NASA’s Johnson Space Center is soliciting proposals to develop the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, a spacecraft that will remove the International Space Station from its operational orbit once the laboratory reaches the end of its life in 2031. The U.S. space agency and its partners operating the ISS, namely the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space […]
Ten communication spacecraft equipped with Terran Orbital satellite buses were sent to low Earth orbit following the Tranche 0 Transport Layer launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on Sept. 2, the company announced Monday. Tranche 0 is a component of the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture that had its initial launch in […]
Kelvin Coleman, the Federal Aviation Administration’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said safety reviews to modify SpaceX’s Starship launch license could conclude by the end of October. The company’s original clearance was valid only for the operation that occurred in late April. Regardless of the outcome, the FAA is requiring SpaceX to seek a […]
The U.S. Space Force has awarded ABL Space Systems a $15 million task order to undertake a responsive launch mission. According to its website, ABL is a California-based startup that develops launch vehicles and launch systems technology. It is responsible for RS1, a small two-stage rocket designed to lift up to 1,350 kilograms into low-Earth […]
The U.S. Space Systems Command and Firefly Aerospace have launched the Victus Nox mission in just over a day, marking a new record for space launch responsiveness. Victus Nox is an effort to advance the SSC’s Tactically Responsive Space capabilities. Within 27 hours of receiving launch orders, SSC and Firefly mated a Millennium Space Systems-built […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded the environmental testing for the final satellite in the agency’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R series. The testing process, which started in November 2022, included checking to see how well GOES-U can withstand conditions in space, vibrations during launch, shocks during transit and electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility. […]
An imaging spectrometer designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure carbon dioxide and methane has arrived at a Planet Labs facility in San Francisco to await its integration onto a satellite. Planet Labs is part of a public-private coalition led by nonprofit organization Carbon Mapper seeking to gather greenhouse gas point-source emissions data. The […]
Ball Aerospace and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have assembled the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope‘s camera system, which will serve as the observatory’s primary instrument. The Wide Field Instrument will work to capture images with a field of view that is at least 100 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope, providing astronomers with […]
The U.S. Space Force is developing a strategy to strengthen its partnership with commercial space industry players, with plans to release it in the coming weeks. At the Global Aerospace Summit, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman, a 2023 Wash100 awardee, explained that the strategy will provide guidance to effectively integrate commercial space services […]
NASA has named Mark McInerney as its director of unidentified anomalous phenomena research. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson explained that McInerney will lead the execution of the agency’s vision for UAP research, including collaborating on analysis activities with other agencies and using artificial intelligence to scan for such phenomena. Nelson emphasized that the work will be […]
