Blue Origin

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week. Primary Category: AEROSPACE

Ispace believes that its Series 1 lunar lander crashed into the Moon because of an error in the spacecraft’s altitude measurement software.

The cislunar transporter would make propellant runs from LEO to lunar orbit.

Part of NASA’s Artemis strategy includes a lunar south pole Artemis Base Camp, a concept that may end up consisting of more than one camp, experts say.

ULA canceled the planned May 25 static hot fire of its first Vulcan-Centaur rocket to review an issue with the booster engine ignition system.

Five years after Jeff Bezos began wooing NASA to buy Blue Origin lunar landing services, the U.S. space agency said “yes.”

Tokyo-based Gitai, a startup developing several space robots, has raised about ¥4 billion ($29 million) in funding as part of a Series B extension round.

Blue Origin has succeeded on its second try to win a NASA contract to ferry astronauts to and from lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.

NASA plans to announce a second industry partner to provide astronaut ferry flights between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface on Friday, May 19.

A ULA Vulcan-Centaur rocket was rolled out to its launchpad on May 11 for a final series of tests ahead of its debut launch, targeted for this summer.

Operating under unfunded Space Act Agreements, the companies will work for periods of 12 to 24 months.

The U.S. Space Force’s upcoming competition for national security space launch service will be open to novel heavy- and superheavy new boosters.

Space-based connectivity provider SES confirmed it was in talks with U.S. rival Intelsat, marking the latest tie-up of satellite system providers.

NASA has selected Houston-based Axiom Space to conduct a third four-person private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.

More analysis of a Blue Origin BE-4 qualification engine for ULA’s Vulcan rocket program is pushing the booster’s debut flight to no earlier than May 4.

The new procurement strategy is intended to boost competition.

Demand for conducting experiments on the ISS National Laboratory remains strong after 75 payloads were sent to the orbiting platform last year.

Axiom Space’s second four-person private astronaut mission to the International Space Station will include two astronauts from Saudi Arabia.

The cloud-computing company sees space as the next frontier for its technology.

New booster validates do-or-die remake of the Lockheed-Boeing space launch partnership.

The contracts mark kickoff of two-phase approach to moving from the government-owned ISS to a public-private outpost in low Earth orbit.

NASA has awarded five companies $146 million in contracts to develop and evaluate lunar Human Landing System concepts beyond the planned Artemis III landing.

NASA is gradually acknowledging that efforts to return human explorers to the surface of the Moon in 2024 through the Artemis initiative are fading.

The 10-min. suborbital spaceflight on July 20 marks the first time a crewed spacecraft made a debut flight without test pilots, test engineers or professional astronauts aboard.

Jeff Bezos and three other passengers are set to launch on the company’s first human mission on July 20.