Space news

SpaceX has tied a 42-year-old record with its 61st and final Falcon rocket launch of 2022. Also marking the latest in a...

SpaceX has launched its 61st and final mission of 2022, this one aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The EROS-C3 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California on Thursday, Dec. 29 at 11:38 PM PST (07:38 UTC on Dec. 30).

For most anyone with money in the market, 2022 was a year to forget – and space stocks were no exception. While the sector has continued to grow, many of the companies who took the fast SPAC way out ran into a wall this year.

Payloads: NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer Mission-24 (NRCSD-24): The crew set up a camcorder to record video and take still photos of the satellite deployment from the NRCSD-24 deployer. NRCSD-24 is an external deployer that is installed in the JEM airlock and robotically placed in the deploy configuration using the JEM Remote Manipulator System (RMS). NRCSD-24 deployed …

A cubesat launched on Artemis 1 missed its original chance to go into orbit around the moon but could still carry out its primary mission if engineers fix its thrusters in the coming weeks.

China has conducted its 64th and final launch of the year, sending the Shiyan-10 (02) into orbit from Xichang spaceport.

Fresh off of securing a significant budget increase, the European Space Agency plans to hire 200 new employees in 2023 to help it implement new projects.

In the new year, Russia plans to launch its first probe to the Moon since 1976, debut a new member of the Soyuz rocket family, and launch the new Soyuz GVK resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).

Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus: Four Actiwatch Plus devices were connected to the HRF Payload Drawer on HRF Rack 1 to allow battery charging and data downlink. The Actiwatch-Plus is a waterproof, non-intrusive, sleep-wake activity monitor worn on the wrist of a crewmember. It contains a miniature uniaxial accelerometer that produces a signal as the subject moves. The …

Uncrewed rather than crewed spacecraft will be key to realizing an emerging in-orbit manufacturing industry, according to a European venture that has tasked Thales Alenia Space to develop a vehicle called REV1 for missions starting in late 2025.

A task order Collins Aerospace received to develop a new spacesuit for the International Space Station was awarded on a sole-source basis, a move NASA says was intended to preserve competition for later phases of the program.

The top three were easy to choose. After that, things got tough.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday with 54 more Starlink internet satellites, a mission to begin populating a new orbital shell authorized by federal regulators earlier this month for the company’s Starlink Gen2 network.

SpaceX has completed its 60th orbital launch of 2022, marking the first time the company has fully hit a public cadence target...

SpaceX is set to launch a batch of 54 Starlink internet satellites – Starlink Group 5-1 – into low Earth orbit (LEO) this Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022. Liftoff is scheduled to occur at 4:40 AM EST (09:40 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida.

Payloads: NanoRacks Module-89 (Moon Gallery): Module-89 was removed from NanoRacks MainFrame A and stowed. NanoRacks Module-89 houses the Moon Gallery experiment that evaluates the performance of a single-board computer platform with a high-quality camera in the space station’s radiation environment. Photos and videos taken with the camera become part of an art installation known as …

Canadian startup Magnestar is establishing a platform to predict radio frequency interference among satellite operators.

In a strange twist, SpaceX says that its next Starlink mission will launch 54 satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), implying that...

The 2023 omnibus spending package includes $26.3 billion for the U.S. Space Force, nearly $1.7 billion more than the Pentagon requested

The Senate passed legislation that would direct NASA to establish a program to remove orbital debris, but supporters of the bill will have to try again in the next Congress to enact it.

2022 has marked another busy chapter for the International Space Station (ISS). Along with its constant plethora of scientific and engineering experiments, the Station saw the first docking of Starliner, the all-private Axiom-1 mission, and new hardware installed to increase the lifespan of humanity’s collaborative space laboratory.

Payloads: All Solid-State Lithium-ion Battery (AS LiB) and Small PL Multi-purpose Controller-2 (MCU-2): The AS LiB and MCU-2 were installed on the appropriate components on the Exposed Facility Unit-2 (EFU-2) in preparation for return to the external environment. AS LiB is designed to have a broad operating temperature range from -40 ℃ to 120 ℃ …

Ukraine and Elon Musk weren't the only big stories of 2022. These seven commanded our attention with actions that will reverberate well into 2023.

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine was the biggest story of 2022. Aside from reviving Cold War fears of nuclear war and playing havoc with energy markets, it’s been a black swan event for a space industry still adjusting to a black swan called COVID.

Cube-shaped snow, icy landscapes, and frost are all part of the Red Planet’s coldest season.

NASA has awarded a contract to Yulista Solutions LLC of Huntsville, Alabama, to provide support for aircraft used across several NASA centers and programs.

French satellite operator Eutelsat said Dec. 22 it stands to lose up to 15 million euros ($16 million) in annual revenues from restricting broadcasts in Russia and Iran to comply with sanctions.

Northrop Grumman has completed ground-based tests to demonstrate critical technology required for a 2025 demonstration of space-based solar power.

Boryung, a South Korean pharmaceutical company, has decided to invest $50 million in U.S. commercial space station developer Axiom Space’s Series C funding round.

USOS 4A ISS Roll Out Solar Array (IROSA) Install Extravehicular Activity (EVA): Today, Frank Rubio (EV-1) and Josh Cassada (EV-2) conducted USOS EVA #83. The main goal of this EVA was to install and deploy the 4A IROSA to augment power generation for the 4A power channel on the station’s port truss structure. Hatch opening …

The growing scale and pace of launch activities call for more monitoring and regulation to minimize their potential impact on the Earth’s atmosphere.

China’s main space contractor is working towards making the country a leading space power with a focus on developing capabilities, space infrastructure and self-reliance.

Two NASA astronauts conducted a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, Dec. 22, to install a fourth new iROSA (ISS Roll-Out Solar Array). The Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) follows a previous one on Dec. 2 that installed the third iROSA.

Arianespace and the European Space Agency will establish an independent commission to investigate the Vega C launch failure Dec. 20 that resulted in the loss of two satellites and new questions about the future of European space access.

Terran Orbital announced Dec. 22 it has completed delivery of 10 satellite buses ordered by Lockheed Martin for the Space Development Agency's mesh network in low Earth orbit.

NASA is seeking concepts from industry on how they would reboost the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope, a sign that the agency is looking beyond SpaceX for any mission to extend the orbiting observatory’s life.

Another roll-out solar array was installed and deployed by astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada outside the International Space Station on on a spacewalk Thursday, a day later than previously planned after the space station needed to dodge a piece of space junk.

SpaceX has won a contract to launch the joint US-European Sentinel 6B radar satellite as early as November 2025. Five years ago,...

As astronauts completed a delayed spacewalk outside the International Space Station, NASA and Roscosmos officials said they are continuing to study whether a Soyuz spacecraft that suffered a coolant leak can safely return its crew home.

Dust-laden solar panels and darker Martian skies have finally sealed the fate of NASA’s InSight mission, the agency announced Wednesday, after the intrepid lander delivered its final message from Mars at the end of its history-making mission to reveal the secrets of the Red Planet’s interior.

Filled with rock, the sample tube will be one of 10 forming a depot of tubes that could be considered for a journey to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign.

While optical technology shows great promise for intersatellite relay links, ground segment providers doubt it will be widely adopted among their terrestrial networks any time soon.

The first fully integrated static fire test of Relativity Space’s Terran 1 rocket is expected any day now as the company prepares for its first-ever launch from Florida. Following a series of tests of the rocket’s first stage, the second stage and nosecone were assembled, and the entire vehicle has now rolled back to the pad on the transporter/erector.

NASA has officially ended the mission of the InSight Mars lander after power levels on the spacecraft dropped to the point where it could no longer communicate with Earth.

NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 22, to discuss the ongoing investigation of an external leak that occurred Dec. 14, from the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module of the International Space Station.

NASA’s InSight mission has ended after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars.

USOS 4A ISS Roll Out Solar Array (IROSA) Install Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Replan: Today’s EVA was cancelled and will be rescheduled for tomorrow December 22nd. This morning, as the crew and ground teams prepared for today’s EVA, updated tracking data on space debris showed a close approach to station. Based on the data and per …

British regulators have issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first LauncherOne mission from the United Kingdom, now expected to take place in January.

The fiscal year 2023 omnibus spending bill provides two agencies with much, but not all, of the budget increases they requested to take on new or expanding commercial space work.

The final two spacecraft in Airbus’s four-satellite, 600 million-euro commercial Pléiades Neo Earth observation fleet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch from French Guiana Tuesday night, falling victim to a failure of a European Vega C rocket.