SpaceX launched the USSF-124 mission on Feb. 14, sending six missile-detecting satellites into orbit. The mission’s payload includes two prototype satellites, one developed by L3Harris Technologies and the other developed by Northrop Grumman, for the Missile Defense Agency’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program. The HBTSS program is designed to augment the existing overhead […]
Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, deputy chief of space operations, has revealed that the U.S. Space Force will serve as the lead operator of a fleet of ground object-tracking satellites intended to provide the leadership with persistent video-like surveillance capabilities. Speaking at an Air & Space Forces Association event on Tuesday, she explained that Space Force […]
Aalyria has completed a demonstration of its Spacetime network orchestration software platform, enabling two technologies—the Hybrid Space Architecture and the Combined Joint All-domain Command and Control Concept—for civilian and defense applications. Held in the U.S. Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., and made possible through a collaboration with the Defense Innovation Unit and other partners, […]
NASA has scheduled its next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission, focusing on an all-sky survey, for 2030. The UltraViolet EXplorer space telescope will study sources of ultraviolet light in the universe and identify explosions that follow bursts of gravitational waves caused by merging neutron stars. UVEX will also carry an ultraviolet spectrograph to study stellar explosions […]
Gen. Daniel Hokanson, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, is working with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman to explore the possibility of the U.S. Space Force having its own National Guard unit. The 2024 defense authorization bill mandates the Department of Defense to carry out a […]
The Space Systems Command is eyeing ways to expand the Space Force’s GPS spacecraft constellation and is seeking industry ideas for launching demonstration satellites rapidly at low cost. According to a request for information posted on Sam .gov, the SSC wants industry inputs about GPS satellite systems on medium-Earth orbit, designed with lifespans of three […]
Greece has become the 35th country to commit to a set of principles guiding international cooperation on space exploration. Giorgos Gerapetritis, the Greek foreign affairs minister, signed the Artemis Accords on Friday during a strategic dialogue with the U.S. Department of State, NASA said Friday. According to Gerapetritis, the Accords will guide international collaboration leading […]
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 completed the delivery of NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem spacecraft into a sun-synchronous orbit on Thursday. The NASA spacecraft carries instruments to study ocean colors as it monitors biological activity, including phytoplankton, clouds and aerosols, in the atmosphere. The PACE development, which started 20 years ago, encountered multiple bumps along the […]
NASA has selected the first 11 projects under its Science Mission Directorate’s Bridge Program for new research partnerships between the agency and U.S. institutions with no previous NASA funding. The new program seeks to improve the diversity, inclusion and accessibility of the science and engineering communities. According to NASA, the initiative will usher in new […]
Ball Aerospace has delivered Space Systems Command’s Weather System Follow-on Microwave satellite, one of the two satellites it is making for the U.S. Space Force’s next-generation operational environmental satellite system. Thai Sheridan, vice president and general manager for military space, said the satellite offers a new level of environmental intelligence for military forces across all […]
