Space

By Chen Chuanren
Cablex, Crystalaid, Ferra, Levett, Lovitt, Nupress and Quickstep Holdings all inked memorandums of agreement with Boeing ahead of the JP9102 down selection.
Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA has agreed to address so-called insider cybersecurity threats to its unclassified programs in response to an audit conducted by the agency’s inspector general.
Space

By Irene Klotz
Less than five weeks after technical issues thwarted Astra Space’s first commercial mission, the Alameda, California, startup returned to the launchpad March 15 with a successful flight for another paying customer.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by an American on March 15 while aboard the International Space Station.
Space

By Steve Trimble
Three companies will each build 42 small communications satellites to support a new constellation of U.S. military reconnaissance and missile tracking
Space

By Michael Bruno
This is the year is when the bevy of SPACs that formed in 2020 faces a deal-or-no-deal moment.
Commercial Space

By Irene Klotz
Optical communications technology is gaining ground in space.
Space

By Garrett Reim
MDA has been awarded a $269 million contract by the Canadian Space Agency to complete preliminary design of the Canadarm3 robotic arm for Gateway, a space station planned for lunar orbit.
Space

By Irene Klotz
George Nield, who oversaw commercial spaceflight for the FAA before becoming a private consultant, is among five paying passengers slated to ride on Blue Origin’s next flight of its New Shepard suborbital system, with liftoff targeted for March 23.
Space

By Mark Carreau
Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency has assured the U.S. that NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will be returning to Earth from the International Space Station as planned aboard the Soyuz MS-19 that is set to land in Kazakhstan on March 30.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Whisper’s quiet drone; Avoiding satellite collision; Refueling in space; Hypersonic funding boost; and Rapid hydrogen refueling.
Emerging Technologies

By Michael Bruno
With commercial LEO satellite constellations growing tenfold and governments eager to tap new-space, lasers comms’ have arrived.
Commercial Space

By Michael Bruno
Venturi Astrolab, the bespoke European car company’s space startup comprising NASA and SpaceX alumni in Hawthorne, California, has unveiled its Flex rover family for manned Moon and Mars missions.
Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA has reached an “inflection point” as it looks to transition its human-spaceflight focus from low-Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, according to the chair of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Finland’s Aurora Propulsion Technologies and U.S. space traffic-management startup Kayhan Space have partnered to develop a system to autonomously identify collision threats and automate avoidance maneuvers in low Earth orbit.
Space

By Garrett Reim
Slingshot Aerospace has developed a web portal and mobile app, Slingshot Beacon, that allows satellite operators to communicate and avoid satellite collisions in orbit.
Commercial Space

By Irene Klotz
The first Moon-class rocket in 50 years is set to roll out to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B on March 17 for a dress rehearsal and fueling test ahead of launch.
Space

By Mark Carreau
As it plans its Artemis lunar-exploration program, NASA is engaging the planetary-science community in ways not possible during the Apollo 11-17 missions that landed a dozen men trained primarily as test pilots on the lunar surface to gather samples for researchers on Earth.
Space

By Graham Warwick
A NASA program to demonstrate on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing has passed its mission-critical design review putting it on track for launch in 2025 at the earliest.
Space

By Irene Klotz
An omnibus spending bill approved by U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees on March 9 allocates $24 billion to NASA for fiscal 2022, a $770 million increase over its 2021 budget, but $760 million short of the Biden administration’s request for the year that began Oct. 1, 2021.
Space

By Irene Klotz
A U.S. Space Force (USSF) mission slated to launch aboard United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) next Atlas V has been delayed at the customer’s request, the company said on March 9.
Space

By Irene Klotz
SpaceX on March 9 completed its 10th orbital launch in as many weeks, an unprecedented cadence the company intends to maintain throughout the year.
Space

By Mark Carreau
Developed initially for a handful of test flights at its Gale Crater landing site on Mars, NASA’s small solar-powered Ingenuity drone helicopter has logged 20 flights as it graduated to become a reconnaissance asset for the Perseverance rover.
Space

By Graham Warwick
A robotic applique that could turn a wide range of satellites into servicing spacecraft is to be flight-demonstrated under a contract awarded to Motiv Space Systems by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Dubbed “the USB for space,” a robotic connector enabling modular hardware to be attached to spacecraft has been delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) for spaceflight qualification.
Space