Space news

A international team of scientists has made a groundbreaking discovery, finding phosphorus, an essential chemical element for life, locked inside salt-rich ice grains ejected into space from Saturn's moon Enceladus.

“This is the world’s first commercially built weather radar satellite,” said Rei Goffer, Tomorrow.io co-founder and chief strategy officer.

"Working corrective action and retest."

Systems: ISS Roll Out Solar Array (IROSA) 1B Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparation Activities: In preparation for Thursday’s IROSA 1B EVA, the crew completed EVA procedure reviews and prints, robotics procedure reviews, and an EVA procedure conference with the ground. The crew also performed Equipment Lock (E-LK) preparation, EVA tool configuration and audit, Pistol Grip Tool …

Muon Space, a Silicon Valley startup building a climate-monitoring constellation, sent its first satellite into orbit June 12 on the SpaceX Transporter-8 rideshare flight.

China has broken ground on a new launch pad dedicated to commercial solid rockets to help boost access to launch facilities.

A Deloitte Space report released June 14 encourages companies in all industries to draft long-term space strategies.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released a new set of guidelines intended to reduce the creation of orbital debris with the support of some, but not all, major satellite operators.

A United Nations official says there is an opportunity over the next 15 months to improve how nations manage space activities to address emerging issues ranging from orbital debris to space resources.

The House Appropriations Committee has revealed its planned FY2024 spending levels for each of its 12 subcommittees. Although the figures still do not indicate what any specific agency will get, […]

A lack of data and collaboration continues to hold back efforts to ensure a sustainable orbital environment, satellite operator executives said June 13.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on June 12 launched four satellites for a technology demonstration in low Earth orbit.

Jeremy Hansen has completed a four-day Indigenous vision quest as part of his training for the Artemis 2 mission.

NASA’s focus on human exploration beyond LEO reaching to the Moon and beyond is nothing less than thrilling. Last month, the Artemis 2 crew members were announced, and NASA has […]

SpaceX has selected Ship 25 and Booster 9 for the next Starship test flight as launch pad repairs and upgrades continue. Following...

On Oct. 9, 2022, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and Wind spacecraft detected the single brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed. The burst, named GRB 221009A, was 70 times brighter than the previous record holder and far more energetic than any other gamma-ray burst ever detected. However, scientists are still unsure how such an energetic burst could have been created.

Steve Collar, the CEO of multi-orbit satellite operator SES, has announced he will step down from his position at the end of the month.

Lighting from two times of day was combined for a stunning view of terrain that the rover is leaving behind.

Firefly Aerospace has successfully acquired Spaceflight Inc., a renowned satellite transportation services provider.

Servicing satellites in orbit is a nascent segment of the space economy that the U.S. military has been watching mostly from the sidelines. The Space Force says it is now […]

Today, Orbex and the European giant, Arianespace, announced that they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement, signalling the beginning of a new partnership in European spaceflight.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency has unveiled that the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) is scheduled for launch in March 2028.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has ordered a Viasat-3 space terminal that will be used to demonstrate communications services for low-Earth orbit spacecraft.

Originally planned to launch in August 2022, Psyche is on track to launch during its next launch window, in October.

Blue Origin is preparing to resume launches of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle in the coming weeks following a recovery period from an in-flight anomaly that occurred nine months ago.

Payloads: Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4): Portable USB Hard Drives 1 and 3 were connected to PK-4. 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 charged …

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) on June 12 released his proposed bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, known as the chairman’s mark.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched several dozen smallsats on a dedicated rideshare mission June 12, with customers ranging from the U.S. Space Force to startups deploying their first satellites.

A bill introduced in the House to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration includes a provision directing the agency to get involved in space traffic management, potentially duplicating ongoing work at the Commerce Department.

NASA and Boeing said Monday the aircraft produced through the agency’s Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project has been designated by the U.S. Air Force as the X-66A.

With the new funding, ZES plans to expand in the U.S. market to encourage private space companies to adopt its technology.

Payloads: Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) Soft Matter Dynamics (SMD) – FOAM: Three samples were exchanged inside the SMD Experiment Container with five Foam-C Samples (09, 10, 11, 13, 14) in the Lower drawer of the FSL. FSL Soft Matter Dynamics – Hydrodynamics of Wet Foams (Foam Coarsening) aims to investigate bubble size and rearrangement dynamics …

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is inviting media to a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, June 21, for the opening of NASA’s Earth Information Center at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. The exhibit is a hybrid – part physical, part online – effort that shows how viewing Earth from space can improve lives in the face of disasters, environm

Lifting off at 3:10 AM ET (07:10 UTC), the Falcon 9 ascended from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force...

The House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee is proposing legislation that would require DoD to share threat intelligence with commercial satellite operators.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is inviting media to a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, June 21, for the opening of NASA’s Earth Information Center at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. The exhibit is a hybrid – part physical, part online – effort that blends science and art to allow visitors to see how our planet is changing.

Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com during the week of June 5-11, 2023, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on […]

One of the largest U.S. arms makers, Lockheed Martin, is seeing growing demand for space technologies from U.S. military allies overseas. But selling to these customers is becoming more difficult for American companies due to policy and security barriers, a senior executive said.

SpaceX launched the Transporter-8 rideshare mission on Monday, June 12, 2023, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California. Falcon 9 is lofting 72 payloads of varying sizes and purposes into a Sun-synchronous orbit. The launch occurred at 2:35 PDT (21:35 UTC).

Steve Collar has announced plans to step down as SES CEO at the end of June after more than 20 years with the multi-orbit satellite operator.

An initiative to ensure the U.S. military has access to commercial space industry services during conflicts is gaining support inside the Pentagon, although the details are still being ironed out.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is inviting media to a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, June 21, for the opening of NASA’s Earth Information Center at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. The exhibit is a hybrid – part physical, part online – effort that shows how viewing Earth from space can improve lives in the face of disasters, environm

Landing just under 8 minutes after launch, Falcon 9 B1071 touched down at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base and...

A new State Department space policy framework is intended to align and guide ongoing work on space diplomacy by the department, including its work to support the Artemis Accords.

A tiny instrument that can measure the gravity levels of an asteroid has completed its ground tests, pushing the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission closer to launch. Hera will complete the first post-impact survey of the asteroid that NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) collided with in September 2022, and the gravimeter for small solar system objects (GRASS) is the small device that will be carried by Hera to measure the minuscule gravity levels of Dimorphos, the orbiting moonlet of the 65803 Didymos binary system.

If the FAA is set up as the new “Emperor of Space,” the U.S. will be setting forth on a path that ignores history and threatens the nascent space commercial sector. The FAA is a bad fit to regulate in-space activities other than the up-and-down through the atmosphere launches and entries it currently oversees and potentially future in-space transportation.

U.S. Space Force deputy chief of space operations Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt during a recent trip to Germany and the United Kingdom heard a consistent message from allies: They don’t expect the United States to bear all the costs of protecting satellites from cyber attacks and other threats.

A bill introduced June 9 by a group of Republican House members would turn the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into an independent agency, but keep its commercial space responsibilities in the Commerce Department.

Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major confirmed on June 9 that it has laid off workers as it reorganizes the company.

Iridium Communications is redoubling efforts to reverse U.S. regulatory approval for Ligado’s terrestrial wireless plans after Canada rejected the network following GPS interference concerns.