The U.S. Space Force’s 30th Space Wing and entities in California have entered into an agreement to develop a spaceport and boost commercial launch activity at Vandenberg AFB on the state’s Pacific coast.
SpaceX will fly a pair of SES’s new satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2022, with an option for a second flight for an undisclosed third satellite. ULA will launch another two SES spacecraft on an Atlas V, also in 2022, SES announced.
A prototype Mars-class reusable spaceship developed by SpaceX took a nearly 500-ft (150 m) hop off a launch stand near Brownsville, Texas, on Aug. 4, marking the company’s first successful Starship test flight in a year.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken praised the NASA/SpaceX team behind their test flight and expressed hope the public/private partnership continues to thrive.
As it incorporates lessons learned from the abbreviated debut flight of its LauncherOne small satellite rocket, Virgin Orbit said Aug. 3 it is planning for a second demonstration mission before year’s end, with NASA agreeing to use the launch to put 11 experimental cubesats into orbit.
Small satellite launcher ABL Space Systems has disclosed around $90 million in new defense contracts plus investments from Lockheed Martin and venture capitalists, powering the startup through a three-launch demonstration of the RS1 launch vehicle and GS0 deployable launch system early next year, the company said Aug. 3.
Rocket Lab has determined the cause of the July 4 failure of an Electron rocket—a faulty electrical connection which triggered a premature shutdown of the booster’s second stage, the company said on July 31.
Two NASA Demo-2 astronauts continued preparing on July 31 for a weekend return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) and a splashdown off the Florida coast as Tropical Storm Isaias was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane.
The U.S. Space Force’s 30th Space Wing, the state of California and other involved parties have entered into an agreement to develop a commercial spaceport facility at Vandenberg AFB, California, the federal government’s Western launch range.
A new report on the space industrial base discusses the catastrophic impact the spread of the novel coronavirus has had on space companies and how the global pandemic provides a dangerous opportunity for China and Russia to challenge or surpass the U.S. in space.
The failure of a high-pressure liquid-oxygen feed line triggered a premature engine shutdown during the debut flight of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, the company said on July 27.
Spaceflight’s new Sherpa-FX orbit transfer vehicle is to be deorbited after its first mission in low Earth orbit by deploying Tethers Unlimited’s drag-increasing Terminator Tape.
The Trump administration’s National Space Council on July 23 released a 17-page report outlining its approach to deep-space exploration and development.
British lawmakers have expressed concern that the government’s decision to invest in the failed OneWeb satellite constellation ignored input from advisers.
An international team of astronomers has directly imaged a very young, Sun-like star with multiple large planets—a first that may help astronomers better understand how our Solar System’s planets formed and evolved.
