Space News

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has confirmed a spacecraft it built for NASA has reached its target object in the Kuiper Belt, performing the farthest space exploration in history. The New Horizons probe encountered Ultima Thule before New Year and already sent flyby data to an operations center on Earth, APL said Tuesday. APL received the images 10 hours […] More

United Launch Alliance plans to launch no earlier than Sunday, Jan. 6, a National Reconnaissance Office payload aboard its Delta IV Heavy rocket, Spaceflight Now reported Friday. The report said engineers have begun to address a small hydrogen leak in the engine section discovered during the Dec. 19 launch attempt. The NROL-71 was originally scheduled to lift […] More

Some industry executives have said that NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program has provided companies an opportunity to advance their technology platforms and form partnerships with additional firms, SpaceNews reported Thursday. “Going back to the moon with commercial technology opens the floodgates,” said Grant Anderson, president, CEO and co-founder of Paragon Space Development, which teams […] More

Deloitte and Dcode have announced the conclusion of a seven-week program to help six space industry startups market their technology platforms to U.S. government agencies. More than 100 government and industry leaders took part in the Space 2.0 Accelerator program in Washington, D.C., to help connect the U.S. Air Force, NASA and other agencies to […] More

SSL demonstrated its solar electric propulsion system on two communications satellites that were launched into geostationary orbit this year. The Maxar Technologies subsidiary said Wednesday SPT-140 is an updated version of the SPT-100 electric thruster that has supported 34 missions and logged more than 100K firing hours. SPT-140 is designed to use the Power Processing Unit 140 and multiple gimbaled Hall effect thrusters […] More

NASA has announced that a reusable, multi-mission orbital vehicle by Sierra Nevada Corp. is now ready for full-scale manufacturing and testing after passing an integration review validating its design performance. The company said Tuesday it has already started integrating critical parts of the Dream Chaser spacecraft, including major structural components, thermal protection system tiles and […] More

Blue Origin‘s New Shepard rocket is scheduled to launch Tuesday and carry nine NASA-backed research and technology payloads into space as part of the agency’s Flight Opportunities program. The NS-10 mission will mark the space vehicle’s 10th launch and the second time the company will fly a Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory experiment, Blue Origin said […] More

Rocket Lab launched 10 cubesats into space on Sunday morning as part of its Venture Class Launch Services agreement with NASA. The company said Sunday its Electron rocket lifted off with the small research satellites at 1:33 a.m. Eastern time in Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. Three NASA centers, one middle school and seven universities built the cubesats through the Educational […] More

United Launch Alliance rescheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 18, the launch of a National Reconnaissance Office payload aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket. The NROL-71 mission will still lift off from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as originally planned, the company said Thursday. ULA initially scheduled the launch for Dec. 7 but […] More

Virgin Galactic has completed a flight test of a company-built manned space vehicle carrying four NASA technology experiments to suborbital space. The agency said Thursday SpaceShipTwo‘s payloads were designed to examine the behavior of dust particles on planetary surfaces, the effects of microgravity on life support systems and plant growth, and vibration during launch, re-entry […] More

Northrop Grumman has evaluated a motor for the launch abort system of NASA‘s Orion spacecraft through a ground-firing test held at its Promontory, Utah-based facility. The abort motor fired upward for five seconds with flames going approximately 100 feet high and generated about 350K pounds of thrust in half a quarter of a second during the Qualification […] More

NASA aims to partner with U.S.-based companies to design and develop new reusable landing platforms designed to bring astronauts back to the lunar surface. The agency said Friday it plans to begin testing of new landers on the moon in 2024 through multiphase partnerships in support of its goal to launch a crewed mission in 2028. […] More