Space news

Space companies and government agencies are looking for employees to fill a variety of jobs. Why is demand for talent so strong and how will organizations find the workers they […]

Italian rocket maker Avio has shared that it expects to launch between four and six Vega C flights in 2025. The projection was revealed as part of a presentation shared during Italian Excellences 2023, an event that features around 50 companies listed on the Euronext STAR Milan segment of the Italian Stock Exchange. Vega C […] The post Avio Target Up To 6 Vega C Flights in 2025 appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Viasat has ruled out ordering a ViaSat-3 Americas replacement as it expects to recover a fraction of the satellite’s 1 terabit per second capacity, the operator said Oct. 12 around three months after disclosing its antenna issue.

Viasat shares rose on Thursday after the company said it expects to meet financial growth targets earlier than expected and that it won’t need to replace a damaged $750 million communications satellite.

Scientists said they are thrilled with an initial assessment of asteroid samples returned by a NASA spacecraft last month even though they still don’t know how much material that mission brought back to Earth.

Polish space tech company SpaceForest announced 11 October that the second flight of its suborbital Perun launch system had failed. Despite the failure, the company recovered the rocket and intends to return it to the launchpad. Perun is a single-stage guided suborbital rocket powered by a hybrid rocket engine. The rocket stands 11.5 metres tall […] The post Second SpaceForest Perun Flight Aborted After Engine Failure appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Satellite operator Intelsat has signed an agreement with Relativity Space for multiple launches of that company’s Terran R reusable launch vehicle under development.

NASA officials refer to this as Asteroid Autumn and they’re not kidding. Today they revealed the first samples that were just returned from the asteroid Bennu by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft […]

Italian space company Argotec announced plans Oct. 11 to invests $25 million in a manufacturing facility in Largo, Maryland.

U.S. and allies "have been discussing ways to jointly architect systems and build capabilities together to avoid duplication and ensure interoperability"

"Boy, did we really nail it."

The two contenders hoping the U.K. chooses them to de-orbit a pair of derelict satellites in 2026 with a single robotic spacecraft have finished the system requirements review for their mission.

USOS MicroOrganisms ExtraVehicular Activity (EVA) Deferral: Due to Monday’s MLM radiator coolant leak, the USOS Microorganisms EVA was deferred. NASA engineering and flight control teams are continuing to review data and video associated with the leak and the spacewalk is postponed until the review is complete. Payloads: Education Payload Operations (ESA-EPO): Video was recorded in …

CNES has renewed its contract with aerospace and defense company HEMERIA to produce stratospheric balloons for the French space agency’s scientific campaigns. Signed on 11 October, the agreement will see HEMERIA produce 50 open stratospheric balloons, including the main balloons and associated auxiliary balloons, and 40 pressurized stratospheric balloons. The agreement will span four years. […] The post CNES Selects HEMERIA to Produce 90 Research Balloons appeared first on European Spaceflight.

To cultivate the requisite skills for competition with spacefaring global powers, the Space Force is exploring the use of technologies capable of making virtual and remote training far more realistic and immersive than previously possible.

A startup has raised a seed round of funding to develop customized satellites with the assistance of artificial intelligence as an alternative to standardized buses.

A year after acquiring the assets of Masten Space Systems, Astrobotic has resumed flights of that company’s suborbital vehicle and plans to continue development of a larger rocket.

“After a dozen years designing and developing Euclid, it is exhilarating and very moving to see these first images. But you can’t just release them to the public; it takes […]

An atomic navigation sensor, funded by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, was delivered in August and is waiting for a ride to space.

NASA is now planning for the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage assigned to the Artemis II lunar flyby mission to be completed in mid-December for subsequent delivery to its Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch site. The four RS-25 core stage engines were installed in the stage in September at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, and work is moving towards testing and checkout of the stage to complete final assembly.

The National Reconnaissance Office is on track to dramatically increase the number of spy satellites it relies upon to collect intelligence

Evolution Space, a startup developing solid rocket motors, has signed an agreement to establish production and testing operations at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.

The European Space Agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Axiom Space to explore collaborations in the fields of human spaceflight, science, technology, and commercialisation. Signed on October 1, the MOU became immediately effective and will span an initial period of three years. The agreement included an option for an extension “based on mutual […] The post ESA Sign Agreement with Axiom Space appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Will this leak be blamed on "external impacts" as well?

Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) Spare Radiator External Coolant Leak: Yesterday, video downlink to the ground and visual observation by the crew identified an external coolant leak in the spare radiator on the exterior of the MLM on the Russian Segment. This radiator was installed during RS EVA #56 last summer but was not in use …

A radiator on the Russian segment of the International Space Station started leaking coolant Oct. 9, the third such incident involving Russian hardware at the station in less than a year.

Russia’s newest International Space Station module, Nauka, began leaking coolant from a radiator today. This is third Russian radiator to spring a leak in less than a year. The Nauka […]

SpaceX called on the Federal Aviation Administration to correct a report to Congress warning that, by 2035, falling debris from U.S.-licensed constellations in low Earth orbit could injure or kill someone every two years if they deploy as planned.

Propulsion problems on four satellites using the same kind of power modules are expected to result in at least $50 million in claims for insurers already facing more than $800 million in losses this year following two major spacecraft failures.

Former Lockheed Martin executive Chris Winslett last month was named general manager of Blue Canyon Technologies, a small-satellite manufacturer owned by Raytheon

"This launch culminates over 12 years of relentless effort."

SpaceX stopped its countdown clock on the launch of 22 more Starlink satellites on Sunday night and rescheduled the mission for Monday,...

Arianespace launched a Vega rocket in the early hours of 9 October, carrying two primary payloads and ten small secondary payloads. The VV23 flight was Europe’s third and final mission of 2023. The Avio-built Vega rocket was launched from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana at 01:36 UTC, carrying a total payload of approximately […] The post Arianespace Launch Europe’s Final Mission of 2023 Aboard Vega appeared first on European Spaceflight.

A Vega rocket successfully launched a dozen small satellites Oct. 8 while its more powerful version remains grounded for another year.

Spanish launch startup PLD Space has successfully launched the maiden flight of its suborbital Miura 1 rocket. The launch was conducted at 00:19 UTC on 7 October from the El Arenosillo Test Centre in Huelva, Spain. The flight lasted for a total of 306 seconds, with the vehicle reaching a maximum altitude of 46 kilometres. […] The post PLD Space Successfully Debuts Suborbital Miura 1 Rocket appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Axiom Space continues to work on the development of their first spacesuit which will be used for NASA's Artemis missions. In a surpise annoucement Axiom Space is partnering with Prada, the renowned Italian luxury fashion house.

Rocket Lab opened its Engine Development Center in Long Beach, California on October 4th. The new facility, spanning a sprawling 13,400 square meters, is poised to play a pivotal role in advancing the production of Rocket Lab's engines.

Russia's attempt to land its first lunar mission in nearly half a century ended in disappointment as the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on the moon's surface in August. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has now attributed the mission failure to faulty commands in the onboard computer during a critical maneuver.

Virgin Galactic has completed its fourth commercial mission, continuing its monthly commercial suborbital spaceflights mission.

Azerbaijan signed up to China’s International Lunar Research Station project Tuesday, on the sidelines of a major international space conference.

On Oct. 12, 2023, NASA’s Psyche mission and spacecraft will launch out into the asteroid belt to research asteroid 16 Psyche. Psyche, the asteroid, is thought to be metal-rich and is one of the largest asteroids within the asteroid belt. However, the true nature of the asteroid is largely unknown, and new research from NASA’s now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) telescope and NASA’s Ames Research Center is helping scientists predict what to expect at Psyche when the spacecraft arrives.

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 8-14, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in recess except for […]

The head of the Space Development Agency is pushing back at critics who presumably don’t want the military acquisition culture to change, SDA’s director Derek Tournear said in a social media post.

Florida’s Space Coast has been awash with launch activity as of late, thanks in large part to the ever-increasing cadence that SpaceX is fostering. Even with this, several facilities in and around the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) have seen a pulse of activity in recent days, with SpaceX and Blue Origin in particular taking steps to either bolster their existing infrastructure or prepare for future hardware testing. Blue Origin — Exploration Park

Spanish company PLD Space launched its first suborbital rocket Oct. 6, with the company calling the flight a success despite reaching a lower altitude than planned.

Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos has concluded that Luna-25 failed because the onboard control system did not receive required data from the accelerometer to trigger an engine shutdown at the […]

United Launch Alliance launched two prototypes Oct. 6 for the more than 3,200 Project Kuiper broadband satellites Amazon plans to build and deploy over the next six years.

Virgin Galactic continued its monthly cadence of commercial suborbital spaceflights Oct. 6, carrying three customers that included the first person from Pakistan to go to space.

Slingshot Aerospace unveiled data that shows Russia’s new spy satellite Luch-2 is conducting operations akin to those of its predecessor Luch-1