Space

By Garrett Reim
Capella Space’s third generation of synthetic aperture radar satellites, named Acadia, will feature inter-satellite laser communications systems, faster downlinks and higher resolution images.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
The transition occurred Aug. 11 during a ceremony at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Space

By Irene Klotz
NASA has resolved an issue with the U.S. Space Force’s Eastern Range that will expand launch opportunities for the first Space Launch System rocket, currently targeted to lift off at 8:33 a.m. EDT on Aug. 29 on the Artemis I flight test.
Space

By Garrett Reim
Blue Canyon Technologies has won a contract to build 18 small passive microwave sounder satellites for weather data company The Tomorrow Companies.
Commercial Space

By Garrett Reim
DARPA has selected 11 teams for phase one of the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node program.
Space

By Irene Klotz
The Federal Communications Commission is revoking plans to award SpaceX up to $886 million over 10 years to subsidize broadband internet service to rural households in the U.S. via the Starlink satellite network.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
At the close of NASA’s upcoming Artemis I test flight, an uncrewed Orion capsule will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere faster and hotter than any previous human spacecraft, validating the heat shield’s ability to protect astronauts returning from the Moon and eventually Mars.
Space

By Garrett Reim
Benchmark Space Systems has signed an agreement to buy Alameda Applied Sciences Corporation’s electric propulsion technologies.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA could be prepared to announce its four Artemis II crewmembers late this year, Chief Astronaut Reid Wiseman told an Aug. 5 pre-mission news briefing from the agency’s Johnson Space Center.
Space

Aviation Week Staff
A Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket has successfully orbited Iran’s Khayyam satellite.
Space

By Garrett Reim
Rocket Lab is planning its second attempt to capture a parachuting first-stage booster soon.
Commercial Space

By Irene Klotz
Northrop Grumman will partner with startup Firefly Aerospace to develop new engines for its Antares launch vehicle and a follow-on new medium-lift booster that not only would be used for NASA resupply runs to the International Space Station (ISS), but also for commercial and potential U.S. military missions.
Space

By Garrett Reim
Commercial technology is catching up with military hardware.
Commercial Space

By Garrett Reim
The Space Development Agency (SDA) has issued a call for proposals for a company to demonstrate laser communications from its Tranche 0 Transport Layer to a laser communications-equipped aircraft “as soon as practical.”
Space

By Graham Warwick
Embraer’s urban air mobility spinoff Eve Holding saw cash burn accelerate in the first half of 2022 as it increased research and development (R&D) spending on its electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi and urban air traffic management program.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Chen Chuanren
China sent a secretive reusable space vehicle into orbit on Aug.4 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, making it the third known mission of such a spacecraft.
Space

By Brian Everstine
The recent launch of a National Reconnaissance Office payload aboard a Rocket Lab Electron in New Zealand and the upcoming launch of another spy satellite from a Virgin LauncherOne in the UK is the “new norm” for the office as it looks to proliferate its architecture, the NRO’s director says.
Space

Russia’s Roscosmos Corp. will launch Iran’s Khayam Earth remote sensing satellite on Aug. 9 atop a Soyuz 2.1b medium-lift rocket.
Space

By Joe Anselmo, Jen DiMascio
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Garrett Reim
Blue Canyon Technologies has opened a new cubesat factory in Boulder, Colorado, that will increase its annual production capacity from 50 to 85 satellites.
Commercial Space

By Garrett Reim
Xona Space Systems has received an undisclosed investment from Lockheed Martin Ventures to fund development of a private low Earth orbit global navigation satellite system.
Commercial Space

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force will buy SpaceX’s Starlink low Earth orbit satellite internet service to aid airlift operations in Africa and Europe, saying in a justification document that Starlink is the only provider currently able to provide service in Africa and has proven its ability to function in a combat zone.
Space

By Irene Klotz
A Rocket Lab Electron booster delivered a classified U.S. and Australian spacecraft into low Earth orbit on Aug. 4, the second of two missions contracted under a National Reconnaissance Office’s Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket contract.
Space

By Mark Carreau
Blue Origin’s sixth crewed New Shepard suborbital mission took off early Aug. 4 from the company’s flight operations center in West Texas.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
After months of troubleshooting, NASA and its partners have succeeded in sufficiently unfolding a circular solar array that failed to fully deploy following the Oct. 16, 2021, launch of the Lucy asteroid probe.
Space