Washington DC (UPI) Apr 27, 2021
The Federal Communications Commission approved Tuesday SpaceX's satellite modification plan despite objections from competitors, who complained it would disrupt networks. SpaceX made the proposal a year ago, asking to modify its plan for Starlink satellites designed to deliver high-speed Internet to consumers across the globe. The Starlink license modification plan was to change

Denver CA (SPX) Apr 28, 2021
York Space Systems has begun producing its new LX-CLASS spacecraft, a larger and more powerful platform scheduled for delivery in 2022 for a commercial constellation customer. The LX-CLASS leverages over 90 percent reuse of York's flight proven S-CLASS hardware and software design currently in use across ISR, global communications, remote proximity operations, commercial earth observation, and w

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Apr 28, 2021
Astronauts on the International Space Station recently enjoyed a fresh supply of leafy greens, thanks in large part to the efforts of Expedition 64 crew member Michael Hopkins. NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission commander took the lead on conducting four Vegetable Production System (Veggie) experiments, with the last two wrapping up after an April 13 harvest. VEG-03K and VEG-03L tested a new space cro

Paris, France (SPX) Apr 28, 2021
On Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 10:50 pm local time (01:50 UTC on Thursday, April 29), Arianespace's first Vega mission of the year will lift off from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, with the optical observation satellite Pleiades Neo 3. The first of four satellites in an advanced Earth observation constellation, Pleiades Neo 3 was wholly funded and manufactured by

Dublin, Ireland (SPX) Apr 28, 2021
An international collaboration of astronomers led by a researcher from the Astrobiology Center and Queen's University Belfast, and including researchers from Trinity College Dublin, has detected a new chemical signature in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet (a planet that orbits a star other than our Sun). The hydroxyl radical (OH) was found on the dayside of the exoplanet WASP-33b. Th

Newport News VA (SPX) Apr 28, 2021
Nuclear physicists have made a new, highly accurate measurement of the thickness of the neutron "skin" that encompasses the lead nucleus in experiments conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and just published in Physical Review Letters. The result, which revealed a neutron skin thickness of .28 millionths of a nanometer, has important implica

WASHINGTON — Dynetics has joined Blue Origin in filing a protest of NASA’s selection of SpaceX for a single Human Landing System award, a move that could force the agency to suspend work on the program.

VALLETTA, Malta — Rocket Factory Augsburg has added two more customers to its launch manifest a week after rival German startup Isar Aerospace secured its first. 

Of the three German startups vying for ESA funding as they race to launch competing smallsat launchers next year, only HyImpulse Technologies has yet to announce a customer for its rocket.

TAMPA, Fla. — French satellite operator Eutelsat is paying $550 million to buy part of OneWeb, the startup deploying a broadband network in low Earth orbit.

The company is buying a 24% stake to give it similar governance rights to the British government and Indian telecom company Bharti Global, which bought OneWeb out of bankruptcy last year.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission approved a modification of SpaceX’s license for its Starlink constellation, allowing the company to operate more than 2,800 additional satellites in lower orbits.

In an order and authorization published April 27, the FCC said it will allow SpaceX to move 2,814 satellites from orbits in the range of 1,100 to 1,300 kilometers to 540 to 570 kilometers.