Science

Jim McClelland: “I give a lot of credit to the cubesat guys.” WASHINGTON — Technological advances in small satellites are helping improve spacecraft designs and pushing the industry to take more risks, Jim McClelland, vice president of mission architecture at Maxar Technologies, said Feb. 10 at the SmallSat Symposium. “It’s been a very exciting transformation

ULA’s Tory Bruno said too much investment is going into risky launch ventures even though demand is flat. Not everyone agrees. There has been a flurry of speculation recently that too much investment is being poured into risky launch ventures, creating a speculative bubble in the launch services sector. Critics, government consultants, and even some

WASHINGTON — Lynk will start testing cellular connectivity services with its first small satellite in the near future as it plans to begin commercial service early next year. During a panel discussion at the SmallSat Symposium Feb. 11, Margo Deckard, co-founder and chief operating officer of Lynk, said tests it performed last year demonstrated its

“We’ve been doing space operations for years under the Air Force. But as a service we now have to advocate for new resources,” said Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman. WASHINGTON — The Space Force is by far the smallest branch of the U.S. military and will have to “punch above its weight” to get its

WASHINGTON — NASA needs to pursue “aggressive” development of space nuclear propulsion technologies if the agency wants to use them for human missions to Mars in the next two decades, a report by a National Academies committee concluded. A Feb. 12 study by the National Academies, sponsored by NASA, said both nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP)

Demonstrating optical crosslinks is a top priority for SDA and DARPA as any future military network has to be able to move huge amounts of data. WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s space agency this year will launch a series of experiments — including satellites with laser links and missile-tracking sensors — as is prepares to begin

HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini: Government contracts help startups raise private funds needed to pay for the space and ground infrastructure. WASHINGTON — About 270 of the 620 remote sensing satellites in orbit are privately owned with about 200 of these belong to U.S. companies, according to the Aerospace Corp. Only about 50 are owned

SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett Packard Enterprise is preparing to send a second-generation Spaceborne Computer to the International Space Station later this month. The Spaceborne Computer-2 will be linked to Microsoft’s Azure cloud through NASA and HPE ground stations, meaning the space station will have far more data processing power and better connections with Earth than

WASHINGTON — NASA is no longer considering launching the Europa Clipper mission on the Space Launch System, deciding instead to launch the spacecraft on a commercial rocket it will procure in the next year. During a Feb. 10 presentation at a meeting of NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG), leaders of the Europa Clipper project

In a February 1, 2021 SpaceNews article titled, “An open system for missile-warning satellite data is in the works but faces challenges,” a number of assertions were made that were factually incorrect, misleading and taken out of context about Lockheed Martin’s role in our nation’s premiere missile warning systems, including the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS),

HELSINKI — China’s first interplanetary mission, Tianwen-1, successfully entered Mars orbit Feb. 10 following a 202-day journey through deep space. Tianwen-1 initiated a near 15-minute burn of its 3000N main engine at 6:52 a.m. Eastern allowing the five-ton spacecraft to slow down and be gravitationally captured by Mars.  The Mars orbit insertion maneuver was designed

SAN FRANCISCO – Money will continue flowing into the space industry from government agencies, private equity firms and public markets, according to panelists at the 2021 SmallSat Symposium. “It has never been a better time to raise money for ventures in and around space,” said James Murray, a partner at investment bank PJT Partners. While

JOHANNESBURG — The European GNSS Agency, GSA, has awarded a €100 million ($121 million) contract to Eutelsat Communications to develop and operate the agency’s next-generation EGNOS satellite navigation overlay service.  The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is used to improve the performance and accuracy of U.S. GPS signals. These signals can then be utilized

“The cloud services that are now available to startups are phenomenal,” said Spencer Ziegler, CEO of Orbital Wave. WASHINGTON — The cloud computing industry is developing new products and services that will help space companies monetize data without having to invest in infrastructure, executives said Feb. 8 at the SmallSat Symposium. Steve Terry, business development

SAN FRANCISCO – Shay Har-Noy, former Tomnod founder and CEO, has joined Spire Global as the company’s general manager of the aviation systems business unit. Har-Noy has been acutely aware of aviation’s need for satellite data since 2014 when Tomnod enlisted the help of more than 10 million people to tag oil slicks, wreckage and

SAN FRANCISCO – Xenesis is adopting an usual business model in its campaign to establish an optical communications constellation. The Illinois startup is signing revenue-sharing agreements with key suppliers, including satellite component manufacturer Space Micro, Geost, a firm focused on sensors and electro-optics, and optical system specialist PlaneWave Instruments. “We wanted to develop a partnership

WASHINGTON — ABL Space Systems will conduct a launch for Lockheed Martin from a new spaceport in the Shetland Islands, fulfilling an agreement with the British government announced in 2018. Lockheed said Feb. 7 that ABL will perform a launch of its RS1 rocket from the Shetland Space Centre, a spaceport to be developed on

DARPA’s vision is to develop materials, processes and designs needed for in-space manufacturing of large structures. WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to hear from the space industry about their capabilities to manufacture large structures on the moon. This is a new project that DARPA announced Feb. 5 called “Novel Orbital and

WASHINGTON — As the United Arab Emirates’ Hope spacecraft arrives at Mars, those involved with the mission have a mix of confidence and concern about the chances of successfully entering orbit. The Emirates Mars Mission, or Hope, spacecraft will arrive at Mars Feb. 9, entering orbit at about 10:41 a.m. Eastern. The spacecraft will fire

WASHINGTON — NASA and three international partners have signed an agreement to cooperate on a proposed mission to search for ice deposits under the surface of Mars, a precursor for human missions there. In a Feb. 3 statement, NASA said it signed a “statement of intent” with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Japan Aerospace Exploration

Regardless of the antics of its CEO, SpaceX and others innovating with speed and urgency need to operate with different rules. Fifty years ago, Boeing was the gold standard for aviation and aerospace engineering excellence. And the FAA led the world in setting aircraft and airspace safety standards. No longer.  Today, the fate of the

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $43.8 million space weather contract to L3 Harris Technologies. Under the five-year, cost-plus contract, Melbourne, Florida-based L3Harris will develop, deploy and operate a command and control system for NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 observatory, scheduled to launch in 2025 on NASA’s Interstellar Mapping

The White House said the National Security Council from now on will issue “national security memorandums” to replace the former administration’s space policy directives. WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is giving the White House National Security Council oversight responsibilities for space policy, giving credence to speculation that the National Space Council will be discontinued.  The

WASHINGTON — SpaceX won a NASA contract Feb. 4 to launch a small astrophysics spacecraft, continuing the company’s string of similar agency contracts over the last two years. NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX for the launch of the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) spacecraft on

Updated 9:30 p.m. Eastern to revise launch plans. WASHINGTON — NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace to deliver a set of 10 research payloads to the moon in 2023, the latest award in its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The agency said it awarded Firefly the CLPS Task Order 19D for sending 10 payloads to

JOHANNESBURG — The European Space Agency (ESA) signed a €650 million ($790 million) contract with Airbus Space and Defence to produce three more service modules for NASA’s Orion crewed spacecraft. The European Service Module (EMS) is the 15,000-kilogram powerplant of NASA’s Orion spacecraft. In addition to propulsion, it provides consumables like oxygen and water, thermal

WASHINGTON — SpaceX successfully launched another set of Starlink satellites Feb. 4 in the first of back-to-back Falcon 9 launches scheduled from Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 1:19 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Its payload of 60 Starlink satellites separated from the rocket’s

WASHINGTON — NASA has established a new position of senior climate adviser within the agency, the first sign of a long-expected new emphasis on climate science within the agency under the Biden administration. The position, announced Feb. 3, will be held on an interim basis by Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute

Updated 7:45 p.m. with FAA statement. WASHINGTON — A second prototype of SpaceX’s Starship reusable launch vehicle performed a suborbital flight Feb. 2, only to crash while landing. The Starship SN9 vehicle lifted off at about 3:25 p.m. Eastern from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site. SpaceX planned to fly the vehicle to an altitude

ViaSat’s seven-year contract is for the development of “prototype space systems.” WASHINGTON — ViaSat, a provider of satellite communications and wireless networking technology, received a $50.8 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a broad range of space systems.  The Defense Department announced the contract Feb. 2. The contract was first announced Nov.