Commercial Space

European countries need to “reconverge” their space efforts, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said as he reported lower profits for Airbus' Defense and Space unit.

Virgin Galactic completed the first test flight of the VMS Eve carrier aircraft at Mojave, California, on Feb. 15.

Virgin Orbit believes it has identified what caused the premature shut down of LauncherOne’s second-stage Newton 4 engine over the Atlantic.

A pair of 6U science sats, originally slated to piggyback a ride to Mars with NASA’s Psyche asteroid probe, will instead launch aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week

The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract is part of the Foreign Commercial Imagery Program.

SpaceX fired up 32 of the 33 Raptor engines on its first Starship/Super Heavy booster for a static hot-fire on Feb. 9.

Small satellites dominated the space industry in terms of numbers, accounting for 95% of all spacecraft launched in 2022, according to a report by Bryce Tech.

SpaceX is taking steps to prevent Starlink technology provided to Ukraine from being used for offensive military purposes.

SpaceX will attempt to test-fire the 33 Raptor engines of its first Starship/Super Heavy booster on Feb. 9.

A static firing of Super Heavy’s 33 Merlin engines is the last major milestone before debut launch.

Spacetug developer Exotrail of France has raised a $58 million Series B round.

The International Space Station is nearing a challenging stretch.

The cloud-computing company sees space as the next frontier for its technology.

The company is developing Starlab, a privately run space station in low Earth orbit, planned for launch in 2028.

The 109-ft.-tall Vulcan booster and 38 1/2-ft. Centaur V upper stage arrived in Florida on Jan. 21.

Hydrosat has won a contract from AFWERX to adapt its surface temperature data analytics software for military missions.

Funds raised will be used to launch a demonstrator capsule in 2024.

A UK university team has been awarded £520,000 ($643,400) to develop an artificially intelligent (AI) software program to predict solar storms.

The company plans to pick up the pace, with an eye of up to 100 flights in 2023.

It was Rocket Lab’s first from the Wallops Island facility, opening a new venue for the Electron rocket and marking a new beginning for the Virginia spaceport.

Researchers see a novel way to free up volume and electricity within small-satellite buses.

Airbus is confident it can commercialize the Zephyr platform as a communications and Earth observation platform after a 64-day flight last year.

The financing will be used to help pay for the company’s first space debris removal mission.

Just two launches are scheduled for 2023 at Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.