A Northrop Grumman census is now tracking 164 small-satellite launch programs, although 46 of the projects are effectively defunct and the status of nine others is unknown.
Russia’s MS-18 Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station was on course for a late Oct. 29 docking with a nearly 3-ton cargo of food, water, crew supplies and propellant following a successful launch from Kazakhstan.
Russia plans to spend about $1 billion to develop and flight test a partly reusable, methane-powered orbital launch vehicle known as Amur SPG (“liquid natural gas” in Russian) with a first stage designed to return to its launch site.
The planned launch of the NASA-contracted SpaceX Crew-3 Dragon mission to the International Space Station promises to boost from nine to 11 the number of astronauts with spaceflight experience named to the agency’s Artemis Team.
A new satellite launched by China on Oct. 24 will be used mostly for testing an unspecified space debris mitigation technology, state-owned news media and government agencies say.
The four Crew-3 astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center as scheduled Oct. 26, expressing confidence an assessment of a toilet issue aboard their SpaceX Crew-3 Dragon Endurance and the Crew-2 Dragon Endeavour currently docked to the International Space Station (ISS) will be resolved in time to support their planned liftoff.
NASA and SpaceX this week will focus on closing out an assessment of changes made to the toilet aboard the Crew-3 Dragon spacecraft prior to its scheduled Oct. 31 launch to the International Space Station.
A team of heritage and new space companies headed by Blue Origin and Sierra Space plan to build, launch and operate an International Space Station-class commercial outpost in low Earth orbit that can be tailored and expanded to accommodate a broad array of scientific, technological, business, entertainment and other pursuits.
After conducting four crewed spaceflights, including a commercial mission without NASA oversight, SpaceX has won Russia’s backing to fly cosmonauts on its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
With the initial Space Launch System (SLS) assembly now complete at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the agency is looking to a Feb. 12-27 launch window for its uncrewed Artemis I test flight to the Moon.
Russia’s Progress MS-17 cargo capsule carried out a successful autonomous redocking with the International Space Station’s Russian segment Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module early Oct. 22 to complete a nearly 29-hr. relocation to set up Nauka propellant line leak checks.
The successful mission of a Russian movie crew to the International Space Station (ISS) Oct. 5-16 suggests the state space corporation Roscosmos is poised to resume a space tourism program. But despite the busy delivery schedule at the end of 2021, new space travelers are likely to fly Russian ships no earlier than 2023.
Ahead of NASA’s selection of up to four proposals to support development of commercial space stations, a team led by Nanoracks unveiled plans on Oct. 21 for a four-person outpost called Starlab, with initial operational capability expected by 2027.
An Ariane 5 heavy launcher is to send the SES-17 satellite into orbit during the night of Oct. 22-23 local time at Arianespace’s Kourou, French Guiana, spaceport, as Thales seeks to capture half of the crucial North American inflight connectivity market.
South Korea successfully launched its first domestically developed and manufactured launch vehicle to space on Oct. 21, but the Korea Space Launch Vehicle II “Nuri” failed to place a dummy satellite into orbit as planned.
In testimony before the U.S. House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Oct. 20, NASA made it clear the agency faces significant strategic and technical challenges in developing a nuclear propulsion capability to lead the way for the human exploration of Mars by the end of the 2030s.
Attempts to fully unfurl and latch a solar array on NASA’s recently launched Lucy asteroid probe will resume no earlier than the end of next week, NASA said on Oct. 19.
