Space

Contractor Firefly Aerospace has exceeded the mission requirements for 10 NASA lunar payloads.

Continuing an annual tradition dating back to 1957, Aviation Week Network editors honored a wide variety of industry accomplishments.

The U.S. Justice Department is charging founder Erlend Olson, John Gallagher, Stephen Buscher, Joseph Fargnoli and Jamil Swati with a multiyear scheme.

The drone gliders can fly in the stratosphere, up to 110,000 ft., and be reused as many as 50 times, St. Gallen-based Meteomatics said on March 20.

The U.S. is fielding proliferated space architectures to support missile warning and missile tracking, surveillance and reconnaissance, and secure comms.

OHB is seeing new opportunities in military space and expects sales to rise around 50% by 2027 from last year to hit around €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion).

MaiaSpace says it has entered into its first commercial launch service agreement, signing up French space-logistics company Exotrail.

ESA will issue an invitation to tender for the European Launcher challenge next week, the agency’s director general says.

Success was all the sweeter when Firefly, with its debut spacecraft, not only landed on the Moon, but operated for more than 14 days on the lunar surface.

OHB is setting up a subsidiary in the UK as it looks to win a slice of the potentially increasing British defense market.

NASA says it wants to stick with the Boeing CST-100 Starliner to give the space agency options in case the SpaceX Dragon system were to encounter problems.

ROTI II long-range photo of a 62 ft. Thor firing when taken missile was at an 18 mi. altitude and 35 mi. slant range from tracking telescope. Lens used has a 500 in. focal length. Link diamond exhaust shock pattern is expanded due to decreased atmospheric pressure at altitude; length of flame is approximately 130 ft.

Rocket Lab is often considered an also-ran, but since 2018 it has accumulated a track record of nearly 60 successful launches.

The returning astronauts included the Boeing CST-100 Starliner extended Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission’s Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams.

NASA's Crew-9 Dragon mission capsule undocked from the ISS early March 18, setting the stage for an estimated 5:57 p.m. EDT automated splashdown and recovery.

Undocking would be followed by splashdown and recovery in the Gulf waters off the Florida peninsula planned for approximately 5:57 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

Launched by SpaceX Jan. 15, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander made a soft touchdown at 3:34 a.m. EST March 2 in Mare Crisium.

The demonstrator consists of two 6U cubesats designed by NRO’s advanced systems and tech directorate to support an “experimental technology research mission.”

Boeing and Northrop Grumman are vying for both contracts.

Isar Aerospace on March 17 said the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority has given the company approval for launch operations.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule, designated Endurance, autonomously docked to the forward docking port of the ISS U.S. segment’s Harmony module at 12:04 a.m. EDT.

Docking of the Crew-10 Dragon Endurance capsule to the orbital lab’s U.S. segment Harmony module is planned for 11:30 p.m. EDT on March 15.

The communications satellite has L-band and Ka-band payloads.

China says it is open to accommodating foreign participation in its Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission.

The Space Force is preparing to counter on-orbit threats and contribute to high-profile defense programs.