WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration released Oct. 15 the final version of updated commercial launch and reentry regulations, although those in industry say the regulatory reform process is far from over. The FAA released the final version of its Streamlined Launch and Reentry Licensing Requirements, or SLR2, regulations on its website, with formal publication
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With less than a month to go in this election cycle, the public is awash in big issues, COVID and healthcare to national defense and economic recovery. Lest we forget, an issue also on the ballot is space – with national unity, security, and economic implications in tow. America’s future is intimately tied to our
WASHINGTON — NASA is planning a hotfire test of the core stage of the Space Launch System in the middle of November, a schedule it says keeps it on track for its first launch late next year. During an Oct. 13 media teleconference, officials with NASA, Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne said they are making good
SAN FRANCISCO – Orbital Sidekick is speeding up its campaign to build and launch a constellation of six hyperspectral imaging satellites thanks to a $16 million U.S. government contract announced Oct. 15. The government funding, which Orbital Sidekick matched with private investment, comes from the U.S. Air Force commercial investment group AFVentures’s Strategic Financing program
Telesat will adapt two Airbus Arrow spacecraft for the Blackjack program WASHINGTON — Telesat announced Oct. 14 it has won a $18.3 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to produce two satellite buses for the Blackjack low-Earth orbit constellation. The two satellites will be a “highly modified version” of the Airbus Arrow
WASHINGTON — NASA has selected its first human-tended commercial suborbital research payload, clearing the way for the biggest advocate of such research to fly on a future Virgin Galactic mission. NASA announced Oct. 14 it selected a proposed experiment by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) as part of its Flight Opportunities program for testing technologies
WASHINGTON — A Soyuz spacecraft launched to the International Space Station Oct. 14 on what will likely be the last mission where NASA pays Russia for a seat, but not necessarily the last time NASA astronauts fly on the spacecraft. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1:45 a.m. Eastern, placing the
WASHINGTON — SpaceX, Hughes Network Systems and Viasat are eligible to compete for a share of the $20.4 billion in broadband subsidies the FCC plans to dole out under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) starting later this month. The Federal Communications Commission on Oct. 13 released a list of “qualified bidders” for the RDOF
WASHINGTON — Seven countries have joined the United States in signing the Artemis Accords, a set of principles governing norms of behavior for those who want to participate in the Artemis lunar exploration program. During a session of the International Astronautical Congress Oct. 13, NASA announced that Australia, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, the United Arab
WASHINGTON — The head of Russia’s space agency said that the lunar Gateway, part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program, is too “U.S.-centric” for it to participate in, even though the Gateway leverages the existing International Space Station partnership. During a panel featuring the heads of seven space agencies at the International Astronautical Congress Oct.
Astrobiologist David Grinspoon is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and an expert on surface-atmospheric interactions on terrestrial planets, such as Venus. Credit: Courtesy of David Grinspoon Over the years, space missions to hellish Venus have been few and far between. But the idea of intensely studying that nearby cloud-veiled globe has just
COMPANY PROFILE: ENPULSION Today we present ENPULSION, an Austrian company developing cutting edge thruster solutions for small and medium satellites. Founded in 2016, it has delivered more than 130 thrusters and 50 of them are already propelling satellites of various size in space. How did the company achieve that? Milestones: 2017 – ENPULSION is founded.
HELSINKI — Chinese Earth observation Gaofen-13 is on its way to a geostationary orbit after successful launch on a Long March 3B from Xichang Oct. 11. The Long March 3B lifted off from Xichang, southwest China at 12:57 p.m. Eastern. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) confirmed launch success just over an hour
Slingshot received a $1 million Small Business Innovation Research contract and an additional $1 million from ATX Venture Partners WASHINGTON — Space startup Slingshot Aerospace announced Oct. 8 it has won a U.S. Space Force contract to develop an immersive simulation of the orbital environment. Military students will use the tool to learn the mechanics
WASHINGTON — NASA is delaying the launch of the first operational SpaceX commercial crew mission to the first half of November to provide more time to review a problem during a recent Falcon 9 launch attempt. NASA announced Oct. 10 the Crew-1 mission, which was scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 in the early
How NASA’s InVEST program is yielding big dividends for future Earth-observing missions For the last several years at the Small Satellite Conference, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has held a “Small Satellite Mission of the Year” competition. An AIAA committee gathers nominations for smallsats that have launched in the last year and
Maj. Gen. Kim Crider said space “will become the next front of the cyber conflict” WASHINGTON — As many as 1,000 enlisted personnel and 130 officers currently in Air Force cyber security jobs will be asked to join the U.S. Space Force, a senior official said Oct. 8. The selected airmen from cyber security career
SAN FRANCISCO – Exolaunch signed an agreement to secure rides for dozens of small satellites on SpaceX rideshare missions scheduled to launch later this year and in 2021. Under the agreement announced Oct. 8, Germany’s Exolaunch plans to integrate 30 U.S. and European cubesats and microsatellites on Falcon 9 rideshare flights to sun-synchronous orbit scheduled
WASHINGTON — Despite dire predictions just six months ago, space companies in general, and startups in particular, have survived the pandemic and its economic fallout in relatively good shape. In sessions at the three-day Satellite Innovation 2020 conference that concluded Oct. 8, executives and other industry observers concluded that the industry fared better than expected
VALLETTA, Malta — A solid rocket booster designed for Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 and Vega C launch vehicles completed a third and final static fire test Oct 7. Developed by an ArianeGroup and Avio joint venture called Europropulsion, the P120C is a multipurpose solid rocket booster designed to be used as the first stage of
SAN FRANCISCO — GHGSat, the Canadian firm preparing to launch a constellation of methane-monitoring satellites, announced Oct. 8 that the sensor on its Iris satellite launched in early September detects methane emissions five times as well as Claire, its predecessor. GHGSat tested the Iris sensor by flying the satellite over a controlled methane release in
The $600 million WGS-11+ will join the WGS constellation that provides broadband communications to the U.S. military and allies. WASHINGTON — Boeing has been given the go-ahead to continue the development of a new satellite for the U.S. military’s Wideband Global Satcom constellation, the company announced Oct. 7. The new $600 million satellite, known as
WASHINGTON — A startup is using an initial round of funding to build up tools it believes will provide more accurate notifications of potential collisions for satellite operators. Kayhan Space, based in Boulder, Colorado, announced Oct. 6 it closed a $600,000 “pre-seed” round, led by an Atlanta-based venture capital firm, Overline. Other participants in the
WASHINGTON — Chris Ferguson, the former NASA astronaut who was to command the first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle, has withdrawn from the mission for personal reasons, the company announced Oct. 7. Ferguson, who joined Boeing in 2011 after a NASA career that included commanding the final space shuttle mission, was
SAN FRANCISCO — Capella Space unveiled images Oct. 6 from Sequoia, the first of 36 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites the San Francisco startup plans to send into a constellation to collect global imagery with hourly updates. “When I started Capella Space in 2016, there were a number of European providers operating and building commercial
Space Development Agency constellations of cheaper mass-produced satellites create opportunities and risks for contractors WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency is buying 20 communications satellites for about $14 million apiece, and eight missile-warning satellites for about $43 million per unit. These price points are unprecedented in Pentagon satellite programs and a sign that the military
WASHINGTON — As SpaceX launches a new batch of Starlink satellites, the company is quietly deorbiting the original set of satellites less than 18 months after launch. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 7:29 a.m. Eastern Oct. 6. The launch suffered a series of
The United States must work with long-time Arctic partners to increase vigilance in this increasingly vital region. China has published an Arctic strategy making clear the government’s desire to control infrastructure along Arctic routes. Geographically, the terrestrial Arctic region consists of the area north of the Arctic Circle, including the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas and
SAN FRANCISCO – Colorado startup ExoTerra Resources announced a NASA Small Business Innovative Research contract Oct. 5 to develop a solar electric upper stage to boost small satellites traveling on Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne beyond low Earth orbit. With ExoTerra’s Solar Electric Propulsion Upper Stage, LauncherOne customers could reach destinations including geostationary orbit, trans-lunar injection orbit,
SAN FRANCISCO – SkyWatch Space Applications, the Canadian startup whose EarthCache platform helps software developers embed geospatial data and imagery in applications, announced a partnership Oct. 5 with Picterra, a Swiss startup with a self-service platform to help customers autonomously extract information from aerial and satellite imagery. “One of the things that has been very