Space

Astra Space will go private by accepting a recently lowered buyout bid from its co-founders and top executives.

The astronauts graduated from a two-year training period in a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on March 5.

The flight demonstration is one of six with NASA backing.

L3Harris Technologies has picked Maxar Space Systems to design and build 18 spacecraft for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 2 Tracking Layer program.

The project was eclipsed by private spacecraft refueling efforts.

Space Florida, a quasi-public economic development and financing agency, plans to expand the state’s aerospace footprint in south Florida and the Panhandle.

Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather Systems (EWS) cubesat technology demonstrator was successfully launched on March 4.

NASA raised the number of its active duty astronauts eligible for missions from 38 to 48 on March 5 with the graduation of its 2021 class of 10 candidates.

L3Harris’s missile-tracking infrared satellite payload has passed its preliminary design review (PDR).

Three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut arrived at the ISS early March 5 with the autonomous docking of the SpaceX Crew-8 Dragon Endeavour capsule.

A forthcoming launch will test Lockheed Martin Space’s concept for advancing internet-like communications in orbit for military users.

NASA’s Planetary Science Division is hopeful it can craft a new operating plan for the Mars Sample Return mission by July.

The acquisition is expected to close on April 1.

A compromise appropriations bill for fiscal 2024 keeps most funding for NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration initiative intact.

NASA has canceled its ambitious On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) project after technical problems, cost overruns and delays.

Three U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut began a 28-hr. ride to the ISS March 2, setting the stage for a six-month mission onboard the orbital outpost.

As U.S. satellites face increasing threats, Washington wants more data-sharing agreements from friendly nations to keep an eye on in-orbit movements.

The move would secure Lockheed’s new-space supplier while putting an end to a dramatic couple of years for the space upstart.

The American Center for Manufacturing and Innovation has signed a lease agreement with NASA’s JSC to become a second tenant of the center’s Exploration Park.

Scrappy Houston startup Intuitive Machines puts the U.S. back on the surface of the Moon.

The JAXA Smart Lander for Investigating Moon set a standard Intuitive Machines hopes to meet with its Odysseus lunar lander soon.

Lockheed Martin Ventures participated in a $15 million Series A funding round for Elve Inc., a startup developing millimeter wave amplifiers.

NASA’s planned Mars Sample Return mission faces significant obstacles, an IG report says.

Launched in September 2016 as Osiris-Rex, the mission dropped off samples from the asteroid Bennu during a flyby of Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

Roscosmos’ Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Fregat booster orbited a batch of Russian satellites and an Iranian spacecraft on Feb. 29.