Space news

According to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, July 2023 was hotter than any other month in the global temperature record.

More cost-effective satellites on the larger Rideshare strains end of the smallsat scale are opening up new capabilities for the Earth observation industry. New sensors and improved performance promise to attract a greater variety of customers to the market.

Payloads: Cardiobreath: Bio-Monitor wearable hardware was donned and data was collected during a Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS) Exercise session. Astronauts experience changes in their cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal systems during spaceflight, which can affect their capacity to exercise and to maintain blood pressure when standing after return to Earth. Causal Analysis of …

China launched what is thought to be the world’s first geosynchronous orbit synthetic aperture radar satellite on Saturday.

Rocket Lab says a Virgin Orbit facility it acquired at a bankruptcy auction in May will allow the company to scale up production of its Neutron rocket in development.

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 13-19, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess […]

U.S. Space Force imagery specialists during a recent military exercise in South America helped locate illegal fishing boats and track other activities using commercial sensor satellites.

Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT) which will carry astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) is now delayed to next year, with the earliest chance for launch in March. However, Boeing is still confident it will complete the six crewed flights ordered by NASA despite the planned demise of the ISS in 2030. NASA and Boeing shared the updated launch information in a press briefing on Monday, Aug. 7.

On the heels of record-breaking temperatures in June, NASA will host a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT on Monday, Aug. 14, to discuss its latest climate data.

Tras un mes de junio récord, la NASA ofrecerá una conferencia de prensa a las 11 a.m. EDT del lunes 14 de agosto para discutir sus últimos datos climáticos.

After the Static Fire of what appears to be 29 Raptor engines below Booster 9, SpaceX rolled back the first stage of the next flight test to the production site. Meanwhile, the hot staging extension is still at the Masseys test site as the company gets ready to test the most significant modification between flights one and two.

SpaceX successfully sent 22 more V2 mini Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida very...

Telesat has the funding to move forward with plans for a low Earth orbit broadband network after saving $2 billion by pivoting to smaller satellites from MDA following production delays at Thales Alenia Space, the Canadian operator said Aug. 11.

Northrup Grumman – 19 (NG-19) Cygnus Reboost: Today, the ISS successfully performed a 1.345 m/s reboost using Cygnus Delta Velocity Engine (DVE) thruster starting at 9:35 CT with a burn duration of 22 minutes and 48 seconds. This reboost sets up phasing for 85P launch and rendezvous on GMT 235, and is one of two …

Students interested in designing, developing, building, and testing rovers for Moon and Mars exploration are invited to submit their proposals to NASA through Monday, Sept. 21.

Shares of Canadian telecommunications satellite operator Telesat surged on Friday after the company announced it would swap suppliers for its planned Lightspeed global internet network.

"The new Delta class will be designed for much cheaper operations."

The Space Development Agency is breaking with tradition by seeking out multiple vendors for its low Earth orbit satellite network.

Russia successfully launched the Luna-25 probe today almost 50 years after its last spacecraft landed on the Moon. Amidst backlash from its invasion of Ukraine that included the cancellation of […]

NASA's Parker Solar Probe executed a precise maneuver on August 3, 2023, to ensure a successful rendezvous with Venus during its sixth flyby of the planet.

Students from Oklahoma and Texas will have separate opportunities this week to hear from NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

On August 10, 2023, at 23:10 UTC, the Russian Luna 25 spacecraft launched to the Moon from Vostochny cosmodrome on top of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket with a Fregat-M upper stage. This is the first mission to explore the Earth satellite created by the Russian Federation: the previous spacecraft, Luna 24, was launched in 1976 by the Soviet Union. The entire future of the lunar program in Russia depends on whether this spacecraft will be able to make a soft landing near the south pole of the Moon.

Scout Space, a pioneering startup specializing in on-orbit navigation and tracking, has announced its partnership with the Stanford University Space Rendezvous Laboratory (SLAB) to secure a $1.5 million contract from the U.S. Space Force. The contract aims to enhance space domain awareness by characterizing spacecraft and debris objects, a critical aspect of the rapidly evolving space industry.

After nearly two decades of anticipation, Virgin Galactic achieved a significant milestone today by successfully sending its first private astronaut customers on a suborbital spaceflight.

SpaceX has unveiled plans to launch a new class of rideshare missions, known as "Bandwagon," to cater to the growing demand for mid-inclination orbits. The move comes as part of the company's continuous efforts to expand its rideshare offerings and provide greater accessibility to space for a wider range of customers.

Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its first all-civilian flight this morning, carrying three civilians and three crew members to space aboard their...

CNES has published a call in partnership with BPI France to purchase demonstration missions aboard French microlaunchers. Operators will bid on one of three target missions and will be required to perform the launch before 2027. The call is part of the country’s France 2030 programme which was launched in 2021. The €54 billion investment […] The post France to Fund Demonstration Missions of Microlaunchers appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Viasat is in the early stages of exploring how to use L-band spectrum from newly acquired Inmarsat to connect consumer devices directly from space, including potentially from small satellites in low Earth orbit.

SpaceX is offering a second class of rideshare missions on its Falcon 9 rocket to serve customers seeking to go to mid-inclination orbits.

Every year or so the nonprofit Pew Research Center conducts a survey about Americans’ views of the country’s involvement, priorities and performance in space. With about 10,000 people responding from across the U.S., the most recent survey done in early June gives the “space bubble” a look at how outside taxpayers perceive the often insular industry. 

Media are invited to Utah’s western desert on Wednesday, Aug. 30, to learn about NASA preparations and readiness to receive America’s first asteroid sample collected in space.

Payloads: Combustion Integration Rack (CIR): The crew gained access to the CIR and continued troubleshooting efforts on the Input/Output Processor (IOP). Today’s troubleshooting was designed to force the IOP to start up from a different boot-up script than was previously used, but was not successful. CIR includes an optics bench, combustion chamber, fuel and oxidizer …

Virgin Galactic took its first private astronaut customers on a suborbital spaceflight Aug. 10, nearly two decades after it started selling tickets.

Sturdy legs are needed to absorb the impact of the heaviest spacecraft to ever touch down on the Red Planet.

While special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) hold the potential to drive space industry growth, it is crucial to understand their potential risks.

Virgin Galactic flew its second commercial spaceflight on Thursday, its first carrying private-paying tourists.

As it prepares to award the next round of National Security Space Launch contracts, the Space Force is no longer comfortable relying on just two companies.

Scout won a $1.5 million contract to help the U.S. Space to characterize spacecraft and debris objects.

Galactic Energy achieved its seventh launch success from seven attempts early Thursday and is now set for a first sea-based mission.

The SpaceNews editorial team is producing a daily for the 2023 Small Satellite show, a nightly email newsletter and all-day web coverage during the 2023 Small Satellite show in Logan, Utah, the […]

It must be a magical moment to float freely above the world.

Viasat is holding off on a contingency plan for ViaSat-3 Americas in the hope it could still get some capacity from the broadband satellite despite its defective antenna, the operator’s chair and CEO Mark Dankberg said Aug. 9.

Originally intended to launch on the inaugural Vulcan Centaur mission, Amazon has moved the two prototype Kuiper satellites off of the delayed...

Japanese launch startup Interstellar Technologies is preparing for a static fire test later this year that could pave the way for orbital launch of its Zero rocket in 2025.

The National Reconnaissance Office, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and U.S. Space Command last month signed an agreement to improve threat intelligence sharing with commercial satellite operators.

Viasat reported a jump in quarterly revenue Wednesday, as the company continues to investigate its recent satellite malfunction and explores options to make up for some of the service it expected to add this year.

Small satellite operator Lynk Global has started initial direct-to-device services in a small part of the Cook Islands in its second commercial launch with a local telco.

ESA acknowledged Aug. 8 what most of the space industry had long expected: the first flight of the Ariane 6 will not happen this year.

The Artemis II astronauts that will be the first crew to fly around the Moon in 50 years got a peek at...

Vyoma, a pioneering German startup focused on space debris monitoring, has entered into a strategic partnership with Bulgarian cubesat specialist EnduroSat to develop a constellation of pilot satellites aimed at tracking and cataloging space debris in low Earth orbit (LEO).