Space

The flight readiness engine, produced at Blue Origin’s Kent, Washington, is the first of two BE-4s ULA will attach to a Vulcan rocket for configuration checks and testing.

HOUSTON—Spacewalking NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken made significant progress July 1 in their month-long effort to upgrade bulky

Boeing defense chief talks about increased introspection, the impact of COVID-19 on the market and plans for the KC-46.

Another problem has arisen while preparing the Mars 2020 rover for launch, triggering an additional eight-day delay to July 30, NASA said June 30.

The House Armed Services Committee proposes investing $150 million in space technology development in the chairman’s mark of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill.

With its interest in reusable rockets growing, Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center agreed to adjust the launch profile so SpaceX could attempt to recover the Falcon 9 first stage on a drone ship.

Mining lunar ice could rein in the cost of future human cislunar space activities as well as expeditions to Mars, according to proponents.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo soared over its new home base near Las Cruces, New Mexico, on June 25, completing the second glide flight since relocating from the company’s manufacturing and test hub in Mojave, California.

Kirk Shireman, NASA’s former manager of the International Space Station, is joining Lockheed Martin to head its lunar exploration initiatives, including the development of a Blue Origin-led system to land astronauts on the Moon in 2024.

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken completed a 6-hr. spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) on June 26, initiating the final chapter in a multiyear upgrade of the solar power storage batteries on the orbiting lab’s 360-ft.-long solar power truss.

Plans to establish a vertical-launch spaceport in Northern Scotland have been approved by local authorities, a significant milestone for the project.

NASA is looking into flying astronauts and other personnel aboard commercial suborbital spacecraft such as those in development by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.

Ask the Editors: As Congress plans to open up radio spectrum, a question remains over the protection of the GPS frequency band.

The European, Japanese and U.S. space agencies have pooled Earth observation data collected from satellites during the global coronavirus pandemic to create an interactive website with analytical tools for scientific, economic and general public use.

Maxar Technologies will buy out joint venture (JV) partner Saab’s interest in its satellite-based three-dimensional (3D) data and analytics boutique Vricon, as revamped Maxar looks to double down on Earth observation services.

Northrop Grumman and Ball Aerospace have finished a preliminary design review of the mission payload for the initial set of geosynchronous satellites in the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared system.

NASA has joined with crowdsourcing network HeroX to seek a strategy for the elimination of lunar astronauts’ bodily wastes under its “Lunar Loo Challenge.”

Can the Commercial Crew chief work her magic for all of NASA’s human space initiatives?

With 12 licensed commercial spaceports and counting, the FAA is planning a spaceport infrastructure funding program.

Will UK upgrade F-35s?; OPIR satellite payload progress; UK-Qatar fighter unit operational; and new CMV-22s deployed.

Pleased so far with the performance of SpaceX’s Demo-2 test flight to the International Space Station, NASA is planning a series of four and possibly six spacewalks by its two veteran astronaut test pilots before returning to Earth, potentially in early August.

Issues with ground support equipment for a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket are causing a second delay in the upcoming launch of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

As a Senate committee voted to restore funding for a space-based surveillance system to detect hypersonic and ballistic missiles, the Space Development Agency (SDA) has named the supplier for an early version of the type of sensor that could be needed for the task.

NASA is looking at mid-July to complete an assessment of when it can retarget the launch of the cost and technically challenged James Webb Space Telescope.

California-based Relativity Space, which is developing a 3D-printed small satellite launcher, has signed a contract with Iridium to launch up to six of its Iridium Next ground spares, the companies announced June 24.