Space news

Several environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration May 1, arguing that the agency improperly carried out an environmental review of SpaceX Starship launches from Boca Chica, Texas.

As multiple new rockets move towards testing and some to operations, America’s limited number of coastal spaceports have become the choke point. We must increase the productivity of our existing launch sites in a non-linear fashion to keep up.

The launch on April 20 kicked up a lot of dust and concrete.

Four crew members aboard the International Space Station will relocate their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft’s docking port Saturday, May 6, to make way for the arrival of an upcoming cargo spacecraft.

Leaders of the House Armed Services Committee are raising concerns about the Defense Department’s plan to procure space launch services beginning in 2025. They are questioning whether the proposed strategy, known as National Security Space Launch Phase 3,  gives new entrants a fair opportunity to compete for contracts.

A coalition of environmental groups and a Native American tribe have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over its approval of SpaceX's next-generation Starship rocket test launch.

"Weirdly, we did not see evidence of the rock tornado actually damaging engines."

Conservation groups sued the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday, challenging its approval of expanded rocket launch operations by Elon Musk's SpaceX next to a national wildlife refuge in South Texas without requiring greater environmental study.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched for the sixth time on Sunday, delivering three satellites into geostationary orbit. The launch took place...

A radar antenna on a European mission to Jupiter has yet to fully deploy after launch, although project officials say they still have plenty of options to fix the problem.

SpaceX launched the Americas-focused ViaSat-3 broadband satellite on a Falcon Heavy rocket April 30 following delays partly caused by severe weather that included lightning and tornado warnings.

While SpaceX is clearly good at delivering satellites to orbit quickly and efficiently, they almost always put on a beautiful show for...

After a string of weather delays and an abort in the final minute of the countdown, SpaceX is targeting to launch the...

New satellite center opens at Spaceport Cornwell.

Falcon Heavy’s second launch 2023 will try again on Sunday, with liftoff with the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite as the main payload, plus the much smaller Arcturus and G-Space 1 rideshare satellites. 

On Saturday evening, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to give an update on the Starship Flight Test which took place on April 20th, 2023, and to provide insight into the future of the program.

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said the first integrated test flight of his company's Starship vehicle met his expectations despite a cascading series of engine failures and other malfunctions that eventually caused the rocket to lose control.

Elon Musk expects SpaceX to spend about $2 billion on its Starship rocket development this year, as the company pushes to build on its first launch earlier this month.

The dust has settled in Texas, but the work to clean up after the world’s most powerful rocket and get the next one flying in a matter of months is already underway.

SpaceX launched a second pair of O3b mPower satellites April 28 for SES, which is now just one launch away from bringing its next-generation broadband constellation in medium Earth orbit online.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) latest interplanetary mission that is set to explore Jupiter and its three largest Moons, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), successfully launched on Friday, April 14, has been touted as a near-perfect feat. JUICE had little-to-no issues during the launch sequence, right from blasting off atop an Ariane 5 rocket from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana within a one-second launch window, to deploying its massive solar arrays.

Chinese rocket startup Orienspace is moving towards a debut launch from a sea platform with a solid rocket later this year.

The U.S. Air Force Navigation Technology Satellite-3 — a flight experiment seven years in the making — is undergoing final tests ahead of a projected 2024 launch.

Astra Space and Exotrail have won orders for satellite electric propulsion systems as they work to scale up production of those products.

SpaceX is targeting launches of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy later this evening. The Falcon 9 carrying SES O3b mPower satellite...

Spaceport Cornwall, which provided the runway for Virgin Orbit’s failed launch from the U.K. in January, opened a new operations facility April 27 to attract more businesses in the wake of its flagship customer’s bankruptcy.

As SpaceX resumed Falcon launches after Starship’s exhilarating first orbital flight test last week, the company launched the O3b mPOWER 3 & 4 mission on Friday. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station came at 6:16 pm EDT (22:16 UTC).

Various options are still available to nudge the important instrument.

USOS Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #86 RFG Retrieval: Today, EV1 (Steve Bowen) and EV2 (Sultan Al Neyadi) conducted USOS EVA #86. The main goal of this EVA was to retrieve the S-Band Radio Frequency Group (RFG) from the External Stowage Platform Two (ESP2) stanchion and perform preparation tasks for the upcoming ISS Roll Out Solar Array …

"It is crucial that those responsible immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities."

China National Space Administration will soon set up an organization to oversee and coordinate the China-led International Lunar Research Station.

SpaceNews produced the official Show Daily for all three exhibit days of the 38th Space Symposium at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, April 17-20, 2023.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told a House committee that SpaceX’s truncated Starship test flight was not a major setback in plans to use that vehicle to land astronauts on the moon as soon as 2025.

China has been very agile in developing its super-heavy lift vehicle Chang Zheng 9 (CZ-9). It initially started as a fully expendable rocket, like the Ares V or SLS rockets, but over the years developed into at first a partially reusable concept, and recently, with Starship becoming more real, it changed its design again to become a fully reusable launch vehicle. Today we want to look at the road to that design.

The Russian government has agreed to continue participation in the International Space Station to at least 2028, the last partner to agree to an extension of the station’s operations.

China’s main space contractor is marketing reusable rocket engines to speed up development of China’s commercial space sector.

Spanish Earth observation satellite provider Satlantis has bought a majority stake in British university spin-out SuperSharp to expand into the thermal imaging market.

New Hampshire startup Light Steering Technologies won a $1.25 million U.S. Air Force contract for angular pointing technology with small satellite applications.

College students in NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Innovation and Technology Tech Transfer Idea Competition (MITTIC) will pitch their projects during a “Space Tank” at Space Center Houston on Friday, April 28. The competition will begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT, and the winning team will be announced at 1 p.m.

Raytheon is building seven satellites for the Space Development Agency but plans to pursue a different strategy in future SDA satellite procurements.

Earth observation startup Albedo announced a $1.25 million contract to provide the National Air and Space Intelligence Center with thermal infrared imagery for nighttime applications.

An Italian Earth observation project funded by pandemic relief euros has ordered at least 34 satellites and a pair of Vega launches in recent months.

SpaceX successfully launched Falcon 9 for the 25th time so far in 2023 with its latest deployment of Starlink satellites this morning....

Payloads: Veg-05: The Veggie facility completed its dry out period and was deactivated. The Pick-and-Eat Salad-Crop Productivity, Nutritional Value, and Acceptability to Supplement the ISS Food System (Veg-05) investigation is the next step in efforts to address the need for a continuous fresh-food production system in space.  Systems: Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Reviews and Conferences: The …

China is planning to make a fully reusable version of its Long March 9 rocket designed to launch infrastructure and deep space missions.

SpaceX’s Starship launch scattered debris over hundreds of acres and created a small brush fire, but did not kill any wildlife, according to a federal agency.

One of the most iconic launch sites in the world, Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6), will be leased by SpaceX. Confirmation came after Col. Rob Long, Space Launch Delta 30 (SLD 30) commander, signed a statement supporting SpaceX’s lease to launch Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions from the launch site.

The Defense Department is considering ways to partner with commercial space companies so their services can be accessed during national security emergencies, DoD space policy chief John Plumb told lawmakers April 26.

The Czech Republic is expected to sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington Wednesday, May 3.

NASA will provide live coverage as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct two spacewalks in May outside the International Space Station to relocate hardware from the Rassvet module to the new Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.