Space news

Next-generation spacesuits, needed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station and by moonwalkers in the agency’s Artemis program, will be provided by two companies competing for contracts valued at up to $3.5 billion through 2034, NASA officials announced Wednesday.

US Federal Aviation Administration says that its environmental review of SpaceX’s plan to conduct orbital Starship launches out of South Texas has...

NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 67 crew aboard the International Space Station.

Cash-strapped smallsat operator Astrocast announced plans May 30 to buy Dutch connectivity solutions provider Hiber, which scrapped plans for its own constellation last year following failures on its initial satellites.

"When you say asteroid mining, people laugh at you."

Sierra Space announced May 31 a strategic partnership with aerospace manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems for production of cargo modules for its Dream Chaser vehicles.

A Long March 5B rocket has arrived at Wenchang spaceport as China gears up to send its second space station module into orbit.

In what appears to be a tit-for-tat move against Quad nations’ launch of a satellite-based maritime domain awareness initiative for the Indo-Pacific region, China has rolled out a similar campaign with its four BRICS partners.

Members of the House Science Committee used a hearing about the planetary science decadal survey to criticize a proposal in NASA’s budget request to delay work on a space telescope to track near Earth objects.

SpaceX workers have been spotted repairing the company’s newest Starship prototype in the days after the rocket’s first partial test. Starship S24...

Dust storms and changing seasons will limit the ability of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter to fly for the next several months, a project engineer said May 27.

Over the past five months, the James Webb Space Telescope and the joint NASA, European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency teams behind the project have been working towards the completion of the observatory’s six-month-long commissioning phase at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 (L2). With the observatory’s mirrors recently completing alignment, Webb and its teams are preparing for the all-important and historic first image from the observatory.

The Space Force funded eight launches in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. Five were assigned to United Launch Alliance and three to SpaceX.

A bipartisan group of House members is proposing to increase funding for tactically responsive launch to $150 million in 2023

The first launch of the Orbex Prime ‘eco-rocket’ from a remote launch pad in the Highlands of Scotland is expected at the end of the year or in early 2023. A full-scale prototype of Prime, billed as the world’s most environmentally-friendly rocket, was unveiled to the public for the first time this month.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed the first technical details about the company’s next-generation Starlink ‘Gen2’ satellite design, confirming that it will...

China is preparing to launch three astronauts to its Tiangong space station to oversee a crucial phase of construction of the orbital outpost.

NASA has tentatively scheduled the next attempt to fuel the Space Launch System and go through a practice countdown for June 19, two weeks after the vehicle returns to the launch pad.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is preparing to launch its Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), recently named Danuri. Danuri is South Korea’s first of many planned lunar missions in the coming future. This mission is developed and operated by KARI with contributions from NASA. A SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch Danuri on August 2, 2022.

NASA is starting a study to reexamine the viability of space-based solar power, a long-touted solution to providing power from space that may be getting new interest thanks to technological advances and pushes for clean energy.

SpaceX said May 27 that Nigeria has joined Mozambique as the first countries in Africa to approve its Starlink broadband services.

Ball Aerospace and Raytheon Intelligence & Space will begin developing ocean color sensors for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s next generation of geostationary weather satellites under contracts announced May 26.

Imagery has come down from Mars capturing a recent fight in which the rotorcraft flew farther and faster than ever before.

British small satellite startup Open Cosmos said May 27 it has secured European Space Agency funding to develop plans for a space weather monitoring constellation.

Distant robots run into problems, and distant worlds hold onto secrets — for now.

The Philippines has approved plans that will see it become the first country in Southeast Asia to access SpaceX’s Starlink broadband services.

Astroscale has secured European Space Agency funding for a 2024 demo mission to remove what will likely be a OneWeb satellite.

China is looking to land spacecraft near permanently shadowed regions near the south pole of the moon to investigate the potential presence of resources trapped in craters.

For the first time in more than nine months, SpaceX has rolled a new Starship prototype to its Starbase, Texas launch facilities...

"I probably can’t express in words what it meant for me."

NASA plans to haul its huge Space Launch System moon rocket back to the launch pad June 5-6 for a fourth attempt to load it with 730,000 gallons of supercold propellants in a dress-rehearsal countdown to clear the way for a maiden test flight later this summer, officials said Friday.

NASA will announce at 2 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. CDT) Wednesday, June 1, the company, or companies, selected to move forward in developing the next generation of spacesuits for Artemis missions at the Moon and the International Space Station during an event at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

General Dynamics Mission Systems won a $324.5 million contract to operate the ground systems and manage network operations of the Space Development Agency’s low Earth orbit constellation.

The Space Systems Command announced May 26 the official rollout of a new process to assess the cybersecurity of commercial satellite operators that do business with the Defense Department.

NASA has selected hundreds of small businesses and dozens of research institutions to develop technology to help drive the future of space exploration, ranging from novel sensors and electronics to new types of software and cutting-edge materials.

SpaceX’s first dedicated Falcon Heavy launch for NASA has been hit by a seven-week delay after spacecraft engineers discovered a software anomaly...

SpaceX launched several dozen payloads on its fifth dedicated rideshare mission May 25, illustrating the continued demand for such missions even as dedicated small launch vehicles emerge.

Spacecraft developers are additively manufacturing engine nozzles and other complex spacecraft components.

Broader economic issues as well as the performance of some space companies could slow the growth of the industry in the next few years, executives warn.

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 12 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 27, to discuss the status of the next wet dress rehearsal test of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.

The recent focus at Starbase has been Booster 7 and Ship 24. Booster 7 appears to have completed its series of cryogenic proof testing and is now being prepared for static fire tests. Ship 24, meanwhile, has rolled out to the launch site for its own cryogenic tests ahead of engine install, static fires, and once paired with a booster, the orbital flight test.

"That’s really what this commercial crew program has been all about."