Space

The NATO Innovation Fund included Germany’s Isar Aerospace in its first round of direct investments to commercial technology companies.

NASA suffered significant cost growth on some major programs even as the agency managed to get control over problems with some of its flagship efforts, GAO says.

The Hubble Space Telescope has initiated imagery gathering with a single gyroscope, following the malfunction of one of the three aiming and steering devices.

Synspective, a Tokyo-based SAR satellite data and analytics solutions provider, announced June 20 it has raised 7 billion yen ($44 million).

ESA expects an agreement between Arianespace and Avio to be completed soon for the Italian company to take over commercialization and operations of the Vega C.

NASA and Boeing have once again extended the stay of the CST-100 Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) at the International Space Station.

Geespace, the satellite technology arm of China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, says it has deployed its Future Mobility Constellation in the Middle East.

The Biden administration on June 17 announced its intention to fly an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station.

Lockheed Martin will build up to seven spacecraft for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Extended Observations program.

Rocket Lab will provide 10 Electron launches to deploy an Earth observation network for Japan’s Synspective, which is building an SAR constellation.

The service is exploring the future of narrowband satellite communications as its legacy Mobile User Objective System approaches the end of its life span.

The Space Force has awarded contracts to Blue Origin, CACI International, General Atomics and Viasat to develop space laser-communication terminal prototypes.

SpaceX is sidelining a Falcon 9 rocket for additional inspections following a rare launch abort at engine ignition.

Boeing passed up bidding on a planned commercial variant of NASA’s Space Launch System Moon rocket for the U.S. Space Force’s NSSL Phase 3 program.

DARPA has awarded Redwire a contract, as part of the agency’s Otter program, to be the prime mission integrator for a very low-Earth orbit spacecraft.

Senators want a U.S. Space Force program executive office to manage the acquisition of satellites that can track both air and ground moving targets from orbit.

RTX is no longer building satellites in the first phase of the U.S. Space Force’s missile-tracking satellite constellation.

NASA and Boeing plan to add at least four days to the ongoing CST-100 Starliner Crew Flight Test.

The NASA spacewalk outside the International Space Station that was postponed on June 13 has been rescheduled for June 24.

It will take some luck for Boeing to be ready to fly its first ISS crew rotation mission as early as February.

Anders’ photograph of “Earthrise” and his words remind us even now how small the planet is and how beautiful it is in depthless space.

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

The U.S. Space Force has selected Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance (ULA), and SpaceX as the three service providers for Phase 3 of the NSSL program.

Ed Stone was 36-year-old space scientist when NASA tapped him to lead the quest to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune with two Voyager spacecraft.

Amazon plans to sell its Project Kuiper satellite internet service in seven South American countries via a distribution agreement.