spotted hyenas reveals a powerful new mechanism for reproductive inequality, flipping the long-standing Darwin-Bateman paradigm.
Regret, Space Exploration, and the Human Experience
An exploration of regret that reframes it from a source of emotional stagnation into a compassionate tool for growth, while navigating its impact through a reflective lens.
NASA Commercial Crew Program: The Draft RFP That Changed Everything
An analysis of NASA's latest draft request for proposals, detailing the agency's requirements for private partners tasked with developing and operating commercial space stations as the ISS approaches retirement.
Beyond 2030: Navigating the Future After Crew Dragon
An analysis of NASA's dependency on SpaceX's Crew Dragon and exploring long-term alternatives for manned spaceflight beyond the next decade.
FAA Clears SpaceX Starship to Fly Again: What Went Wrong With the Booster and How It Was Fixed
The FAA has cleared SpaceX to resume Starship test flights after the company identified and fixed the probable cause of its Super Heavy booster's failure during a May 2026 flight, with the next launch targeting July 16 carrying first third-generation Starlink satellites.
Why Venus and Mars Lost Their Atmospheres — And Why Earth Didn't
New James Webb Space Telescope observations confirm helium loss from the rocky exoplanet WASP-107b, demonstrating how stellar radiation can strip even heavier elements from planetary atmospheres — a process that helps explain why Venus and Mars lost their primordial atmospheres while Earth retained its own.
New Navigation Satellites in Low Earth Orbit Could Provide 100 Times Stronger Signal Than GPS
Exploring next-generation navigation satellite systems in low Earth orbit that promise dramatically stronger signal strength compared to traditional GPS constellations, potentially revolutionizing positioning and navigation capabilities.
Kevin Weil Joins Stoke Space Board as Reusable Rocket Ambition Heats Up
Kevin Weil, a veteran tech executive with stints at Twitter, Meta, Planet Labs, and OpenAI, has joined the board of Stoke Space—ushering in a new phase for the Seattle startup’s push to deliver the first truly reusable rocket in the competitive aerospace landscape.
Clearing the Orbital Bottleneck: Why Space.com: NASA, Space Exploration and Astronomy News Will Depend on Laser Links
Ravee Optics raises a $6 million seed round to address LEO bandwidth constraints, a key challenge for space-based AI compute networks and aerospace technology.
Starship Flight 13 Cleared: SpaceX Ready for Next-Generation Payload Tests and Flight 12 Fixes
Following FAA clearance of SpaceX's Flight 12 investigation, Starship Flight 13 is targeting launch on Thursday, July 16, 2026. The mission will fly the second Version 3 configuration, carrying 20 functional Starlink V3 satellites, and attempt key engine relights and splashdowns.
The Next Gap Is Already in the Sky: What Happens When Falcon 9 Rears Down
With SpaceX shifting focus to Starship and Boeing’s Starliner stuck in certification limbo, a new U.S. human spaceflight gap looms as the ISS nears retirement in 2030—leaving no reliable domestic ride to orbit.