Space news

Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com from July 3-16, 2023, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to […]

China is formalizing its plans to land a pair of astronauts on the surface of the moon before the end of the decade.

A review of ESA's Commercial Space Transportation Services Boost! programme.

When NASA's Artemis 3 mission attempts what could be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo, it should return to Tranquility Base and save the South Pole for later.

A United Kingdom Parliament committee is calling on the government to revise its approach for licensing launches, warning it could fall behind international competitors if it fails to do so.

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 16-22, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session. […]

While a lot of the focus when it comes to space travel beyond Earth orbit is on the spacecraft, multiple studies are underway to explore the human side of what NASA calls “Moon to Mars Exploration.” Those studies include physical health, mental health, and even training astronauts to recognize geology that could answer many questions about our place in space.

As the House Science Committee considers a commercial space bill, industry officials advocated for key topics they believe should be included in that legislation.

Congress introduces new Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Transparency Amendment

As part of NASA’s regular cadence of robotic lunar missions through Artemis, the agency has selected a new scientific payload to establish the age and composition of hilly terrain created by volcanic activity on the near side of the Moon.

The U.S. Space Force on July 14 released a revised draft solicitation for the next round of national security launch contracts, known as National Security Space Launch Phase 3.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s second lunar lander, Chandrayaan-3, is on its way to the Moon. ISRO is hoping for a better outcome than four years ago when they lost […]

House and Senate appropriators have introduced spending bills that would allocate slightly less funding to NASA in 2024 compared to the previous year, rather than the significant increase sought by the administration.

India has developed the Chandrayaan-3 mission on a shoestring budget.

Take a look at some of our favorite recent space images and learn about an express mission to Mars.

Payloads: Sally Ride Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle Schools (EarthKAM): The EarthKAM software was shut down and equipment was stowed completing five days of Mission 84 objectives. Not everyone can go to space, but everyone can see Earth from an astronaut’s perspective with the EarthKAM program. Thousands of students can remotely control a digital camera …

House and Senate appropriators have drafted bills that would give NASA slightly less money in 2024 than it received in 2023, rather than the significant increase the administration requested.

India successfully launched a robotic lunar lander July 14, setting up the nation for its second attempt to soft-land on the moon.

Direct-to-device could be revolutionary for space connectivity, but a market for it remains fraught with unknowns as early services begin testing the waters.

Tory Bruno, president and CEO of the United Launch Alliance, said today that the Vulcan rocket will be ready to launch by the end of the year. The root cause […]

"The Committee has significant concerns about the technical challenges."

MGP platform is designed to simplify and speed up access to the Colorado company’s high-resolution Earth imagery.

House and Senate appropriators are moving forward with their FY2024 NASA funding bills. The Senate Appropriations committee approved the Commerce-Justice-Science bill today and the House will mark up their bill […]

Media are invited to join NASA and Small Business Administration leadership at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 18, at NASA Headquarters in Washington to highlight how federal agencies rank on meeting their small business goals.

NASA has awarded the Sounding Rocket Operations IV (NSROC IV) contract to Peraton Inc. of Herndon, Virginia, to support suborbital flight operations managed by the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The valuation of Elon Musk’s SpaceX hit near $150 billion following a share sale by existing investors announced this week, CNBC has learned.

CEO says the rocket could be certified for national security missions before mid-2024.

United Launch Alliance is now planning a first launch of its Vulcan Centaur rocket in the fourth quarter after the company completes modifications to and testing of the upper stage.

Congress should listen to the Space Force and reject the Senate Armed Services Committee’s changes to the U.S. Space Force's National Security Space Launch procurement plans.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander launched from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. This will be India’s second attempt to successfully perform a lunar landing after the Chandrayaan-2 lander failed during its descent.

There’s a reason the saying “that’s why we test” exists. I’ve seen it a lot in my mentions the past few days. Unfortunately, and crucially, it ignores that tests happen for different reasons.

“Certainly the situation in Ukraine has demonstrated the critical importance of timely coordination among partners,” Gen. Chance Saltzman said July 13.

The Small Business Innovation Research contract, awarded through the SpaceWERX Orbital Prime program, gives an important boost to the startup’s plans for in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing.

Payloads: Genes in Space-10: Genes in Space 10 Freeze and Fly Run 1 was initiated using the mini Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) analyzer and Genes in Space Fluorescence Viewer to detect Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) lengths. Genes in Space-10 validates a method for measuring and analyzing DNA length aboard the ISS using fluorescent samples that may …

South Korea’s Hanwha Systems, the OneWeb investor with plans for its own low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband constellation, has secured regulatory permission to operate as a satellite communications provider in the country.

The problem with ViaSat-3 Americas' main antenna does not affect current services provided by Viasat but does impact plans for new broadband services in North America that the spacecraft would have offered.

HawkEye 360, a commercial operator of remote-sensing satellites, announced July 13 it has raised $58 million in new funding.

Rocket Lab’s next Electron launch will feature upgrades to the rocket that bring the company a step closer to being able to reuse its first stage.

NASA has canceled a mission to send a pair of smallsats to binary asteroids and will put the nearly completed spacecraft into storage for a potential future opportunity.

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved the nominations of three FCC commissioners and the agency’s Inspector General today. The next stop is a confirmation vote by the full […]

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the first science-quality images from the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA and its JWST partners released a stunning image of a star-forming region 390 […]

Viasat’s stock plummeted in trading on Thursday after the company disclosed its most recently launched communications satellite suffered a malfunction.

“We’re disappointed by the recent developments,”

On July 12, 2022, five groups of scientists gathered in different agencies across the world to reveal the first five images taken by the historic NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope. The release of the images officially marked the beginning of scientific operations on Webb, which is positioned 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point two, or L2.

President Biden on July 11 submitted to the U.S. Senate the nominations of two three-star Space Force leaders for promotion to four-star generals.

Israel's Second Lunar Landing Mission Facing Funding Woes

NASA will host a pair of news conferences Tuesday, July 25, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to highlight upcoming crew rotations missions to the International Space Station.

Talk about the circle of life. It is here. It is there. It is everywhere.

Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus: Actiwatch-Plus units were hooked up to the HRF-1 rack for data downlink, battery charging, and swap. 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 …

JWST Celebrates First Anniversary with Image of Stellar Nursery