A pair of test satellites for Amazon’s planned 3,236-member Kuiper broadband constellation will be launched as secondary payloads on the debut flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan-Centaur rocket, targeted for early 2023.
NASA has declared its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission a major success in its demonstration of a “kinetic impact” strategy that could be used to change the trajectory of a large asteroid on a course to impact the Earth.
New standardized mechanical interfaces for grappling and connecting spacecraft are critical to enabling growth of the in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing industries, a panel of industry players says.
At the request of its customer, United Launch Alliance is delaying the debut flight of its Vulcan-Centaur booster to the first quarter of 2023, though CEO Tory Bruno acknowledges that even if Astrobotic’s lunar lander was ready, it would be difficult to make the previously targeted December launch date due to delays with Vulcan’s BE-4 core stage engines.
Mission controllers have regained attitude control of the NASA-funded Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment small satellite.
NASA’s SpaceX-contracted Endurance Crew-5 Dragon capsule successfully docked with the International Space Station on Oct. 6, delivering four astronauts and cosmonauts as part of a crew exchange.
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency has awarded a prototype contract worth up to $200 million to York Space Systems for 12 communications satellites as part of its Tranche 1 Demonstration and Experimentation System program.
Aerojet Rocketdyne and the Air Force Research Laboratory recently conducted a successful test of a new large solid rocket motor called eSR-19 that the company is pitching for multiple stages on both defense and space applications.
NASA’s SpaceX-contracted Crew-5 mission was on course to deliver four U.S., Japanese and Russian crewmembers to the International Space Station on Oct. 6 following a successful Falcon 9 launch on Oct. 5 from Kennedy Space Center with a crew Dragon capsule.
The Space Development Agency has awarded a $176 million agreement to Ball Aerospace to create 10 space vehicles and ground systems to test new payloads to potentially be incorporated into future National Defense Space Architecture tranches.
AE Industrial Partners, the leading private equity investor in aerospace and defense by deal volume, has acquired a majority stake in small satellite builder York Space Systems, the companies announced Oct. 4.
The U.S. Space Force has awarded small satellite manufacturer Millennium Space Systems and launch service provider Firefly Aerospace contracts for its Victus Nox mission, an attempt to demonstrate the ability to launch a small satellite into low Earth orbit less than 24 hr. after requested.
The Space Development Agency, the defense space acquisition startup launched more than three years ago to shake up how the Pentagon acquires capabilities in orbit, is now officially part of the U.S. Space Force.
