Space

The flight also demonstrated a guided re-entry of the Electron first stage booster as the company works to make its small-satellite launcher reusable.

Northrop Grumman is readying its next cargo delivery to the International Space Station.

Two small companies are reporting progress with their plans for removing debris from orbit.

The NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope faces the prospect of additional delays and cost increases.

Despite development delays, ESA sees the ExoMars 2020 program as key to European progress in exploration technology.

NASA expects to decide in the next couple of weeks whether to begin training two test pilots assigned to crew the upcoming SpaceX Demonstration 2 (Demo 2) mission for a possible extended stay aboard the International Space Station.

U.S. National Laboratory facilities aboard the International Space Station set records for crew time and new payloads devoted to scientific research and technology advances in fiscal 2019.

The U.S. Air Force is conducting a review of the Space and Missile Systems Center, Space Rapid Capabilities Office and the Space Development Agency to identify roles and responsibilities of these existing organizations.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 29, sending a fourth batch of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit.

The U.S. Space Development Agency is looking for feedback on in-space mesh networking capabilities and interoperability to inform future solicitations.

A European Space Agency-led collaboration with NASA, the $1.5 billion Solar Orbiter mission, is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral.

NASA has selected privately owned Axiom Space of Houston to provide a commercial habitation module to be attached to the International Space Station.

NASA has selected 16 wide-ranging science investigations and technology demonstrations for launch next year as the first payloads to be delivered to the Moon’s surface by two of 14 companies qualified by the agency for lunar missions under NASA’s $2.6 billion, 10-year Commercial Lunar Payload Services programs.

Ad Astra Rocket Co. is poised to bring the company’s Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket electric propulsion system to a Technical Readiness Level of 6.

Astronauts on the fourth spacewalk to repair the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer found signs of a leak.

Japan is boosting its space exploration budget.

RIP Boeing Phantom Express; UK offloads AWACS aircraft; CMV-22B delivery imminent; UK upgrading training helo requirements.

The European Commission has “prebooked” four Ariane 6s for Galileo positioning satellite launches, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton announced Jan. 22.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft has carried out its closest look yet at “Nightingale”—the nickname for the primary site on the asteroid Bennu where the mission is to gather a sample of surface material for a return to Earth in late 2023.

For lack of $14 million a year, premier infrared space telescope’s mission ends Jan. 30.

Welcoming the sixth and newest U.S. armed service the Space Force which has its first official member.

Boeing has abruptly ended its participation in the development of the Phantom Express reusable launch vehicle, effectively terminating DARPA’s XSP (Experimental Spaceplane) program for which it was being built.

New Space market driving changes in competitive balance of Israel’s defense industry.

The U.S. Space Development Agency released its short-term acquisition strategy as the office prepares to fold into the Space Force in October 2022.

Retired NASA astronauts Scott Kelly, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Pam Melroy, all former military test pilots and space mission commanders, have been selected for entry into the U S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.