Citing concerns about Tropical Storm Arthur, which was passing off the coast of North Carolina on May 18, SpaceX is standing down from its planned May 19 launch of a Falcon 9 rocket to build out its Starlink network, putting the long-awaited flight test of a crewed Dragon spacecraft next on the launch schedule.
BEIJING—China is likely to finish its Beidou 3 satellite navigation system six months before the original program target of the end of 2020, with the 30th and final spacecraft due to go into orbit next month.
After a one-day delay due to poor weather, the 197-ft. (60-m) tall Atlas V lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at 9:14 a.m. EDT to deliver an Air Force X-37B test vehicle into orbit for a sixth mission.
Virgin Orbit completed a second dress rehearsal of its LauncherOne small satellite launch system on May 15, but plans to conduct some additional testing ahead of the vehicle’s orbital test flight, targeted for later this month.
The U.S. Defense Department has signed a contract with Capella Space to provide airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and analytic services to the U.S. Navy.
Seeking a future, energy-efficient ride to cislunar space, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a demonstration program for a spacecraft powered by a nuclear thermal propulsion system.
Using the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty as a blueprint, NASA on May 15 unveiled a framework for conducting missions on and around the Moon that it hopes to parlay into a series of bilateral agreements with other countries.
NASA is slowing reopening some of its facilities, including parts of the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where work to prepare the first Space Launch System (SLS) for a static test fire has been on hiatus for two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The satellite operator Intelsat announced May 13 that it has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a financial restructuring to free up liquidity and continue operations while it awaits repayment from the government from an auction of C-band spectrum.
NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley have begun a two-week quarantine ahead of a flight test of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS.)
An estimated 5,000 spent rocket bodies and retired multinational spacecraft that circle the Earth—some with a mass of up to several tons—are part of a growing orbital debris population that poses a lingering collision threat to national security and civil space assets.
Loon has signed a deal with African telecommunications provider Vodacom under which the Alphabet company will provide internet service to remote parts of Mozambique using its stratospheric balloons.
The Senate Armed Services Committee recently met to consider a bewildering decision by the FCC to OK the building of a low-power, ground-based network for 5G cellular and Internet of Things data services that opponents say could interfere with GPS receivers.
Listen to your experts, listen to your vehicle, and expect the unexpected. That’s the advice a panel of human spaceflight veterans has for SpaceX as the company prepares for its landmark Demo-2 flight to the International Space Station (ISS) later this month, which will restore the U.S. human orbital spaceflight capability lost after the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle.
In case SpaceX needs more time to begin commercial service of its Crew Dragon transportation system to the International Space Station, NASA has bought a seat aboard the next Russian Soyuz flight, scheduled to launch in October.
A future NASA Orion crew might find its way to an aging but still productive Hubble Space Telescope to conduct upgrades and repairs, says John Grunsfeld, who journeyed to the orbital observatory as a spacewalking mechanic on three shuttle missions.
The FAA has authorized a 12th commercial space launch site and continues to evaluate another site that was nearing a decision by the agency late last year.
When Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken splash down in the Atlantic Ocean following their SpaceX Demo-2 flight to the International Space Station, it will mark the first time NASA astronauts have landed in the ocean in nearly 45 years.
