The EU is looking for synergies between two components of its Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-27: the newly created €8 billion ($9.5 billion) European Defense Fund and the €14.9 billion space budget.
Japan’s SoftBank has re-invested in OneWeb, the satellite communications company that was sent into Chapter 11 nine months ago after the Tokyo-based holding company withdrew its support.
Airbus says it has completed the Preliminary Design Review on the UK’s new Skynet 6A military communications satellite. The review occurred in November and was completed virtually due to the restrictions in place because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Airbus announced Jan. 14.
Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for NASA’s deep-space crewed Orion spacecraft, has completed assembly and testing of the capsule earmarked for a flight test in November and transferred possession to NASA.
Blue Origin credits a team of experienced industry partners with its success so far as a competitor to build NASA’s lunar Human Landing System to shuttle future astronauts between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.
Blue Origin tested an upgraded New Shepard suborbital launch system on Jan. 14, sending the uncrewed, six-passenger capsule to an altitude of 347,568 ft. before it made a parachute return to the West Texas desert.
Publicly traded space-related stocks received a proverbial booster shot this week when a popular investment manager unveiled a new electronically traded fund focusing on space.
SpaceX’s latest Dragon International Space Station resupply mission concluded late Jan. 13 with the first splashdown off the U.S. East Coast, delivering a 4,400-lb. cargo rich in time-sensitive scientific research.
An Italian startup focused on the rapidly growing ground-segment-as-a-service market, Leaf Space, has raised €10 million ($12.15 million) in a Series A venture capital round, the company announced Jan. 13.
Intuitive Machines has for a second time selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket for the launch of a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission lander to the Moon.
The U.S. Air Force selected the Army’s Redstone Arsenal facility over six locations in the final eight days of the tenure of President Donald Trump, who created the new organization as the new combatant command supported by the U.S. Space Force.
Japan has joined the space agencies of Canada and Europe in formally partnering with NASA in the development of a lunar-orbiting, human-tended Gateway.
A newly created “European launcher alliance” will gather the European Commission, the European Space Agency, EU member states and the launcher industry to work out a road map for future European launchers, the EC has announced.
After a one-day weather delay, SpaceX’s upgraded Dragon resupply capsule departed the International Space Station early Jan. 12 for a first-ever commercial atmospheric re-entry and parachute descent off the Florida coast with a 4,400-lb. scientific and equipment return payload.
The first set of six new solar arrays for the International Space Station is being prepared for launch in May, setting the stage for a 20-30% jump in power generation for commercial and research activities aboard the orbital outpost.
Adverse weather Jan. 11 prompted SpaceX to delay the first-ever attempt by a NASA-contracted commercial International Space Station resupply mission to return to Earth for an Atlantic Ocean splashdown off Florida’s east coast with a 5,200-lb. cargo that includes science experiments.
