NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has released a request for proposals in search of potential industry partners to design, develop and build robotic spacecraft to capture a multi-ton asteroid boulder. NASA said in Sept. 21  it plans to award an ARM spacecraft build-and-delivery contract in 2017 as part of the space agency’s Asteroid Redirect Mission and will accept responses to […] More

SpaceX has launched a Space Systems Loral-built communications satellite for Japanese company SKY Perfect JSAT into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The U.S. Air Force‘s 45th Space Wing supported the JCSAT-16 payload launch Sunday from the Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral AF Station in Florida, the service branch said Monday. JCSAT-16 is designed to serve as a […] More

NASA has partnered with Deployable Space Systems and Space Systems Loral to develop solar cell structures designed to power government space vehicles or commercial communications satellites. Roll Out Solar Array will work to convert the sun’s rays into energy that could drive ion thrusters of solar electric propulsion spacecraft for NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission and other deep-space exploration programs, the agency said […] More

Space Systems/Loral will work with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to conduct design studies on a spacecraft for potential use in JPL’s Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission. The ARRM spacecraft will be built to land on an asteroid, extract a boulder, and redirect it into a lunar orbit in preparation for astronauts to visit in the 2020s, the company said Thursday. NASA intends to use the […] More

NASA has formed public-private partnerships with 19 companies for 22 research projects under two solicitations that seek to advance the development of new space platforms intended for human and robotic exploration missions. “These awards enable us to continue to foster partnerships with the commercial space sector that not only leverage capabilities to meet NASA’s strategic […] More

Maxar Technologies’ Space Systems Loral business has begun developing standards to streamline operations between non-terrestrial networks, ground terminals and wireless networks via millimeter wave frequencies in preparation for 5G impelmentation.

More

Maxar Technologies announced on Friday that Carolyn Pittman, a former executive of Northrop Grumman and Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding division, has been appointed senior vice president and chief accounting officer for Maxar. Her appointment is effective Aug. 7.

More

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has tapped Praxis to oversee mission planning for the Robotic Servicing for Geosynchronous Satellites program following Maxar Technologies’ departure from the effort in January, Space News reported Sunday.

More

NASA will consider the procurement of more than one power and propulsion module for a lunar outpost that will support future deep space missions, Space News reported Friday. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the agency might award more than one contact for the development and in-space testing of the Power and […] More

NASA has awarded five companies $2.4 million in combined funds to study power and propulsion technologies that can support the development of a solar electric propulsion platform for deep space missions. The studies will help NASA identify requirements and reduce risk for a 50 kilowatt-class SEP system that will support human missions into deep space, the agency said Thursday. […] More

Rob Zitz, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Space Systems Loral‘s government systems business, has said Maxar Technologies will work to grow its business with the U.S. government through “persistent” intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance offerings, Via Satellite reported Wednesday. SSL’s parent company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates acquired DigitalGlobe earlier this month to create Maxar, […] More

DigitalGlobe has chosen Raytheon as the payload provider for a constellation of next-generation satellites designed to capture Earth imagery. Raytheon said Tuesday it will supply combined electronics, detectors and telescopes to Palo Alto, California-based satellite manufacturer Space Systems Loral, which serves as the space vehicle integrator of DigitalGlobe’s future WorldView Legion constellation. WorldView Legion’s payload will work […] More