Space news

Maxar has signed a contract with satellite imagery startup Umbra to get dedicated access to the company’s radar imaging constellation.

Commercial lunar lander company Intuitive Machines has completed its merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), raising far less money than originally anticipated.

Canadian launch startup SpaceRyde has filed for bankruptcy just months after noise complaints put an end to rocket engine tests.

Ukraine’s use of SpaceX’s satellite internet service remains a crucial yet contentious part of the country’s fragile infrastructure, as Russia’s invasion nears its one-year mark.

"There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns."

Launch of a Russian Soyuz crew capsule to replace a damaged ferry ship docked at the International Space Station is being delayed in the wake of a second incident that resulted in similar damage to a Progress cargo ship, a senior official said Monday.

NASA and its international partners have approved the crew for Axiom Space’s second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2).

Polish leading R&D aerospace entity: Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation (Łukasiewicz – ILOT) concludes 2022 with major advances in its strategic area of green space propulsion and sets off with announcing ambitious plans for 2023 and further technology developments.

"Although our vision is technically ambitious, our technology is real now."

An analysis of Orbital Transfer Vehicles being developed and operated in Europe

The government of Saudi Arabia has announced the two astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station this spring on a private astronaut mission by Axiom Space.

Orbit Logic, a developer of mission planning and scheduling software for satellite ground systems, has been acquired by aerospace and defense engineering contractor Boecore.

Payloads: BioFabrication Facility (BFF): Test Print Without Cells Installation 1 was performed inside the BFF. Using 3D biological printers to produce usable human organs has long been a dream of scientists and doctors around the globe. However, printing the tiny, complex structures found inside human organs, such as capillary structures, has proven difficult to accomplish …

HELSINKI — Launches conducted by commercial Chinese launch service providers could more than double those attempted last year, according to firms’ plans for 2023. The more than 20 launches now planned by commercial launch service providers would notably eclipse the total number of orbital launches conducted by China in 2017, demonstrating the rapid growth in […]

The second test flight of India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle was successful Feb. 10, delivering Indian and U.S.-owned payloads into orbit after the new rocket’s first demonstration mission ended in failure last year.

Despite concerns about the viability of many new launch vehicle developers, many in the industry say those vehicles are needed as demand for launch outstrips supply.

Plasmos plans to offer in-space transportation and return payloads to Earth with a Space Truck.

SpaceX has rolled a strange, naked Starship prototype from its Starbase, Texas factory to a nearby test site. Beginning with its cone-tipped...

The National Space Council is continuing work on a proposed framework for regulating commercial space activities that is being watched closely by both industry and Congress.

A Progress cargo spacecraft docked to the International Space Station experienced a coolant leak Feb. 11, the second such incident involving a Russian spacecraft at the station in less than two months.

A Russian Progress supply ship successfully docked with the International Space Station early Saturday but in an unlikely, presumed coincidence, another Progress, docked at a different port, suffered a sudden loss of coolant similar to an incident that disabled a Soyuz crew ship in December.

None of this will comfort NASA as it partners with Russia on the space station.

Roscosmos’ latest Progress resupply craft has docked at the International Space Station (ISS). Liftoff of the Progress MS-22 mission occurred at 06:15 UTC on Feb. 9 from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz-2.1a rocket, docking two days later on Feb. 11 at 08:45 UTC.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket hauled 55 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit just after midnight Sunday from Cape Canaveral, breaking a record for the shortest time between missions — five days — from the same SpaceX launch pad.

One NASA-funded lunar cubesat has recovered from a communications glitch while engineers are developing backup plans for another cubesat that has suffered a propulsion problem.

Inmarsat says it is still considering deploying a low Earth orbit constellation of its own despite comments to the contrary by one of its executives this week.

Space infrastructure startup Loft Orbital has formed a new subsidiary, Loft Federal, focused on the U.S. national security market.

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who flew to space four times over a 15-year career as an astronaut, praised the growth of the industry and gave a rallying cry for intensified competition.

Payloads: Causal Analysis of Cardiorespiratory Coupling on the ISS (Cardiobreath): After donning the Bio-Monitor sensor garment and setting up the appropriate hardware, the crew performed a Cardiobreath exercise session. Astronauts experience changes in their cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal systems during spaceflight, which can affect their capacity to exercise and to maintain blood pressure when standing …

"... it was dislodged and caused mischief downstream."

NASA has awarded Blue Origin, LLC of Kent, Washington a task order to provide launch service for the agency’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission as part of the agency's Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract.

In a significant milestone preparing for liftoff of the world’s most powerful rocket, SpaceX test-fired 31 of the booster’s 33 methane-fueled engines Thursday in South Texas as the company eyes a launch attempt as soon as March.

"The real goal is to not blow up the launch pad, that is success."

NASA is now seeking procurement ideas and solutions to encourage innovation from diverse perspectives, improve reach, reduce barriers, and ultimately meet and exceed agency goals.

SpaceX on Thursday test fired 31 of the 33 engines in the towering rocket booster of its Starship prototype, as the company prepares to launch the rocket to orbit for the first time.

SpaceX’s Starship program has reached a major milestone ahead of its historic launch with a static fire test of Booster 7, successfully firing 31 of the booster’s 33 engines for the full planned duration.

Good morning from our nation’s capital. I’m in D.C. for the 25th annual Commercial Space Transportation conference. It’s a yearly meeting of a few hundred industry leaders and decision makers, centered around the relationship between one of the sector’s most important regulators and the companies operating within its guidelines.

Payloads: Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4): The PK-4 system was configured to transfer experiment data for subsequent downlink. PK-4 is a scientific collaboration between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), performing research in the field of Complex Plasmas: low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral gas, and micron-sized particles. The micro-particles become highly …

WASHINGTON — Space companies are launching more rockets than ever, ratcheting up competition for air space just as travelers return to flying in droves — and leaving the Federal Aviation Administration in the middle to keep things moving.

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, boosting a Progress resupply ship into orbit in pursuit of the International Space Station with more than 5,500 pounds of cargo, fuel, water, and air.

A Russian Soyuz rocket is ready for blastoff Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, boosting a Progress resupply ship into orbit in pursuit of the International Space Station with more than 5,500 pounds of cargo, fuel, water, and air. Liftoff is set for 1:15 a.m. EST (0615 GMT).

Russia launched a geostationary weather satellite Feb. 5 on a Proton rocket, heading for a position more than 22,000 miles over the Pacific Ocean to cover Russia’s Far East and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket has survived a record-breaking engine test – potentially the most powerful static fire in the history of rocketry. According...

SpaceX is gearing up for the first full-up test-firing Thursday of all 33 engines on the booster for the company’s Starship mega-rocket in Texas, a critical milestone on the path to launching the giant vehicle on its first orbital test flight, which could happen as soon as March if this week’s test goes well.

NASA has selected Navarro Research and Engineering, Inc., of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the Environmental Compliance and Operations 3 (ECO3) contract, which provides environmental restoration program services and other support at the agency’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

WASHINGTON – SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Wednesday the company plans to attempt a major Starship milestone this week.

Among other discoveries made by the rover, rippled rock textures suggest lakes existed in a region of ancient Mars that scientists expected to be drier.

Payloads: Cerebral Autoregulation: The crew set up the experiment hardware to support science sessions later this week. As the body’s most important organ, the brain needs a strong and reliable blood supply, so the brain is capable of self-regulating blood flow even when the heart and blood vessels cannot maintain an ideal blood pressure. The …

NASA has selected Autonomic Integra of Gaithersburg, Maryland, for specialized scientific support services to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

"This suggests to me that perhaps these events are the result of a design error."