China launches secretive reusable test spacecraft
China sent a highly-classified reusable experimental spacecraft into orbit Thursday, two years after a similarly clandestine mission.
The post China launches secretive reusable test spacecraft appeared first on SpaceNews.
NESDIS awards enterprise cloud contract to SAIC and Carahsoft
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the award Aug. 3 of a $15 million contract for cloud services to SAIC and Carahsoft.
The post NESDIS awards enterprise cloud contract to SAIC and Carahsoft appeared first on SpaceNews.
Spire to host second optical payload for South Korea’s Hancom
Spire Global said Aug. 4 it will host a second Earth-imaging payload for Hancom InSpace, which became the first private South Korean company to operate a commercial satellite mission earlier this year.
NRO’s spy satellite fleet to become more diverse
NRO Director Scolese said the agency will continue to build large, bespoke satellites but also will increasingly rely on lower cost commercial smallsats
The post NRO’s spy satellite fleet to become more diverse appeared first on SpaceNews.
Insurance claim for failed Measat-3 satellite in dispute
An insurance claim for a Malaysian satellite that ran out of fuel prematurely remains unsettled more than a year after the incident.
The post Insurance claim for failed Measat-3 satellite in dispute appeared first on SpaceNews.
Blue Origin sends first Egyptian and Portugese nationals to space
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin on Thursday launched six people to space, including the first from Egypt and Portugal, on the company's sixth crewed flight.
Mission "N-22" saw the New Shepard suborbital rocket blast off around 8:58 am local time (1358 GMT) from Blue's base in the west Texas desert.
The autonomous, re-usable vehicle sent its crew capsule soaring above the Karman line, the internationally recognized space boundary, 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level.
"I'm floating!" a crew mate could be heard saying on a livestream, as the capsule coasted to its highest point and the passengers experienced a few minutes of weightlessness.
Both the rocket and capsule separately returned to the base—the latter using giant parachutes—completing the mission around 11 minutes after lift-off.
Beyond Artemis I—NASA plots cheaper rocket rollout while Congress calls for more flights
NASA has yet to get its next-generation moon rocket off the ground, but this week announced a shift in how it plans to pay for future launches while also falling under a new directive from Congress to increase the number of flights each year.
Artemis I, a combination of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule, is set to roll out from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building on Aug. 18 to Launch Pad 39-B ahead of a potential liftoff as early as Aug. 29. The uncrewed test flight will send Orion on a mission that could last up to 42 days traveling more than 1 million miles including several orbits around the moon.
The primary goal is to sign off on Orion's ability to support crew for future missions, including testing a heat shield that can endure the stresses of an intense re-entry.
"Orion will come home faster and hotter than any spacecraft has before," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a press conference Wednesday. "It's going to hit the Earth's atmosphere at 32 times the speed of sound.
Astra cancels Rocket 3 to focus on larger vehicle
Astra Space announced Aug. 4 it is canceling its existing small launch vehicle after its most recent failure and will focus instead on a much larger vehicle that may not be ready to fly customers until 2024.
NASA and Roscosmos officials restate intent to operate ISS after 2024
NASA and Roscosmos reiterated that they expect to continue operations of the International Space Station after 2024 as NASA continues to push for an extension to 2030.
The post NASA and Roscosmos officials restate intent to operate ISS after 2024 appeared first on SpaceNews.
South Korea's first lunar orbiter launched by SpaceX
South Korea's first lunar orbiter successfully launched on a year-long mission to observe the Moon, Seoul said Friday, with the payload including a new disruption-tolerant network for sending data from space.
Danuri - a portmanteau of the Korean words for "Moon" and "enjoy" - was on a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida by Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX. It aims t 
