WASHINGTON — A small helicopter that hitched a ride on NASA’s Perseverance rover will attempt its first flight on Mars in early April, demonstrating technology that could be used on future missions.

At a March 23 briefing, NASA officials discussed plans to perform the first flights of Ingenuity, a 1.8-kilogram helicopter currently attached to the underside of Perseverance.

WASHINGTON — NASA is shifting direction in its effort to support development of commercial space stations in low Earth orbit, with plans to issue a series of awards for initial studies before later purchasing services.

At a March 23 industry briefing, agency officials outlined what it calls the Commercial LEO Development (CLD) program, which will start with a set of two to four funded Space Act Agreements with companies to help with the initial design of their proposed orbital facilities.

TAMPA, Fla. — Global Eagle Entertainment, a provider of media services and satellite Wi-Fi to aircraft, boats and remote locations, has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Around half a dozen of the satellite communication provider’s lenders took control of the company March 23, shedding about $488 million of its debt in the process.

SEOUL, South Korea — The March 22 launch of South Korea’s CAS500-1 remote sensing satellite has marked the beginning of the country’s journey toward the domestic satellite industry being driven by the private sector.

TAMPA, Fla. — Lithuanian nanosatellite maker NanoAvionics is moving into the heavier microsatellite market as it looks to grow fivefold by 2025.

Vytenis Buzas, CEO of NanoAvionics, claims its 50-kilogram-plus ‘MP42’ product will be the microsat industry’s first commercially available modular bus.