Space

The Singaporean Defense Ministry has played down the possibility of setting up a space division within its military in the near future, but nevertheless is closely studying the development of novel satellite technology, especially in the field of small to nano satellites.

The newly deployed Capstone lunar spacecraft has been unable to communicate with ground control teams, NASA said July 5.

Northrop Grumman has selected Airbus US Space & Defense as its satellite bus supplier for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) prototype constellation.

Norway’s Kongsberg is to purchase a majority holding in Lithuanian small satellite integrator and bus manufacturer NanoAvionics.

NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (Capstone) small satellite successfully separated from its orbital Photon propulsion stage early July 4, beginning a pioneering journey to near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon.

With a mostly successful tanking test complete, NASA sets its sights on Moon rocket’s first flight.

NASA has completed construction of a record-tying large primary mirror for a telescope to be carried aloft by a high-altitude balloon.

OneWeb, in partnership with the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency, says it demonstrated a 5G link between low Earth orbit satellites, a geostationary satellite and a mobile ground terminal on June 28.

Startup launch company Relativity Space has signed a multiyear, multiflight launch services agreement with OneWeb to deliver its next-generation broadband satellites into orbit beginning in 2025.

After nearly two years in the orbit of Mars, China’s Tianwen-1 has completed imagery mapping of the red planet.

Capstone dispatched to scout orbit for NASA’s lunar Gateway.

Tracy Caldwell Dyson is likely to be the third U.S. astronaut to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule to the International Space Station under a new crew seat exchange agreement to be signed by NASA and Roscosmos.

The House Appropriations Committee has advanced a $25.45 billion 2023 NASA budget proposal to the full House, which if enacted by the House and Senate would amount to a $1.4 billion increase over 2022, but less than the $25.97 billion requested by President Biden in March.

A U.S. Space Force mission scheduled to launch June 30 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will kick start a three-year experiment to test a missile warning and tracking satellite prototype.

With its new Vulcan rocket on track to debut late this year or in early 2023, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is aiming to end Atlas V launch services in late 2025, ULA clarified following a June 28 press conference where the company erroneously said Atlas V would be retired in late 2024.

The U.S. Space Force should avoid duplicating the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance resources of the National Reconnaissance Office for tactical needs, the newly confirmed head of space acquisitions says.

Virgin Orbit is targeting September for the first of two launches this year from the UK’s new spaceport in Cornwall, a mission that will mark the first rocket launch from British soil and the first commercial launch from Western Europe.

Northrop Grumman’s 17th NASA-contracted Cygnus resupply mission to the International Space Station departed early June 28, ending a four-month stay that included a successful demonstration of the commercial freighter’s ability to reboost the outpost.

NASA’s lunar Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment small satellite successfully launched from Mahia, New Zealand, early June 28 U.S. time.

NASA and Northrop Grumman have reported a successful, first-ever limited orbital reboost of the International Space Station on June 25 using the gimbaled delta velocity engine on Northrop’s Cygnus resupply mission capsule.

The flight marks the first time NASA has launched from a commercial spaceport outside of the United States.

Virgin Orbit looks set to be the pathfinder for the UK’s satellite launch ambitions when it lifts off from Cornwall this summer.

Launch aboard aa SpaceX Falcon Heavy had been targeted between Sept. 20 and Oct. 11.

NASA has issued five contracts with a combined maximum value of $103.4 million to four companies in support of mission-enabling spacecraft and aircraft management services overseen by the Flight Operations Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

With private space stations on the horizon, NASA may soon have options for astronaut services.