The return capsule of China’s Chang’e 5 lunar mission landed early on Dec. 17, Chinese time, bringing back the first samples from the Moon in 44 years.
The Commercial Space Operations Center, now known as Comspoc, has formally split off as a standalone company from Analytical Graphics now that the latter has been acquired by Ansys.
President Trump issued his administration’s sixth Space Policy Directive on Dec. 16, promoting the development of space nuclear power and propulsion technologies to support a permanent human presence on the Moon by the end of the 2020s and the human exploration of Mars in the decade that follows.
Persistent lapses in NASA’s oversight of key Artemis elements continue to jeopardize upcoming test flight launch schedules and plans for hardware upgrades after the agency returns to the Moon’s surface with human explorers, a U.S. Government Accountability Office audit says.
Redwire, the private equity-backed space rollup, said Dec. 15 it bought LoadPath, a developer of payload adapters, deployable structures and thermal products for the space industry.
The U.S. Space Force may establish its acquisition and sustainment arm, Space Systems Command, earlier than planned, the chief of space operations says.
The survivability of NASA’s exploration agenda depends substantially on bipartisan congressional support, according to Jim Bridenstine, the agency’s soon-to-depart administrator.
The European Space Agency has awarded ArianeGroup a €33 million ($40 million) contract for the “initial development phase” of the Themis demonstrator for a reusable launcher’s first stage.
Iridium has officially launched its own Global Maritime Distress and Safety System service, providing a single terminal for emergency data and voice communications that company leaders said would be competitively priced.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Hayabusa 2 mission scientists have confirmed the presence of a small, dark-grained material and vapor within the sample container that returned to Earth from the primitive asteroid Ryugu.
The lack of an appropriations bill has caused the U.S. Space Force to be dependent on the U.S. Air Force for funding, the chief of space operations says.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have selected the initial trio of astronauts for the third of SpaceX’s commercial crew launches to the International Space Station, Crew-3, which is expected to launch in fall 2021.
NASA and its Commercial Crew Program partner Boeing are targeting March 29, 2021, for Orbital Flight Test-2, a weeklong second attempt at an uncrewed test flight of the company’s CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station.
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:09 p.m. EST on a mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), dubbed NROL-44.
An updated U.S. space policy emphasizes six broad principles, with roots in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the Artemis Accords, with which NASA is forging an international partnership to lead humans back to the Moon and on to Mars.
