Space

By Mark Carreau
A collaboration between Astrobotic and WiBotic has successfully advanced a wireless charging system capable of providing power throughout a simulated 14-day lunar night with its thermal and other environmental extremes.
Space

By Michael Bruno
Launch startup Firefly Aerospace is rotating through another CEO as its recently installed private equity sponsors assert more control over the embattled new-space upstart.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
Top NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) leaders emerged from a June 15 meeting prepared to extend and strengthen a long-standing partnership in space.
Space

By Michael Bruno
The contract from the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office practically doubles the remote-sensing upstart’s backlog.
Commercial Space

By Victoria Moores, Tony Osborne
A Spanish government initiative to boost the country’s aerospace industry will help support the development of small satellite launchers and create a joint constellation of ocean reconnaissance satellites with Portugal.
Space

Aviation Week Staff
The robotic Luna-25 lander is approaching the end of its ground trials for Russia’s first Moon exploration mission since the 1970s.
Space

By Jen DiMascio
Northrop Grumman has demonstrated a secure networked laser communications system for the Space Development Agency’s proliferated low Earth orbit constellation.
Space

By Mark Carreau
SpaceX needs to replace a faulty Draco thruster valve inlet joint before the the 25th NASA-contracted Dragon resupply mission.
Space

By Guy Norris
Modeling and 3D-printing advances combine to enable development of high-temperature alloy with lower cost and greater performance.
Emerging Technologies

By Irene Klotz
SpaceX has some more work to do before it will receive U.S. clearance to launch Starship on an orbital flight test from Boca Chica Beach, Texas, the FAA has determined in its long-awaited study assessing the program’s environmental impacts.
Commercial Space

By Irene Klotz
NASA’s gamble on a startup launch company to deliver a pair of novel hurricane-probing cubesats into orbit got off to a rough start on June 12 after the upper stage of an Astra 3.3 rocket shut down early, dooming the first two members of the agency’s Tropics constellation.
Commercial Space

By Garrett Reim
The U.S. Space Force is working to launch its Foreign Military Sales office, opening the door to what it says will be the first sale of a U.S. military satellite to a foreign country.
Space

By Chen Chuanren
Lockheed Martin has added Australian small satellite-maker Inovor Technologies under the so-called Hosted Missions Program for the JP9102 military satellite project.
Space

By Jen DiMascio
NASA takes on UAP study; Three-way weapon competition; Gray Wolf development slows; AFRL building “virtual range” for directed energy
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Garrett Reim
Rocket Lab has been selected by Ball Aerospace to manufacture the solar array panel for NASA’s Global Lyman-Alpha Imager of Dynamic Exosphere mission spacecraft.
Space

Aviation Week Network Staff
The Russian government has cleared state-owned Roscosmos to sign a long-delayed agreement with NASA for cosmonauts to fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules in exchange for astronauts joining Russian Soyuz crews.
Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA’s efforts to develop a second mobile launcher have been plagued by significant issues with the contractor’s performance and the agency’s oversight, leading to a major cost increase and schedule delay, an audit by NASA’s inspector general has found.
Space

By Chen Chuanren
China is looking to send its first space solar power system experiment into orbit in 2028 in support of its goal to produce and operate a gigawatt-level SSPS by 2050 that can send power back to Earth.
Space

By Irene Klotz
SpaceX is making headway in space MRO.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aerospace

By Mark Carreau
Based on what is coming together for humanity’s return to the Moon, those involved at NASA and key commercial partners believe a global public/private collaboration must continue to grow if humans are to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon and then press on to Mars.
Space

By Irene Klotz
NASA is commissioning a study team to learn more about unexplained aerial phenomena , with the goal being to assess available non-classified data and determine what steps the agency could take to collect additional scientific information.
Space

By Michael Bruno
Mangata Networks, a satellite-based connectivity, plans to showcase its initial network in early 2023, potentially launch eight highly elliptical-orbit satellites that year and then inaugurate service in 2024 for the Northern Hemisphere.
Connected Aerospace

By Mark Carreau
Even without test pilot astronauts on board, NASA’s Artemis I mission of a Space Launch System (SLS)-propelled Orion capsule around the Moon and back to Earth promises drama, which the space agency is working to share publicly through live video and data transmissions.
Space

By Garrett Reim
SEAKR Engineering recently demonstrated optical communications between a pair of two DARPA Mandrake II satellites.
Space