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.
Now that NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover team has cleared a pebble obstruction from its sample collection mechanism, the robot geologist is ready to resume drilling into selected rocks that may host evidence of past microbial life on the red planet.
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.
NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are prepared to leverage a mutual and historically advantageous course in space, representatives from the two agencies say.
The U.S. Space Force is planning a series of its own high-level exercises to specifically train on individual mission areas—following the model of the service it grew out of.
NASA has identified 12 launch services providers eligible to contract for dedicated and rideshare launches to a range of destinations under the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare initiative.
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.
Russian cosmonaut Nikolay Chub has received a U.S. entry visa, allowing him to attend training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Roscosmos confirmed Jan 26.
Spinoff 2022 is NASA’s latest edition of an annual profile linking the challenges of overcoming the technical hurdles of human spaceflight and other aerospace initiatives to improving life on Earth.
Engineers believe they have tracked the cause of a problem that prevented one of the two circular solar arrays on NASA’s Lucy asteroid probe from unfurling completely, according to mission Principal Investigator Hal Levison, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
U.S. authorities have refused to issue an entry visa for Russian cosmonaut Nikolay Chub, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin reported in his social media account on Jan 22.
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.
A month after launching aboard an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket, the James Webb Space Telescope on Jan. 24 reached its operational orbit about 940,000 mi. from Earth.
SpaceX’s 24th NASA-contracted cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station conducted a parachute-assisted descent into the Gulf of Mexico waters off Panama City, Florida, on Jan. 24. Dragon returned a more than 4,900-lb. payload of scientific and medical research, technology hardware and other equipment for recovery.
ArianeGroup is studying a dual-use second stage for launches of both satellite and crew that will support the European Space Agency’s fledgling reusability strategy.
After a two-day weather delay, SpaceX’s 24th NASA-contracted Cargo Dragon capsule departed the International Space Station (ISS) on Jan. 23 for a parachute-assisted descent, splashdown and recovery in the waters off Florida’s upper gulf coast.
