NASA undertook several projects in 2022 outside of the Artemis missions, including programs that could support efforts to return to the moon and Mars. Among such initiatives are the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment and the Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm, Nextgov reported. CAPSTONE is meant to chart a lunar orbit […]
The $1.7 trillion fiscal year 2023 omnibus spending bill includes $26.3 billion for the U.S. Space Force. The amount is $1.7 billion higher compared to what the Pentagon requested. A huge chunk of the additional fund is allocated for new satellites, including those being acquired by the Space Development Agency to build a missile-warning low-Earth […]
NASA has secured funding for the Near-Earth Object Surveyor, an infrared space telescope designed to identify potentially hazardous asteroids and comets. The funding allows NASA to advance the NEO Surveyor to the development stage and supports the agency’s goal of launching the telescope in 2028. The approved budget for the NEO Surveyor is included in […]
Terran Orbital has completed a subcontractor order to deliver 10 satellite buses to Lockheed Martin, the holder of a contract to provide spacecraft for the Tranche 0 Transport Layer. The Boca Raton, Florida-based aerospace firm supplied the buses over a six-week period. According to Marc Bell, Terran’s CEO and co-founder, his company will also design […]
The mission of NASA’s Mars lander InSight has come to an end. Mission controllers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory concluded that the spacecraft does not have energy left to continue operations after it did not respond to two communications attempts. The four-year Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport mission provided the space agency […]
NASA is seeking ideas for reboosting the Hubble Space Telescope‘s orbit. According to a request for information posted on SAM .gov, NASA is looking for technical information on how a company might raise the telescope’s orbit. It also wants to know the risks involved in the mission and the probability of success. The agency said […]
SpaceX has won a $94 million firm-fixed-price contract to conduct the launch of Sentinel-6B, a satellite intended to continue a long-running effort to collect global sea level data. Deployment is set to take place in November 2025 from aboard a Falcon 9 rocket planned to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Sentinel-6B is a […]
An omnibus spending bill will give NASA $25.38 billion for fiscal year 2023. The NASA funding is a 5 percent increase from fiscal 2022 but is around $62 million less than what a House bill offered and around $590 million less than what the agency requested. A report accompanying the bill stated that at least […]
The Space Operations Command has fully activated its Space Acquisition and Integration Office to improve the execution and management of services contracts and programs. SAIO, located at Peterson Space Force Base, started its initial operations in June 2021, supporting SpOC missions and helping two combatant commands and the U.S. Space Force’s Space Training and Readiness […]
Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisitions and integration, said transitioning to smaller satellites would enable the rapid replacement of military space assets in case they are destroyed by anti-satellite weapons. He recommended purchasing satellites at fixed prices instead of using cost-plus contracts. According to Calvelli, such contracts result in the […]
