Space news

JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries launched – at the second attempt – to maiden launch of the H3 launch vehicle at 01:37 UTC Tuesday. However, the vehicle failed shortly after staging, via an apparent failure to light the second stage that was set to deploy the ALOS-3 optical satellite into a 669-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).

An examination of the difference between Arianespace and ArianeGroup

A NASA program originally intended to fly astronauts on commercial suborbital vehicles has evolved into a broader effort to enable flights by agency personnel and supporting the nascent industry.

Everything you've ever wanted to know about military launch procurement.

SAN FRANCISCO – Lonestar Data Holdings raised $5 million in seed funding for its plan to establish lunar data centers. Scout Ventures led the round. Participants included Seldor Capital, 2 Future Holding, The Veteran Fund, Irongate Capital, Atypical Ventures and KittyHawk Ventures.  “We are thrilled to have completed this successful seed round and are sincerely […]

After an electrical problem kept Japan’s first H3 rocket on the ground during a launch attempt last month, teams wheeled the new hydrogen-fueled launcher back to its firing stand for another countdown Monday to try to send an Earth observation satellite into orbit.

NASA is proposing extending three existing contracts to transport cargo to and from the International Space Station through the anticipated end of the station in 2030, rather than recompete them.

In March, 2023, the last ever Ariane 5 EAP (Etage d'Acceleration à Poudre, or Solid Rocket Booster in English) was completed at the solid propellant production plant (UPG) facility in French Guiana, marking the end of an era for the European space industry.

NASA is working with the Russian government to update an agreement to allow Russian cosmonauts to fly on the next two SpaceX crew rotation missions to the International Space Station.

In the ever growing field of space startups, Rivada Space Networks is hoping to find its niche in high-capacity broadband internet with a 600 satellite constellation launched by SpaceX's Falcon 9..

After many months of rigorous testing at NASA Stennis’s engine testing facilities, Relativity Spaces new, high power methalox engine has completed its first full throttle test of the engine’s thrust chamber.

NASA has selected PCI Productions LLC of Huntsville, Alabama, to manage communication services for all agency centers including headquarters, as well as its mission directorates, to enable the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of NASA information.

The Defense Department on March 3 released updated guidelines for safe and responsible space operations.

Starship’s first orbital flight is currently planned for March. This is the first time the anticipated flight date of the vehicle is in the current month, and with that, a future of fully reusable rockets is getting closer. But not only is Starship aiming for reusability, but the rest of the industry is also moving towards reusing rockets. 

On Monday, SpaceX conducted the first of two Starlink launches this week from each coast of the United States. The first was the launch of the Starlink Group 6-1 mission at 6:13 PM EST (23:13 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Crew-5 Dock: SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavor successfully docked to the ISS at 12:40 AM CT. The Endurance crew welcomed aboard NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The ISS crew complement has officially increased from 7 to 11. Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus: Arriving crewmembers donned the Actiwatch-Plus …

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 51 more Starlink internet satellites from California on Friday after a delay of several days to wait for liftoff of a higher-priority crew mission from Florida.

Viasat said March 2 it is partnering with Ligado Networks to break into the emerging market for providing satellite services directly to consumer smartphones and other devices.

Europe plans to return the Vega C rocket to flight by the end of the year after concluding an eroded nozzle component caused the failure of its previous launch last December.

"This turned out to be quite a happy turn of events."

An investigation into a failed Astra launch last June concluded that a complex series of events caused a fuel leak that kept the rocket’s upper stage from reaching orbit.

SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft linked up with the International Space Station Friday, delivering two NASA astronauts, an Emirati astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut to the complex after a short delay for ground teams to uplink a software fix to mask a bad sensor on the capsule’s docking mechanism.

The White House on March 2 released a national cybersecurity strategy that points at Russian and Chinese hackers as major threats to U.S. terrestrial and space networks.

A pair of Chinese astronauts conducted their second extravehicular activity in recent days, with China for the first time providing no advance indication nor details of the event.

The Space Development Agency awarded Raytheon Technologies a $250 million contract to build seven missile-tracking satellites for the agency’s low Earth orbit constellation

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 12 p.m. EST Tuesday, March 7, to provide an update on data analyzed thus far on the agency’s Artemis I Moon mission, the first integrated flight test of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, uncrewed Orion spacecraft, and associated ground systems.

Measuring the size of the space economy, whether globally or just for the U.S., is an important part of understanding the scale of the industry and its influence on our lives. Plenty of organizations slice and dice it to do just that, whether that’s NASA analyzing its annual economic impact, venture capitalists cataloging the quarterly rate of investments in companies, or banks predicting how large the sector will grow.

SpaceX launched four people to the International Space Station from Florida as Elon Musk’s company begins the final of the original six missions awarded by NASA.

Crew-6 Launch: The Endeavour Crew launched at 11:34 PM CT Wednesday night from Launch Complex 39A at KSC on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Crew Dragon spacecraft will dock at approximately 12:17 AM CT Friday morning. Payloads: Sphere Camera-1 (SphereCam-1): The Solid State Drives were changed out from NanoRack’s Mainframe Alpha. SphereCam-1 uses a …

SAN FRANCISCO — CesiumAstro won a $5 million contract from the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency to develop active electronically scanned array antennas compatible with the Link 16 tactical data network. The Austin-based startup specializing in phased array technology announced the award March 2. “Once completed, this antenna will be the only multi-beam, active phased array […]

The Crew-6 astronauts lifted off onboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center at 12:34 AM EST (05:34 UTC) on March 2. Dragon Endeavour completed its trip to the ISS 24 hours after launch. 

A Crew Dragon spacecraft is headed towards the International Space Station three days after a technical problem scrubbed its first launch attempt.

"I just feel so lucky that I get to fly on this amazing machine."

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Kennedy Space Center with a four-man crew heading for a six-month stay on the International Space Station, including the first Arab astronaut to fly on a long-duration space mission.

This detailed mission timeline covers major vehicle and crew activities during the Crew-6 countdown, launch, and rendezvous with the International Space Station.

Astra has concluded its investigation into the TROPICS-1 mishap that occurred on June 12, 2022, after six months of rigorous testing and analysis.

Emerging communications services that connect phones directly to satellites are attractive to military users that operate in locations where there is no cellular network connectivity

NASA has awarded the Systems Engineering Advanced Services (SEAS) II contract to McCallie Associates, Inc., of Bellevue, Nebraska.

Rocket Lab is reevaluating the implementation of mid-air recovery for its Electron boosters as a means to achieve reusability of the vehicle.

Rocket Lab is reconsidering the use of mid-air recovery of Electron boosters as part of its efforts to reuse the vehicle.

Running three days late because of a last-minute technical glitch, a four-man space station crew, including a Russian cosmonaut and the first Arab to be assigned to a long duration spaceflight, braced for a second launch try early Thursday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Virgin Galactic has begun final preparations to resume its commercial suborbital missions from Spaceport America!

Payloads: Analyzing Interferometer for Ambient Air-2 (ANITA-2): Science modules were removed from the Columbus European Physiology Module (EPM) and the ANITA-2 hardware was installed. The ANITA-2 is a compact gas analyzer which can analyze and quantify 33 trace contaminants in the atmosphere aboard the ISS automatically. ANITA-2 can also detect the presence of unknown substances …

NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday, March 2, to launch the Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will be from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

Viasat's acquisition of Inmarsat has been provisionally approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK, and is now subject to a public consultation.

The potential sale of ULA comes with many questions for a buyer.

The U.K. provisionally cleared Viasat’s plan to buy London-based Inmarsat March 1 after finding the deal would not substantially reduce competition for providing Wi-Fi on planes.

Virgin Galactic is in the final phases of returning its suborbital spaceplane to commercial service as it ramps up development of a next-generation vehicle.

Crew members assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission are in orbit following their successful launch to the International Space Station at 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The international crew are the agency’s sixth commercial crew rotation mission with SpaceX aboard the orbital laboratory

Crew members assigned to NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission are in orbit following their successful launch to the International Space Station at 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The international crew are the agency’s sixth commercial crew rotation mission with SpaceX aboard the orbital laboratory