The U.S. Space Force has awarded United Launch Alliance and SpaceX contracts for four National Security Space Launch Phase 2 missions. ULA received $224.29 million in firm-fixed-price task orders to provide basic launch services and mission integration for USSF-112 and USSF-87, the Department of Defense said. Work will be done in Centennial, Colorado; and Cape […]
NASA will utilize a reusable suborbital rocket system from Blue Origin to run lunar gravity tests on technologies bound for the Moon. According to NASA, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will be upgraded to simulate the Moon’s gravity, with the new lunar gravity testing capability expected to be available in late 2022. The rocket is […]
Lockheed Martin has completed a flight test of its Extended-Range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System munition at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The ER GMLRS munition was fired from the Army’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher and traveled a distance of nearly 50 mi. The flight test allowed officials to measure […]
Slingshot Aerospace, an intelligence technology company, has named military industry veteran Chuck Beames to its board of advisers. Beames is the executive chairman of York Space Systems and the founder and chairman of the SmallSat Alliance, an industry group that represents more than 50 space companies, Via Satellite said. According to Slingshot, Beames has more […]
Mercury Systems, an aerospace and defense company, said it will provide solid-state data recorders for NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation science mission. Led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the EMIT mission is aimed at mapping the surface mineralogy of arid dust source regions and understanding how mineral dust warms or cools the Earth’s […]
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a new set of Starlink satellites on March 4. The booster landed successfully afterward. The recent launch brings the total number of Starlink satellites currently in orbit to 1,205. However, over 60 of the satellites have deorbited. The SpaceX rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 29A, […]
The Space Force announced that it has launched an experimental payload for an undisclosed research project by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The AFRL payload was launched on a sounding rocket that took off from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. The rocket then followed a preplanned suborbital trajectory, C4ISRNET reported Thursday. Space […]
Northrop Grumman Systems has secured a potential $84.5 million cost-plus, fixed-fee contract with NASA to help realize the Mars Sample Return mission. Under the terms of the contract, Northrop Grumman will provide the propulsion systems for the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which will be critical to retrieving samples from Mars collected by the Perseverance rover. The […]
Leidos has selected Druva to serve as a subcontractor on NASA’s End-user Services & Technologies contract. Druva was selected to help transform NASA’s information technology system and enhance end-user experience. Together, the companies will help the NASA NEST team in its mission to move the space agency to a device-agnostic, mobile-friendly model with built-in security […]
The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared SpaceX to conduct a test flight of its SN10 Starship prototype. The FAA provided the clearance after closing investigations into the previous two Starship test flights, which ended in explosions. While SN9 exploded on impact, SpaceX considered the test flight a success for producing valuable data, the Orlando Business […]
