A day after delivering a classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite into orbit from California, SpaceX returned its attention to building its Starlink broadband communications network with a midafternoon Feb. 3 launch of another Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.
An entrepreneur with a background in space companies and an aerospace-focused investment group are partnering to launch a new company, O-G, that aims to provide microgravity and low Earth orbit (LEO) insertion services.
The startup, which is planning to perform its first launch from Space Hub Sutherland on the Scottish mainland later this year, is the first UK-based launch provider to disclose that it has applied for such a license.
Iceye, a Finnish Earth observation services provider with a blossoming constellation of synthetic aperture radar satellites, has landed a Series D round of venture capital worth at least $136 million, the company said Feb. 3.
The International Space Station (ISS) partnership gave its formal blessing for the four-member Axiom-1 (Ax-1) crew to visit the orbital outpost, with launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule now slated for March 30, a day earlier than previously planned.
After waiting out poor weather and a wayward cruise ship in Florida, SpaceX on Jan. 31 launched the newest member of Italy’s synthetic aperture radar Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation network, completing the fourth of 52 missions SpaceX plans this year.
Under a joint project to create an optical internet service connecting low-orbiting satellites with high-flying unmanned aircraft, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Sony researchers have demonstrated high-speed, large-capacity communications in a low-quality, error-prone environment.
Masten Space Systems is touting progress with its Nighttime Integrated Thermal and Electricity system, designed as a low-cost/low-mass method for keeping electronics and payloads on commercial lunar landers alive during nights on the Moon.
Twelve-year-old Satellogic, an Earth observation satellite systems and analytics company, became publicly traded in late January after the reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), as well as an 11th-hour investment boost via former Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Roscosmos plans to start testing the new Angara A5M and Soyuz-5 rockets as well as the Oryol spaceship, all of which are intended to replace legacy Soviet hardware still in operation.
Space debris removal startup Astroscale has halted an autonomous capture demonstration in low Earth orbit after detecting anomalous spacecraft conditions.
D-Orbit, an 11-year-old Italian startup offering the Ion Satellite Carrier for in-orbit positioning, unveiled a go-public effort on Jan. 27 to start trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange in a deal that should provide it up to $185 million.
A Chinese spacecraft that disappeared from orbit on Jan. 22 appears to be serving as a “space tug,” raising a defunct Chinese navigation satellite thousands of kilometers beyond geostationary orbit, according to a company that operates a network of more than 350 optical telescopes around the world.
Houston-based Celestis, which flies cremated remains in one of the more unique—and long-lived—commercial space service ventures, is adding a second payload on United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) debut Vulcan mission, slated to launch later this year.
Space 11 Corp., an aerospace company focused on the production of space-based entertainment, is partnering with Nanoracks, a commercial space station visionary, to develop an orbital free flyer intended to support space film and television production and serve as a live venue and soundscape.
