NASA’s budget-constrained approach to the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) faces an array of obstacles that could jeopardize key flight test plans and leave the U.S. unable to place astronauts on the surface of planetary bodies well into the next decade at best, according to a new assessment from the agency’s inspector general.

Commercial launches of Russia’s Proton rocket will resume Sept. 15

Virgin Galactic has signed up 625 individuals for its planned suborbital spaceflights, lining up revenue of at least $125 million, in what CEO George Whitesides asserts is a strong sign of the excitement and potential of commercial space ventures.

LOGAN, Utah — Small satellites, including tiny cubesats, are gaining wider acceptance across NASA as growing spacecraft capabilities interact with declining budgets. At the annual small satellite conference at Utah State University here, Space Technology Associate Administrator Michael Gazarik outlined the agency’s efforts to stretch its $600 million in funds by using and supporting the smallsat community.

MIDWAY POINT: NASA’s $1.1 billion Juno mission reached the midpoint in its circuitous, 1.76 billion-mi. journey to Jupiter on Aug. 12. With an anticipated arrival at Jupiter of July 4, 2016, the spacecraft will maneuver into a polar orbit to probe the structure and atmosphere below the cloud cover and search for evidence of a solid core. Juno was launched on Aug. 5, 2011, and will fly past the Earth in October of this year for a gravity boost.

A NASA-assembled Science Definition Team (SDT) is backing a Europa lander as the centerpiece for a U.S. mission to assess the habitability of the ice-covered Jovian moon. Top lander mission priorities should include an investigation of the composition and chemistry of the ocean beneath Europa’s vast ice shell; characterization of the thickness, uniformity and dynamics of the ice layer; and studies of Europa’s human-scale geology.

A budget crunch brought on by sequestration has pressured the U.S. Air Force to discontinue operations of its Space Fence, which has been surveilling objects in space since 1961. The Air Force Space Surveillance System (AFSSS), dubbed the Space Fence (and formerly operated by the Navy), consists of three transmitters and six receivers designed to form a radar line, or fence, across the 33rd parallel along the southern U.S.

Visiona Tecnologia Espacial S.A. has selected satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy and launch services provider Arianespace of Evry, France, to build and launch a geostationary broadband satellite system for the government of Brazil. Sao Jose dos Campos-based Visiona, a joint venture between Embraer and Telebras, was established to integrate Brazil’s Geostationary Satellite Defense and Strategic Communications (SGDC) system in support of the government’s National Broad Band Program (PNBL) and strategic defense communications.