Long Beach CA (SPX) May 10, 2023
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has signed a deal to launch NASA's Starling mission, a multi-CubeSat mission to test and demonstrate autonomous swarm technologies, as well as automated space traffic management for groups of spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. The four Starling small satellites have been manifested on an Electron commercial rideshare mission scheduled for lift-off from Rocke

Wenchang, China (XNA) May 10, 2023
China's cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou 6, is ready for launch, according to the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, under the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, in China's southern island province of Hainan. The launch of Tianzhou 6 will be the first spaceflight since China's space station entered into the application and development stage. The site has completed all preparations and a final

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 10, 2023
Earth planning date: Monday, May 8, 2023. A lot of preparation goes into assessing a potential drill site on Mars, and the "Ubajara" target got the usual treatment. Over the past several sols, Curiosity has diligently characterized the potential "Ubajara" drill site with activities such as MAHLI and APXS, brushing it with the dust removal tool, and completing a "preload" test. The preload

San Antonio TX (SPX) May 10, 2023
NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute for a Phase A study to develop SwRI's Space Weather Solar Coronagraph (SwSCOR) on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA's Space Weather Next Program is charged with providing critical data for its space weather prediction center. SwRI is one of five organizations developing a definition-phase study to produce the

Washington DC (SPX) May 10, 2023
For more than 60 years, NASA has pushed the boundaries of human exploration for the benefit of all, and now the agency's influence and experience are fueling U.S. commercial industry's growth in human spaceflight in low Earth orbit. In the not-too-distant past, one had to be sponsored by a government to fly to space. Now, fully private crews strap into commercially owned and operated human

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 09, 2023
A versatile robot that would autonomously map, traverse, and explore previously inaccessible destinations is being put to the test at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. How do you create a robot that can go places no one has ever seen before - on its own, without real-time human input? A team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that's creating a snake-like robot for traversing extreme terra

Paris, France (SPX) May 10, 2023
Airbus' latest next generation geostationary Eurostar Neo satellite Arabsat BADR-8 has been shipped to Cape Canaveral, ready for launch. The satellite will provide connectivity over Europe, Middle East, Africa, and central Asia and also features a world first Airbus' innovative space demonstrator TELEO to provide space to ground optical communicationsc at gigabit speeds. Airbus' relationsh

Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) May 09, 2023
In response to growing space threats, the Space System Command's (SSC) Space Development Corps Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications (SATCOM) program, ESS, is aggressively leveraging Middle Tier Acquisition authorities and competition to rapidly identify, prototype, and field an innovative next-generation strategic SATCOM system. From Sept. - Nov. 2020, the Space Systems Command award

Austin TX (SPX) May 09, 2023
CesiumAstro reports that the company was selected by Raytheon Technologies to provide its Vireo active electronically scanned array (AESA) RF communications payload for integration into seven space vehicles supporting Space Development Agency's (SDA's) Tranche 1 Tracking Layer. CesiumAstro's Vireo payload will be the first Ka-band, multi-beam communications system operating in SDA's Prolif

As other companies suffer technical or financial setbacks, Rocket Lab says it believes it is the leader in the small launch market with little competition.