SpaceX kicked off what is expected to be a pivotal year for its fledging internet-via-satellite service with the delivery of 60 more spacecraft into orbit on Jan. 20, as public beta trials expand to the UK.
NASA needs to strategically reassess risk as it enlists commercial and international partners in its deep-space ambitions, according to the agency’s independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.
Conservative test parameters for NASA’s Space Launch System Core Stage hot fire prompted the early but orderly shutdown of the Boeing-built booster’s four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines, NASA said on Jan. 19.
The unanticipated clumpy nature of the Martian soil at Elysium Planitia, the equatorial landing site, offers little friction for digging meaning a probe cannot be buried.
The EU is looking for synergies between two components of its Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-27: the newly created €8 billion ($9.5 billion) European Defense Fund and the €14.9 billion space budget.
Japan’s SoftBank has re-invested in OneWeb, the satellite communications company that was sent into Chapter 11 nine months ago after the Tokyo-based holding company withdrew its support.
Airbus says it has completed the Preliminary Design Review on the UK’s new Skynet 6A military communications satellite. The review occurred in November and was completed virtually due to the restrictions in place because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Airbus announced Jan. 14.
Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for NASA’s deep-space crewed Orion spacecraft, has completed assembly and testing of the capsule earmarked for a flight test in November and transferred possession to NASA.
Blue Origin credits a team of experienced industry partners with its success so far as a competitor to build NASA’s lunar Human Landing System to shuttle future astronauts between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.
Blue Origin tested an upgraded New Shepard suborbital launch system on Jan. 14, sending the uncrewed, six-passenger capsule to an altitude of 347,568 ft. before it made a parachute return to the West Texas desert.
Publicly traded space-related stocks received a proverbial booster shot this week when a popular investment manager unveiled a new electronically traded fund focusing on space.
SpaceX’s latest Dragon International Space Station resupply mission concluded late Jan. 13 with the first splashdown off the U.S. East Coast, delivering a 4,400-lb. cargo rich in time-sensitive scientific research.
An Italian startup focused on the rapidly growing ground-segment-as-a-service market, Leaf Space, has raised €10 million ($12.15 million) in a Series A venture capital round, the company announced Jan. 13.
Intuitive Machines has for a second time selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket for the launch of a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission lander to the Moon.
The U.S. Air Force selected the Army’s Redstone Arsenal facility over six locations in the final eight days of the tenure of President Donald Trump, who created the new organization as the new combatant command supported by the U.S. Space Force.
