Space

By Mark Carreau
The target of two joint upcoming NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) planetary defense demonstration missions—the Double Asteroid Re-direction Test (DART) and Hera—has received an official name, Dimorphos.
Space

By Tony Osborne
The U.S-UK Technology Safeguards Agreement overcomes current regulations so that U.S.-developed launchers can operate from UK soil.
Commercial Space

By Steve Trimble
The Space Development Agency must submit a detailed plan to use commercial satellites as a service in the future National Defense Space Architecture, a panel of lawmakers say.
Space

By Guy Norris
Under a Space Act Agreement with NASA, space company Virgin Galactic is to develop a training program for private astronaut missions to the International Space Station.
Space

By Mark Carreau
Startup Space Perspective is looking to early 2021 to begin test flights of a high-altitude balloon with a pressurized capsule from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), with an eye toward carrying commercial passengers and research payloads.
Space

By Jen DiMascio
U.S. Navy fixes EMALS issue; AARGM-ER clears design review; Germany reviews P-3 replacements; China’s quantum key advancement.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
Chinese scientists have taken a large step toward a theoretically secure communication technology, demonstrating quantum key distribution (QKD) between ground stations via a satellite.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
With the support of a newly appointed associate administrator, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has expressed confidence that his agency can achieve an accelerated return to the Moon’s surface with human explorers by 2024.
Space

By Mark Carreau
The planned launch of the Perseverance Mars 2020 rover from Cape Canaveral on July 20 is intended to help set the stage for sending astronauts to the red planet in the 2030s.
Space

By Tony Osborne
LONDON—Washington and London have reached an agreement on technology safeguards that paves the way for the use of U.S.-developed space launchers from UK soil.
Space

By Lee Hudson
The Pentagon has released a new Defense Space Strategy providing a framework for the U.S. military to achieve “desired conditions” in space over the next 10 years.
Space

By Tony Osborne
Airbus is to lead a consortium to secure a tender to run the UK’s military satellite communications network.
Space

Joel Montalbano will become acting NASA International Space Station program manager, effective June 26, the agency said.
Space

By Michael Bruno
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions will acquire CPI ASC Signal Division from Communications & Power Industries for $35 million in cash, in a deal that further guarantees the U.S. government at least two major providers of key satellite communications technology.
Space

By Graham Warwick
DARPA has awarded Blue Canyon Technologies a $14.2 million contract to provide commercial satellite buses for the Blackjack program to demonstrate a military constellation of autonomous satellites in low Earth orbit connected by a high-speed network.
Space

By Mark Carreau
Fresh off a major milestone in a difficult 10-year effort by NASA to establish a U.S. commercial capability to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), Kathy Lueders has taken over leadership of an accelerated effort by the agency to return human explorers to the Moon’s surface in 2024.
Space

By Tony Osborne
Leonardo has increased its stake in Italian space company Avio to just less than 30%.
Space

By Guy Norris
After an 11-week hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rocket Lab resumed launch operations on June 13 by successfully launching a payload of small satellites for NASA, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the University of New South Wales Canberra Space into low Earth orbit.
Space

By Mark Carreau
Representatives from the three commercial Human Lander System developers recently chosen by NASA to shuttle future astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface are expressing confidence that their efforts can help the agency achieve the White House goal of returning to the Moon with astronauts in 2024 and establishing a sustainable presence.
Commercial Space

Readers write about First Take graph proportions, "STOLPort" history, COVID-19 and airlines, and NASA’s C-17 role.
Aerospace

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aviation Week & Space Technology

By Michael Bruno
Japanese telecommunications operator SoftBank remains committed to AeroVironment’s high-altitude pseudo-satellites (HAPS) unmanned aircraft, the latter’s top executive said.
Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA has awarded Astrobotic a $199.5 million contract to deliver the Volatiles Investigation Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the Moon’s south pole in 2023, where it will search for water ice deposits that could be useful to future astronauts.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
Expectations for a March 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are fading, agency officials told a June 10 virtual meeting of the National Academies of Sciences’ Space Studies Board (SSB).
Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA’s Perseverance Mars 2020 rover will experience a three-day delay to its planned mid-July launch due to an issue with ground equipment at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch site.
Space