Space

In testimony before the U.S. House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Oct. 20, NASA made it clear the agency faces significant strategic and technical challenges in developing a nuclear propulsion capability to lead the way for the human exploration of Mars by the end of the 2030s.

Scotland is hoping that its space industry can contribute more than £4 billion ($5.53 billion) to its economy by 2030.

Attempts to fully unfurl and latch a solar array on NASA’s recently launched Lucy asteroid probe will resume no earlier than the end of next week, NASA said on Oct. 19.

Science fiction becomes science fact as iconic Star Trek actor flies in space.

Actor returns from spaceflight deeply touched by experience.

The mission, which is costing NASA $981 million, including the launch, is the first to the Trojan asteroids.

The Australian location will provide good coverage of launch corridors from East Asia, and improve space coverage in the Southern Hemisphere.

Rocket Lab will attempt a controlled ocean splashdown and recovery of the Electron small satellite launcher earmarked for flight next month, the company said on Oct. 19.

Boeing is nearing the end of a winding technical analysis of a valve problem that scotched plans for an uncrewed orbital flight test of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in August.

NASA has named an astronaut flight training hangar in honor of the late John Young, who launched on six space missions and served as commander of the Apollo 16 Moon landing and the first space shuttle mission.

NASA has selected the small Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) from 18 space telescope proposals for further development and launch in 2025 to investigate the origin of chemical elements in the Milky Way.

The Lucy spacecraft, which launched on Oct. 16 on a mission to explore seven Jupiter Trojan asteroids, may have an issue with one of its 24-ft.-dia. solar arrays, the agency said on Oct. 17.

U.S. Air Force experiments with satellite to augment GPS.

Russian film actress Yulia Peresild and producer/director Klim Shipenko descended safely to Earth early Oct. 17 on the steppes of central Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft with International Space Station (ISS) cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy.

A NASA spacecraft has begun a 12-year, 4 billion-mi. mission to explore an unusual population of asteroids that became locked in Jupiter’s orbit during the early days of the Solar System’s formation.

Axiom Space, which is working with NASA to develop a commercial successor to the International Space Station, announced this week the completion of three joint design reviews for the project.

The partnership enables the two entities to partner on research and development opportunities, promoting U.S. space industry growth.

The venture capital and private equity firehose fueling space startups continues unabated.

NASA’s Human Landing System strategy, a key element of the agency’s effort to establish a sustained human presence at the Moon and go on to Mars, may appear embattled.

Startup Space Perspective announced a $40 million venture capital fund raising on Oct. 14, claiming the largest round yet for a space tourism balloon company and coming months after a successful demonstration.

Satellite broadband provider OneWeb has successfully placed more than half of its constellation into low Earth orbit following the 11th launch of its campaign from Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East at 5:40 a.m. EDT Oct. 14.

The trio will spend six months living on the Tianhe core module, which will be the longest-ever duration in space for a Chinese crew.

More than 50 years after portraying the fictional captain of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise, actor William Shatner joined two paying passengers and a Blue Origin vice president for the company’s second crewed flight to suborbital space.

Advanced versions of NASA’s Space Launch System, the world’s most power rocket, could be used in the long term to carry out a human Mars flyby and dispatch an interstellar probe to study the realm beyond the Solar System, experts say.

The customer slated to launch on the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket now expects to fly in mid-2022.