Commercial Space

Aerospace trade associations on both sides of the Channel want the EU and the UK to find a consensus on their future relationship.

Milestones for the T-7 trainer; what comes after the MQ-9; Sierra Nevada’s Shooting Star and a new name for Airbus operations in the U.S.

Virgin Galactic’s founding CEO George Whitesides is relinquishing daily management of the fledgling space tourism company to focus on future programs, including point-to-point hypersonic and orbital space transportation, the company said on July 15.

The first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is about halfway through an eight-part Green Run test program at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, with a full-duration static firing of the booster’s four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines expected in October, Boeing Vice President and SLS Program Manager John Shannon said on July 15.

Northrop Grumman’s Minotaur IV rocket ended a nearly three-year hiatus with a July 15 launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, to put a quartet of classified satellites into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

Passur Aerospace will integrate satellite-based aircraft tracking data from Aireon into its airline and airport operations management platform, the companies announced on July 14.

The British government and Bharti Global’s joint offer for the OneWeb satellite constellation has been given the nod by U.S. judges.

The KZ-11 solid-propellant space launcher of Chinese state company Expace failed on its first flight on July 10.

Why things happen the right way when nothing is left to chance.

U.S. Military bureaucracy has neglected serious risks to the system and its users for decades.

UK government sees OneWeb acquisition as a steppingstone to sovereign global navigation system.

Satellite communications provider Viasat said July 8 that it has removed internet speed limits for business aviation subscribers to its Ka-band service plans.

The sponsors of a global student contest to virtually design small lunar race cars have chosen four winners.

About 4 min. into its second-stage burn, the Electron rocket “experienced an issue that caused the complete loss of the vehicle and unfortunately the payloads,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said.

The British government is to make a $500 million investment in the failed communications satellite company OneWeb.

The flight readiness engine, produced at Blue Origin’s Kent, Washington, is the first of two BE-4s ULA will attach to a Vulcan rocket for configuration checks and testing.

Boeing defense chief talks about increased introspection, the impact of COVID-19 on the market and plans for the KC-46.

Mining lunar ice could rein in the cost of future human cislunar space activities as well as expeditions to Mars, according to proponents.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo soared over its new home base near Las Cruces, New Mexico, on June 25, completing the second glide flight since relocating from the company’s manufacturing and test hub in Mojave, California.

Plans to establish a vertical-launch spaceport in Northern Scotland have been approved by local authorities, a significant milestone for the project.

Maxar Technologies will buy out joint venture (JV) partner Saab’s interest in its satellite-based three-dimensional (3D) data and analytics boutique Vricon, as revamped Maxar looks to double down on Earth observation services.

NASA has joined with crowdsourcing network HeroX to seek a strategy for the elimination of lunar astronauts’ bodily wastes under its “Lunar Loo Challenge.”

With 12 licensed commercial spaceports and counting, the FAA is planning a spaceport infrastructure funding program.

Pleased so far with the performance of SpaceX’s Demo-2 test flight to the International Space Station, NASA is planning a series of four and possibly six spacewalks by its two veteran astronaut test pilots before returning to Earth, potentially in early August.

California-based Relativity Space, which is developing a 3D-printed small satellite launcher, has signed a contract with Iridium to launch up to six of its Iridium Next ground spares, the companies announced June 24.