White papers on potential lunar landing sites and the round-trip challenges of crewed Mars missions are among the updates in the 2023 Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review that NASA released on Tuesday. The roadmap on the solar system exploration for mankind’s benefit contains inputs from U.S. industry, academia and other stakeholders that the agency […]
Freedom Space Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of ATLAS Space Operations, has announced that it secured a U.S. Space Systems Command contract to support the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution System Command and Control effort. The company will provide software solutions that would bridge existing government architectures with a prototype architecture currently under development. The […]
Steve Lang, deputy assistant secretary of state, has warned that protecting U.S. satellite spectrum interests internationally will become more difficult in future negotiations. He spearheaded U.S. efforts at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference, an event held by the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union every four years to discuss and amend radio spectrum allocation policy, including […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Space Commerce has launched Consolidated Pathfinder, a limited-term project to support the agency’s Traffic Coordinator System for Space. Under Consolidated Pathfinder, NOAA tasked Pennsylvania-based company COMSPOC to provide orbit determination services. The agency also placed orders with the California-based companies LeoLabs and Slingshot Aerospace to provide space […]
Gen. Michael Guetlein, the U.S. Space Force’s vice chief of space operations, has called on his organization to consider alternative approaches to responsive space beyond launching replacements for satellites destroyed by adversaries. Speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel discussion, he suggested that the Space Force could form agreements with allies or […]
NASA is working with two contractors to develop a space vehicle capable of delivering large cargo to the moon. In a Jan. 9 announcement, the U.S. space agency announced that it exercised an option under the Human Landing System contract awarded to Blue Origin and SpaceX. The modification covers the design and development of crewed […]
John Plumb, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for space policy, has shared that a recent classification policy update is meant to facilitate information sharing internally and with allies and industry. He told reporters that the new memo, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks in late 2023, “completely rewrites” a 20-year-old document that is outdated for […]
NASA has transmitted a laser beam from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to India’s Vikram lander located on the lunar surface. On Dec. 12, the orbiter pointed its laser altimeter toward Vikram, located near the Manzinus crater on the moon’s South Pole. The laser was received by NASA’s Laser Retroreflector Array aboard Vikram after traveling around […]
NASA welcomed 2024 with another round of tests for the Space Launch System rocket in support of future Artemis missions. On Wednesday, the U.S. space agency conducted a critical test series to obtain data that will help in producing new RS-25 engines by Aerojet Rocketdyne, a L3Harris Technologies subsidiary. The January 2024 test comes after […]
The Space Development Agency is planning to buy 20 satellites that will be used for the Tranche 2 Transport Layer Gamma military communications network. According to the SDA’s draft solicitation, the satellites will carry Warlock, a new type of communications node that would transmit targeting information and “close future kill chains.” T2TL Gamma is designed […]
