The National Reconnaissance Office has issued a broad area announcement seeking innovative proposals to advance its space launch capabilities. The Agile Launch Innovation and Strategic Technology Advancement program is designed to enhance launch technology across multiple areas, including ground operations and on-orbit services, SpaceNews reported. Areas of interest outlined in the BAA include in-space mobility […]
Airbus will develop and build a twin spacecraft for the continuance of the joint space mission of NASA and the German Space Agency geared at monitoring the Earth’s gravity field and climate. The Pasadena, California-based NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory awarded the task for the mission called GRACE-C, which stands for Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment-Continuity. […]
Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station completed four testing milestones under a NASA Space Act Agreement awarded to the company in 2021. According to Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program, the milestones ensure that Orbital Reef can sustain human life and allow researchers to conduct experiments in LEO. Specifically, the […]
The Defense Innovation Unit has selected Blue Origin, Space Logistics and Spacebilt to develop prototypes for its Orbital Logistics Vehicle project, aimed at providing logistics solutions for accessing geostationary and other high orbits beyond low Earth orbit at reduced costs. The initiative strategically leverages commercial technologies and private investment to provide low-cost, responsive solutions that […]
The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit has tapped Fireplace Aerospace for a trade study on the rapid launch capabilities of the company’s Elytra spacecraft to support missions beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit, or xGEO. The study is part of the DIU’s Sinequone project to prototype commercial launch and orbital transfer capabilities in xGEO where the agency foresees […]
NASA said Leslie Livesay has assumed her role as deputy director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, taking over from Larry James, who was appointed in September 2013. Livesay is equipped with nearly four decades of experience in autonomous space exploration. She previously served as JPL’s associate director for flight projects and mission success, director for astronomy […]
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected Northrop Grumman to research the feasibility of a lunar railroad network. Northrop will identify the necessary groundwork for such a network, establish a list of potential costs and logistical and technological risks, work on prototypes and demonstration models and explore robotics-enabled construction and operation concepts. Chris Adams, […]
NASA has tapped 10 organizations involved in small research satellite development to join a mission to the International Space Station. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is one of the institutions selected by the U.S. space agency. The organization has been working on the Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment Twiggs, a prototype of a 3U cubeSat […]
NASA and SpaceX have reached a significant milestone in the Artemis program with the third integrated flight test of SpaceX’s Starship human landing system. The test flight took place on March 14 at SpaceX’s Starbase orbital launch pad in Texas, NASA said. Powered by 33 Raptor engines, the Super Heavy booster propelled Starship into orbit. […]
NASA and other organizations with payloads on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander announced that they have still managed to gather useful information from the mission despite it not reaching the moon. The Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer, a NASA instrument, is among the payloads aboard the lunar lander. During the flight, it detected traces of nitric oxide […]
