A Northrop Grumman-made Cygnus spacecraft with 8,000 pounds of supplies and scientific investigations for NASA was launched for a resupply mission to the International Space Station. Cygnus, now on its way to ISS, carries projects on microgravity, astronaut sleep quality and technology for water supply, NASA said Sunday.
Read More »Northrop CEO Kathy Warden Receives Sixth Wash100 Award for Driving Growth Opportunities
Kathy Warden, CEO of Northrop Grumman, has been presented with a 2021 Wash100 Award for leading the company's efforts to create value through portfolio management, as well as her continued focus on growth through executive hires and contract pursuits in the federal sector. This marks Warden's sixth Wash100 Award.
Read More »University of Alabama at Birmingham Wins NASA’s Cold Stowage II Contract
The University of Alabama at Birmingham has been awarded the Cold Stowage II contract from NASA. Under the potential $48.3 million, single award, cost-no-fee contract, the university will deliver a suite of freezers that will maintain a controlled temperature environment for science samples aboard the International Space Station (ISS), as well as to and from low-Earth orbit.
Read More »NASA Seeks Commercial Providers to Launch Cubesat for Planetary Research Demo Mission
NASA has released a sources sought notice calling on launch providers that can send a cube satellite to highly elliptical orbit as part of a demonstration mission on phenomena occurring in the Earth's outer radiation belt.
Read More »Maxar Integrates Fuel Tank Into NASA’s On-Orbit Servicing Spacecraft
Maxar Technologies has completed installing the fuel tank into the On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing-1 spacecraft. The company is developing for NASA the OSAM-1 spacecraft, which is based on the 1300-class spacecraft platform and designed to refuel satellites in low-Earth orbit, Maxar said Thursday.
Read More »Jim Bridenstine: Boeing, SpaceX Vehicles Could Be Ready for Crewed Flights in Early 2020
Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator and a 2019 Wash100 winner, said he thinks spacecraft from Boeing and SpaceX could be ready to fly astronauts as soon as the first quarter of 2020, CNBC reported Sunday.
Read More »Maxar, NASA Finish Preliminary Review of Asteroid Exploration Spacecraft Design
Maxar Technologies has completed a preliminary design review of spacecraft being developed to help NASA explore the metallic 16 Psyche asteroid for the first time and gain insight into how planet Earth formed.
Read More »Johns Hopkins APL Launches Two CubeSats From International Space Station
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has deployed two CubeSats from the International Space Station under a flight demonstration and test initiative. The CubeSats were launched from the orbital laboratory via a NanoRacks CubeSat platform as part of the CubeSat Assessment and Test mission, APL said Wednesday.
Read More »Northrop Names Cygnus Resupply Spacecraft After Former Navy Officer John Young
Northrop Grumman has announced that its automated cargo spacecraft slated to be deployed to the International Space Station will be named after former U.S. Navy officer and NASA astronaut John Young. The Cygnus spacecraft will be launched aboard Northrop's Antares rocket on Nov. 15 from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport …
Read More »Lockheed Partners With NanoRacks to Seek Commercial Payload Concepts for Orion Capsule
Lockheed Martin has teamed up with NanoRacks to seek concepts of commercial payloads that could fly on upcoming missions of NASA's Orion spacecraft. Lockheed said Friday the market assessment marks the initial step toward its vision to deliver commercial opportunities to deep space. Mike Hawes, Orion program manager and vice …
Read More »Lockheed Considers Making Room for Experiments Aboard Orion Capsule; Rob Chambers Quoted
Lockheed Martin's space business has begun to consider the possibility of providing companies and researchers a chance to fly experiments aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft, the Denver Business Journal reported Thursday. Orion is scheduled to launch in 2020 atop the Space Launch System for an unmanned flight test as part of …
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 »Northrop's Cygnus Raises Space Station's Orbit Through Reboost Test
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft docked at the International Space Station tested on Tuesday its reboost capability through a 50-second engine firing activity, Spaceflight Now reported Wednesday. Ground controllers at Northrop's Dulles, Va.-based mission operations facility transmitted commands to the spacecraft to fire its IHI Aerospace-supplied BT-4 main engine, which generated …
Read More »SpaceX's Crew Dragon Wraps Up Thermal Vacuum Tests at NASA's Plum Brook Station
Janet Kavandi, director of NASA's Glenn Research Center, has said a SpaceX-built spacecraft has left the agency's Ohio-based Plum Brook Station for Florida following the completion of a series of acoustics and thermal vacuum tests, SpaceNews reported Monday. Kavandi issued the statement Monday at the American Institute of Aeronautics and …
Read More »Mike Hawes: Lockheed Eyes Cost Reduction on Orion Spacecraft Through Reuse
Lockheed Martin plans to reduce the production cost of the Orion crew capsule for future missions through reuse of the vehicle structure and other components of the spacecraft, SpaceNews reported Friday. “We have the internal component reuse that will start even between [Exploration Mission] 1 and 2, but then when …
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