The first private astronaut to fly to the International Space Station plans to return to space on a trip around the moon on SpaceX’s Starship with his wife and up to 10 other people.

SpaceNews spoke with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s new director to learn more about the JPL’s future vision.

The post Finding balance within the space ecosystem: Q&A with JPL Director Laurie Leshin appeared first on SpaceNews.

Following its unanimous approval by ESA Council on 17 March, the Association Agreement between ESA and the Slovak Republic was signed on 14 June at ESA ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

The first two satellites of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband constellation — Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2 — will launch on the maiden flight of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket

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The White House on Oct. 12 released a long-delayed national security strategy that lays out challenges the United States faces in a tripolar world.

The post On space matters, Biden’s national security strategy adopts a less combative tone appeared first on SpaceNews.

OneWeb is holding a competition for individuals, companies and academic organizations to propose applications for the London-based company’s low-Earth orbit satellite constellation.

The post OneWeb unveils Innovation Challenge competition appeared first on SpaceNews.

A new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals a remarkable cosmic sight: at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a pair of stars. Located just over 5000 light-years from Earth, the duo is collectively known as Wolf-Rayet 140. Each ring was created when the two stars came close together and their stellar winds (streams of gas they blow into space) met, compressing the gas and forming dust. The stars’ orbits bring them together about once every eight years; like the rings of a tree’s trunk, the dust loops mark the passage of time.

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A Japanese Epsilon small launch vehicle failed to reach orbit during an Oct. 11 launch, resulting in the loss of all eight smallsats on board. 

The post Japan’s Epsilon fails after liftoff, destroying smallsat payload appeared first on SpaceNews.

The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission arrives at its next close approach to the Sun on 12 October 2022 at 19:12 UTC (21:12 CEST). This sequence of images shows the progress of the ESA/NASA spacecraft as it heads inwards on its voyage of discovery. The sequence begins on 20 September and finishes on 10 October.

The sequence was taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) using the Full Sun Imager (FSI) telescope, and shows the Sun at a wavelength of 17 nanometers. This wavelength is emitted by gas in the Sun’s atmosphere with a temperature of around one million

At Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, a test model of the Ariane 6’s central core has been assembled for the first time. Ariane 6 is the first Ariane rocket to be assembled horizontally, which is simpler and less costly than more traditional vertical assembly. One of the P120C boosters can be seen from different angles during installation, before the rocket’s central core is moved to its launchpad and placed upright in its mobile gantry. With the central core and boosters in place, combined tests validate compatibility between all components of the complete launch system.

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