Responding to U.S. advances in in-space manufacturing, Airbus has been selected to study an orbital factory and potential demonstrator mission to establish a European capability to manufacture and assemble satellites in orbit.
Showing signs of its 30-plus years in Earth orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope resumed science operations late March 11, four days after slipping into safe mode due to a software error detected within the observatory’s main computer.
China successfully launched its new Long March 7A heavy rocket for the first time at 1:51 am local time on March 12 from the Wenchang launch site on Hainan island.
In another step in their growing space partnership, Russia and China have agreed to cooperate on an international lunar research station, potentially similar to the U.S. led-Artemis program’s Gateway project.
Scientists say they are pleased with the initial performance of SuperCam, a rock-vaporizing collection of lasers, high-tech cameras, spectrographs and microphones aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars 2020 rover.
NASA plans to try again on March 18 to fire up the four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines on the Space Launch System core stage for a critical integrated test ahead of the booster’s debut flight in late 2021 or early 2022.
Nanoracks has proclaimed its benchmark Bishop airlock, which was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in December, “open for business” and ready to commercially support science experiments, spacewalks and equipment transfers on the exterior of the orbiting science lab.
NASA has contracted with Axiom Space to acquire a seat aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 for a NASA astronaut to launch to the orbiting science lab on April 9.
The U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office on March 9 awarded task orders worth a total of $385 million to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) for four upcoming launches, Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) said in a statement.
NASA on March 5 released a solicitation for launch services to send its Europa Clipper spacecraft on its way to the water-rich moon of Jupiter, a ride once earmarked for the agency’s own Space Launch System rocket.
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has made an initial 21-ft. test drive in its Jezero Crater landing site as flight controllers continue instrument checkouts and scout a location for a flight demonstration by a companion miniature helicopter.
Comet impacts during the Solar System’s planet-forming period about 4.5 billion years ago may have delivered the carbon essential for life to the rocky planets in the Sun’s habitable zone, according to a new study of the comet Catalina.
U.S. and Japanese spacewalking astronauts Kate Rubins and Soichi Noguchi joined outside the International Space Station on March 5 to complete modifications to two of six solar power channels on the orbital science lab’s long support truss due to be equipped with new ISS Roll Out Solar Arrays over the coming year.
A wave of space startups suddenly going public in SPAC deals is revving up an already excited sector. But one of them is ahead of others and is about to take another giant leap.
NASA has awarded Northrop Grumman a sole-source contract worth up to $84.5 million to provide the two-stage ascent vehicle needed to launch samples from the surface of Mars into Mars orbit, where they can be retrieved by a return ship and flown back to Earth.
NASA is bumping the upcoming reflight of Boeing’s uncrewed CST-100 Starliner spacecraft until sometime after the arrival of four astronauts aboard SpaceX’s second operational Crew Dragon taxi flight to the International Space Station.
Nine hours after a SpaceX team in Texas landed a full-scale Starship prototype for the first time, colleagues in Florida launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 60 more satellites for the company’s high-speed internet service system.
SpaceX’s March 3 high-altitude test of a full-scale Starship prototype managed a soft landing—unlike two previous test vehicles—but then exploded 3 min. after touching down at the company’s facility in Boca Chica Beach, Texas.
Thales Alenia Space (TAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed the expected contract for six satellites in the second generation of the EU’s Galileo navigation constellation, after the Court of Justice of the European Union lifted a suspension.
Startup Venus Aerospace plans to proceed with the development, testing and production of a small hypersonic aircraft capable of transporting a dozen passengers or time-critical payloads between major continental destinations in an hour.
NASA plans an industry day on March 9 for the Electrified Power train Flight Demonstration project to flight test megawatt-class electric aircraft propulsion systems.
