Science

WASHINGTON — Satellite internet startup OneWeb is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as soon as Friday after its largest investor, Softbank, rejected a request for additional funding, according to sources familiar with the situation.  OneWeb’s imminent filing was first reported by The Financial Times. Softbank, having already invested roughly $2 billion in OneWeb,

It is obvious the tiny novel coronavirus is giving and will continue to give all of us a very hard time for a prolonged period.  When news of the COVID-19 outbreak and of its obvious severity first emerged, we may all have thought we were in for a hard time but I don’t think any

WASHINGTON and SAN FRANCISCO — Maxar Technologies warned customers that it may not be able to deliver spacecraft on time or on budget due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, satellite manufacturing and testing are continuing in its California facilities.  In a March 20 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Maxar said Santa Clara,

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab is continuing with preparations for a launch later this month despite the coronavirus pandemic, although another small launch company’s plans for a launch this month remain unclear. Rocket Lab spokesperson Morgan Bailey said March 19 that the company was still planning to launch an Electron rocket from New Zealand later this

WASHINGTON — Gogo, an in-flight Wi-Fi provider with capacity on 34 satellites, will seek price concessions to rein in bandwidth costs as airlines continue to ground flights amid coronavirus-related travel bans.  Gogo CEO Oakleigh Thorne said the coronavirus pandemic is partly behind the company’s cost-saving efforts, since decreased airline traffic has had a knock-on effect

WASHINGTON — The Orion spacecraft that will fly on the first launch of the Space Launch System has completed testing at an Ohio facility and will soon be shipped back to the Kennedy Space Center for final launch preparations. NASA held a ceremony March 14 at Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, run by the

WASHINGTON — Manufacturers are generally optimistic that last year’s rebound in commercial geostationary satellite market orders marks the beginning of trend. After two years of single-digit totals, manufacturers sold 15 geostationary satellites in 2019.   At the Satellite 2020 conference, executives from Airbus, Boeing, Maxar, Thales Alenia Space and Northrop Grumman expressed confidence that commercial business

Tory Bruno: “We are limiting non essential business travel but that doesn’t include launch and rockets.” WASHINGTON — Defense Department and NASA launch provider United Launch Alliance is implementing emergency measures in response to the coronavirus outbreak but continues to support upcoming missions, the company’s CEO Tory Bruno said March 10 during a meeting with

Planet felt like it didn’t have a choice. When the Earth-observation startup began launching cameras into orbit in 2013 and 2014, manufacturing lines weren’t churning out cubesats by the dozens. That’s no longer the case. Blue Canyon Technologies, AAC Clyde Space, GomSpace, NanoAvionics, Tyvak and several others are ready and willing to build cubesats en

When the bipartisan leadership of the House Science Committee introduced a NASA authorization bill Jan. 24, it surprised many people in the civil space community. The bill appeared to reject the goal of NASA’s Artemis program to return humans to the moon by 2024, requiring instead a return only by 2028. It also spurned NASA’s

SAN FRANCISCO – PredaSAR, a Florida startup led by retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Teague, raised $25 million in seed funding for its plan to build a constellation of at least 44 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites. “The Defense Department has been after a space-based radar solution for many years,” Teague told SpaceNews. “There’s

WASHINGTON — The full House Science Committee will likely take up a NASA authorization bill later this month that a key member says will incorporate some changes to the original bill, but likely retain major provisions directing NASA’s human space exploration program. In a Feb. 28 interview, Rep. Kendra Horn (D-Okla.), chair of the House

HELSINKI — China will launch Beidou navigation satellites in March and May this year, completing a constellation designed for an array of civil and military applications. A Long March 3B rocket arrived at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center Feb. 14, according to China News Service. The Beidou satellite for the launch has also arrived at

WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic executives suggested Feb. 25 that the beginning of commercial flights of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle might slip again, even as the company starts planning to resume ticket sales. The company, which became publicly traded in October after closing a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Social Capital Hedosophia, released its fourth quarter

One of the largest single items is $255 million to launch two GPS 3 satellites WASHINGTON — Soon after the Pentagon’s budget request is submitted to Congress each year, the military services send to Capitol Hill a separate wish list known as “unfunded priorities.” These are items the military would like Congress to fund if

WASHINGTON — Airbus Group will shed about 7% of the workforce at its Airbus Defence and Space division after three years of weak sales, the company said Feb. 19.   A “flat space market and postponed contracts on the defence side” of its business prompted the decision to cut 2,362 positions, Airbus Group CEO Guillaume Faury

WASHINGTON — With just a week before the first scheduled launch in DARPA’s responsive launch competition, the agency is tweaking the rules to allow the sole remaining company to perform both launches from the same spaceport. Officials with the DARPA Launch Challenge said in a Feb. 18 media briefing that Astra will perform both launches

WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department is once again requesting a large budget increase for its Office of Space Commerce in order to work on space traffic management activities after Congress rejected a similar request last year. Parts of the department’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal were not released with the rest of the White House’s

WASHINGTON — The White House has added the Secretary of Energy and two other officials to the roster of members of the National Space Council. In a statement issued late Feb. 13, the White House announced that the Secretary of Energy, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and the Assistant to the President for

Congress approved $148 million for the Consolidated Space Operations Facility. WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal year 2021 includes $88 million to complete the construction of a Consolidated Space Operations Facility at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. The CSOF was requested two years ago by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and U.S.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — A small launch vehicle company emerged from stealth mode this week, but is still keeping many details about its plans and capabilities behind closed doors. Astra, a company based in Alameda, California, formally announced its plans Feb. 3, an unveiling timed to the publication of a profile of the company in

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – The current and former directors of the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency (SDA) have differing views of congressional direction to move SDA under the U.S. Space Force. “Eventually, the Space Development Agency will report to the U.S. Space Force,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said Feb. 6 at the SmallSat Symposium. “That’s the

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The management of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, facing dwindling cost reserves while still years away from launch, is looking at cost saving options that would preserve the mission’s science. In a Feb. 3 presentation at a meeting of the Outer Planets Assessment Group in Houston, Jan Chodas, project manager for Europa

DoD weapons testing report: “We must thoroughly understand how our systems will perform in space.” WASHINGTON — The Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation warns in a new report that the military today is not able to assess the durability of its satellites if they came under attack. DoD plans to invest at

WASHINGTON — Comtech is acquiring Gilat Satellite Networks for $532.5 million, a move the company says will position it to capitalize on large anticipated demand for new ground segment infrastructure. Melville, New York-based Comtech Telecommunications Corp announced the Gilat acquisition Jan. 29, the same day it said it would also buy antenna builder CGC Technology Limited

The five-year contract is to develop the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution, or FORGE. WASHINGTON — Raytheon has won a $197 million U.S. Air Force contract to design a ground system that will be used to collect and process data from missile warning satellites, the company announced Jan. 28. The five-year contract — a two-year

U.S. Space Force statement: The seal “honors the Department of the Air Force’s proud history” WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday evening unveiled on Twitter the seal of the U.S. Space Force. “After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space

WASHINGTON — NASA will turn off an aging infrared space telescope in a week, citing the complexities of continuing to operate the spacecraft as it drifts away from the Earth. On Jan. 29, the Spitzer Space Telescope will transmit the last of the science data that the spacecraft has collected. Controllers will then effectively turn

SAN FRANCISCO – Made In Space is moving its corporate headquarters from Mountain View, California, to Jacksonville, Florida. The company founded in Mountain View in 2010 established a presence in Jacksonville in 2015 and a partnership with Space Florida in 2017. Since then, Space Florida has provided financing to help the commercial space startup expand

Space Force members will wear a full color flag on the left arm, whereas members of the U.S. Air Force wear a spice brown flag on the right arm. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force on Friday revealed the nameplates that airmen who are assigned to the Space Force will wear over their existing utility