Space

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Scientists believe the ocean under Europa’s frozen surface may harbor life. The Europa Clipper spacecraft will travel there to gather data and assess chemicals.

Culberson has played a pivotal role in the quest to learn if Jupiter’s ocean-bearing moon Europa has the ingredients for life.

The mission, dubbed Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY), is planned for launch in late 2026.

The football-field-sized orbital lab must be safely deorbited after transitioning its research and technology activities to multiple commercial successors.

Maiaspace on Sept. 25 said the decision allows it to focus on starting commercial operations from the site in 2026.

NASA’s milestone-setting TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) mission has come to a close.

The Texas legislature has appropriated $150 million in grants for selected Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund (SEARF) grants.

In some emerging use cases in geostationary Earth orbit, conventional satellites weighing several metric tons would be too expensive.

Launch of the next U.S. crew transport to the International Space Station is being delayed until no earlier than Sept. 28 due to an expected large hurricane.

The demonstration saw Northrop Grumman’s hybrid satcom terminal connect with a ViaSat-3 F1 satellite in Geosynchronous orbit at Ka frequencies.

The threats to space systems from directed energy weapons is going to grow, the head of U.S. Space Command warns.

Radian Aerospace of Seattle has unveiled the first prototype of its single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane.

Chinese and Russia anti-satellite capabilities are driving Western militaries to pursue better situational awareness and countermeasures.

Financier and Mission Commander Jared Isaacman is eyeing a more ambitious spacewalk for his next flight.

Released Sept. 24, the 27-page audit makes five recommendations.

The agreement was announced Sept. 24 at the Burjeel Institute for Global Health in New York.

The UK’s military space efforts are not matching the change in the threat and more may need to happen, a Royal Air Force official says.

The German Space Command is exploring the possibility of launching an active in-orbit space defense project not unlike what France is pursuing.

The UK Defense Ministry wants to experiment with deployable Enhanced Long-Range Navigation (eLoran) signals.

The launch is slated to take place on a SpaceX Falcon 9X in October 2025, BAE Systems’ Director of Space Doug Liddle says.

The static test fire at Cape Canaveral SFS marked Blue Origin’s first fueling of a New Glenn rocket stage with flight propellants, and the first engine burn of an integrated flight stage.

The Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve is a peacetime effort to develop capacity that the U.S. military can tap during times of conflict or crisis.

The creation of Fada follows the establishment of UAE Space Agency’s strategic partnership with Edge in November 2023.

Chinese space launcher startup Deep Blue Aerospace suffered a landing failure in the latest test of its Nebula-1 when the engine cut off prematurely.