WASHINGTON —The Italian government has ordered two additional Cosmo-SkyMed radar imaging satellites from Thales Alenia Space and tapped Telespazio to upgrade the constellation’s ground segment under a contract announced Dec. 15.

Thales Alenia Space spokesperson Marija Kovac said the contract provides nearly €300 million ($365 million) to build two second-generation Cosmo-SkyMed satellites scheduled to launch in early 2024 and early 2025 — likely aboard a Vega C or Soyuz rocket.

HELSINKI — China has recovered precious lunar samples after a successful reentry and landing of the Chang’e-5 return capsule. 

The roughly 300-kilogram Chang’e-5 return capsule performed a ballistic skip reentry at 12:33 p.m.

A Canadian astronaut will take part in a lunar mission for the first time in 2023, as part of the NASA-led Artemis project, the minister for innovation, science and industry announced Wednesday.

"I am proud to announce another first: Canada will join the US on the first crewed mission to the Moon since the Apollo mission," the minister, Navdeep Bains, told a press conference.

"This will make Canada only the second country after the US to have an astronaut in deep space."

The mission, Artemis II, will see a crewed test flight sent into orbit in 2023 but will not involve an actual landing on the Moon, according to the US space agency.

WASHINGTON — The White House released a new space policy directive Dec. 16 intended to serve as a strategic roadmap for the development of space nuclear power and propulsion technologies.

Space Policy Directive (SPD) 6, titled “National Strategy for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion,” discusses responsibilities and areas of cooperation among federal government agencies in the development of capabilities ranging from surface nuclear power systems to nuclear thermal propulsion, collectively known as space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP).

SAN FRANCISCO – Now that it’s spun out of Analytical Graphics Inc., Comspoc operates more like a startup focused on space situational awareness, space domain awareness and space traffic coordination and management than a corporate business unit, Travis Langster, Comspoc vice president and general manager, told SpaceNews.

SAN FRANCISCO – Capella Space released radar satellite images with a resolution of 50 centimeters by 50 centimeters, which the San Francisco startup says is the highest resolution available from a commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite operator.

The images released Dec.

ESA will contribute to the maintenance, operations and modernisation of Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana over the period 2020–24.

WASHINGTON — NASA has delayed moving a proposed mission to search for near Earth objects into its next phase of development because of uncertainty about the budget that will be available for it.

NASA had planned to conduct a review known as Key Decision Point (KDP) B this month of the Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor spacecraft, a space-based infrared telescope that would search for near Earth asteroids.