Space

SpaceX’s 26th NASA-contracted Dragon cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station autonomously docked with the seven-person orbital laboratory’s U.S. segment Harmony module at 7:39 a.m. EST on Nov. 27.

NASA’s Artemis I Orion spacecraft successfully executed a second major maneuver using propulsion from the capsule’s European Space Agency-provided service module on Nov. 25.

The European Space Agency’s ministerial council concluded with a €16.9 billion ($17.2 billion) budget for the coming years, a 17% increase and the highest ever thanks to a broad agreement on most of the proposed programs.

The Vega-C light launcher is set to perform its first mission for Arianespace, which will see Avio’s upgraded rocket place two Airbus Pleiades satellites into orbit.

Europe’s three leading countries in space launchers have issued a joint statement that sets the stage for further cooperation on Ariane, Vega and micro-/mini-launcher programs within the framework of the European Space Agency.

Startup Rosotics has raised $750,000 in “pre-seed funding” to develop a rapid induction metal 3D printer for making large aerospace parts.

NASA’s frontline personnel are giving their Artemis I test flight high marks so far.

Turkey’s new UCAV; U.S.-Japan missile defense test; Defense exec foresees supply chain price hikes; Space Force-Blue Origin agreement.

Startup STELLS Space Corp. plans to launch a mobile recharging station to the Moon by 2025.

On the eve of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ministerial council, 21 startup companies are requesting that member states approve a resolution for an open competition every time an institutional payload has to be placed into orbit.

German space startup Polaris Spaceplanes has performed the first flight of its spaceplane demonstrator built under a contract from the German defense ministry.

Five days into the Artemis I flight test, the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft soared past the Moon, successfully conducting a 2-min. 30-sec. firing of its shuttle-era maneuvering engine on Nov. 21 to set up a slingshot maneuver into deeper space.

SpaceX has delayed by a day the planned launch from the Kennedy Space Center of the company’s 26th NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station, to address a small leak in a thermal control system.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has contracted with Lockheed Martin Space to construct a digital twin of the Earth’s weather.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) ministerial council plans to hear an ambitious €18.7 billion ($19.5 billion) proposal by a determined director general at its meeting Nov. 22-23.

Japan has outlined its planned contributions to NASA’s Gateway lunar-orbiting station.

NASA’s first SLS rocket had a long, adventurous life as ground-test hardware.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin carried out the first of three planned spacewalks Nov. 17 to continue upgrades to the International Space Station’s Russian Nauka multipurpose laboratory module,.

Gravitics has raised $20 million in a seed round to build large space station modules.

The Space Launch System (SLS) met all performance expectations during its debut flight, which sent an uncrewed Orion capsule on its way to a distant lunar orbit.

The new 16U satellite bus is tailored for Earth observation and space domain awareness missions.

SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System is to support the second and first NASA Artemis-era missions to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon under a $1.15 billion contract modification.

The approvals help pave the way for the first planned orbital launch from the UK mainland for Virgin Orbit’s “Start Me Up” mission using its air-launched LauncherOne space vehicle that will be carried by its modified Boeing 747.

The most powerful rocket NASA has ever built lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16, ending years of delays in the debut of the Artemis Moon program.