Space news

Space Systems Command's Assured Access to Space (AATS) office has awarded a $15 million contract to ABL Space Systems to facilitate the demonstration of a responsive launch capability.

Gold and silver.  Buildings and bridges and the cars that drive over them.  The computer on your desk and the phone in your pocket.  What do they have in common?    […]

Believed to be a remnant of powerful ancient debris flows, Gediz Vallis Ridge is a destination long sought by the rover’s science team.

China added to its recent flurry of reconnaissance satellite launches early Sunday, sending three new Yaogan-39 spacecraft into orbit.

Like other companies that build satellites for the U.S. government, L3Harris Technologies is looking for suppliers that can meet the technical and schedule demands of national security programs.

Payloads: Circadian Light: Photos were taken of the light panel setup and an end-of-day assessment was performed in support of the ongoing Circadian Lights investigation. Circadian Light tests a new lighting system that is designed to help astronauts maintain an acceptable circadian rhythm in comparison to the current lighting aboard the ISS. This can help …

The U.S. Space Force, Firefly Aerospace and Millennium Space demonstrated a Tactically Responsive Space capability that's the next step in utilizing commercial capability to augment national security space in a time of need – anytime, anywhere.

French launch aggregator RIDE! announced last week that it had signed an agreement with Arianespace to market Ariane and Vega flights on its digital platform. RIDE! COO Maxime Gaud spoke to European Spaceflight to share more about the company and how it offers flights to satellite operators. What does RIDE! do? RIDE! is a space […] The post RIDE! Hopes to Make Booking a Spaceflight as Easy as a Plane Ticket appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Will Europe look elsewhere if ESA can’t develop crewed launch capabilities?

"It was great to get that notch in our belt."

A small hop by a prototype upper stage was a big step in Stoke Space’s efforts to develop a fully reusable launch vehicle.

SpaceX has responded to a Justice Department lawsuit about the company’s hiring practices with a suit of its own, arguing that the government’s case is unconstitutional.

Stoke Space has successfully conducted a vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) developmental test flight of Hopper2 at their test site in Moses Lake, Washington.

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of September 17-24, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate […]

Using the joint NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have discovered the presence of carbon-bearing molecules within the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18 b. Methane and carbon dioxide are among these carbon-bearing molecules.

A new Russian-American crew has arrived on the International Space Station as part of a rather unusual crew rotation. The three people aboard Soyuz MS-24 were supposed to launch six […]

A Soyuz spacecraft delivered a new crew to the International Space Station Sept. 15 as NASA and Roscosmos updated plans for later missions.

Defense contractor General Atomics announced Sept. 15 it acquired EO Vista, a supplier of space and airborne electro-optical sensors.

Germany signed the Artemis Accords Sept. 14, adding one of Europe’s largest space powers to a document outlining best practices for sustainable space exploration.

The growing need to tackle climate change presents a transformational growth opportunity for the Earth observation industry, executives from an international mix of companies in this market said Sept. 15.

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and two cosmonauts safely arrived at the International Space Station Friday, Sept. 15, bringing its number of residents to 10 for the coming week.

An experiment the Air Force Research Laboratory planned to launch in 2025 to monitor deep space is being delayed after concluding that the original schedule was too ambitious.

NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 20, to discuss the agency’s first test of high-bandwidth optical communications beyond the Moon. The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration is launching aboard the Psyche spacecraft Thursday, Oct. 5.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, NASA is releasing new content for Universo curioso de la NASA, the agency’s first Spanish-language podcast. A five-episode season will start Tuesday, Sept. 19, with new episodes released weekly.

Para celebrar el Mes de la Herencia Hispana, la NASA lanzará nuevo contenido para Universo curioso de la NASA, el primer pódcast en español de la agencia. El martes 19 de septiembre comenzará una temporada de cinco episodios, con nuevos episodios publicados semanalmente.

NASA has assigned astronaut Tracy C. Dyson to her second long-duration mission to the International Space Station as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 70/71 crew.

70 Soyuz Launch and Dock: This morning at 10:44 AM CDT, 70S launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docked to the MRM1 docking port at 2:04 PM CDT after a 2-orbit rendezvous. 70S carried NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. Hatches opened at 4:15 PM CDT and the …

NASA has assigned astronaut Tracy C. Dyson to her second long-duration mission to the International Space Station as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 70/71 crew.

Some things are lost — Moon rocks, Io’s water, even (briefly) the Sun’s light — but what we find in space is so much greater.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio will speak to media about his record-breaking mission aboard the International Space Station during an Earth-to-space call at 12:15 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 19. The virtual news conference is the final opportunity to hear from Rubio while he is in orbit on this yearlong mission.

The rapid growth of European space startups is reflected in Young European Enterprises Syndicate for Space (YEESS), a nonprofit formed in 2021 to support the new companies.

Alpha becomes the first of the US 1-ton rockets to reach its target orbit.

"No one wants a monopoly choking out one point of the value chain."

Spanish launch startup PLD Space has announced plans to hire 150 new employees by 2024 to support the development of MIURA 5. PLD Space is currently working towards a maiden flight of its suborbital MIURA 1 rocket, which it hopes to conduct in a matter of weeks. The rocket will serve as a technology demonstrator […] The post PLD Space to Hire 150 New Employees by 2024 appeared first on European Spaceflight.

The U.S. Space Force announced that Firefly Aerospace successfully launched a Millennium Space small satellite Sept. 14 — a mission designed to demonstrate capabilities to launch in a much shorter timeline than is typical for national security missions.

A top official with the U.S. Export-Import Bank says the export credit agency is considering proposals for more than $5 billion in satellite industry financing.

NASA announced it would take new steps to help understand unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), vowing transparency while also being reticent to disclose some details.

Germany became the 29th country to sign the U.S.-led Artemis Accords today. The Accords set non-binding governance principles for operations on the Moon. The heads of NASA and Germany’s space […]

NASA released the report of its year-long analysis of unclassified data about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs, today. Government interest in UAPs has skyrocketed in recent years […]

Three space companies that went public two years ago are seeking ways to build credibility with large institutional investors that have started dipping toes into the deflated market.

Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) plans to launch an investigation into SpaceX’s actions in Ukraine following new reports that Elon Musk blocked Ukrainian forces’ access to Starlink internet services.

In response to a recommendation by an independent study team for NASA to play a more prominent role in understanding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), the agency announced Thursday it is appointing a director of UAP research.

The first asteroid sample collected in space and brought to Earth by the United States will be unveiled at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday, Oct. 11, and media accreditation is now open.

The Defense Department on Sept. 14 submitted to Congress a report explaining how it intends to keep satellites in orbit safe from aggression — and ensure that services like GPS navigation and space-based communications are always available.

I’m wrapping up my time at the World Satellite Business Week conference, after a whirlwind of panels, meetings and more. Paris, lovely as ever, played host to insights from old and new sources, and I could spend the rest of the year writing solely about everything I learned here.

El verano boreal de 2023 fue el más caluroso para la Tierra desde que se establecieron registros mundiales de temperaturas en 1880, según un análisis realizado por científicos del Instituto Goddard de Estudios Espaciales (GISS, por sus siglas en inglés) de la NASA en Nueva York.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies Company, is helping install four of its RS-25 liquid-propellant rocket engines in NASA’s second Space Launch System (SLS) core stage at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans. The beginning of installation of the upgraded former Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) in Core Stage-2 at MAF on Sept. 11 comes several months later than previous plans.

The summer of 2023 was Earth’s hottest since global records began in 1880, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

KaleidEO analyzed submeter-resolution imagery gathered by Uruguay-based Satellogic by processing data on an in-orbit computer operated by Australia’s Spiral Blue.

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