NASA has awarded Northrop Grumman a sole-source contract worth up to $84.5 million to provide the two-stage ascent vehicle needed to launch samples from the surface of Mars into Mars orbit, where they can be retrieved by a return ship and flown back to Earth.
NASA is bumping the upcoming reflight of Boeing’s uncrewed CST-100 Starliner spacecraft until sometime after the arrival of four astronauts aboard SpaceX’s second operational Crew Dragon taxi flight to the International Space Station.
Nine hours after a SpaceX team in Texas landed a full-scale Starship prototype for the first time, colleagues in Florida launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 60 more satellites for the company’s high-speed internet service system.
SpaceX’s March 3 high-altitude test of a full-scale Starship prototype managed a soft landing—unlike two previous test vehicles—but then exploded 3 min. after touching down at the company’s facility in Boca Chica Beach, Texas.
Thales Alenia Space (TAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed the expected contract for six satellites in the second generation of the EU’s Galileo navigation constellation, after the Court of Justice of the European Union lifted a suspension.
Startup Venus Aerospace plans to proceed with the development, testing and production of a small hypersonic aircraft capable of transporting a dozen passengers or time-critical payloads between major continental destinations in an hour.
NASA plans an industry day on March 9 for the Electrified Power train Flight Demonstration project to flight test megawatt-class electric aircraft propulsion systems.
Spire Global, a Luxembourg-registered nanosatellite operator for cloud-enabled data analytics, will become a publicly traded company after a reverse-merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that has been hunting for aerospace and defense targets, NavSight Holdings.
Rocket Lab will become a publicly traded company with $750 million in cash to develop a new medium-lift launcher, grow its end-to-end space business including through acquisitions, and continue to target U.S. government customers.
NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover on Feb. 28 kicked off a year-plus effort to upgrade the power generating solar arrays that reach out from the International Space Station's (ISS) long support structure in eight pairs with a challenging, hand intensive spacewalk that exceeded the planned six and one-half hours.
Russia has successfully orbited the first Arktika-M hydrometeorological satellite that will boost its weather monitoring capabilities in the Arctic region.
Virgin Galactic does not expect to resume flight tests of its suborbital passenger vehicle until May due to potential electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues from a new flight control computer, CEO Michael Colglazier said during a Feb. 25 call with investors.
With growing activity in cislunar space and lunar orbit, there is growing interest in using the weak and intermittent signals that are available from existing GNSS constellations for positioning and timing.
Blue Origin is targeting the fourth quarter of 2022 for the first flight of its reusable orbital New Glenn launch system, a delay of about one year, the company said on Feb. 25.
Weather service startup ClimaCell on Feb. 24 declared its intent to launch and operate a constellation of small satellites in the coming years to power its aspiration of becoming “the largest weather enterprise in the world.”
The Protected Tactical Waveform was demonstrated successfully during the Advanced Battle Management System onramp event No. 2 in late August and early September.
NASA is reviewing updated proposals from three companies vying for funding to continue development of human lunar landing systems for the Artemis program and expects to select two programs for Option A follow-on contracts “within the next few weeks,” Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said on Feb. 24.
The buildup of Launch Complex 36 (LC36) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for Blue Origin’s upcoming New Glenn reusable orbital booster is nearing completion, Scott Henderson, vice president of test and flight operations, said Feb. 23.
A yearlong study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) stresses an urgency for assessing two nuclear propulsion options if the U.S. is to lead a multiyear human expedition to Mars in the late 2030s.
Redwire, a busy private equity funded space rollup, announced Feb. 23 it had acquired Deployable Space Systems, a provider of deployable solar arrays, structures and mechanisms for space applications.
After delays due to a launch failure and the COVID-19 crisis, Avio is proceeding with the development of an upgraded version of its light launcher, Vega C, planning on a three-year transition over 2021-24.
