Launch of the privately funded Axiom Space-1 mission to the International Space Station was delayed to no earlier than April 8, leaving little margin for Axiom’s planned 10-day excursion before NASA puts priority on launching the next resident station crew.
HawkEye 360 and Kleos Space, operators of space-based radio frequency monitoring services, launched on April 1 two new batches of satellites into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that took off from Cape Canaveral.
Online photos and video on April 3 confirmed the destruction of the first Russian Air Force Su-35S fighter during the five-week-old invasion of Ukraine.
Sierra Nevada has unveiled a concept for a new special missions variant of the Bombardier Global 6500 business jet, which the company would modify into a contractor-owned, contractor-operated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) jet for the U.S. Army.
Just ahead of a high-profile, privately funded crewed mission for Axiom Space, SpaceX on April 1 launched its fourth rideshare mission, delivering 40 spacecraft into orbit, including a 1-ton hyperspectral imaging satellite for Germany’s space agency, DLR.
Daily space-based imagery and services provider Planet Labs expects full-year revenue this fiscal year to be $170-190 million, practically 30% above last fiscal year, which was 16% above the year before.
AST SpaceMobile, a newly public startup aiming to provide space-based cellular broadband connectivity, remains on track to launch its experimental BlueWalker 3 satellite this summer, managers said late March 31.
Ukraine’s state-owned arms conglomerate has suspended Antonov head Serhiy Bychkov and forwarded information to law enforcement agencies over recent allegations that his inaction led to the destruction of an An-225 Mriya during a battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces at Hostomel Airport.
Consortia led by Airbus and Boeing are welcoming contracts from NATO to undertake risk-reduction studies for a future surveillance system that will replace the alliance’s fleet of Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne early warning aircraft in the 2030s.
Redwire, a newly public in-space manufacturing and services startup, expects to be part of at least eight planned launches this year after notching a dozen in 2021 and growing its backlog of work to almost $272 million.
In an unexpected move, the Australian defense department has announced that it has scrapped its General Atomics (GA-ASI) MQ-9B SkyGuardian armed UAS program, known as Project Air 7003.
Despite global tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NASA and Roscosmos continue to weigh a seat exchange agreement that would ensure every launch to the International Space Station by either agency has at least one astronaut and one cosmonaut on board.
As it awaits its seventh mission via a Falcon 9 launch imminently, Ion Satellite Carrier provider D-Orbit–which is going public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC)–expects to have 20 space tugs operational by 2023, a top executive says.
