Space news

A popular public website that tracks activities on NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) has been taken offline for what NASA calls a “cybersecurity review” linked to future Artemis missions.

AI will transform how decisions are made across every human activity, especially as nations begin to further operate and compete in space.

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

For companies who provide unique capabilities, or deliver sophisticated platforms or components to the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, or NASA, inflationary pressures and delivery delays are seriously challenging America’s defense industrial base and our future efforts in space

The FAA announced Feb. 17 it is seeking to fine SpaceX $175,000 for failing to provide collision avoidance data before a Falcon 9 launch last year.

After completing the first sample depot on another world, the rover continues its hunt for Mars rocks worthy of study on Earth.

Days after the Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the U.S. military off the coast of South Carolina, AI startup Synthetaic backtracked the balloon’s trajectory across the continental United States using Earth imaging data from Planet satellites.

More than half the cubesats that launched on Artemis 1 in November have suffered problems, underlining the myriad challenges facing small satellites beyond Earth’s orbit.

The Federal Aviation Administration seeks a $175,000 fine against Elon Musk’s SpaceX, alleging the company failed to submit required data ahead of a Falcon 9 launch last year.

The second of two Starlink launches this week, Starlink Group 2-5, launched at 11:12 AM PST (19:12 UTC) on Friday, Feb. 17 from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Japan’s space agency JAXA aborted the long-awaited first launch of H3 rocket Feb. 16, when the rocket’s side boosters failed to ignite after main engine start.

Launch services startup Launcher said its first orbital transfer vehicle failed shortly after deployment on a launch last month, but that it will fly upgraded versions of the vehicle later this year.

"There’s a lot of concern on things detonating in the atmosphere."

Russian cosmonauts took pictures of the location where coolant leaked out of a Russian Progress cargo ship earlier this month when the supply freighter departed the International Space Station Friday night, as scheduled, to head for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.

SpaceX completed a launch doubleheader Friday night with the liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying a dual-band, six-ton mobile communications relay station for London-based Inmarsat, hours after launching another Falcon 9 from California with a batch of Starlink internet satellites.

Japan’s first H3 rocket, nearly a decade in development, was moments from liftoff Thursday (U.S. time) when the launch vehicle detected a problem and cut off the countdown just before sending a command to ignite two strap-on solid-fueled boosters.

The U.S. Space Force on Feb. 16 released its procurement strategy for the next national security launch services contracts expected to be awarded in 2024.

A NASA safety panel, while congratulating the agency on a successful Artemis 1 mission, said it was worried about the agency’s safety culture and workforce as it prepares for the first crewed Artemis flight.

The Biden administration in its budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 is likely to seek a significant increase for the U.S. Space Force, the National Security Space Association’s head of legislative affairs Mike Tierney said Feb. 16.

JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries planned to debut the H3 launch vehicle early Friday. However, the launch was aborted at T0 when the main engine shut down before the Solid Rocket Boosters were to ignite. For its maiden flight, the rocket will launch the ALOS-3 optical satellite into a 669-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.

NASA and Boeing will host a mission overview media teleconference at 11 a.m. EST Friday, Feb. 17, to provide a status update on the first astronaut flight test of the company’s CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station. Launch is targeted for no earlier than April to the microgravity laboratory.

Operations to support the upcoming first crew flights of Starliner and Orion are increasing around the Kennedy Space Center as both vehicles head toward that major milestone.

The U.S. Space Force announced Feb. 16 it accepted delivery of the 10th and final GPS 3 satellite made by Lockheed Martin under a 2008 contract.

Although the development of the SLS was driven by launch needs for human exploration of the Moon and Mars, it provides a much greater level of capability for the broader spacefaring community.

A large European-built communications satellite owned by London-based Inmarsat is set to ride a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Friday night from Cape Canaveral, kicking off a mission to connect ships and airplanes across the Atlantic Ocean and the U.S. East Coast through 2040.

Several U.S. companies are working to build new orbiting habitats to replace the aging International Space Station. NASA’s role in seeding the fledgling market was a hot topic at the FAA’s space conference last week.

Payloads: Cardiobreath: Bio-Monitor wearable hardware was donned and calibrated and was worn for a two-hour session including a CEVIS Exercise period. 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 after return to Earth. Causal Analysis of Cardiorespiratory …

HELSINKI — Commercial launch firm Space Pioneer announced new funding this week and will soon take a shot at becoming China’s first such company to reach orbit with a liquid propellant rocket. Space Pioneer, full name Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., announced Feb. 15 that it recently secured “B+ and “Pre-C” strategic funding rounds. The […]

The carrier aircraft for Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceplane made its first flight in more than a year Feb. 15 as the company moves one step closer to beginning commercial service.

Japan is set to test its new flagship launch vehicle, the H3, with a demonstration flight Thursday night from the Tanegashima Space Center, debuting a rocket that is less expensive, more capable, and more flexible than the country’s previous generation of launchers. Liftoff is set for 8:37 p.m. EST Thursday (0137 GMT Friday).

Boeing has opened the production facility where it will build a new upper stage for an upgraded version of the Space Launch System.

Europe’s ambitions for a sovereign connectivity constellation are now in the hands of industry, the European Parliament said Feb. 14 after voting to approve the 6 billion euro ($6.4 billion) plan.

The Defense Department’s space policy office is drafting a congressionally mandated report explaining how the U.S. will defend satellites in orbit.

Virgin Galactic's VMS Eve takes first flight in over a year following maintenance and upgrades.

“Someone’s on the move,” Jeffrey Lewis tweeted on Feb. 23, 2022, the day before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Known on social media as @ArmsControlWonk, Lewis had been tracking Russian movements in the days preceding the invasion, using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data from a commercial company, Capella Space. In a recent interview with SpaceNews, […]

"If we cannot attain that, our development program is completely stopped."

The $6.4 billion acquisition of Maxar Technologies by the private equity firm Advent International remains on track to close in mid-2023 following completion of a 60-day “go shop” period when other offers could have been considered.

Payloads: Four Bed CO2 (4BCO2) Scrubber: The Acoustic Blanket was installed, and acoustic tests were performed. The 4BCO2 Scrubber was then stowed. 4BCO2 Scrubber demonstrates a technology for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere on a spacecraft. The technology is based on the current system in use on the ISS with mechanical upgrades in …

NASA has released additional details about how it plans to use commercial space stations after the retirement of the International Space Station as some in industry seek to accelerate NASA’s support for them.

irgin Orbit provided additional details about the likely cause of its LauncherOne failure last month but didn’t estimate when the vehicle will be ready to return to flight.

President and COO Gwynne Shotwell says that SpaceX has temporarily abandoned plans for floating Starship launch platforms to ensure it’s fully focused...

NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars has cooly notched up another significant first by creating the first ever storage depot on another world for Martian soil samples. But if the rover’s mission goes to plan and it continues to operate as scheduled, the cached samples could be left on the Martian surface forever.

Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus: A crewmember doffed an Actiwatch Plus unit and stowed it in the Actiwatch Plus Kit. The Actiwatch-Plus is a waterproof, non-intrusive, sleep-wake activity monitor worn on the wrist of a crewmember and contains a miniature uniaxial accelerometer that produces a signal as the subject moves. The data is stored in non-volatile memory within …

Cobham Satcom will supply as many as 170 terminals to Inmarsat for the U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command.

Viasat’s plan to buy Inmarsat faces more delays after Europe launched an in-depth probe Feb. 13 into whether it would reduce competition for providing Wi-Fi on planes.

The Red Planet rover snapped a portrait of the sample depot it has assembled with 10 backup sample tubes that could be returned to Earth by a future mission.

SpaceX has abandoned efforts to convert two oil rigs into launch platforms for its Starship vehicle, but the company still believes that offshore launch platforms will be part of its long-term plans.

U.S. military space surveillance sensors can be tweaked to help detect high-altitude aerial surveillance platforms in the upper layer of the atmosphere, said John Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy

Russia has delayed the launch of an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, intended to replace a damaged spacecraft there, to investigate damage to a second spacecraft there.

Astranis Space Technologies won a $4.5 million contract to integrate a U.S. military communications waveform on one of the company’s satellite communications payloads.