The U.S.’s increasing presence in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region has implications for military satellite communications.

NASA probably will not be able to afford to send a rover to Mars in 2018 with its current budget allocation.

As the House of Representatives begins debate on funding legislation that would direct NASA to move quickly to pick a single commercial crew vehicle for public support, the commanders of three Apollo missions to the Moon endorsed the approach.

COLORADO SPRINGS — Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) believes it has an answer to the problem of how to deorbit spent cubesats before they can smash into more valuable spacecraft. SSC’s NanoSpace unit has developed miniaturized spacecraft thrusters using Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) fabrication technology. The tiny thruster systems have been partially validated in space, on the company’s Prisma satellites that also proved out the nonhypergolic green propellant developed by another SSC subsidiary.

Bordeaux, France – Commercial satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe rejected an unsolicited May 4 offer from competitor GeoEye to purchase the Longmont, Colo.-based company in a $792 million deal that would create the largest fleet of high-resolution imaging satellites in the world. In a May 6 letter to GeoEye President and CEO Matt O’Connell, DigitalGlobe rejected GeoEye’s public offer, asserting it substantially undervalues DigitalGlobe in relation to its standalone business and financial prospects.

The nation’s NASA- and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-administered Earth observation program is at risk of collapse, the victim of poor strategic planning, budget shortfalls and cost overruns.

AEHF-2: The U.S. Air Force’s second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) spacecraft was successfully placed in orbit May 4 by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Liftoff from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., took place at 2:42 p.m. EDT and the rocket’s Centaur upper stage deployed the spacecraft at 3:33 p.m.

The U.S. Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office has unveiled details of its ORS-4 rail-launched satellite experiment. Dubbed “Super Stripey,” ORS-4 will combine the Scout launch missile rail system at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, with the Stripey target system at Sandia National Laboratory. Working with Aerojet, ORS is developing an expanded, three-stage, solid-rocket version of the original sounding rocket.