NASA has ordered three additional Orion exploration spacecraft from Lockheed Martin for Artemis missions aiming to bring astronauts to the moon. The new award is the second order under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity Orion Production and Operations Contract. Lockheed secured the first OPOC order in 2019 for three spacecraft, which will serve Artemis missions III to V. […]
Derek Tournear, the director of the Space Development Agency, has unveiled the companies selected to provide optical communications terminals for Tranche 0 of the missile-warning and missile-tracking satellite constellation called National Defense Space Architecture. During the MilSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, on Oct. 13, Tournear displayed a slide showing that Mynaric, SA Photonics, Skyloom […]
NASA scientists have found that a global 0.5 percent cap in fuel sulfur content imposed in 2020 by the International Maritime Organization reduced air pollution caused by shipping. The study entailed a computer-aided climatology of worldwide ship tracks, which are cloud trails that result from ship exhaust aerosols coming into contact with water vapor. Ship […]
NASA has completed a flight readiness review and is set to resume routine spacewalks outside the International Space Station. The completion of the review marks the conclusion of an investigation into a spacesuit issue that was discovered in March. With the investigation completed, astronauts will be able to continue work on installing the ISS Roll […]
The four astronauts that comprise SpaceX Crew-4 returned to Earth on Friday, concluding the fourth mission to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Americans Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins and Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti, a representative of the European Space Agency, splashed down in the waters near Jacksonville, Florida, aboard a Dragon […]
NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security – Regolith Explorer spacecraft is expected to return to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, carrying a sample from asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sept. 8, 2016, and reached the space rock in 2018. The space agency views asteroids as time capsules. […]
Amazon will install Department of Defense-compliant laser communications terminals on its internet satellites to allow the military to receive data directly from remote sensing satellites. Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, said during the MilSat Symposium in California that the effort would turn some Kuiper satellites into “translators” that will support secure and […]
NASA has awarded Kongsberg Satellite Services USA and SpaceLink with contracts valued at $162,000 and $190,000, respectively, to study direct-to-Earth and lunar space relay communications and navigation capabilities existing in the market for the Artemis moon missions. The companies will determine commercial offerings that would improve the transmission of critical data between spacecraft and ground […]
The first mineral maps have arrived from NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation mission. They plot the surface composition of certain parts of northwest Nevada and southern Libya as part of a broader drive to study climate change. According to NASA, fine mineral particles in those areas are naturally lifted into the atmosphere, potentially […]
NASA has awarded Planet Federal a contract extension to provide critical data to over 300,000 scientists within the space agency. Under the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program, Planet Federal will continue providing satellite-based data to support research efforts in the areas of climate change, ecosystems, disaster response and other critical missions. Information gathered by Planet’s […]
