Space Industry Analysis
Jul 02, 2012
Astrium Services started in 2003 in the wake of a U.K. Defense Ministry decision to outsource secure satellite telecommunications to the private sector. Since then, CEO Eric Beranger has turned the division of European aerospace giant EADS into a high-stakes bet on government outsourcing for key space activities, taking privatization of satellite communications and remote-sensing services further than any other company in the industry and in some cases assuming big risks with little or no government backing.
Jul 02, 2012
An article that appeared in the June 25 issue of AW&ST (p. 36) included an incorrect spelling of the name of Intelsat Chief Technical Officer Thierry Guillemin.
Jul 02, 2012
In the complex hypersonics test environment, events rarely turn out 100% as planned. But researchers at Germany's DLR aerospace center remain optimistic that they have enough data to refine the future Shefex III (Sharp-Edged Flight Experiment) demonstrator even as data uncertainty hangs over the final seconds of the Shefex II's flight.
Jun 25, 2012
Air launch, focus on vehicle and range costs promise lower prices for orbiting small satellites
Jun 25, 2012
While NASA astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are fully booked with scientific and engineering research for now, most of that work has involved projects the U.S. space agency is funding
Jun 25, 2012
China continues to find itself shut out of the International Space Station, blocked by U.S. congressional anger over the way the nation treats its dissidents and regional separatists. But China takes the long view and its leaders appear willing to do whatever it takes to establish a Chinese presence in space eventually. Last week the crew of Shenzhou 9—mission commander Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang, the first Chinese woman in space, and Liu Yang—entered the Tiangong-1 spacecraft launched earlier (see photo).
Apr 09, 2020
“Honey, I shrunk the NASA payload,” is a global crowdsourcing initiative unveiled by the space agency on April 9 to significantly reduce the size of rugged instruments, sensors and experiments that can be launched to the Moon.
Apr 09, 2020
NASA has selected Masten Space Systems, of Mojave, California, to launch, land and oversee operations of eight science payloads at the lunar south pole for at least 12 days in 2022 under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
Apr 08, 2020
Australian nanosat startup Sky and Space Global has entered voluntary administration—a process similar to Chapter 11 U.S. bankruptcy—after posting losses of more than AUS$30 million ($18.5 million) in 2019.
Apr 08, 2020
NASA will invest $7 million to advance a range of 23 early stage technologies with the potential to hasten the journey of humans to Mars and increase the odds of success for robotic missions selected to explore potentially habitable extrasolar planets and ocean worlds.
Apr 07, 2020
The U.S. Space Force is delaying a SpaceX launch of the third GPS III satellite for two months because of the growing novel coronavirus pandemic.
Apr 07, 2020
The last of the SpaceX Dragon resupply capsules launched to the International Space Station (ISS) under an initial round of NASA commercial resupply contracts returned to Earth on April 7.
Apr 07, 2020
Discovered on Dec. 28, 2019, the puffy greenish Comet Atlas C/2019 Y4 rapidly brightened in the northern night sky near the Big Dipper as it raced toward the Sun.
Apr 07, 2020
President Donald Trump on April 6 signed a new national space policy directive reaffirming U.S. commitment to the commercial use of resources in space and encouraging international support for the policy.