by Michael Belfiore | May 31, 2012 | Blog
That from SpaceX CEO and chief designer Elon Musk in a press conference today following the successful splashdown of the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon’s demo mission marks NASA’s return to...
by Michael Belfiore | May 25, 2012 | Blog
This morning the unmanned SpaceX Dragon spacecraft berthed with the International Space Station. It was the first commercial mission to the space station, and the first American vehicle there since the Space Shuttles retired last year. SpaceX came up from propulsion...
by Michael Belfiore | May 24, 2012 | Blog
If you want to make space travel truly affordable and turn it into a mainstream business, you have to do better than the conventional single-use designs that have been a standard for decades. Reusability is a major step in that direction, but as we’ve seen with...
by Michael Belfiore | May 22, 2012 | Blog
This morning at 3:44 a.m. ET, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, launched its Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The ship is now in orbit and on its way to dock with the International Space Station—if all goes well, on...
by Michael Belfiore | May 8, 2012 | Blog
The Chinese-language version of The Department of Mad Scientists, my book about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, hits the shelves in China next week. It’s been translated and sports a new cover for this edition. It’s amusing for me to think...
by Michael Belfiore | Apr 12, 2012 | Articles, Blog
The April 2012 issue of Scientific American has my article on the Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $30 million contest to land the first private robot on the moon. I got to spend time with leading team Astrobotic to craft the story and was very impressed by their potential...
