Space

A look at the space business shows the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Engineers and scientists are beginning to plan a program of robotic exploration over the next two decades to look for life on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Europa, the large icy moon of Jupiter, is first on the list.

Indra’s unmanned Tecnam P2006T; open-access FMS; ULA offers cubesat rides; renewable diesel leader backs Boeing; Arevo’s robot prints in true 3-D.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) may add language to appropriations bill that would help ULA use the Atlas V to compete for future launches.

Scientists believe they can take the “missing” out of the missing carbon mystery linked to a changing Martian environment that evolved from warmer, wetter conditions 3.8 billion years ago to the current cold, dry realm that persists today.

The Indian Space Research Organization may propose launching one satellite per month in 2016.

The test aimed to deploy the six-seat crew capsule into suborbit for a planned 4-min. weightless period, but attention was focused on whether the rocket stage could be successfully recovered using the tricky vertical-powered-landing technique.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket will fly again after achieving an intact powered vertical landing of the launch vehicle and parachute recovery of the unpiloted crew capsule to conclude a test flight.

Blue Origin has successfully launched and landed a reusable rocket for the first time. The New Shepard space vehicle flew to just over 329,000 feet before landing safety at its launch site in Texas. Check out Blue Origin's video of the rocket's test flight.

Flutter-suppression X-56 crashes; laser IDs target by vibrations; new venture to commercialize morphing structures; Airbus helo R&D in the U.K.; Iceye’s low-cost radar imaging from space.

Scientists are pointing their telescopes at an Earth-sized exoplanet that orbits a star 39 light years away.

Bomber lobby lays the groundwork for the kind of attack on its budget now threatening the F-35; new space bill allows citizens to mine the Moon for its water ice.

Then there was one: What could really be behind ULA’s decision not to compete against SpaceX?

Improved observation data from various spacecraft confirm that Earth is changing, as other planets have, and not necessarily for the better.

Airbus Defense and Space is facing schedule challenges as it develops a European service module that will power the NASA Orion crew capsule, including documentation issues for Shuttle-era propulsion systems and NASA safety concerns over redundancy.

NASA is betting that the search for the signatures of life can be enhanced by the massive Space Launch System now being built.

Commercial space bill nears final passage; Middle East nations seek precision weapons; DHS pledges new security enhancements; and Ex-Im Bank reauthorization takes another step forward.

Agreement has been reached at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva on the allocation of radiofrequency spectrum for global flight tracking in civil aviation.

Delivering a staggering 1 terabits per second of throughput, ViaSat-3 will also comprise the first spacecraft in a three-satellite constellation designed to provide global broadband from geostationary orbit, feeding mobile demand from the U.S. government and commercial aeronautical markets.

NASA evaluators appear to have winnowed the field for future ISS cargo contractors to the commercial-cargo capsules already operated by CRS-1 contractors Orbital ATK and SpaceX and an unmanned cargo version of the Sierra Nevada Corp. Dream Chaser reusable lifting body.

Ideas abound as NASA takes a deeper look at how it will use the big new Saturn V-class Space Launch System in the 2020s and beyond.

Yahsat, the UAE-based satellite operator, a wholly owned company of the Mubadala Development Company, announced today the successful completion of the Critical Design Review (CDR) of its latest satellite Al Yah 3.

UAE-based satellite operator Yahsat, has announced a major milestone in the construction of its third satellite; Al Yah 3, due to be delivered by the end of 2016.

NASA delays its CRS-2 contract, again. Italy is in line to become the next nation with armed Reapers. The FAA scrambles to create a UAV registration system. And the Ex-Im bank bill nears final passage.

The blueprints and science goals for the first Arab mission to Mars have been revealed, for an unmanned UAE probe - named 'Hope' - to create mankind's first integrated model of the Red Planet's atmosphere.