China to launch "Earth 2.0" exoplanet observatory in 2028. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 months ago

Watch out Starlink, Amazon is coming for you

Amazon’s Project Kuiper will install DoD-compliant laser communications terminals on its internet satellites so they can transfer data from remote-sensing satellites directly into the military’s mesh network in low Earth orbit. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Space Force in discussions with industry on future market for surveillance data

Companies in the space domain awareness market are eager to work with the Space Force but need a clearer picture of future demand | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Firefly’s Alpha rocket reaches orbit on second launch

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha launch vehicle reached orbit on its second launch Oct. 1, more than a year after the vehicle’s first launch failed. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

China selects 18 new astronauts ahead of space station construction

China’s human spaceflight agency has selected a new group of 18 reserve astronauts to participate in the country’s upcoming space station project. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

China seeks partners for lunar and deep space exploration

China is looking to build partnerships for its upcoming missions to the moon and deep ventures into the solar system, while omitting mention of main partner Russia. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Defense Innovation Unit selects contractors to build hybrid space network

Anduril, Aalyria, Atlas Space and Enveil won contracts for the Defense Innovation Unit's hybrid space architecture program | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

China launches secretive reusable test spacecraft

China sent a highly-classified reusable experimental spacecraft into orbit Thursday, two years after a similarly clandestine mission. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

NASA prepares to award SLS launch services contract to Boeing-Northrop venture

NASA is preparing to award a contract to a Boeing-Northrop Grumman joint venture for Space Launch System missions that could run through the mid-2030s. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

NASA Selects Falcon Heavy to Launch Roman Space Telescope

NASA picked SpaceX to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on a Falcon Heavy, but at a price significantly higher than previous agency contracts. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Second module docks at China’s space station

China added a new experiment module to its space station Sunday, following a high-profile launch from the country’s coastal spaceport. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

NASA authorization included in CHIPS Act – SpaceNews

The Senate is moving forward with a revised version of a NASA authorization bill that authorizes the Artemis lunar exploration effort and extends the ISS. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Capstone Heads to the Moon – SpaceNews

A NASA-funded lunar cubesat, CAPSTONE, is on its way to the moon July 4 after a series of burns by a Rocket Lab transfer stage. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Axiom and Collins only bidders for NASA spacesuit contracts – SpaceNews

The two companies NASA selected earlier this month to develop spacesuits were the only companies to bid on the project, according to agency documents. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Software testing problem delays Psyche launch

NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission will not launch this year because there’s not enough time to complete software testing before its launch window closes. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

SpaceX warns 5G plan would deny Starlink to most Americans – SpaceNews

SpaceX warned June 21 that its Starlink broadband network would become unusable for most Americans if a proposal to use the 12 GHz band for terrestrial 5G is approved. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

NASA audit reveals overruns in SLS mobile launch platform – SpaceNews

A new mobile launch platform that Bechtel is building for NASA will cost up to four times as much as originally planned, a NASA audit concluded. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

China aims to bring Mars samples to Earth 2 years before NASA, ESA mission

China’s Mars sample return mission aims to collect samples from the Red Planet and deliver them to Earth in 2031, or two years ahead of a NASA and ESA joint mission. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Aerospacelab to Build “Megafactory” in Belgium

Belgian startup Aerospacelab announced plans June 14 to establish a new satellite "megafactory” large enough to produce 500 satellites annually. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

BlackSky, Maxar, Planet win 10-year NRO contracts for satellite imagery

The National Reconnaissance Office announced May 25 it awarded BlackSky, Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs 10-year contracts to provide satellite imagery for U.S. intelligence, defense and federal civil agencies. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Military looking for new ways to acquire and use commercial satellite data

Space Systems Command is trying to figure out how to exploit traditional and new types of commercial space data | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

DRACO Nuclear Powered Spacecraft

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on May 4 issued a solicitation for proposals for the next phase of a demonstration of a nuclear powered spacecraft.  | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

China to build a lunar communications and navigation constellation

China plans to set up a constellation around the moon to provide communication and navigation services for future complex operations on the lunar surface. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Chinese Shiyan-10 satellite reappears in new Molniya orbit

Classified Chinese Shiyan-10 has been tracked operating in a specialized orbit, six months after an anomaly during launch appeared to leave it stranded in an initial transfer orbit. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

NASA halts third attempt at SLS practice countdown

NASA cut short a third attempt to load propellants onto the Space Launch System for a countdown rehearsal April 14 after encountering several problems. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

India and US agree on space situational awareness cooperation

The United States and India have agreed to cooperate on space situational awareness, a deal that the U.S. Department of Defense said would “lay the groundwork for more advanced cooperation in space.” | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Antonov shortage threatens delivery delays for the biggest satellites

A shortage of Ukrainian Antonov aircraft raises the prospect of more delays for satellite projects already bogged down by supply chain issues. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Amazon signs multibillion-dollar Project Kuiper launch contracts

In the largest commercial launch deal ever, Amazon is purchasing up to 83 launches from Arianespace, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance to deploy most of its 3,236-satellite Project Kuiper broadband megaconstellation | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

FAA again delays completion of Starship environmental review

The FAA has again delayed completion of an environmental assessment for orbital launches of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle from Texas. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Omnibus spending bill includes $24B for NASA for 2022

House and Senate appropriators completed work March 9 on an omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2022 that would give NASA a little more than $24 billion. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Slingshot Aerospace closes $25M fundraising round

Slingshot Aerospace, a company that develops technologies for space situational awareness, announced March 10 it has raised $25 million in Series A-1 funds. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Lockheed, Northrop, York Space to build DoD’s internet-in-space constellation

The Space Development Agency announced Feb. 28 it awarded Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and York Space Systems contracts worth nearly $1.8 billion to produce 126 satellites for a global communications network in low Earth orbit. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

ESA to set up committee to study human space exploration options – SpaceNews

ESA will establish a committee, including those outside the industry, to develop options for a European human space exploration program. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Space Force’s troubled space-tracking system is officially shut down

The Space Force announced Jan. 26 it has closed down the last remaining piece of the troubled Joint Mission System (JMS). | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

China presents space plans and priorities in new white paper

China has released a white paper outlining the centrality of space to the country’s “overall national strategy” as well as major plans for the years ahead. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Reaching the tipping point for 3D printing satellites

The number of 3D-printed parts on board satellites is growing amid advances in additive manufacturing. But how close is the industry to 3D printing entire satellites? | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

China’s Shijian-21 towed dead satellite to a high graveyard orbit

China’s Shijian-21 space debris mitigation satellite has docked with a defunct Chinese satellite to drastically alter its geostationary orbit, demonstrating capabilities only previously exhibited by the United States. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Cause of Lucy solar array deployment problem identified

Engineers have identified the likely reason one of two solar arrays on NASA’s Lucy asteroid mission failed to latch in place after launch. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Star Trek tribute mission to fly on ULA’s Vulcan inaugural launch

Celestis, a company that provides space memorial services, will launch a Star Trek tribute mission on the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s new rocket Vulcan Centaur, ULA announced Jan. 26. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Engine computer problem delays first SLS launch – SpaceNews

A malfunctioning computer in one of the four main engines of the Space Launch System will delay that vehicle’s first launch to no earlier than March. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Russian node module docks with ISS

A node module billed as the final Russian element of the International Space Station docked with the station Nov. 26. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Japan-based Astroscale raises $109M series F round

Astroscale announced Nov. 25 that it raised $109 million to allow it to accelerate plans for active debris removal and satellite servicing. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

China launches Gaofen-11, a high resolution observation satellite

HELSINKI — China launched its third Gaofen-11 reconnaissance satellite Nov. 19, adding to a set of classified satellites with an optical resolution which | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Rocket Lab will attempt mid-air booster recovery in 2022

Rocket Lab says it’s ready to move to the next step in its efforts to recover and reuse Electron first stages by attempting to catch a booster in midair. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Startup Cognitive Space using AI to manage satellite operations

Cognitive Space raised $4 million in seed funding for its artificial intelligence-based software designed to manage constellations of imaging satellites. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

NASA delays human lunar landing to at least 2025

NASA leadership has formally given up on the goal of returning humans to the moon by 2024, pushing back a landing to at least 2025. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 2 years ago

Northrop Grumman to launch new satellite-servicing robot

Northrop Grumman in 2024 plans to launch a new servicing vehicle equipped with a robotic arm that will install propulsion jet packs on dying satellites. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 3 years ago

ODNI to Share Unclassified Science and Technology Priorities

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is preparing unclassified documents to share its science and technology priorities with industry and academia, John Beieler, ODNI science and technology director. | Continue reading


@spacenews.com | 3 years ago