Virgin Orbit, the airborne small-satellite rocket launch upstart that announced its intent to go public Aug. 23, apparently will build and offer a fleet of Earth-observation and internet of things (IoT) satellites starting in 2023, according to investor materials.
NASA has postponed plans for an Aug. 24 spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) by U.S. and Japanese astronauts due to a “minor medical issue” involving NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.
Australia has approved a launch permit for tiSPACE, a Taiwanese rocket startup, to test launch its Hapith I rocket from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex by the end of 2021.
Despite the worldwide pandemic, the global space economy grew 4.4% last year to reach $447 billion, with the commercial sector accounting for the bulk of the increase, a new Space Foundation report shows.
Virgin Orbit, the small-satellite launching startup under aerospace entrepreneur Richard Branson’s portfolio that started operations this year, plans to end 2021 as a publicly traded company after a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, executives announced Aug. 23.
The Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, has joined with the National Space Society in calling on U.S. policymakers to pursue a joint NASA and Department of Energy-led space solar power generation capability.
Collins Aerospace is to develop an environmental control and life-support system (ECLSS) for a privately owned and operated outpost in low Earth orbit for an unidentified customer.
Millennium Space Systems says last month’s early re-entry of an experimental spacecraft successfully demonstrated the ability of deployable tape technology to significantly accelerate de-orbiting a satellite.
The rise of launch companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab have shown the U.S. government how it can leverage the investment of private companies to reduce its costs and improve its technologies.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has set up a joint research framework with domestic manufacturers and Boeing with the objective of commercializing noise reduction technology demonstrated under its Fquroh research program.
Low-Earth-orbit launch upstart Rocket Lab will become a publicly traded company Aug. 25 after shareholders approved a reverse merger with Vector Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, grossing three-quarters of a billion dollars for the 15-year-old rocket company.
U.S. Transportation Command has asked launch companies and academics to provide cost estimates for delivering military cargo via space over the next 20 years.
Unlike some planetary destinations, the asteroid Psyche was never the target of a spacecraft flyby before becoming an orbital destination for a $1 billion NASA probe, which is adding to the challenge as the Psyche mission team prepares for a planned launch one year from now.
One of the James Webb Space Telescope’s early science tasks, called COSMOS-Webb, will be a wide and deep mapping of the 13.7 billion-year-old universe.
Blue Origin’s next New Shepard flight will test the upgraded lidar and descent landing computer NASA is developing to enable lunar landings at sites that were considered too challenging during the Apollo era.
NASA’s nine-year-old Mars Curiosity rover is climbing out of a region rich in clay minerals that likely formed in a warmer, wet era on the now cold and dry red planet to a region dominated by salty minerals called sulfates, the agency said on Aug. 17.
Microsoft will provide the use of its cloud and be a customer to SES for its O3b mPower satellite constellation, which will dramatically improve connectivity for governments and military customers, according to the CEO of SES.
Big data analytics disruptor Palantir Technologies and BlackSky, a startup with a burgeoning constellation of imaging satellites and its own data analytics service, are partnering to offer their combined services for allied government customers.
Small-rocket mass-manufacturing startup Phantom Space has acquired Micro Aerospace Solutions, a 21-year-old Melbourne, Florida, provider of small satellite thruster, communications and data capabilities, the companies announced Aug. 17.
Blue Origin has turned to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to challenge NASA’s award of a single $2.94 billion contract to SpaceX for development of a lunar Human Landing System.
