Space

Virgin is forming a dedicated new company, Virgin Orbit, to spearhead the development, testing and operation of its LauncherOne low-cost smallsat launch vehicle.

Modification of an ex-Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-400 airliner to carry and launch Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne is well underway in Waco, Texas.

Rapid growth in the Ka-band high-throughput satellite market is putting pressure on spectrum. Moving to higher frequencies could unlock more capacity.

The Trump administration’s space agency transition team, NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are all working on various approaches to a crewed Moon flyaround.

Space-debris mitigation is getting more attention as companies prepare to launch thousands of new smallsats into low Earth orbit, where the environment is already filling up with dangerous space junk.

SpaceX has two paying customers for a lunar flyaround, and will try to send them on their way before the end of 2018, founder Elon Musk said Feb. 27.

With the projected growth in the number of commercial satellite constellations on low Earth orbit expected to increase risk of collisions, a startup has attracted investment from Airbus and others to build a network of radars to track orbital debris.

Mars could get pretty congested with spacecraft in early 2021 thanks to an emerging global lineup of missions eager to take advantage of a mid-2020 launch opportunity.

The discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting a relatively close star may accelerate the search for biosignatures beyond the Solar System as new telescopes come online.

Airbus and the Namibia University of Science & Technology (NUST) have agreed to collaborate in establishing a Virtual Space Data Centre in Windhoek to assist the country in monitoring and growing key elements of its economy.

The change in administration means change in the spaceflight community. There will be risks.

For the first time since last summer, SpaceX successfully got cargo to the International Space Station, including many new research projects.

A majority of the spacecraft, 88, are cubesats bolstering San Francisco-based Planet’s growing Earth-observation constellation.

Increasing from three to four the number of astronauts assigned to the station's U.S. segment could double research activities, NASA believes.

The launch marks a shift for the historic Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral from government to commercial launches.

Aviation Week, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and universities recognize these 20 accomplished students in aerospace fields.

Arizona congressman sees an opportunity to make up for lost ground in missile defense realm.

Oxford Performance Materials is making carbon-fiber-reinforced 3-D-printed thermoplastic parts for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner manned spacecraft.

A major solar event knocked out telegraph service in 1859, so imagine what a direct solar storm hit on Earth would do to our wired economies today.

ESA has tentatively set a date for launching its first attempt at a spacecraft that can help gather space debris.

As part of its plan to field a Quiet Supersonic Transport low-boom flight demo, NASA has issued a call for interested companies to submit a “capability statement.”

Officials from the UAE Space Agency (UAESA), led by His Excellency Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency, met with officials from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), led by Frode Mauring, Resident Representative of the UNDP office in the UAE, to discuss opportunities for cooperation between both entities.

DARPA's plan to partner with Space Systems/Loral for repair in space and leave a commercial capability in place under challenge.

In this week’s Washington Outlook: the president meets with airline executives, generals describe a budget crisis without admitting failure, the battle for heavy-launch business and an argument for commercialized space-traffic control.

In this week’s roundup, Malaysia’s coast guard will own UAVs, Belgium joins U.S. space situational awareness efforts, U.S. Navy to buy one fewer MQ-4 Triton and a South Korean Foreign Military Sale for Raytheon missiles.