Space news

NASA and the SLS teams have successfully launched the agency’s super heavy lift rocket which will facilitate humanity’s return to the Moon: this time to establish a permanent presence on our closest celestial neighbor. 

After years of delays, NASA’s Space Launch System lifted off for the first time Nov. 16, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a shakedown cruise around the moon.

NASA’s huge Space Launch System moon rocket finally took off from Florida for the first time early Wednesday after a decade in development, sending an unpiloted Orion crew capsule toward lunar orbit on a 25-day test flight to lay a path for astronauts to return to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Two weeks after SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch in three and a half years, the US Space Force says that the rocket...

NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket relied on advanced guidance algorithms, powerful cryogenic engines, and millions of lines of software code to get it off the ground for the first time Wednesday. But “there are also times when you’ve just got to put a wrench on a nut,” NASA’s Artemis ground systems program manager said. That’s what NASA did in final hours of the Artemis 1 mission’s countdown late Tuesday night, when the launch team called upon a “red crew” of two technicians and a safety engineer to tighten nuts around a leaky hydrogen valve.

To the moon, again!

NASA has awarded a contract modification to SpaceX to further develop its Starship human landing system to meet agency requirements for long-term human exploration of the Moon under Artemis.

Experts from NASA and other institutions will be available by teleconference at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 17, to answer media questions about early science results from the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA will host a media briefing on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m. EST to share early results from the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) technology demonstration.

Acme AtronOmatic, vendor of the MyRadar app, is looking beyond weather forecasts to wildfire detection and mitigation with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency plans to double its spending on contracts to monitor global economic activity from space.

"We are going," NASA says. "We sure hope so," America replies.

European space officials are stressing a need for greater autonomy and sovereign capabilities going forward in the wake of geopolitical trends and developments.

NASA will provide coverage as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a series of spacewalks in November and December outside the International Space Station to prepare hardware on the Rassvet module for installation on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

Our lifetime love of space exploration can start when we are very young. And so, we have developed the Planetary Academy, a 100% space-related membership created for kids 10 years old and younger.

A satellite communications payload Boeing developed for the U.S. Space Force successfully demonstrated it can prevent jamming attacks, the company said Nov. 15

USOS Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #81 (1B IROSA Prep): Today, Josh Cassada (EV1) and Frank Rubio (EV2) performed the 1B ISS Roll Out Solar Array (IROSA) Prep EVA. Hatch opening occurred at 8:13 AM CT. The main goal of this EVA was to route cables on both the 3A and 1B Mod kits and install the …

French satellite fleet operator Eutelsat said Nov. 15 its board has approved multi-orbit plans to combine with British broadband venture OneWeb, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

South Korea’s robotic lunar orbiter Danuri successfully demonstrated “space internet” on its way to the moon by sending video and photo files, including a popular Korean band’s music video, at a distance of more than 1.2 million kilometers to Earth.

LEOcloud, a startup focused on space-based edge computing, announced a strategic collaboration agreement Nov. 15 with commercial space station provider Axiom Space.

NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program, prime launch processing contractor Jacobs, and their Artemis launch team partners have adapted their countdown procedures headed into the next attempt to send Artemis I on its way to the Moon. Liquid hydrogen (LH2) leaks seen while filling the SLS Core Stage on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida stopped past launch attempts and rehearsals in the spring and summer.

Space Perspective, a company offering tourist flights into the stratosphere, is buying a ship it plans to use as an oceangoing launch platform for its balloons.

Kayhan Space and Morpheus Space announced a strategic partnership Nov. 15 to offer satellite operators a “one-click” collision-avoidance service.

Benchmark Space Systems has nearly tripled its staff and established manufacturing facilities to produce as many as 1,000 engines in the United States and United Kingdom over five years.

NASA is proceeding with its next Artemis 1 launch attempt on Nov. 16 after concluding that loose caulk on the Orion spacecraft did not pose a significant risk.

Despite several setbacks and delays, NASA's Artemis I mission successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2022.

GeoOptics Inc. won a NASA contract worth with a maximum value of $7 million over five years to provide data acquired by the company’s small satellite constellation to researchers.

Around eight months after announcing its intention to do so, NASA has awarded SpaceX a contract for a second crewed Starship Moon...

NASA has awarded SpaceX a $1.15 billion contract to develop an upgraded version of its Starship lunar lander and fly a second crewed mission.

For the 12th consecutive year, NASA has received an unmodified or “clean” opinion from an external auditor on its fiscal year 2022 financial statements.

U.S. Space Command announced Nov. 15 it is adding a new component to its organization to help coordinate operations and speed up the delivery of space services to military forces in the field.

ClearSpace, the Swiss orbital debris removal startup, said Nov. 14 it is planning a mission to extend the life of an Intelsat satellite before it runs out of fuel around 2026-2028.

Three senior engineers and program executives left satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital late last week amid disagreements over the company’s direction

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 4:19 p.m. EST Monday, Nov. 21, to launch the company’s 26th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.

A SpaceX Starship booster has successfully fired up 14 of its 33 Raptor engines, likely becoming the most powerful active rocket in...

After 3.5 years, 18,000 orbits of the Earth, and 8 million kilometers (5 million miles) traveled, The Planetary Society’s successful LightSail 2 solar sail spacecraft will burn up as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere in the next few days.

NASA has awarded contracts to Air Products and Chemicals Inc. of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Linde Inc. of Danbury, Connecticut, to supply up to approximately 15 million pounds of liquid hydrogen for use at facilities across the agency.

SpaceX successfully launched a second pair of C-band replacement satellites for Intelsat over the weekend on the final flight of a frequently used Falcon 9 booster.

Booster 7 is set to resume its static fire test campaign as soon as Monday with a short firing of half of its engines in what is hoped to be the significant event before the long-awaited 33-engine static fire test. This milestone will put the Super Heavy booster one step closer to being ready for Starship’s first orbital flight.

"That is a huge, huge step for the agency."

Payloads: Cellbox-3: Two Cellbox-3 Spheroid Aggregation and Viability in Space (SHAPE) experiment containers (ECs) were removed from the Space Technology and Advanced Research Systems-1 (STaARS-1) experiment facility and placed into Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) +4° C cold stowage. Cellbox-3 contains two experiments that investigate cell behavior in microgravity, forming 3D structures that …

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

An unbiased industry source is back for more space policy spitballing.

A NASA-funded cubesat successfully completed a maneuver to enter orbit around the moon Nov. 13.

NASA managers Monday reviewed the threat posed by hurricane-damaged insulation on the agency’s Artemis moon rocket and cleared the $4.1 billion booster for launch “as is” early Wednesday to kick off a long-delayed flight to boost an unpiloted Orion crew capsule around the moon and back.

Toronto-based Space Flight Laboratory won a contract to support development of HawkEye 360 satellites to pinpoint the location of radio frequency signals.

ABL Space Systems could launch the first test flight of its one-ton class RS1 rocket from Alaska as soon as this week, after securing a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, the company said Sunday.

The head of a Venus mission delayed at least three years by NASA in response to problems with another mission says she will attempt to shorten that delay.

For the first time since January 2020, SpaceX has intentionally expended a Falcon 9 booster instead of attempting to recover the rocket...

NASA managers cleared the agency’s leak-bedeviled Artemis moon rocket for the start of another countdown early Monday, but engineers must resolve questions about hurricane-damaged insulation before the huge booster can be cleared for blastoff on an unpiloted moonshot.