NASA and SpaceX completed the Launch Readiness Review (LRR) for the SpaceX Crew-2 mission on April 20, clearing the Falcon 9-Crew Dragon system for liftoff from Kennedy Space Center at 6:11 a.m. EDT on April 22, weather permitting.

It is “highly unlikely” that NASA will return to the Moon’s surface with human explorers in 2024 due to technical, budget and workplace constraints linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency’s inspector general says.

Planning is now underway for the second flight, which could come as early as April 22.

As the NASA-led International Space Station partnership strives to push the science and technology development potential of the orbital science lab, astronauts assigned to missions through 2023 will be equipping six of the station’s solar power channels with new Roll Out Solar Arrays that have been under development for a dozen years.

The U.S. Army has officially signed off on the rapid development of the Tactical Space Layer, with fielding anticipated in 2028.

CAPE CANAVERAL—Amazon has contracted with United Launch Alliance to deliver nine batches of its Kuiper broadband satellites into low Earth orbit aboard Atlas V rockets, the companies said on April 19.

Startup nonprofit Carbon Mapper, Inc. is leading a coalition of commercial, state and federal government agencies and academic partners in an effort to identify and expand a global awareness of major point source emissions of carbon dioxide and methane in order to lessen their contribution to climate change.

The 4-lb. Ingenuity rotorcraft, designed and built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, was airborne in the thin atmosphere of Mars for several seconds, flight test data relayed to ground controllers showed.