Gen. David Allvin, U.S. Air Force vice chief of staff, and Gen. David Thompson, U.S. Space Force vice chief of space operations, signed a memorandum of agreement Thursday to establish the Space Test Course, a one-year program aimed at teaching warfighters how to conduct full-spectrum testing and evaluation of space mission systems and equipment. The […]
NASA plans to begin preparations for the first cargo mission for the Gateway lunar station later in the year. SpaceX secured a NASA logistics services contract in 2020, under which it will build a Dragon XL cargo spacecraft to bring research equipment and other supplies to the space station. Gateway will serve as a staging […]
NASA said its two weather sensors that were installed aboard the International Space Station have already provided tropical cyclone forecast information. According to NASA, both the Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer and the Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems instruments produce weather images for tracking purposes. COWVR measures the wind speed and direction on […]
E-Space will demonstrate the capability of its new low-Earth orbit network to provide communication services to the U.S. Space Force and the Space Development Agency. Work will be performed under a contract the company recently secured from the Department of Defense. According to Greg Wyler, founder and CEO of E-Space, the LEO space system will […]
The National Space Council’s Users Advisory Group met on Thursday to discuss how the Department of Defense could take advantage of the commercial space sector. The UAG met with its national security subcommittee and talked about ways to integrate commercial products and services to meet the DOD’s needs. D.T. Thompson, the vice chief of space […]
Jacobs Technology has received a potential eight-year, $3.2 billion NASA contract to support the Artemis mission’s Space Launch System, Orion spacecraft and exploration ground systems. The Consolidated Operations, Management, Engineering and Test contract has an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity mechanism for awarding task orders, which are capped at $500 million each. Specific tasks include engineering, ground system development, […]
Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, Space Systems Command’s program executive officer for assured access to space, said that the U.S. Space Force wants to use commercial space vehicles and logistics services to meet military needs. Speaking at the SSC-hosted Space Mobility conference on Tuesday, Purdy brought up efforts to develop rocket cargo, which involves the transport of […]
NASA will launch Israel’s first space telescope into geostationary orbit in 2026 under an agreement with the Israel Space Agency. The Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite’s mission is to investigate supernovas and mergers of neutron stars, among other short-term events in space, to help scientists better understand astronomical phenomena. ISA will deliver Ultrasat to Kennedy Space […]
The U.S. Space Force is planning to establish a private-public agreement with space companies for a program called the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserves. Col. Rich Kniseley, chief of enterprise requirements at the Space Systems Command, said in an interview that the CASR would ensure that the Space Force will have access to commercial capabilities during […]
The Department of the Air Force has awarded Solstar Space a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer contract for the evaluation of its space-based data communications solution. Under STTR Phase I, the DAF will evaluate Solstar’s Slayton Space Communicator, a satellite transceiver that works to facilitate high-speed, persistent-bandwidth data communications between spacecraft and ground-based systems. […]
