Space news

Government officials say satellite operators need to take greater responsibility for safe operations of their spacecraft in increasingly congested orbits.

A LeoLabs maneuver-detection dashboard displayed at the 38th Space Symposium tracked the location of about 30 Chinese, Iranian and Russian spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.

Students from North Allegheny School District in McCandless, Pennsylvania, will have an opportunity this week to hear from a NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he supports continuing current restrictions on the agency’s ability to work with China in spaceflight as he warns of a “space race” between the countries.

"Obviously we’re closely following that."

The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules April 20 governing how fixed-satellite service operators in non-geostationary orbit share spectrum amid an unprecedented flood of proposed constellations.

U.S. Space Command and the Australian Defence Space Command on April 20 signed an enhanced space cooperation memorandum of understanding.

The Space Systems Command, a Los Angeles-based organization responsible for developing and buying space technologies for the U.S. military, is rebranding the commercial services office it established a year ago.

This morning, SpaceX's Starship took to the South Texas skies for the first time in its fully integrated form.

Payloads: CapiSorb Visible System (CVS): The CVS was primed with water and Red Syringe (fructose). Pump tubing was installed into the Liquid Pump rotor and the system performed experiment runs. The CVS investigation demonstrates a liquid control using capillary forces, over a range of liquid properties that are characteristic of liquid carbon dioxide sorbents. Since …

SpaceX's development process is messier, but it's also much faster.

As I sprinted for a flight in the Dallas airport near midnight last night, I didn’t actually think SpaceX was going to light up Starship’s engines this morning.

The results from the first year of Space Workforce 2030 activity are in and we are trending in a positive direction. We are optimistic about our path forward, even as we remain realistic about the challenges we face and the work still to be done to make space more representative of everyone—by and beyond the year 2030.

SpaceX’s Starship completed its first successful flight test with an incredible liftoff at South Padre Island, Texas, after years of testing and...

SpaceX’s first integrated Starship vehicle lifted off on a long-anticipated test flight April 20, only to tumble and break apart minutes later.

NASA announced April 19 the creation of a new organization devoted to advancing technologies for in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM).

For the second time this week, SpaceX is preparing for the maiden test flight of Starship, the company’s most ambitious rocket to...

Spoiler alert: It went boom.

Firefly Aerospace says its future medium rocket it is developing with Northrop Grumman will be ready to compete in the next round of U.S. national security launch contracts.

The most powerful rocket in history launched on its second attempt Thursday, the first major step to making life multi-planetary. Liftoff of Starship from Starbase, Texas came after an uneventful countdown, with only a couple of short holds before roaring off the launch mount.

NASA announced Wednesday a new consortium focused on making in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) capabilities a routine part of space architectures and mission lifecycles.

Investment activity is picking up again for young space companies as growth-stage capital returns following market uncertainty in 2022, according to investors on an April 18 Space Symposium panel.

Rocket Lab will use a previously flown engine on an upcoming Electron launch as the company moves closer to reusing the rocket’s entire first stage.

Payloads: AstroPi: A 5mm Camera Lens was mounted and on the AstroPi Vis hardware and the AstroPi hardware was removed from the Columbus module and installed into the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF). The lens was re-adjusted for day pass operations. The hardware will support the AstroPi Challenge mission ‘Life in Space’. Two augmented Raspberry …

The chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force Gen. B. Chance Saltzman called on the service to embrace challenges and opportunities created by the rapid commercialization and militarization of the space domain.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall has submitted to congressional committees a proposal to allow selected programs in the Pentagon’s budget to get started before Congress passes the final appropriations bill.

Leidos is working with the racing company NASCAR to develop a lunar rover they will offer for an upcoming NASA competition.

Ongoing fighting in Ukraine continues to underscore the importance of combining military, civil and commercial space capabilities.

Aerospace Corp.’s commercial space office, established to facilitate connections between startups and government technology buyers, is seeing a surge in activity.

Today, Italy plays a vital role in space missions and activities worldwide, far more so than is often acknowledged. Italy boasts the second-greatest number of assets in orbit among European nations, and it is an essential contributor to European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA missions.

COLORADO SPRINGS — NASA’s effort to return samples from Mars could require $250 million more than currently planned over the next two years, putting more pressure on the agency’s overall […]

Space Forge announced plans April 19 to expand its U.S. presence to include manufacturing.

The head of the U.S. Space Force launch program, Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, said he has been briefed by United Launch Alliance on an anomaly experienced last month during testing of the Centaur upper stage of ULA’s new rocket Vulcan Centaur.

The National Reconnaissance Office is casting a wide net in its latest bid for commercial Earth observation.

SpaceX launched its second batch of upgraded Starlink satellites after some of the first version 2 (v2) buses deorbited earlier than planned. Liftoff aboard a Falcon 9 rocket occurred April 19 at 10:31 AM EDT (14:31 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

A drop in space company valuations could open the door to more transactions in the industry, according to an April 17 Space Symposium panel on the outlook for deals, as long as they can navigate increasing regulatory scrutiny.

NASA has awarded the Omnibus Multidiscipline Engineering Services (OMES) III contract to Space & Technology Solutions of Houston.

NASA has released new details on the initial phases of its architecture to return humans to the moon as a step towards eventual missions to Mars.

Dish Network said April 18 it has ordered a satellite from Maxar Technologies to expand high-definition broadcast services over North America.

Sierra Space and ILC Dover announced April 18 they will cooperate on the development of inflatable space station modules and spacesuits.

U.S. Space Command, a military combatant command responsible for operations in outer space, is seeking more funding and resources from the Pentagon to defend the nation’s spacecraft and fill growing demands for satellite services, the head of the command Gen. James Dickinson said April 18.

As NASA builds a blueprint for human exploration throughout the solar system for the benefit of humanity, the agency released Tuesday the outcomes from its first Architecture Concept Review, a robust analysis process designed to align NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration strategy and codify the supporting architecture.

JPL’s Abigail Fraeman will help study the composition of Phobos and Deimos using instruments on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s spacecraft.

Carrying more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA, Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station Friday, April 21.

Now the Ariane 6 rocket is failing even its most basic task.

Axiom Space has introduced a new program to allow countries to create human spaceflight programs without needing to develop their own infrastructure or other capabilities.

An aging Inmarsat satellite that pilots use to keep in touch with air traffic control beyond the range of very high frequency (VHF) ground radars is experiencing a prolonged outage.

Northrop Grumman completed a critical design review of a Space Development Agency communications satellite in 13 months, a fraction of the time required for traditional space programs.

Payloads: Investigating Structure and Function of the Eye (ISAFE): Electroretinography data collection was performed on a crewmember using the Diagnosis Software and Desktop Streamer with remote guidance. ISAFE measures eye, brain, and blood vessel changes to determine whether Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS) varies with mission length, whether these changes recover when crew members return …

The European Space Agency is preparing for a space summit this fall to win support for a new human spaceflight initiative as well as a new launch strategy.