Space

AE Industrial Partners, a private equity firm with an aerospace and defense focus, is growing its military space business with a new acquisition that serves the Pentagon’s desire to tap into small-form, new-space developments.

A new request for information released by the SDA on Oct. 23 narrows the quantity for Tranche 1 to 100-150 satellites for the Transport and Tracking layers combined.

NASA’s Tournament Lab, working with social media crowdsourcing platform HeroX, is reaching out for proposals to offload a range of payload types at the Moon in support of the bold vision of developing a sustained human lunar presence this decade.

The U.S. Space Force is in the final stages of developing its acquisition system that is designed for speed, senior leaders say.

An enlarged second stage would have two engines and more propellant. Much more payload space can be provided.

The U.S. should build a coordinated and consistent approach to developing space-based solar power, beginning with a series of flight experiments leading to a demonstration of a complete on-orbit system with ground components, a new report advocates.

NASA’s commercial lunar Human Landing System (HLS) partners drew praise from the agency’s program manager as they outlined the biggest challenges they face in returning human explorers to the Moon’s surface in 2024 before a virtual SpaceCom conference audience.

The European Space Agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NASA on Oct. 27 to participate in the planned lunar-orbiting Gateway.

As Virgin Galactic enters final preparations for the first rocket-powered flight of SpaceShipTwo from its Spaceport America operational facility in New Mexico, the company has added two additional pilots to its ranks.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting Nov. 14 for the launch of Crew-1, the first operational crew ferry flight to the International Space Station from U.S. soil in more than 11 years.

Guidance, navigation and control (GNC) software for Stratolaunch’s Talon-A hypersonic flying testbed has passed a preliminary design review and is being readied by developer Draper for loading next year into the vehicle’s flight control computers.

The Oct. 12 launch of the Gaofen-13 satellite highlights China’s growing reconnaissance-strike complex from space.

A 15th batch of Starlink satellites reached orbit on Oct. 24, SpaceX’s second launch within a week to build up an initial 1,450-member broadband communications network.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex mission team has announced plans for an Oct. 27 early stow of the spacecraft’s Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism collection head into the probe’s Sample Return Capsule to minimize the loss of material collected from the asteroid Bennu.

The U.S. Space Force has not closed the door on helping industry fund a “manufacturing on orbit” concept, meaning building parts for satellites while in space, according to the service’s acquisition executive.

New research offers unambiguous evidence of widely distributed water on the Moon’s surface, including in more accessible sunlit regions.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex mission team is expediting efforts to secure the material collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu after a camera scan of the sample container revealed some of the scientific bounty escaping.

Lockheed Martin has shifted its small satellite launch plans from mainland Northern Scotland to a site in the Shetland Islands.

Ask the Editors: Three former NASA administrators agree the U.S. space program needs to use nuclear propulsion.

NASA recently conducted certification baseline reviews of the three U.S. companies vying to make landers that will transport astronauts to the Moon by 2024—Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX.

The crew of the International Space Station has temporarily sealed the non-life-threatening air leak first noticed a year ago in the Russian Zvezda service module.

Samples from asteroid could reveal more about building blocks for life.

Taiwan cleared for missile sales; Bell starts attack helo parts production; Telesat, Lockheed team on SDA; more money for military intel.

The U.S. Space Force aims to establish a new acquisition arm, Space Systems Command, by spring 2021, but the Pentagon is still hammering out the details, according to the chief of space operations.

The first flight of Russia’s new spacecraft Oryol will take place in November or December of 2023, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos State Corp., told the TASS newswire earlier this month.