Blue Origin, a space company owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, used a capsule with updated crew systems during the company's 14th mission with the New Shepard rocket. The updated capsule featured new push-to-talk communications systems, noise reduction tools, cushioned wall linings, environmental systems and a crew alert system, Blue Origin said Thursday.
Read More »Lockheed’s Orion Spacecraft Concludes Assembly, Testing for NASA’s Artemis Mission to Lunar Orbit
Lockheed Martin has sent the Orion capsule to NASA’s exploration ground systems team for final preparations ahead of the unmanned Artemis I mission to lunar orbit that will launch later this year. The spacecraft concluded assembly operations and testing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Read More »Planet, NASA Extend Satellite Imagery Partnership
Planet has secured a deal with NASA to continue the provision of satellite imagery technologies to the agency until September as part of the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program.
Read More »NASA Orders Six More Boeing-Made Solar Arrays for ISS
Boeing will provide six more solar arrays for the International Space Station under a sustainment contract modification with NASA. The company said Monday it will deliver the arrays to boost ISS's power supply with over 120 kilowatts of solar electricity that will be used to power its systems and equipment and support public and private experiments and research in the station.
Read More »Lockheed Vet Robert Smith Named BWXT Government Operations President
Robert Smith, former vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's radar and sensor systems unit, has joined BWX Technologies as president of government operations. BWXT said Monday Smith will oversee the company's nuclear business lines in the U.S. covering work for government customers such as the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration and NASA.
Read More »Dynetics-Led Team Submits ‘Option A’ Human Lunar Lander Proposal to NASA
An industry team led by Leidos’ Dynetics business has submitted its proposal for a human landing system that will support NASA’s Artemis mission to the moon slated for 2024.
Read More »Virgin Orbit Resets Date for Second LauncherOne Rocket Flight
Virgin's orbit business has moved the date of its LauncherOne rocket's second orbital launch to Jan. 10 due to pandemic-related limitations, Space News reported Tuesday. The company originally planned to conduct the liftoff in mid-December 2020 but experienced personnel shortage because of precautionary measures for COVID-19 contact tracing.
Read More »Aerojet Rocketdyne Engines to Undergo NASA Space Launch System Tests
NASA is scheduled to conduct a hot fire test for four engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne for the Space Launch System Jan. 17 as part of a series of “Green Run” trials for the vehicle's core stage.
Read More »Northrop’s Cygnus to Kick Off ‘SharkSat’ Tech Demo Upon Departure From ISS
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station and host a two-week demonstration of the SharkSat payload once it leaves the ISS. SharkSat is intended to test and demonstrate multiprocessor systems, digital receivers, integrated circuits and other electronic components to facilitate the development of a Ka-band software defined radio that could have potential applications in 5G, space-to-ground and space-to-space communications.
Read More »NASA Updates Assembly Status of Lockheed’s X-59 ‘Quiet’ Supersonic Jet
NASA has unveiled recent updates to its Lockheed Martin-designed X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology jet and said that construction of the Mach 1.4-speed aircraft is halfway complete, Aviation International News reported Monday.
Read More »SpaceX Dragon Resupply Spacecraft to Depart From ISS
An updated SpaceX-built spacecraft is slated to leave the International Space Station Jan. 11 following the delivery of over 6.4K pounds of research equipment, hardware and crew supplies to the orbital outpost.
Read More »Northrop Resupply Spacecraft to Depart ISS Next Week, Conduct Secondary Orbital Mission
NASA expects Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft to leave the International Space Station Jan. 6 following the delivery of almost 8K pounds of crew supplies, commercial technology and scientific experiments.
Read More »Air Force Research Satellite Conducts VLF Transmission in Space
The Demonstration and Science Experiments satellite of the Air Force Research Laboratory performed the first space-to-space very low frequency transmission within three months of its launch during a coordinated experiment with the Japanese Space Agency’s Arase spacecraft. The DSX satellite launched in June 2019 to study the interactions of space plasma, radiation belts and radio waves in near-Earth space.
Read More »Northrop Helps Relocate NASA Chandra Observatory Control Hub
Northrop Grumman has worked with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the Smithsonian Institution to transfer the operations control center of the orbiting Chandra space telescope to a facility in Burlington, Massachusetts, from its previous location near Harvard University's campus in Cambridge.
Read More »Axiom Space to Build HQ at Houston Spaceport
Axiom Space will construct a 14-acre headquarters campus at Houston Spaceport where the company plans to build a habitable space station module for NASA and train private astronauts for missions.
Read More »