Space news

Quindar has raised an additional $6 million to further development of software to automate operations of satellite constellations.

Following a year of testing, the German space agency DLR has validated that its miniaturized satellite laser ranging (SLR) solution is a realistic alternative to traditional solutions. With SLR, a ground station fires a laser beam in short pulses at a target satellite in orbit. The beam hits the target and is reflected back to […] The post DLR Validate Miniaturized Satellite Laser Ranging Solution appeared first on European Spaceflight.

China will attempt to land on the illuminated rim of Shackleton crater near the lunar south pole with its 2026 Chang’e-7 mission.

OOX announced the appointment of Feher, who has held management and technical roles at Lockheed Martin, Maxar Technologies, Momentus Space and SpaceRyde.

PLD Space has secured 40.5 million euros ($43.8 million) from the Spanish government after completing a preliminary design review of its Miura 5 launch vehicle.

JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, has resumed operations on the lunar surface. SLIM landed upside down because of an engine failure leaving the solar cells pointing in […]

Grasp is moving ahead with plans to establish a 10-satellite constellation in the next four years.

The NG-20 mission has flown the Cygnus spacecraft S.S. Patricia Hilliard Robertson to a path that will take it to the International Space Station. However, as a first, it has launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 instead of an Antares rocket. This will be the first of three Cygnus missions to fly aboard Falcon 9 for Northrop Grumman to fulfill its cargo delivery contract while the new Antares 330 is under development.

BALTIMORE – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) constellation could provide valuable data on methane emissions. With imagery from the GOES Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), […]

Eutelsat expects to take a 7% revenue hit as delays securing landing rights in India, Thailand, Turkey, and elsewhere prevent the OneWeb broadband constellation it finished launching nearly a year ago from providing global coverage before the second half of 2024.

Retired U.S. Space Force Col. Chad Davis was named director of sigint programs

ISS Reboost: On January 27th at 5:39 AM CST, the ISS performed a nominal reboost using the 85P Aft Progress rendezvous and docking (R&D) thrusters on SM Aft. The purpose of this reboost was to set up the proper phasing conditions for the 87P launch and rendezvous in February, as well as the subsequent 71S …

Eutelsat OneWeb has sold its 50% share of the factory that built more than 600 satellites for its low Earth orbit constellation to Airbus, the operator’s joint venture partner.

While NASA and its international partners look to the Moon and beyond under the Artemis Program, the mid to late 2020s will see a dramatic shift to the landscape of Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The International Space Station, which has served as the hub of human space exploration for 25 years, is going to be retired. The precise timing of the ISS’ retirement has become somewhat dubious recently; different involved parties have differing opinions on how long the station can be made to last, but one thing remains clear: the future of LEO stations will be commercial in nature. Under the Commercial LEO Destinations program at least two privately operated space stations will be in place by the time the ISS is deorbited, assuming all goes to plan. Privately developed, launched, and assembled space stations will be maintained by privately operated crew and cargo spacecraft, a dramatic shift from the landscape the ISS was born from. The emergence of private space stations remains a part of years yet to come, but the transition from government to commercial spaceflight has been ongoing for many years now.

A satellite refueling nozzle developed by Northrop Grumman is the first to be selected as a preferred standard for U.S. military satellites.

With the number of spacecraft launches doubling every two years, Edward Lu argues we must prepare for a "Moore's Law" for space.

"I think of the civilizations in those galaxies looking back at the Milky Way."

Japan’s SLIM moon lander has resumed operations more than a week after its imperfect yet historic lunar landing.

Ingenuity packed more computing power than all other NASA deep space missions combined.

The booster storage building (BSB) is currently under construction at the Guiana Space Centre on the grounds of the Ariane 6 launch facility (ELA-4). Once complete, the building will be a key element in enabling the rapid ramp-up of Ariane 6 flights. Measuring 60 metres long by 28 metres wide and 32 metres high, the […] The post Construction of Ariane 6 Booster Storage Building Continues appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of January 28-February 3, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in […]

NASA announced its Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, had ended its mission after experiencing an anomaly during its 72nd flight on Jan. 18. Images recovered after the flight showed severe damage to at least one of the aircraft’s rotor blades, making further flights impossible. The damage spelled the end for the small helicopter that made history in 2021, when it became the first aircraft to ever fly on another planet.

A Cygnus cargo spacecraft is set to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time, a combination that required more changes to the rocket than to the spacecraft.

The space sector’s on the tail end of a boom-and-bust cycle. While many companies battened down the hatches to survive, a few publicly-traded names are running on fumes.

Kratos Space & Missile Defense Systems, L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne Coleman Aerospace, and Corvid Technologies were awarded indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts for Sounding Rocket Program-4.

PLD Space has won the second and final round of a Spanish government call to develop sovereign launch capabilities. On 30 January 2023, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the country’s Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), published a call for the development of a small satellite launcher for which it had […] The post Spanish Government Awards €40.5M Loan to PLD Space for Miura 5 appeared first on European Spaceflight.

A NASA spacecraft orbiting the Moon has spotted JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, that landed on the surface last week. The lander already was imaged much more […]

Virgin Galactic conducted its first suborbital mission of 2024 on Jan. 26 as the company prepares end flights of its current spaceplane.

The Federal Communications Commission has clarified, but not altered, rules to mitigate orbital debris.

The United States government has called on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to throw out a lawsuit from Ligado Networks seeking $40 billion over the company’s derailed wireless network plans.

Final preparations are underway for the launch of Northrop Grumman’s 20th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (NG-20), currently set to launch on January 29th 2024. This mission’s Cygnus spacecraft, named after astronaut Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson, will be delivering food, supplies, equipment, and science experiments to the Space Station’s Expedition 70 astronauts 254 miles above the Earth’s surface.

As Internet of Things (IoT) components proliferate in satellites, new cybersecurity risks must be addressed.

Medical researchers and commercial spaceflight advocates are working to begin a new effort to study the health issues and risks that space travel poses to a more diverse population of private astronauts.

ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt successfully completed a series of tests for the Surface Avatar project that included controlling Bert, a four-legged robot developed by DLR. The Surface Avatar project was launched in 2020 and is being run by the German space agency DLR in partnership with ESA. The project aims to develop technology that […] The post ESA Astronaut Aboard Space Station Controls Robot on Earth appeared first on European Spaceflight.

"Our investors’ continued support is a recognition of our 18 months of hard work."

Zeno Power Systems is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy to recycle decades-old radioactive material to produce radioisotope power sources.

Northrop Grumman has taken another charge on its contract to build a module for NASA’s lunar Gateway, bringing its losses for the year on that program to $100 million.

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has made its last flight on Mars. The plucky technology demonstrator that engineers were not sure would fly at all in the thin Martian atmosphere made 72 […]

Lockheed Martin and Boeing each won a $66 million contract to design a narrowband communications satellite to expand the existing network known as the Mobile User Objective System.

SpaceX is deep into preparations for the next Starship flight, focusing on the Orbital Launch Pad (OLP). Booster 10 and Ship 28 are set to return to the launch site in the coming week or two, ahead of a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) that will set the stage for the third launch of the world’s largest and most powerful rocket.

SpaceX is deep into preparations for the next Starship flight, focusing on the Orbital Launch Pad (OLP). Booster 10 and Ship 28 are set to return to the launch site in the coming week or two, ahead of a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) that will set the stage for the third launch of the world’s largest and most powerful rocket.

On January 25, 2024, NASA’s Ingenuity mission officially concluded. The small, autonomous helicopter performed 72 flights on Mars, the first time an aircraft has flown on another planet. This mission far exceeded the 5 planned demonstration flights and captivated the world, following the journey of the intrepid little helicopter that could as it soared to new heights on the Red Planet.

The European Commission is joining forces with the European Space Agency and Europe’s investment arm to help more space companies get financing, including from a largely untapped multi-billion-dollar fund for strategic investments.

NASA has declared the end of the mission for the Ingenuity Mars helicopter after 72 flights, exceeding even the most optimistic expectations.

It will take a coalition of government agencies working with the private sector to tackle the grand challenge here: comprehensive, sustained, operational monitoring to drive methane and CO2 emission reductions globally.

It will take a coalition of government agencies working with the private sector to tackle the grand challenge here: comprehensive, sustained, operational monitoring to drive methane and CO2 emission reductions globally.

NASA has proven powered, controlled flight is possible on other worlds, just as the Wright brothers proved it was possible on Earth.

Ingenuity has spent more than two hours flying above Mars since April 2021.

NASA’s history-making Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has ended its mission at the Red Planet after surpassing expectations and making dozens more flights than planned. While the helicopter remains upright and in communication with ground controllers, imagery of its Jan. 18 flight sent to Earth this week indicates one or more of its rotor blades sustained damage during landing and it is no longer capable of flight.

Typically, the quarterly reports of U.S. defense giants are a bit of a snooze for space sector watchers. While these companies have space divisions that bring in billions of revenue each year, and I dutifully check in each quarter to see how things are going, the defense primes’ leadership often treat space as a bit of an afterthought.