U.S. Space Command’s commercial operations group gets expanded role
Sentinel-1B journeys back to Earth
The Sentinel-1B satellite, the second satellite of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, completed its disposal process – which included lowering its orbit and passivating its systems to ensure re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere within 25 years.
This careful operation highlights the European Union’s and ESA’s commitment to space safety and sustainability and provides valuable experience for the disposal of current and future spacecraft.
Hera planetary defence mission: solving asteroid mysteries
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There’s a mystery out there in deep space – and solving it will make Earth safer. That’s why the European Space Agency’s Hera mission is taking shape – to go where one particular spacecraft has gone before.
On 26 September 2022, moving at 6.1 km/s, NASA’s DART spacecraft crashed into the Dimorphos asteroid. Part of our Solar System changed. The impact shrunk the orbit of the Great Pyramid-sized Dimorphos around its parent asteroid, the mountain-sized Didymos.
This grand experiment was performed to prove we could defend Earth against an incoming asteroid, by striking it with a spacecraft to deflect
Deep Blue Aerospace hop test suffers anomaly moments before landing
Office of Space Commerce ready to turn on initial version of space traffic coordination system
Florida company's space balloon takes big step toward 1st human flight
The weekend trip was a success for Space Perspective, the company that already has more than 1,800 people waiting for their chance to take balloon rides in a posh capsule up to the edge of space.
The Spaceship Neptune-Excelsior performed its first uncrewed test flight, soaring to an altitude of 100,000 feet, marking a big step toward the Brevard County space tourism company's march toward its first trip with humans on board next year.
"I could have been in it," Space Perspective cofounder Jane Poynter said Thursday while climbing aboard the company vessel MS Voyager that hauled the capsule back into port. "It worked that well. Everything went so well."
The MS in the ship name stands for "marine spaceport." It set out last week from Port Canaveral, traveling down the coast and into the Gulf of Mexico for the eventual test flight off the coast of St. Petersburg on Sunday.
Many of the company's 130 employees and their families were on hand to welcome the ship back at port as it docked alongside the likes of SpaceX's recovery vessels at North Cargo Berth 8 while a lone Carnival cruise ship was docked across the turning basin at the port.
NASA’s cancellation of VIPER cedes leadership in lunar exploration
What every entrepreneur can (and should) learn from early space exploration
