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 […]
NASA will deploy the Lunar Node-1 experiment when it launches the second Commercial Lunar Payload Service in mid-February. LN-1 is a cube satellite-sized radio beacon that supports precise geolocation and navigation observation for landers, space infrastructure and astronauts. It can also be used to aid orbital maneuvers and support spacecraft landing on the moon. LN-1 […]
Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines will launch its Nova-C lunar lander in February, carrying NASA’s Navigation Doppler Lidar along with other payloads. Developed by the Langley Research Center, the NDL is designed to support spacecraft landing on extraterrestrial surfaces using light detection and ranging technology instead of traditional radar-based landing systems, potentially improving accuracy. As […]
Joseph Pelfrey has assumed the directorship of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Marshall, with 7,000 employees and contractors, manages a roughly $5 billion portfolio of human spaceflight, science and technology development programs and New Orleans’ Michoud Assembly Facility, which makes major components of the Artemis program’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, […]
NASA’s Radio Frequency Mass Gauge, designed to measure fuel floating inside a spacecraft, will be tested via the IM-1 lunar landing mission, which has a reserved multi-day launch window in mid-February. The mission provides the opportunity for the first long-duration test on a standalone spacecraft for the gauge, which depends on radio waves and tank […]
NASA will send its Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem spacecraft into orbit on Feb. 6 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex in Florida. The PACE spacecraft will carry three instruments to study the oceans, clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere. Its goal is to better understand phytoplankton on the ocean surface, including differentiating among phytoplankton […]
Tucson, Arizona-based optical sensor system company Geost has announced that it will supply 16 Mercury missile warning and tracking systems to the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 2 Tracking Layer as a subcontractor of the satellite constellation project. The company, a unit of LightRidge Solutions, secured the task order from Sierra Space, one of the three T2 Tracking Layer contractors […]
The U.S. Space Force activated the U.S. Space Forces-Space on Thursday, over a month after the organization was established. S4S is tasked with planning, integrating, conducting and assessing global space operations to ensure that the United States and its partners and allies have combat-relevant space effects. Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations at the […]
