Commercial Space

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.

Economic and workforce upheavals are testing the mettle of the small satellite industry.

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.

Space situational awareness provider LeoLabs is to locate its fourth space radar in Costa Rica.

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.