Space startup Firefly Aerospace aims to complete the first launch of its two-stage Alpha rocket as early as September and says testing of engines and site preparation remain on track despite the threat of potential disruption related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine expressed confidence May 4 that the agency’s quest for a nearly 12% budget increase will fare well in Congress despite a mounting deficit linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of long-term ambitions to develop a high-speed, long-range commercial transport system, Virgin Galactic and its subsidiary The Spaceship Company have signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA to help foster the development of technology for high Mach-capable vehicles.
China has launched its new manned spacecraft with the first flight of the Long March 5B, a rocket version intended mainly for missions for building a forthcoming space station.
NASA is close—perhaps within days—of striking a deal with Russia for the purchase of another seat on a Soyuz launch to assure a continuing U.S. presence aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
LYON, France—Arianespace is planning on resuming operations with a Vega launch in mid-June as activity at Europe’s space center in Kourou, French Guiana, gradually restarts after being suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NASA has awarded Aerojet Rocketdyne a $1.8 billion contract to manufacture 18 additional RS-25 engines to support Space Launch System flights to the Moon.
SpaceX completed the 27th and final test of its Mk 3 parachutes on May 1, one of the final milestones before NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley are cleared for a flight test aboard a Crew Dragon capsule.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity conducted the first unpowered gliding test flight from Spaceport America on May 1, marking another key step toward the planned start of commercial suborbital services from the New Mexico site.
Teams led by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX will receive nearly $1 billion in NASA funding to hone designs and development plans for lunar landing systems to carry a pair of U.S. astronauts to the Moon’s surface in 2024, a time frame the agency is sticking with despite economic and social upheavals caused by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
Already cost and schedule challenged across a broad range of space initiatives, NASA faces more stress on both fronts as it surges to achieve an accelerated return to the Moon’s surface with humans in 2024, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says.
Two companies have joined forces to spark a pair of competitions for teams of 9th- through 12th-grade students to design and assemble race cars for the Moon.
Manufacturers of high-altitude pseudo-satellites (HAPS)–stratospheric balloons and unmanned aircraft–are touting a multibillion-dollar market opportunity in telecommunications, Earth observation and weather prediction.
The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has awarded Maxar Technologies $20 million in contracts for land-cover classification and change-detection services.
At 30 years old, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) remains vibrant thanks to its far-reaching discoveries and their implications for people living on Earth as well as those eager to explore beyond our planet.
