This year’s International Asteroid Day, the annual June 30 observance instituted by the United Nations to promote global awareness of asteroid threats, arrives with NASA on the verge of launching a first-ever mission to demonstrate a potential defense.
Virgin Orbit delivered seven satellites into orbit on June 30, including cubesats for the U.S. Defense Department’s Rapid Agile Launch Initiative (RALI), a Polish-based startup planning to sell optical imagery to agricultural and energy customers and the first military satellite for the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
Russia’s Progress MS-17 cargo capsule, filled with 3,600 lb. of food, crew supplies and propellant, was on course for an automated docking with the International Space Station late July 1 following a successful launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
With sights on lunar and deep space missions, China has firmed up its road map to develop heavy-lift rockets based on the Long March 5 and the new Long March 9.
Northrop Grumman’s 15th Cygnus resupply mission spacecraft departed the International Space Station on June 29 filled with trash and prepared for an orbit-raising maneuver for five small satellite deployments prior to making a destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
Three spacewalks in nine days did the trick, as astronauts succeeded in installing the second of the first two of six planned Roll Out Solar Arrays on the International Space Station to provide more electricity for science and technology activities as the orbital science lab ages.
Northrop Grumman has delivered the spacecraft bus to support the 2023 launch of a satellites that will demonstrate a military-only alternative to the Global Positioning System, according to the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Listen in as the president and CEO of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) discusses the company’s upcoming first launch of the new Vulcan rocket, the impact of the Space Force and the future of space transportation.
Estes Industries, famous among model rocket enthusiasts for the company’s solid propellant motors, has spun off a new company sporting lineage to Aurora Flight Sciences that aims to provide engineering support for larger launchers.
Congress can anticipate a detailed cost and schedule assessment for NASA’s efforts to return human explorers to the Moon under the Biden administration’s version of the Artemis initiative to establish a sustained human lunar presence and prepare for expeditions to Mars by the end of this year, agency Administrator Bill Nelson says.
The U.S. Space Development Agency is poised to send its first five small experimental satellites and payload on orbit, with the intent to validate space-based laser communications, battle management and target custody technology.
Procter and Gamble is working with NASA to develop a space version of its Tide detergent to clean the clothing and fabrics of astronauts assigned to future missions to the Moon and Mars that could double as a more environmentally friendly cleanser for use on Earth.
The European Space Agency and the European Commission on June 22 signed a long-sought financial framework partnership agreement for 2021-27, formalizing a relationship they intend to make tighter.
Xuntian will be similar to the Hubble Space Telescope but with a field of view 300 times larger, according to the director of the National Astronomical Observatories at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank on June 21 reported its first satellite-related export financing deal since 2015, backing SpaceX’s expected launch of Hispasat’s planned Amazonas Nexus satellite so that rival Arianespace did not win the business with European export credit agency support.
Intuitive Machines (IM), one of NASA’s early Commercial Lunar Services Payload Services providers, announced plans on June 21 to place a communications satellite in orbit around the Moon to provide a data link to Earth as part of its second lunar mission planned for late 2022.
