SpaceX has sent to space a satellite designed to monitor sea levels across the globe under a U.S.-U.K. partnership. The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a mission to collect sea level data, support ship navigation and inform weather forecasts, NASA said Sunday.
Read More »Leonardo to Design Martian Sample Robotic Arm for Joint NASA-ESA Mission
Leonardo has begun designing a robotic technology for the European Space Agency's platform to collect samples gathered by NASA's Perseverance rover from the surface of Mars.
Read More »SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule Lifts Off for ISS Cargo Resupply Mission
SpaceX has launched its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station along with NASA research payloads and a new observation facility to support future space exploration efforts beyond low-Earth orbit.
Read More »ULA Launches Rocket for NASA-ESA Solar Mission
United Launch Alliance has launched a new multinational space mission that aims to support observations and studies of the Sun.
Read More »Lockheed’s Rick Ambrose on Space Market, Manned Lunar Mission
Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin’s space business and a four-time Wash100 award recipient, told Yahoo Finance in a video posted Tuesday about the manned mission to the moon by 2024.
Read More »Lockheed, NASA, Airbus, ESA to Put Orion Spacecraft Through Simulated Tests
The Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at an Ohio-based NASA remote testing facility Tuesday to undergo a series of space environment simulation tests. Lockheed, Airbus and the U.S. and European space agencies will collaborate on the two-phase testing effort.
Read More »Airbus Finishes Sentinel-6A Ocean Satellite Construction
Airbus has built the first of two planned ocean satellites for an international mission aimed at monitoring changes in sea level to support coastal protection efforts.
Read More »Maxar’s MDA Business to Design Rover Subsystems for NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return Campaign
Airbus has awarded Maxar Technologies‘ MDA business a contract to design subsystems for a rover NASA and the European Space Agency plan to use in a joint mission to collect and return samples from Mars to Earth. MDA will aim to develop mobility and sample acquisition systems for potential integration into a “Sample …
Read More »Report: First Orion Service Module Scheduled for Delivery to US in Late October
Representatives from NASA, the European Space Agency and industry have announced that the first service module for the Orion spacecraft will be delivered to the U.S. in late October, Space News reported Wednesday. Mike Hawes, vice president and Orion program manager at Lockheed Martin, said during the 69th International Astronautical …
Read More »NASA Tests Communications Capability of Webb Observatory’s Spacecraft, Telescope Components
NASA has worked with Northrop Grumman and Ball Aerospace to assess the capability of the James Webb Space Telescope’s two main components to communicate with each other. Engineers and technicians used ground wires to temporarily connect the spacecraft to the telescope as part of the optional “risk reduction” test, NASA …
Read More »General Atomics Updates Remotely Piloted Aircraft Receivers for European Satellite Constellation Navigation
A General Atomics business has added a provision to the navigation receiver of a baseline remotely piloted aircraft to support connections with the European Union and the European Space Agency’s Galileo satellite constellation. The baseline MQ-9B initially used a triplex navigation platform compatible with the U.S. global positioning system and …
Read More »European Space Agency Taps Airbus for Mars Sample Return Mission
The European Space Agency has tapped Airbus to design a rover and a spacecraft that will be launched in 2026 to retrieve samples of Martian soil and bring them back to Earth for study. The Toulouse, France-based company said Thursday that the Mars Sample Return mission will involve sending the Mars Sample Fetch …
Read More »Airbus Establishes 10,000 Laser Connections in Earth Observation Satellite Network
Airbus has connected 10,000 lasers in a satellite network made to facilitate large amounts of observation data. The SpaceDataHighway system collects data from low-orbit satellites and transmits at a speed of 1.8 gigabits per second with a total relay of 40 terabytes daily, the company said Friday. The system’s Munich-based mission operation …
Read More »Report: NASA Eyes Contract Award for Lunar ‘Gateway’ Platform Components in 2019
NASA plans to award the first contract for the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway program in early 2019, Bloomberg reported Friday. The Gateway program is designed to serve as the space agency’s “staging” platform for studies of the deep space environment and the moon as well as a future station for …
Read More »NASA Moves Webb Telescope Launch to May 2020
NASA has pushed back from 2019 to May 2020 the launch of its James Webb Space Telescope to give the program’s engineers more time to test and integrate the telescope and spacecraft components. “All the observatory’s flight hardware is now complete, however, the issues brought to light with the spacecraft element …
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