United Launch Alliance’s final Delta II rocket has secured its place in history as the newest member of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Rocket Garden, an outdoor exhibit of retired launch vehicles.
China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft—one of a trio of missions that successfully reached Mars in February—will dispatch a companion rover for a targeted mid-May landing on the planet’s surface, Chi Wang, director general of China’s National Space Science Center, said March 23.
NASA’s newly arrived Perseverance rover is preparing to dispatch a small helicopter that accompanied it to Mars for the first demonstration of powered flight on another planet.
The UK is looking to develop a constellation of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites as it expands its defense involvement in space.
Lockheed Martin and Omnispace, a startup targeting satellite-enabled 5G communications, on March 23 announced a “strategic interest agreement” to explore 5G business opportunities from space, and possibly creating the first dual-use commercial- and government-serving platform.
After a two-day delay to conduct additional ground equipment checks, the Soyuz 2.1a rocket flew through clouds above the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan at 2:07 a.m. EDT on March 22.
NASA’s nearly two-decade-long push to establish game-changing commercial partnerships in low Earth orbit operations to expand human exploration and scientific research and grow the economy is broadening its scope to include a new role for private sector communications and navigation assets and services.
Glynn Lunney, a member of the Space Task Group that launched NASA’s human spaceflight operations and the flight director remembered for leading the safe return of the Apollo 13 crew, has died at 84.
Airbus has been selected by Eutelsat to build EUTELSAT 36D, a new generation multi-mission geostationary telecommunications satellite, which will replace and enhance capacity at 36°East, a key orbital slot for Eutelsat for TV broadcasting (DTH) and government services over Africa, Russia and Europe.
International Space Station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineers Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Kate Rubins boarded their Russian Soyuz MS-17 on March 19 and undocked from the orbital outpost, reparking 34 min. later at a different module to clear the preferred port for the arrival of the next crew.
President Joe Biden on March 19 nominated former three-term Sen. Bill Nelson, (D-Fla.), to serve as the 14th administrator of NASA, succeeding fellow former U.S. legislator Jim Bridenstine, whose nomination Nelson opposed.
The first fully commercial space launch of the Russian Soyuz 2.1a vehicle in 2021, planned for March 20, is expected to orbit 38 various satellites from 18 countries into three different Sun-synchronous orbits.
Listen in as Nanoracks CEO Jeff Manber predicts that by the end of the year, private space companies will have more discretionary money to spend than the U.S. federal government.
The Pentagon is diversifying the U.S. early missile warning portfolio with a mix of satellite types and sizes in different orbits to prevent unwanted missile attacks.
NASA’s Space Launch System core stage fired up its four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines on March 18 for a critical, 8-min. integrated test ahead of the booster’s debut launch on the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.
With its Starlink broadband network now exceeding 1,200 satellites, SpaceX formalized an agreement with NASA to operate its megaconstellation on a noninterference basis with the International Space Station and other agency spacecraft in low Earth orbit.
The FAA has renewed two launch operator licenses for Northrop Grumman for its aircraft-launched Pegasus rocket system from Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, and Cape Canaveral, the agency said March 17.
Though the Martian surface is now cold and dry, imagery dating back to the 1960s reveals a planet where large amounts of water once flowed and pooled, perhaps contributing to an environment amenable to life.
SpaceX continues to expand the operational envelope of its Falcon 9 fleet, with a successful ninth launch and landing of a first-stage booster, setting the stage to meet its goal of 10 launches per rocket with minimal refurbishment between flights.
