Year in Space: Jeff Bezos and his billionaire rivals finally usher in the age of commercial spaceflight

Jeff Bezos uncorks the bubbly after riding Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. (Blue Origin Photo) For 25 years, I’ve been recapping the top stories about space…

Relativity hires Microsoft’s Scott Van Vliet to boost its Factory Operating System for 3D-printed rockets

Relativity Space uses giant 3-D printers to produce components for its Terran rockets. (Relativity Space Photo) Relativity Space, the startup that was founded in Seattle and is…

Amazon teams up with Lockheed Martin and Cisco to put Alexa voice assistant on NASA’s moon ship

The Callisto console will be tested in NASA’s Orion capsule. (Amazon / Lockheed Martin / Cisco Illustration) Alexa, when are we arriving at the moon? Putting Amazon’s…

Astronomers breathe a sigh of relief after Webb Telescope unfolds its mirror in space

NASA’s Bill Ochs and John Durning bump fists in celebration at the Space Telescope Science Institute after the James Webb Space Telescope’s deployment. (NASA Photo / Bill…

Mangata raises $33M for hybrid satellite network with connections to Seattle tech community

Mangata Networks aims to put satellites in medium Earth orbit, or MEO; and highly elliptical orbits, or HEO. (Mangata Graphic) BELLEVUE, Wash. — Mangata Networks, a Phoenix-based…

Space-focused SPAC brings in $287.5M with former Blue Origin president as CEO

Space industry executive Rob Meyerson speaks at the 2016 International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in New Mexico. (ISPCS via YouTube) A blank-check company that has…

Radian Aerospace comes out of stealth and raises $27.5M for orbital space plane development

An artist’s rendering shows Radian’s reusable space plane. (Radian Aerospace Illustration) More than five years after its founding, Renton, Wash.-based Radian Aerospace is emerging from stealth mode…

NASA gives a lift to 57 high-flying student experiments, including one from the Seattle area

NASA launches a Raven Aerostar high-altitude balloon. (NASA Photo / Bill Rodman) NASA has chosen 57 winning teams — including a team from Interlake High School in…

Webb Telescope fires thrusters to settle in at destination, a million miles from Earth

An artist’s conception shows the James Webb Space Telescope operating at L2, with the sun, Earth and moon behind its sunshield. (NASA Illustration) The $10 billion James…

Xplore makes a deal to use OrbAstro’s satellite platforms for space missions

An artist’s conception shows Xplore’s first satellite, which will use Orbital Astronautics’ ORB-6 platform for Earth observation and astronomical research. (OrbAstro Illustration) Redmond, Wash.-based Xplore has signed…