Sydney (AFP) May 15, 2025
An Australian aerospace firm said Thursday it has delayed a historic first attempt to launch a locally developed rocket into orbit, with a jar of Vegemite as its payload. Gilmour Space Technologies said a ground system glitch forced it to postpone the first test launch of its three-stage Eris rocket by a day until Friday. "The issue was with an external power system we use during system

Astana, Kazakhstan (AFP) May 15, 2025
Kazakhstan said Thursday there were no talks on Russia giving up its lease on the Baikonur spaceport before it runs out in 2050, amid reports Moscow is looking to ditch the ageing cosmodrome. The spaceport is used by Russia to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). But Moscow has signalled it aims to pull out of the ISS - one of the rare projects where Russian coopera

Image: On 3 May, the fully assembled Orion spacecraft for Artemis II began its journey to the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft is shown in transport, with its protective fairing panels clearly visible and proudly bearing the ESA and NASA logos.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 12, 2025
The United States Space Force's (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) has awarded contracts to CACI, General Atomics, and Viasat as part of Phase 2 of the $100 million Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) program. This phase aims to advance the development of space laser communication terminal prototypes, promoting long-range, resilient space communications. The contracts were issued through the Space E

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 14, 2025
Orbit Fab, known as the Gas Stations in Space company, has appointed Major General Jody A. Merritt, USAF, and Major General Roger W. Teague, USAF (Ret.), to its Advisory Board. These seasoned military leaders join Dr. Claire Leon, a former Director of the SSC Space Systems Integration Office, reinforcing Orbit Fab's expertise in space operations and government acquisition. Maj Gen Jody A.

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 14, 2025
Small satellites, typically weighing between 10 and 100 kilograms, are playing a crucial role in advancing global connectivity through satellite constellations. However, these compact satellites often face limitations in managing communication beams, which are essential for transmitting and receiving signals across vast distances. Communication beams are electromagnetic waves that can exhi

London, UK (SPX) May 14, 2025
A cutting-edge facility in Glasgow aims to address the risks associated with in-space 3D printing, a technology poised to transform how objects are manufactured in orbit. Researchers at the University of Glasgow's James Watt School of Engineering have developed the NextSpace Testrig, the first dedicated facility designed to assess the structural integrity of materials 3D printed in space.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 14, 2025
An international team led by Princeton University researchers has conducted the most precise simulations of magnetized turbulence in the Galaxy to date, revealing surprising discrepancies with long-established theoretical models. These large-scale computations, leveraging the power of over 140,000 parallel processors at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, have captured the complex behavior of tur

Paris, France (SPX) May 14, 2025
For the first time, the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission has achieved precise formation flying, maintaining millimetre-level alignment between two spacecraft in orbit without ground control for several hours. The mission's two satellites, the Coronagraph and the Occulter, achieved a 150-metre separation in orbit, effectively acting as a single giant instrument. This alignment was th

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
China's Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission is set to launch this month, May 2025, en route to the asteroid Kamo?oalewa (2016 HO3). The country could join the United States and Japan, whose space agencies have both successfully retrieved a sample from an asteroid to study back on Earth. Several space missions have flown by asteroids before and gotten a peek at their compositions, but