Listen in as Nanoracks CEO Jeff Manber predicts that by the end of the year, private space companies will have more discretionary money to spend than the U.S. federal government.
NASA’s Space Launch System core stage fired up its four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines on March 18 for a critical, 8-min. integrated test ahead of the booster’s debut launch on the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.
With its Starlink broadband network now exceeding 1,200 satellites, SpaceX formalized an agreement with NASA to operate its megaconstellation on a noninterference basis with the International Space Station and other agency spacecraft in low Earth orbit.
The FAA has renewed two launch operator licenses for Northrop Grumman for its aircraft-launched Pegasus rocket system from Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, and Cape Canaveral, the agency said March 17.
SpaceX continues to expand the operational envelope of its Falcon 9 fleet, with a successful ninth launch and landing of a first-stage booster, setting the stage to meet its goal of 10 launches per rocket with minimal refurbishment between flights.
Responding to U.S. advances in in-space manufacturing, Airbus has been selected to study an orbital factory and potential demonstrator mission to establish a European capability to manufacture and assemble satellites in orbit.
NASA has contracted with Axiom Space to acquire a seat aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 for a NASA astronaut to launch to the orbiting science lab on April 9.
A wave of space startups suddenly going public in SPAC deals is revving up an already excited sector. But one of them is ahead of others and is about to take another giant leap.
Nine hours after a SpaceX team in Texas landed a full-scale Starship prototype for the first time, colleagues in Florida launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 60 more satellites for the company’s high-speed internet service system.
SpaceX’s March 3 high-altitude test of a full-scale Starship prototype managed a soft landing—unlike two previous test vehicles—but then exploded 3 min. after touching down at the company’s facility in Boca Chica Beach, Texas.
Thales Alenia Space (TAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed the expected contract for six satellites in the second generation of the EU’s Galileo navigation constellation, after the Court of Justice of the European Union lifted a suspension.
Startup Venus Aerospace plans to proceed with the development, testing and production of a small hypersonic aircraft capable of transporting a dozen passengers or time-critical payloads between major continental destinations in an hour.
Spire Global, a Luxembourg-registered nanosatellite operator for cloud-enabled data analytics, will become a publicly traded company after a reverse-merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that has been hunting for aerospace and defense targets, NavSight Holdings.
Rocket Lab will become a publicly traded company with $750 million in cash to develop a new medium-lift launcher, grow its end-to-end space business including through acquisitions, and continue to target U.S. government customers.
Virgin Galactic does not expect to resume flight tests of its suborbital passenger vehicle until May due to potential electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues from a new flight control computer, CEO Michael Colglazier said during a Feb. 25 call with investors.
With growing activity in cislunar space and lunar orbit, there is growing interest in using the weak and intermittent signals that are available from existing GNSS constellations for positioning and timing.
Blue Origin is targeting the fourth quarter of 2022 for the first flight of its reusable orbital New Glenn launch system, a delay of about one year, the company said on Feb. 25.
