Space News

Ball Aerospace has helped NASA complete the preliminary design review of a space-based astrophysics observatory designed to measure cosmic X-ray polarization. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center collaborated with Ball, the Italian space agency and other industry partners on the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer PDR effort at a facility in Boulder, Colo., the company said Wednesday. IXPE is scheduled for 2021 launch […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne and its partner Teledyne have delivered an electric generator system that would help power NASA’s Mars 2020 rover to an Energy Department facility. The Idaho National Laboratory will fuel, test and evaluate the flight readiness of the the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, Aerojet Rocketdyne said Tuesday. MMRTG is designed to convert plutonium-238 heat into electricity to power the […] More

NASA and United Launch Alliance are preparing to launch a Northrop Grumman-built spacecraft in mid-September on a mission to record the changing measurements of Earth’s glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice. The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 is scheduled to lift off Sept. 15 at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the final launch of ULA’s Delta […] More

Seattle-based aerospace company Spaceflight aims to send 71 satellites into sun-synchronous low earth orbit aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket as part of a rideshare mission later this year. The mission, dubbed SSO-A: SmallSat Express, will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base and carry a payload of 15 microsatellites and 56 CubeSats developed by multiple domestic and international […] More

A state agency has proposed to establish a new launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to support the launch of Boeing’s Phantom Express unmanned vehicle, Florida Today reported Sunday. The  Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s teamed up with Boeing in May 2017 under the Experimental Spaceplane 1 program to help design, build and test a […] More

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has completed the final clean room procedures needed before the transfer of a NASA solar probe to the launchpad, from where it will embark on a voyage to the study the sun. APL on July 11 mated the Parker Solar Probe to the Northrop Grumman-built Star 48BV rocket motor that would […] More

Iridium Communications‘ recently launched batch of 10 NEXT satellites began pre-operational testing and validation process with systems functioning nominally. SpaceX launched the satellites Wednesday, bringing the NEXT constellation to 65 satellites, Iridium said Monday. The satellite communications firm aims to launch an eighth batch later this year to complete program. The upcoming set would bring the […] More

Maxar Technologies‘ SSL subsidiary and Thales Alenia Space have forged an alliance with the goal to build a fleet of low-Earth orbit satellites and an end-to-end system for Telesat. The partnership’s offering will include designing satellites, gateways, user terminals, operations centers and ground network, Maxar said Monday. Telesat aims to build a satellite constellation to deliver communications services intended […] More

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on Monday after it brought approximately 7,400 pounds of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station and performed secondary space missions. The re-entry of the space vehicle, dubbed S.S. J.R. Thompson, marked the conclusion of the company’s ninth cargo delivery mission to the orbiting laboratory under the Commercial Resupply […] More

A NASA satellite designed to explore outer space for potentially life-supporting exoplanets entered service on July 25 and is expected to transmit science data back to Earth in August. The space agency said Saturday the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will work to periodically send data every 13.5 days after the TESS Science Team receives the […] More