This week is to mark the final ground-based, clean-room deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror as the observatory is prepared for an ocean voyage from Northrop Grumman facilities in California to its launch site in French Guiana for a planned Oct. 31 liftoff.
As he settles into his new job as NASA administrator, former Florida Sen. Bill Nelson took an early step into the agency’s international arena, with a stern warning to China—and any other country or entity—that flies rockets without the means to control them, such as what happened with China’s most recent Long March 5B booster.
Newly sworn in NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has appointed Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana to serve as the agency’s associate administrator, its highest ranking civil servant.
The U.S. Space Force has delivered two multi-manifest satellite vehicles that are carrying multiple payloads to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for integration aboard the rocket that is to launch the fifth Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS-5) satellite in mid-May.
Virgin Galactic said electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues which stalled sub-orbital tests of its SpaceShipTwo Unity have been resolved but added that the spaceplane’s return to flight could be further delayed by a newly discovered maintenance issue on Eve, the company’s WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.
Reborn low Earth orbit constellation provider OneWeb is speeding ahead on a two-month-old teaming agreement and has decided to buy U.S. government-focused TrustComm, a 22-year-old Houston-based broadband services provider.
NASA and Axiom Space are characterizing plans for the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station as a “renaissance” in human spaceflight.
NASA has increased the cost of its private astronaut missions to the International Space Station, a move to accurately reflect actual expenses while still striving to facilitate the commercialization of low Earth orbit.
Voyager Space Holdings, the rapidly expanding umbrella startup for new-space companies, has acquired the majority stake in X.O. Markets and its major subsidiary Nanoracks, which recently launched the commercial Bishop airlock to the International Space Station (ISS).
The debris of the core stage of a Chinese Long March-5B Y2 rocket made an uncontrolled reentry to the atmosphere at 10:24 p.m. EDT on May 8, China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) reported.
China launched the eighth trio of Yaogan-30 electronic reconnaissance satellites on a Long March 2C two-stage rocket at 2 11 p.m. EDT on May 6 from Xichang spaceport in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
The leader of the U.S. House committee in charge of defense spending wants the Pentagon to move faster to appoint an executive in charge of space acquisition, but the Air Force is suggesting that Congress could play a role in speeding up the process.
As NASA prepares to attempt the fifth flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, the agency has released audio of the rotorcraft recorded by instruments on the Perseverance rover.
Careful preplanning and packing of supplies will be an essential part of Inspiration4, the world’s first all-commercial astronaut mission planned for launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center later this year, NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins says.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is on course to continue evolving its infrastructure in partnership with the commercial launch sector to support a growing number of rocket launches from Florida’s Space Coast in the coming years, according to Robert Cabana, the center’s director.
Boeing and NASA plan to conduct an uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 of the Starliner CST-100 crew capsule at 2:53 p.m. EDT on July 30, pending range approval, the company said May 6.
SpaceX successfully landed a full-scale Starship prototype after a high-altitude flight test on May 5, marking a key milestone towards the development of the company’s next generation launch system.
Blue Origin plans to send human crewmembers to suborbital space for the first time on July 20 on its New Shepard rocket, the company said in a May 5 statement.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is asking industry for ideas for small, autonomous spacecraft that could inspect and repair other satellites in geosynchronous orbit—and to ultimately develop a flight experiment concept.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has selected Hughes Network Systems and OneWeb to demonstrate low Earth orbit satellite communications to connect the remote Arctic region with sites around the globe.
The 18-ton heavy core stage of the Chinese Long March 5B rocket is expected to make an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on May 8 or 9, U.S. and Russian officials said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will receive a brief in the coming days on plans for a Space Force active and reserve component, and a separate Space National Guard, according to the National Guard Bureau chief.
Launch vehicle developer Firefly Aerospace has raised $75 million in a Series A venture capital round, the Los Angeles startup announced May 4, while seed investor Noosphere Ventures sold $100 million of its holdings to investors on the sideline.
