The U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) will launch a pair of upcoming GPS-III satellites on previously flown Falcon 9 rockets, saving taxpayers nearly $53 million and setting the stage for future reuse missions under SpaceX’s Phase 2 National Security Space Launch contract.
In a first-ever assessment of its economic impact, NASA reports its overall exploration, science and technology development activities generated a $64.3 billion benefit in 2019, supporting 312,000 jobs nationwide that contributed an estimated $7 billion in federal, state and local taxes.
NASA’s first attempt to obtain samples from an asteroid and return them to Earth is set to reach a critical stage on Oct. 30 when the Osiris-Rex spacecraft is scheduled to touch down on Bennu.
Russia’s interdepartmental commission has approved prime and backup crews of the 64th ISS expedition to start preflight training at Baikonur Cosmodrome, according to state-owned Roscosmos.
Two months after the launch of its first-ever interplanetary science mission, the United Arab Emirates now counts two astronauts in training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
The European Space Agency this week awarded a €300 million ($350 million) contract to Airbus for the development of the Copernicus polar ice and snow topography mission.
U.S. and Russian flight control teams joined late Sept. 22 to successfully command a maneuver of the three-person International Space Station away from a close pass by an unidentified piece of space debris.
The U.S. Space Force and NASA have signed a memorandum of understanding to formally establish a collaborative partnership in the realm of operations, research and space launch.
Finland-based Iceye has closed an $87 million series C financing round to complete its planned 18-satellite constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) microsatellites and to build a U.S. manufacturing and engineering hub.
The U.S. Space Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $298 million contract to rapidly prototype the payload for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program that will ultimately replace the Advanced Extremely High Frequency system.
OneWeb has renegotiated its contract with Arianespace and plans to resume launching its broadband satellite network in December, pending court approval of its Chapter 11 reorganization plan.
Former International Space Station commander and three-time shuttle astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is heading back to orbit, this time as on-site personnel for Axiom Space’s first private mission to the ISS.
After 14 launches from New Zealand, Rocket Lab is close to staging its first Electron mission from U.S. soil, with the completion of a wet dress rehearsal at its new Wallops Island launch site, one of the final preflight milestones.
To better prepare to expand astronaut presence from low Earth orbit into deep space, NASA has reorganized the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and established a science definition team for the restart of lunar surface sorties.
In an audit of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, the agency’s inspector general expresses concerns over the adequacy of funding and oversight of the recently established lunar Commercial Launch Provider Services (CLPS) initiative and efforts to identify potential impact threats to Earth posed by asteroids and comets as mandated by Congress.
