Space news

Payloads: Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research on Varying Mission Durations (CIPHER): Blood pressure measurements were performed in support of the current CIPHER science activities. CIPHER consists of 14 studies designed to improve our understanding of physiological and psychological changes in humans on missions that range from weeks to one year in duration. …

The last few months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been eventful. Expedition 70 is underway after two crew handovers, a bearing on a solar array rotary joint seized up, and a coolant leak on the Russian segment occurred. Currently, the ISS crew has completed Russian EVA-61, although key objectives were not fully accomplished, and now US EVA-89 has been done as well.

Spanish launch vehicle startup PLD Space declared their first suborbital launch a success, clearing the way for development of an orbital launch vehicle.

The Space Development Agency has awarded York Space a $615 million contract for 62 satellites for DoD’s low Earth orbit constellation.

Pakistan officially joined China’s International Lunar Research Station, the China National Space Administration announced Friday.

Canada’s newly announced plan to invest 1 billion Canadian dollars ($739 million)  over the next 15 years in the Radarsat mission is part of the federal government’s climate resilience strategy. […]

For the first time in six decades, geopolitics and deep-space exploration align.

The International Space Station is in the wrong orbit for commercial space stations. Selecting the right orbit is key to building a cost-efficient commercial zone in zero gravity.

Bremen-based startup POLARIS Spaceplanes announced that it had completed the first roll tests of its MIRA demonstrator. MIRA is a 4.3-metre demonstrator that features a fiber-reinforced shell, four kerosene-fed turbine engines, and one aerospike rocket engine. The 210-kilogram vehicle is a subscale prototype of the company’s AURORA vehicle, which will be capable of delivering 1,000 […] The post POLARIS Spaceplanes Begins Testing MIRA Demonstrator appeared first on European Spaceflight.

A SpaceX executive used a Senate hearing to express frustration with the slow pace of launch licensing reviews that is holding up the next flight of the company’s Starship vehicle.

"NASA’s aspirational goal to achieve a cost savings of 50 percent is highly unrealistic."

The European Space Agency said Oct. 19 it has rescheduled a long-duration static-fire test of the Ariane 6 rocket for late November, after a major meeting of European government officials where support for the rocket will be on the agenda.

French launch startup Latitude has doubled its factory floor space in preparation for the first flight of its Zephyr launch vehicle. Latitude was founded in 2019 and initially operated out of Paris before moving to its current home in Reims in 2020. The company is developing Zephyr, a two-stage 17-metre tall launch vehicle that is […] The post Latitude Double Factory Floor Space appeared first on European Spaceflight.

The procurement arm of the U.S. Space Force is making a major push to work more closely with allies abroad and is pressing the Pentagon to adjust classification policies to allow for more open sharing of information with trusted international partners.

The U.K. is funding nearly half the cost of replacing the government-backed cubesat that British maritime surveillance venture Horizon Technologies lost in January in Virgin Orbit’s final launch attempt before bankruptcy.

ESA announced 19 October that it had adapted the Ariane 6 testing schedule to enable teams to continue to tick off key milestones while work on a Thrust Vector Control (TVC) anomaly continues. The first hot fire test of an Ariane 6 core stage was completed on 18 July. Following that test, as teams worked […] The post ESA Pushes Ahead with Ariane 6 Testing appeared first on European Spaceflight.

A crew of three astronauts is set to launch to China’s Tiangong space station next week for a six-month-long mission.

In recent months, Skylo has established partnerships with chipset manufacturers, satellite fleet operators and telecommunications providers.

ISS Reboost: Last night, the ISS performed a reboost using the Aft Progress 85P Rendezvous and Docking (R&D) thrusters. This was the second of four reboosts to set up proper phasing conditions for the upcoming Progress 86P launch on Friday, December 1st. The burn duration was 18 minutes 18 seconds and provided a delta-V of …

“Space-based technologies are the building blocks of innovation on Earth. GPS, geospatial intelligence and satellite communications are the invisible backbone that powers the world’s largest industries today.”

China’s continued pursuits of space technologies as a way to gain military superiority are once again highlighted in the Pentagon’s latest annual report on “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.”

Strategists and planners at NASA are mulling over questions of tempo for future human expeditions to the moon. Should Artemis involve a yearly campaign of smaller missions or consolidate expeditions, launching more ambitious (and, therefore, sporadic) efforts less often?

Cognitive Space said securing two SDA phase 2 awards in a matter of weeks underscores the value of the company’s Cognitive Inference Tasking (CNTIENT) software platform.

Industry officials used a Senate hearing to request reforms to the Federal Aviation Administration’s launch licensing process, warning of dire commercial and geopolitical implications if changes aren’t made.

SpaceX told a Senate committee today that government regulations are slowing the development of Starship and the commercial human spaceflight industry is at a “breaking point” in terms of maintaining […]

Virgin Galactic will conclude its schedule of suborbital spaceflights this year with a mission in early November whose crew will include a longtime advocate of suborbital research.

Los Angeles startup Machina Labs is expanding its role in the space sector by working with satellite and hypersonic vehicle manufacturers.

A plan to establish a commercial space reserve to ensure the U.S. military has access to commercial satellites during conflicts is moving closer to completion, U.S. Space Force leaders said Oct. 18.

With the pace of rocket launches accelerating, and competition from China rising, executives from top U.S. space companies on Wednesday urged senators to improve the Federal Aviation Administration’s regulatory and licensing processes.

Providers of the subsystems and components needed to support a surge of proposed satellites are set to drive deal activity into 2024, according to space investors speaking during the Satellite Innovation conference Oct. 17.

Payloads: Circadian Light: The crew performed a Circadian Light start-of-next-day assessment. The Circadian Light investigation tests a new lighting system to help astronauts maintain an acceptable circadian rhythm. This can help enhance cognitive performance during a long-duration mission and help combat monotony through automated, varied, and gradually changing lighting sequences and settings. Complement of Integrated …

As Axiom Space gears up for its third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, the company says it has refined the training needed to effectively carry out those missions.

Also on tap for India: A space station and a Venus orbiter.

Danti, a startup that developed a geospatial data search engine, was awarded a $1.2 million contract by the U.S. Space Force to further develop its AI-enabled technology.

HawkEye 360, a commercial operator of remote-sensing satellites, has secured an additional $10 million in an extension of its Series D-1 investment round.

Industry executives argue that SpaceX’s dominant position in the launch market is making it difficult for small launch vehicles to compete, as a prominent investor warns of a wave of bankruptcies among launch companies.

Atomos Space won a $1.6 million AFWERX contract to establish a ground-based testing facility for multi-party rendezvous and proximity operations.

CesiumAstro won a NASA contract to design a space-qualified wideband active phased array terminal to communicate with commercial and government networks.

Private investment in space companies has declined, while U.S. government funding for space programs is climbing.

One-year-old Californian startup AnySignal emerged from stealth mode Oct. 16 with $5 million in funding behind a multi-purpose space radio platform.

As India readies for a test flight of the crew escape system for a new human-rated launch vehicle this weekend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid out exploration goals including an […]

The Space ISAC, an industry group dedicated to space cybersecurity, is trying to spread awareness of the dangers satellites face, not just from cyberattacks, but also from potential anti-satellite weapons and severe space weather.

SpaceX plans to launch 22 additional Starlink satellites this evening from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as long as the weather...

TYSONS CORNER, VA — Oct. 16, 2023 — The SpaceNews Icon Awards will be awarded at a ceremony at the InterContinental Hotel at the Wharf in Washington, D.C., Tues., Dec. […]

Payloads: Actiwatch-Plus (AWP): Multiple crew members retrieved and donned their AWPs in support of the Standard Measures investigation. 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 …

Another busy period in spaceflight is underway with three Falcon 9 rockets with Starlink payloads and the first test flight of India’s Gaganyaan crew-capable spacecraft. Starlink 6-23 and 6-24 are set to fly from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida, while Starlink 7-5 is to fly out of SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California. These three missions together would carry 65 Starlink v2 Mini satellites to low-Earth orbit.

The co-founder of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging company Capella Space is stepping down as chief executive as the company seeks to grow its business, particularly with government customers.

“Licensing at this point for Starship is a critical path item for the Artemis program."

WASHINGTON — Scientific Systems, a defense contractor based in Woburn, Massachusetts, won a $1.5 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to develop software for in-space object detection and identification. […]

India will aim to put astronauts on the moon by 2040 and construct a space station in the middle of the next decade, the government said Tuesday.