Space news

OneWeb’s broadband network will get a boost from SpaceX, which operates its own internet constellation, with the launch of 40 satellites on top of a Falcon 9 rocket set for Thursday from Kennedy Space Center.

Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, told an audience of space entrepreneurs that he is trying to drive a sense of urgency in military procurements.

Mangata Networks, the U.S.-based startup founded by a former OneWeb executive, said Dec. 5 it signed a $100 million financing deal to build a manufacturing facility in Scotland for its multi-orbit broadband constellation.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will discuss the agency’s climate portfolio at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 8 from NASA Headquarters in Washington.

While SpaceX’s near-term manifest continues to be impacted by an abrupt uptick in unexplained delays, the company appears to be on track...

NASA is supporting a nationwide initiative to provide nutritious and hands-on educational kits to children, teachers, and families in need. Members of the media are invited in-person to the next event in Washington to learn more about the Artemis Learning Lunchbox initiative from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, as well as agency astronauts.

The Office of Space Commerce and the Department of Defense announced Dec. 6 they have selected seven commercial firms to prototype space traffic data platforms

Blue Origin has quietly been making progress on its orbital New Glenn vehicle, evident by new hardware and test sightings. This progress has been made alongside the ongoing investigation into an in-flight abort of the fourth suborbital New Shepard mission of the year, which continues to keep that program grounded.

Payloads: Biological Research In Canisters-26 (BRIC-26): BRIC-26 hardware was inserted into the BRIC-LED facility and activated to begin the experiment. Previous research shows that exposure to microgravity affects microbial characteristics such as virulence and environmental resistance, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these changes are unclear. BRIC-26 measures the effect of exposure to microgravity on three …

NASA is now three weeks into a 25.5-day test flight of the Orion spacecraft.

Landspace is preparing for a test launch of its Zhuque-2 rocket in what could be a marker for the progress being made by Chinese commercial launch companies.

Slingshot Aerospace announced Dec. 6 it has raised $40.8 million in a Series A2 funding round.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft flew by the moon for a second and final time Dec. 5, performing a maneuver that sets up the spacecraft for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in six days.

For the sixth time this year, SpaceX has returned the same Super Heavy booster prototype to its South Texas Starship factory after...

Mynaric selected a cybersecurity tool from Redwire and BigBear.ai for an inter-satellite laser communications terminal being developed for DARPA

The Pentagon’s top research official has directed the Defense Science Board to examine the military’s growing reliance on commercial space technology and its implications.

Ukrainian startup Promin Aerospace remains on track to conduct the first test of its small satellite launch technology early next year, in spite of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.

Flying just 80 miles off the lunar surface, NASA’s Orion capsule fired its main engine Monday to slingshot around the moon and set a course for splashdown Dec. 11 in the Pacific Ocean to complete the Artemis 1 test flight. The unpiloted spacecraft relayed home ethereal real-time views of the moon’s cratered surface and a crescent Earth suspended in the blackness of space a quarter-million miles away.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has named Bradley Flick director of the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, effective immediately. The administrator also has named Dave Mitchell to fill the role as acting director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, effective Jan. 1.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is expanding its Starlink satellite technology into military applications with a new business line called Starshield.

USOS 3A ISS Roll Out Solar Array (IROSA) Install Extravehicular Activity (EVA): This past weekend on Saturday EV1 (Josh Cassada) and EV2 (Frank Rubio) conducted USOS EVA #82. The main goal of this EVA was to install and deploy the 3A IROSA and perform a 1B cable demate. Hatch opening occurred at 6:16 AM CT. …

Wagner Group soldiers are well-trained to identify those attired in NATO clothing.

Greg Wyler’s megaconstellation startup E-Space said Dec. 5 it plans to buy radio frequency module developer CommAgility in a $14.5 million deal.

The growth of space situational awareness (SSA) capabilities worldwide, intended to better track satellites and debris in orbit, could instead create confusion for satellite operators, one official warned.

"I would say that we’re going to try our best to get there."

Chris Pearson, former Roccor CEO and Redwire executive vice president, is the new CEO of Durango, Colorado-based propulsion startup Agile Space Industries.

Three Chinese astronauts landed Sunday after 182 days on China’s Tiangong space station, completing the busiest mission yet for the country’s human spaceflight program. The astronauts performed three spacewalks and assisted in the arrival and outfitting of two new lab modules at the Tiangong outpost.

The war in Ukraine has put on display military forces’ growing reliance on satellites and has created incentives to disrupt opponents’ access to space systems, said Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force

NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio headed outside the International Space Station Saturday for a seven-hour spacewalk to install and unfurl a new roll-out solar array recently delivered by a SpaceX cargo ship.

SpaceX on Dec. 2 revealed a new business segment called Starshield aimed at U.S. national security government agencies.

U.S. Central Command on Dec. 2 activated a Space Force component known as U.S. Space Forces-Central

NASA will provide live coverage of the Artemis I uncrewed Orion spacecraft’s return flyby of the Moon on Monday, Dec. 5, as well as its return to Earth on Sunday, Dec. 11.

The four RS-25 engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne successfully propelled the Core Stage, Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System, and Orion/Service Module stack into its initial Earth orbit during the system’s debut launch on Nov. 16, 2022.

Payloads: JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer-23 (J-SSOD-23):  Crewmembers observed the J-SSOD-23 deployed satellites.  J-SSOD-23 CubeSat deployment mission launched to the ISS aboard the NG-18 Cargo Vehicle. The CubeSats planned deployables are: PearlAfricaSat-1 (1U), Science, Technology, and Innovation Office of the President (Uganda); TAKA (2U) Kyushu Institute of Technology (Japan); ZIMSAT-1 (1U), Zimbabwe National Geospatial and …

OneWeb, as ever, is doing what it needs to do to survive.

OneWeb said SpaceX is slated to launch 40 of its satellites as early as Dec. 6 to complete almost 80% of its low Earth orbit broadband constellation.

Beleaguered rocket builder Astra is losing its highly touted chief engineer, Benjamin Lyon, the company disclosed in a securities filing Friday.

"Due to current market conditions, the company has elected not to proceed."

The FCC has partially approved SpaceX’s application for the second generation of its Starlink constellation, allowing the company to launch up to a quarter of the proposed 30,000 satellites while deferring action on the rest.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft started its trip back to Earth Dec. 1 with the first of two maneuvers that will put the spacecraft on course for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in a week and a half.

More than two and a half years after SpaceX began the process of securing regulatory approval for its next-generation Starlink constellation, the...

Rocket Lab USA is creating a separate entity to focus on U.S. defense and intelligence agency customers.

Continuing a “drama-free” test flight, NASA’s Orion spacecraft is set to fire its main engine Thursday to leave a distant orbit around the moon, heading for a flyby close to the lunar surface next week to swing onto a trajectory to bring it back to Earth for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11.

Eutelsat said Dec. 1 it has ordered a geostationary broadband satellite to support multi-orbit services in the Americas from 2026.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a key authorization to Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Thursday, granting approval for the company to move forward with launching up to 7,500 next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network.

NASA has awarded the Architect-Engineer Services Contract for Environmental Compliance and Restoration Services to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Dallas, to provide environmental compliance, monitoring, and remediation services at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) located in Ventura County, California.

Payloads: Human Research Facility Veggie Facility (HRF Veg): Profile of Mood States (POMS) short form questionnaires was completed.  The Pick-and-Eat Salad-Crop Productivity, Nutritional Value, and Acceptability to Supplement the ISS Food System investigation is a phased research project that includes Veg-04A, Veg-04B, Veg-05, and HRF Veg. This work addresses the need for a system to …

The Artemis I launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from LC-39B at the Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16, 2022, marked the first time in 11 years that the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) formerly used for the Space Shuttle program lit on a launch pad and hauled a spaceship out of Earth’s dense lower atmosphere.

2022 feels a lot like 1969. 

"BlueWalker 3 is a big shift in the constellation satellite issue."