Space news

This year has seen two remarkable examples of competitors cooperating, with OneWeb and then Northrop Grumman buying launches from SpaceX – deals which would have seemed far-fetched before 2022. Left without rides to space, OneWeb and Northrop turned to one of their biggest rivals in satellite broadband and space cargo delivery, respectively.

Significant Items: Soyuz Coolant Leak: During preparation for RS EVA 56, coolant was seen leaking via external cameras from the external thermal control loop on the Soyuz 68S Instrumentation Module. MCC-M made a decision to cancel RS EVA 56 before crew opened the EV hatch. A commission has been formed to investigate this anomaly. Payloads: …

The first two spacecraft in an 11-satellite refresh of SES’s Medium Earth Orbit O3b internet constellation are poised to rocket into space from Cape Canaveral on Friday, less than two weeks after shipment to the Florida spaceport from a Boeing factory in California already fully fueled and integrated for launch.

A coolant leak in a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station Dec. 14 forced flight controllers to cancel a Russian spacewalk there and raised questions about the spacecraft’s ability to return to Earth safely.

A French-built satellite equipped with an innovative U.S.-made radar instrument is buttoned up for blastoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Friday from California, kicking off a mission to investigate the link between Earth’s water cycle and our planet’s changing climate.

A Russian Soyuz crew ferry ship docked to the International Space Station spewed particles of an unknown substance, presumably coolant fluid, into space Wednesday night, forcing two Russian cosmonauts to call off a planned spacewalk as engineers on the ground scrambled to determine the source and the effects of the leak.

After three hours Monday night the leak remained ongoing.

The first Electron launch from Wallops will mark what spaceport officials hope is the start of a new era of increased launch activity there.

Microsoft said Dec. 14 it is partnering with satellite operator Viasat to find solutions for bringing internet access to 10 million unserved and underserved people within three years.

U.S. government should “enact policies and incentives to keep U.S. LEO broadband companies competitive internationally," says a new CSIS report.

After more than two years of delays, NASA and Rocket Lab are finally ready to conduct the first Electron launch from Wallops Island in Virginia on Dec. 16.

A recently completed U.S. space strategy stresses the need to deploy resilient constellations that can operate under attack, and supports norms for responsible behavior in space

Satellite imagery and data company Planet reported record third-quarter revenue on Wednesday, forecasting nearly $200 million in annual revenue.

France’s TV regulator ordered Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat to stop broadcasting three Russian propaganda channels, reversing an earlier decision not to interfere.

The U.S. government has to face the prospect of having to rely on a single launch provider

Chinese launch company Landspace suffered failure Wednesday in what was the world's first attempt to achieve orbit with a methane-fueled rocket.

Payloads: JEM Water Recovery System (JWRS): The JWRS Gas Trap Module B and T-union were reconnected. The JWRS Valve Module SV-7 was reinstalled and the JWRS Bypass Line tube tip was cut as part of JWRS troubleshooting. The demonstration of JWRS generates potable water from urine. In the past, urine and wastewater were collected and …

"Flexing geopolitical muscles in space to harm others has already happened."

SpaceX has delayed the launch from California of a Falcon 9 rocket with a U.S.-French environmental monitoring satellite from Thursday to Friday, allowing more time to review the source of moisture in two of the launcher’s booster engines.

A European Ariane 5 rocket fired off a launching stand Tuesday in tropical South America with the vanguard of a modernized series of weather satellites to improve storm forecasts for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and two Intelsat television broadcasting satellites to cover the United States, a heavyweight payload totaling 12 tons.

Two African countries became the first from the continent to join the Artemis Accords as the United States works to bring more emerging space nations into the agreement.

Arianespace launched Europe’s most advanced weather-tracking spacecraft Dec. 13 along with a pair of satellites Intelsat needs to clear C-band spectrum in the United States.

2022 is one for the history books as NASA caps off another astronomical year.

Working with Congress? "It's easy as pie."

Arianespace has successfully lifted three satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on Tuesday from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana using the veteran Ariane 5 launcher.

Payloads: Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR): CIR Absorber Cartridge QDs (Quick Disconnects) were reconnected. The CIR includes an optics bench, combustion chamber, fuel and oxidizer control, and five different cameras for performing combustion investigations in microgravity. Dose Distribution Inside the International Space Station-3D (DOSIS-3D): DOSTEL-2 data and power cables were removed from DOSIS Main Box in …

Quantum Space has raised $15 million to further development of the first in a constellation of satellites intended to provide services in cislunar space.

The United Arab Emirates is a founding member of the Artemis Accords.

The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution calling for a halt to one type of anti-satellite (ASAT) testing, a largely symbolic move intended to support broader space sustainability initiatives.

SpaceX is in the final stages of preparing a trio of Falcon 9 rockets for a set of launches scheduled less than...

Elon Musk used Twitter to communicate SpaceX's ascent to the top of the space industry. What happens to Musk's space ambitions now that he owns Twitter?

ThinkOrbital, a space infrastructure startup, is designing an orbital platform aimed at commercial businesses, military and government agencies that want to manufacture products in orbit or recycle debris.

A technical issue likely knocked Iran’s Press TV temporarily off the air last week, Eutelsat said as the French satellite operator calls on partners to stop broadcasting the news channel to comply with European sanctions.

The first in a new generation of European weather satellites is set for launch Tuesday on a mission that promises to improve the timeliness and precision of weather forecasts for Europe and Africa, sharing a ride to space from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket with two Intelsat communications satellites.

United Launch Alliance (ULA), the prime contractor for the Space Launch System’s (SLS’s) Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), has declared the stage’s overall performance on the Artemis I mission as “perfect.”

"They have invested a lot of their own money into the suits."

Payloads: Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF): The Air Gas Bottle Unit was removed and an Argon Gas Bottle Unit Argon was installed. The ELF is an experimental facility designed to levitate/melt/solidify materials by container less processing techniques using the Electrostatic Levitation method. With this facility, thermophysical properties of high temperature melts can be measured, and solidification …

The successful conclusion of the Artemis 1 mission Dec. 11 won widespread support from politicians and industry, a sign of broad support for a program that has suffered extensive delays.

"It is the beginning of the new beginning."

Japanese lunar exploration company ispace began its long-anticipated first mission on Sunday, with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching the venture’s lunar lander from Florida.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 9:39 a.m. PST Sunday after a record-breaking mission, traveling more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and returning safely to Earth, completing the Artemis I flight test.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico on Sunday, completing the agency’s Artemis 1 mission.

Fifty years to the day after the last Apollo moon mission touched down on the lunar surface, NASA’s plans to return to the moon took a major step forward with the successful splashdown of the Orion spacecraft to end the Artemis 1 mission.

As Artemis 1 nears its conclusion, U.S. Space Command is using the mission to highlight its role in supporting NASA, even as the space agency considers alternatives to some of those services.

The Orion spacecraft has reached the end of its flight on the Artemis I mission, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja Coast near Guadalupe Island at 12:40 PM EST (17:40 UTC) on Sunday, Dec. 11.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral early Sunday with a commercial Japanese robotic moon lander and a NASA hitchhiker micro-payload called Lunar Flashlight that will seek out signs of water ice hidden in the permanently dark floors of craters at the moon’s poles.

A new era of commercial lunar missions started Dec. 11 with the Falcon 9 launch of a Japanese lander mission that also carried a NASA cubesat.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft parachuted to a gentle splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Sunday west of Baja California, marking the successful conclusion of the unpiloted Artemis 1 test flight to the moon that spanned 25-and-a-half days and 1.4 million miles, proving out a new rocket and capsule to carry astronauts back to Earth’s celestial companion.

SpaceX has used its Falcon 9 rocket to send a privately funded mission toward the surface of the moon. After a series of delays, HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) at 2:38 AM EST (07:38 UTC) on Dec. 11.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has successfully launched a privately-developed Japanese Moon lander and a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory cubesat on their...