SpaceX’s 25th NASA-contracted Dragon resupply capsule departed the International Space Station on Aug. 19 and was headed for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the ocean waters off the Florida coast.
Sierra Space has completed a test readiness review of its carbothermal reactor, a system designed to extract oxygen from the Moon’s soil, and plans to proceed to a physical test of the technology.
NASA’s Artemis I initial test flight of the Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule will be carrying a rich array of secondary science and technology payloads intended to demonstrate new space technologies and pave the way for a permanent human presence at the Moon and subsequent human exploration of Mars.
A Russian spacewalk outside the International Space Station ended well ahead of schedule on Aug. 17 when Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev experienced a sudden voltage fluctuation in the internal battery that powered his spacesuit’s life support system.
The first Space Launch System rocket, topped with an Orion deep-space capsule, was rolled out to Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B on Aug. 17 in preparation for an Aug. 29 launch attempt.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has selected Microchip Technology to develop a High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor with “at least 100 times the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers.”
The U.S. Army on Aug. 15 transferred its satellite communications mission to the U.S. Space Force, putting control of all military satcom under one command.
The U.S. Space Council, in coordination with a variety of regulatory agencies, plans to start meeting with private space companies to discuss reforming space regulation to accommodate new technologies.
NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I initial test flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule will exercise the first of three flight trajectory strategies intended to kick off the return of human explorers to the lunar surface.
Technicians have installed and tested the flight termination system on the Space Launch System rocket, kicking off a 25-day clock for launch attempts for the Artemis I flight test.
Capella Space’s third generation of synthetic aperture radar satellites, named Acadia, will feature inter-satellite laser communications systems, faster downlinks and higher resolution images.
NASA has resolved an issue with the U.S. Space Force’s Eastern Range that will expand launch opportunities for the first Space Launch System rocket, currently targeted to lift off at 8:33 a.m. EDT on Aug. 29 on the Artemis I flight test.
The Federal Communications Commission is revoking plans to award SpaceX up to $886 million over 10 years to subsidize broadband internet service to rural households in the U.S. via the Starlink satellite network.
At the close of NASA’s upcoming Artemis I test flight, an uncrewed Orion capsule will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere faster and hotter than any previous human spacecraft, validating the heat shield’s ability to protect astronauts returning from the Moon and eventually Mars.
NASA could be prepared to announce its four Artemis II crewmembers late this year, Chief Astronaut Reid Wiseman told an Aug. 5 pre-mission news briefing from the agency’s Johnson Space Center.
Northrop Grumman will partner with startup Firefly Aerospace to develop new engines for its Antares launch vehicle and a follow-on new medium-lift booster that not only would be used for NASA resupply runs to the International Space Station (ISS), but also for commercial and potential U.S. military missions.
