Team Continues to Troubleshoot Propulsion for NASA's Lunar Flashlight
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 09, 2023
NASA's Lunar Flashlight operations team continues to work on remedying the CubeSat's underperforming propulsion system. They developed a method to get one of the CubeSat's four thrusters to deliver more thrust; however, the small spacecraft will need additional, more consistent thrust in the next few days to reach its revised target orbit.
Devised by team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion L

Momentus achieves first orbit raise with pioneering propulsion system
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
San Jose CA (SPX) May 09, 2023
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) has successfully achieved the first orbital raise of its Vigoride-5 spacecraft using its pioneering Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET) that uses distilled water as propellant.
The successful maneuvers raised the altitude of the Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle (OSV) by more than 3 kilometers, taking into account the atmospheric drag that the spacecraft must ove

China's reusable experimental spacecraft successfully lands
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Jiuquan, China (SPX) May 09, 2023
A reusable experimental spacecraft on Monday successfully returned to its scheduled landing site at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, marking an important milestone in the nation's quest for reusable space technology.
The spacecraft, which has not yet been officially named, completed a 276-day in-orbit operation before its successful landing. This achievement indicate

SSTL and Oxford Space Systems to Launch CarbSAR in-orbit demo for innovative antenna
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Guildford UK (SPX) May 09, 2023
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and Oxford Space Systems (OSS) have confirmed a partnership to build and launch an OSS Wrapped Rib antenna mounted to an SSTL CarbSAR satellite. The In Orbit Demonstration mission advances both companies' abilities, with OSS gaining space heritage, and SSTL building its ability to integrate capability from new suppliers.
The work has been jointly fund

Phantom Space and Quub sign multiple launch agreement
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Tucson AZ (SPX) May 09, 2023
Phantom Space Corporation, a space applications company providing launch services, satellite design and operations to commercial and government customers, has announced they have signed a launch services agreement with Quub, Inc., a satellite manufacturer, for three dedicated launch missions.
Each dedicated launch will place upwards of 80 satellites into a tailored low earth orbit meeting

New standard will aid in development of spaceport descriptions
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
West Conshohocken, PA (SPX) May 09, 2023
ASTM International's commercial spaceflight committee (F47) has approved a new standard that will aid spaceports in developing descriptions of their sites and capabilities, including location and contact information. The new standard will soon be published as F3610.
According to ASTM member Mark Greby, the standard will lead to spaceport descriptions that will provide potential customers a

Webb looks for Fomalhaut's asteroid belt and finds much more
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Baltimore MD (SPX) May 09, 2023
The belts encircle the young hot star, which can be seen with the naked eye as the brightest star in the southern constellation Piscis Austrinus. The dusty belts are the debris from collisions of larger bodies, analogous to asteroids and comets, and are frequently described as 'debris disks.' "I would describe Fomalhaut as the archetype of debris disks found elsewhere in our galaxy, because it h

Galactic bubbles are more complex than imagined
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Columbus OH (SPX) May 09, 2023
Astronomers have revealed new evidence about the properties of the giant bubbles of high-energy gas that extend far above and below the Milky Way galaxy's center.
In a study recently published in Nature Astronomy, a team led by scientists at The Ohio State University was able to show that the shells of these structures - dubbed "eRosita bubbles" after being found by the eRosita X-ray teles

NASA, Rocket Lab launch first pair of storm observing cubesats
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 08, 2023
Two NASA CubeSats designed to study tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and typhoons, are in orbit after successfully launching at 1 p.m. Monday, NZST (9 p.m. EDT Sunday).
The first pair of the agency's TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) lifted off aboard an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab's Launch Compl

Somewear Labs introduces a novel hybrid mesh-satcom radio and expands communications platform
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
San Francisco CA (SPX) May 09, 2023
Somewear Labs, the technology company enabling critical communications for defense, public safety and commercial teams, has announced the launch of the first multi-network device of its kind: Node. Node will revolutionize the ability for mission teams to communicate and coordinate during dynamic operations, providing a level of reliability, security, and efficient situational awareness that was

General Atomics delivers spacecraft simulator supporting NASA TSIS-2 program
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
San Diego CA (SPX) May 09, 2023
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has announced it has developed and delivered a spacecraft simulator to the University of Colorado (CU) Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in support of the Total and Spectral solar Irradiance Sensor- 2 (TSIS-2) spacecraft program.
GA-EMS is under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to build the TSIS-2 spa

Latin American financial institution deploys Gilat for satellite connectivity
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Petah Tikva, Israel (SPX) May 09, 2023
Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT, TASE: GILT) reports that a major financial institution in Latin America is investing millions of dollars in Gilat's satellite connectivity technology.
Thousands of Gilat's VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals) are being deployed across the nation to provide communications backup over satellite, improving the reliability and robustness of the net

Virginia Tech, George Mason to develop networking for satellite constellations
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 09:21
Blacksburg VA (SPX) May 09, 2023
The race is on to provide high speed satellite internet to the Earth's most remote areas. New tech companies such as Starlink, One Web, and Amazon's Kuiper are competing with traditional, established "satcomm" companies such as Thuraya and Inmarsat to provide global high speed, low latency satellite internet across the globe. These new mega-constellations rely on tens of thousands of small low e

ClearSpace books Vega C for 2026 de-orbit mission
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 08:00
ClearSpace has signed a contract with Arianespace to launch its first debris de-orbit mission on Europe’s Vega C rocket in the second half 2026, the Swiss startup announced May 9.
Chasms on the flanks of a martian volcano
Tuesday, 09 May 2023 07:09
Mars has some of the most impressive volcanoes in the Solar System. ESA’s Mars Express has now imaged the pitted, fissured flank of the planet’s second-tallest: Ascraeus Mons.