Ball Aerospace has received a $78.2 million contract modification to provide a second Weather System Follow-on Microwave Satellite to the U.S. Space Force, which plans to launch it in 2028. The first WSF-M spacecraft was ordered in 2018 and is set to be deployed in 2024, SpaceNews reported Friday. The new satellite is meant to […]
Atlas Space Operations has secured a Small Business Innovation Research contract to provide the U.S. Space Force with a platform that can analyze data from space communications infrastructure and multidomain command and control systems. The data analytics platform will be designed with the capability to deliver improved insight into the performance of ground site hardware […]
The Space Development Agency is moving forward with December plans to launch an initial batch of satellites for Tranche 0 of its Transport Layer and Tracking Layer programs. SDA plans to deploy four tracking spacecraft from SpaceX and an undisclosed number of transport spacecraft from Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems. A follow-up mission set […]
L3Harris Technologies said its Cross-Tracker Infrared Sounder infrared weather forecasting technology has been launched on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s Joint Polar Satellite System-2 weather satellite. JPSS-2 orbits the Earth 14 times a day to gather weather data. The CrIS instrument, a Fourier transform spectrometer, gathers hyperspectral, infrared data that supports NOAA in providing […]
Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt, special assistant to the vice chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force, attended an annual Air Traffic Control Association event on Nov. 7 to talk about a planned transfer of space traffic management operations to the Office of Space Commerce. At present, a U.S. Space Command squadron oversees safety […]
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has appointed Jimmy Kenyon as the director of the Glenn Research Center. Kenyon will oversee various NASA missions, including the Gateway Power and Propulsion Element, the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket development and other aeronautics research. He will also lead over 3,200 employees and contractors who design, develop and […]
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has awarded Momentus a contract modification to provide in-space transportation services for two 1.5U CubeSats that will be launched in 2023 as part of The Aerospace Corp.’s Low-Latitude Ionosphere/Thermosphere Enhancements in Density mission, which the space agency has funded. Under the contract, Momentus will deliver its Vigoride orbital service vehicle to […]
RocketStar has secured a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract from the U.S. Space Force, allowing for the continued development of electric deep space propulsion technology that uses proton-boron fusion. The company uses its aneutronic fusion technology to create a combined reaction of a boron nucleus with a proton that produces alpha particles. The […]
An independent inquiry into the causes of the Psyche mission’s launch delay in June has pointed to fundamental staffing and communication issues at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in addition to developmental and testing problems with the project itself. According to a report released Friday, investigators found that JPL faced a lack of qualified personnel […]
Space systems provider Rocket Lab has delivered the last solar panels that would be used for NASA’s Gateway lunar space program to Maxar Technologies. The solar panels incorporate Rocket Lab’s Z4J solar cells, components that exhibit a 30 percent minimum average conversion efficiency at beginning-of-life. Z4J can also operate better in high-radiation and high-temperature environments […]
