Pentagon warns hundreds of programs in limbo until Congress passes full-year budget
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 17:45
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U.S. military satellite procurements and contracts for launch services have been put on hold and cannot move forward until Congress passes a full-year defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2022.
Space Force on track to absorb Space Development Agency this fall
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 16:33 Write a comment
The Space Development Agency, created in 2019 as a separate entity under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, will be transferred to the U.S. Space Force in October, the agency’s director confirmed Jan.
China’s megaconstellation project establishes satellite cluster in Chongqing
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 13:55 Write a comment
A group leading China’s national low Earth orbit communications megaconstellation has founded two new firms to help develop the project, but overall plans remain vague.
Machine learning algorithms help scientists explore Mars
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 13:19 Write a comment
NASA's Curiosity rover has been exploring the Red Planet's surface for nearly a decade, with its main mission being to determine whether Mars was once habitable. While the rover's investigations have indeed confirmed that Mars was once a watery world filled with potentially life-sustaining chemistry, there's still much to learn. Curiosity's mountains of data offer an opportunity to use machine learning algorithms to investigate the planet's surface in even more detail.
A new article in Earth and Space Science focuses on the data collected by Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument package. ChemCam combines two instruments: a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer (LIBS) and a remote micro-imager (RMI) for high-resolution imaging.
Multi-orbit constellation startup Mangata Networks raises $33 million
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 12:42 Write a comment
U.S.-based startup Mangata Networks has raised $33 million from an international mix of investors for its multi-orbit connectivity constellation plans.
Pandora mission to study stars and exoplanets continues toward flight
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 12:25 Write a comment
The Pandora mission, co-led by a national laboratory and a NASA flight center, has passed a crucial step on its path to study stars and planets outside our solar system, or exoplanets.
After a successful concept study report and system requirements review, NASA approved the mission to continue toward flight.
Intelsat orders two flexible GEO satellites for post-bankruptcy growth plan
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 09:01 Write a comment
Intelsat has ordered two software-defined satellites from Thales Alenia Space as the operator edges closer to emerging from bankruptcy.
Astroscale U.S. and Orbit Fab sign first on-orbit satellite fuel sale agreement
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 08:43 Write a comment
Orbit Fab, the Gas Stations in Space refueling service provider and Astroscale U.S. Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc. and market leader in securing long-term orbital sustainability, has announced a commercial agreement to refuel Astroscale's Life Extension In-Orbit (LEXI) Servicer in geostationary orbit (GEO); LEXI is the first satellite designed to be refueled.
Under t Mangata Networks announces funding for satellite edge computing network
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 08:43 Write a comment
Mangata Networks has closed a $33 million Series A round led by US-based venture capital firm Playground Global to continue its mission to transform the way the world interacts with information. This closing manifests the truly global nature of the organization with other major investors including Temasek which is headquartered in Singapore, ktsat from South Korea, Scottish Enterprise in the UK, NASA prepares SLS for first crewed Artemis missions
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 08:43 Write a comment
by Tracy McMahan for MSFC News
As teams continue to prepare NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for its debut flight with the launch of Artemis I, NASA and its partners across the country have made great progress building the rocket for Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission. The team is also manufacturing and testing major parts for Artemis missions III, IV and V.
"The Space La Airbus to develop the Power Management and Distribution System for key Lunar Gateway module
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 08:43 Write a comment
Airbus Crisa, an affiliate company of Airbus, has signed a contract for the development of the Power Management and Distribution (PMAD) system for the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) with Northrop Grumman.
Airbus Crisa is a Spanish company founded in 1985 to design and manufacture electronic equipment and software for space applications, and engineering projects for ground stations NASA's InSight enters safe mode during regional Mars dust storm
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 08:43 Write a comment
NASA's InSight lander is stable and sending health data from Mars to Earth after going into safe mode Friday, Jan. 7, following a large, regional dust storm that reduced the sunlight reaching its solar panels. In safe mode, a spacecraft suspends all but its essential functions.
The mission's team reestablished contact with InSight Jan. 10, finding that its power was holding steady and, whi Sol 3350-3352: A Rock Under the Wheel
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 08:43 Write a comment
We are back into our planning routine after the Christmas break. In fact, this was the third plan in the new year, and the third plan that Curiosity executes within the Roraima quadrant my colleague introduced a few days ago. While we are getting used to new sounds of our names, we are marvelling at the landscape in front of us, which is very diverse, both in the rover workspace and in the walls Almost a Million Stars and Counting: Mapping the history of the Milky Way with APOGEE and beyond
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 08:43 Write a comment
On December 6th 2021, scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) released the largest-ever detailed census of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, with the complete release of data from its Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE).
"For the last decade we have been working to map the Milky Way, and measure extremely detailed properties of the stars within it," NASA's new IXPE mission begins science operations
Wednesday, 12 January 2022 08:43 Write a comment
NASA's newest X-ray eyes are open and ready for discovery! Having spent just over a month in space, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is working and already zeroing in on some of the hottest, most energetic objects in the universe.
A joint effort between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, IXPE is the first space observatory dedicated to studying the polarization of X-rays comin