Space news

NASA expects SpaceX to be ready to attempt a first orbital flight of its Starship vehicle, an essential element in the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration plans, as soon as early December, pending tests and regulatory approvals.

A third module has arrived at China’s space station, completing the construction of the country’s crewed orbital outpost.

Barring last-minute offers from potential buyers or investors, SpaceLink, a startup developing a space-relay constellation, will wind down its operations.

X2R21 Transition Activities: As part of the X2R21 software updates occurring this week, the crew attached Portable Computer System (PCS) laptops to the Joint Station LAN (JSL) so they could be imaged from the ground. After imaging, the N2, Airlock, Lab, and SM PCS laptops were reconnected to 1553. The X2R21 software updates will provide …

Lockheed Martin is increasing its stake in small satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital with a $100 million investment.

Was the Falcon Heavy a mistake by SpaceX?

A weekly European spaceflight update with exclusive infographics, in-depth analysis, and a review of the week's biggest announcements.

Stunning views of Europa and the Eagle Nebula headline our roundup of space images released last month.

We can probably expect reentry into Earth's atmosphere to occur about a week from today.

Australia has pledged not to conduct direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile testing, throwing its weight behind the U.S.-driven initiative launched in April to promote the peaceful and safe use of outer space.

NASA and the European Space Agency have selected a location on Mars to cache samples collected by the Perseverance rover, one step in the overall process of returning those samples to Earth.

China has conducted a series of successful hot fire tests for engines designed to power a launch vehicle capable of sending astronauts to the moon.

An Amazon executive says that the company could still call on SpaceX to launch some of its Project Kuiper internet satellites after...

NASA says the Psyche mission, a robotic asteroid explorer that missed a launch opportunity this year due to software testing problems, has been rescheduled for liftoff from Florida in October 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

The final flight of an Atlas 5 rocket from California has been delayed from Tuesday until no earlier than Nov. 9 to replace a battery on the launcher’s Centaur upper stage, United Launch Alliance and NASA officials said.

NASA has restored plans to include a lunar landing on its Artemis 4 mission to the moon later this decade, months after saying that the mission would instead be devoted to assembly of the lunar Gateway.

China launched its second space station module of the year aboard a Chang Zheng 5B rocket Monday. The Mengtian module lifted off at 07:37 UTC, and once docked will complete the initial phase of the construction for China’s Tiangong space station.

NorthStar Earth and Space, a company planning a constellation of satellites to collect space situational awareness data, will launch its first satellites in mid-2023 with Virgin Orbit.

The first chief of space operations Gen. John 'Jay' Raymond retires Nov. 2 after 38 years of military service

The launch of a polar-orbiting weather satellite and reentry technology demonstration will be delayed more than a week because of a battery problem with the upper stage of their rocket, NASA announced Oct. 29.

NAME // James Cusin

A NASA mission to an asteroid that missed its launch window this fall because of technical issues has been rescheduled for launch next October.

Satcoms equipment maker SatixFy started trading publicly Oct. 28 after its stock listing overcame waning investor interest in blank check mergers and the death of its co-founder and former CEO.

82 Progress (82P) Docking: Following the completion of a 34-orbit rendezvous, 82P successfully docked to the ISS Poisk Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM-2) Zenith port yesterday at 9:49 PM CT. The crew then performed leak checks, opened hatches, and began unloading cargo. Carrying food, fuel, and supplies, 82P launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Tuesday, October …

NASA will host a media teleconference at 12 p.m. EDT Thursday, Nov. 3, to discuss the status of its Artemis I flight test that will launch the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The uncrewed mission will send the Orion spacecraft beyond the Moon and back to Earth before future missions with crew.

The agency’s Perseverance rover will establish the first sample depot on Mars.

NASA and commercial cargo provider Northrop Grumman are targeting 5:50 a.m. EST, Sunday, Nov. 6, for launch of the company’s 18th resupply mission to the International Space Station.

An especially spooky Halloween edition of The Downlink.

SpaceX fired up 27 engines on a Falcon Heavy rocket Thursday night at Kennedy Space Center, sending a rumble across the spaceport in a hold-down test-firing before a launch next week for the U.S. Space Force.

Preparations for the next attempt to launch the Space Launch System rocket on the Artemis 1 mission remain on schedule for the middle of November, but agency officials said launch opportunities may be limited if it slips to later in the month because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

"When the briefing ended, I was baffled and, if I’m honest, angry."

Chinese commercial firm Changguang Satellite Technology says it will expand its under-construction Jilin-1 constellation from 138 to 300 satellites.

SpaceX fired a Falcon 9 rocket off a launching stand in California at sunset Thursday, producing a twilight sky show visible as far away as Texas as the mission delivered 53 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit.

Russia’s Progress MS-21 resupply spacecraft completed an automated docking with the International Space Station Thursday to deliver more than 2.7 tons of cargo to the lab’s seven-person crew.

A Russian official said at a UN meeting that commercial space systems "may become a legitimate target for retaliation.”

The unclassified version of the U.S. national defense strategy released by the Defense Department Oct. 27 forecasts a decades-long competition with China and lays out priorities for the military going forward.

The Planetary Society, the world’s largest and most influential space advocacy organization, seeks a talented Digital Community Manager to join our communications team on a 6-month temporary contract beginning no later than November 28, 2022.

Amazon VP Dave Limp said the availability of heavy-lift rockets to deploy Project Kuiper satellites is “a constrained resource."

The agency’s lander felt the ground shake during the impact while cameras aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the yawning new crater from space.

SpaceX’s 49th Falcon 9 flight of 2022 has lifted off from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California with 53 Starlink satellites. The launch occurred on time on Thursday, Oct. 27 at 6:14 PM PDT (01:14 UTC on Friday, Oct. 28). Falcon 9 launched to the southeast into a 53.2-degree inclined orbit to help fill out the fourth shell of Starlink satellites orbiting at 540 kilometers in altitude.

Payloads: Food Physiology: A diet briefing was attended between the crew and Principal Investigator team in support of the Food Physiology investigation. The Integrated Impact of Diet on Human Immune Response, the Gut Microbiota, and Nutritional Status During Adaptation to Spaceflight (Food Physiology) experiment is designed to characterize the key effects of an enhanced spaceflight …

"Western actions needlessly put at risk the sustainability of peaceful space activities."

NASA released the results of its second agencywide economic impact report on Thursday, demonstrating how its Moon to Mars activities, climate change research and technology, as well as other work generated more than $71.2 billion in total economic output during fiscal year 2021.

In the kickoff to the reusability roadmap for the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket, the flight of an inflatable heat shield at a relevant scale will be demonstrated as a secondary payload on the next Atlas V rocket launch.

The re-entry experiment launching Nov. 1 aboard the Atlas V rocket pays tribute to a former United Launch Alliance (ULA) teammate who advocated for advancements in technology that would innovate launch vehicle reusability and could be used to land hu...

After knocking out some figurative cobwebs, SpaceX has test-fired a Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time since June 2019. Shortly before...

Gomspace delayed the release of financial results Oct. 27 as the European smallsat maker tries to get a major commercial customer to pay its bills.

The Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Air Force announced Oct. 26 they selected five companies to help build weather models using data from satellites, aerial and terrestrial sensors.

SpaceX started taking pre-orders Oct. 25 for a flat panel antenna that enables land vehicles to use its Starlink broadband service while in motion.

Quantum Space, a company founded earlier this year to develop spacecraft platforms in cislunar space, announced plans Oct. 26 for its first smallsat pathfinder mission that will collect space situational awareness data.