NASA is pursuing a sustainable lunar lander that will be used for future regular moon landings. According to a NASA solicitation, selected contractors under the Human Landing System Sustaining Lunar Development program will perform one uncrewed and one crewed landing demo each. The space agency will certify lander systems first before allowing them to transport […]
The Space Systems Command has announced the creation of a new program office that will enable the SSC, the Space Development Agency and the Missile Defense Agency to coordinate their procurement efforts for missile-tracking satellites. The office was established following a Government Accountability Office report in June that criticized the lack of coordination between MDA, […]
NASA’s Perseverance rover is in the process of collecting rock samples at the delta of an ancient river on Mars on the western side of a 45-kilometer wide formation called Jezero Crater, which may have once been a lake. The formation was selected by mission leaders as the destination for the vehicle because of the […]
NASA is inviting space companies to submit proposals to fly crews on the third and fourth private astronaut missions to the International Space Station. The third mission is expected to lift off in late 2023 while the other is set for launch in the second half of 2024. Allowing private entities to visit the ISS […]
Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, proposed new regulation reducing the 25-year period for disposing of abandoned satellites to five years, saying it would promote accountability and reduce collision risks in space. The regulation, titled “Mitigating Orbital Debris by Shortening Time for Satellite Disposal,” would mandate satellites at low Earth orbit within five years […]
NASA has extended an existing partnership with Google to help local governments monitor and predict air quality. Under the agreement, the two organizations will develop machine learning-based algorithms that will link data between NASA and Google Earth Engine. The technology company has already incorporated data sets from NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System Composition Forecasts and […]
NASA has announced that Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of its Science Mission Directorate, will conclude his six-year tenure with the agency at the end of 2022. The agency said it has begun coordinating a nationwide competition for a successor. Zurbuchen is responsible for almost 100 science missions as the head of the SMD and has helped select […]
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Coherent Corp. a contract to support the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node program. Under the contract, the company will design and fabricate coherent optical transceivers for a reconfigurable modem compatible with existing single-wavelength communication protocols. The goal is to allow the modem to support multiple optical waveforms and […]
NASA will award funding to space sustainability research proposals from three university-based teams. The space agency believes the studies can help address orbital debris threats to operational spacecraft, national security and the U.S. science and technology enterprise. Selected proposals include using source-sink evolutionary environmental models and an integrated assessment model for constellations and space junk. […]
UltiSat has won a multiyear contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Joint Polar Satellite Systems program. The deal calls for communication services in support of program partners at the National Science Foundation’s Ross Island Earth Station at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Users will be provided access to the Global Interconnect Network for terrestrial connectivity […]
