The FAA has renewed two launch operator licenses for Northrop Grumman for its aircraft-launched Pegasus rocket system from Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, and Cape Canaveral, the agency said March 17.

Though the Martian surface is now cold and dry, imagery dating back to the 1960s reveals a planet where large amounts of water once flowed and pooled, perhaps contributing to an environment amenable to life.

SpaceX continues to expand the operational envelope of its Falcon 9 fleet, with a successful ninth launch and landing of a first-stage booster, setting the stage to meet its goal of 10 launches per rocket with minimal refurbishment between flights.

Maxar Technologies has selected European companies TTTech Aerospace and RUAG Space to provide the backbone of the fault-tolerant communications network for the foundational Power and Propulsion Element of NASA’s lunar-orbiting Gateway.

Relativity Space has secured its first contract with the Pentagon, through the Defense Innovation Unit, to provide responsive launch capability for the military.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei has endorsed his March 9 assignment to lift off aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 on April 9 to help ensure a continuous U.S. presence aboard the International Space Station.

China orbited another trio of Yaogan-31 Earth remote sensing satellites using a Long March 4C rocket launched from the country’s oldest and most northern spaceport in Jiuquan, Inner Mongolia on March 13, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC).

Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC-3) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was reactivated over the weekend, following a low-voltage incident linked to the aging observatory’s recent lapse into safe mode.