The U.S. Space Force’s launch enterprise awarded ManTech a $476 million contract to provide systems engineering and integration services for the next 10 years.

SpaceNews

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency increased Lockheed Martin’s contract for satellite integration work for the Blackjack program by $25.3 million.

SpaceNews

British satellite operator Inmarsat plans to spend $100 million over the next five years preparing to enter the increasingly competitive low-Earth-orbit market. SpaceNews caught up with Todd McDonell, Inmarsat’s president of global government, to find out what these plans mean for government customers that make up about a third of the company’s revenues.

Starbridge Venture Capital is set to announce Sept. 8 that it has closed its second fund with $12.1 million in new capital.

SpaceNews

Washington DC (UPI) Sep 7, 2021
A pandemic-related shortage of a key rocket propellant, liquid oxygen, could force rocket launches to be postponed in coming months, possibly delaying important scientific and national defense missions, industry observers said. In fact, NASA has pushed back the launch of its Landsat 9 climate and land use satellite from California one week to Sept. 23 because of delivery problems for re

Washington DC (UPI) Sep 7, 2021
NASA's Mars rover Perseverance has drilled and encapsulated the first rock sample ever taken on another planet, while the accompanying helicopter Ingenuity has completed its 13th flight. The mission reached both milestones over the Labor Day Weekend - the flight was completed Saturday and the drilling Monday. The rock sample was imaged by the rover's instruments and stored in an

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 08, 2021
It's best not to look directly at the Sun, unless you're one of NASA's Sun-observing instruments. And even then, doing so will cause some damage. Exposure to the Sun degrades light sensors of all kinds, from the retinas in the human eye to instruments aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite, or SDO. Fortunately, with periodic calibrations, the latter can continue transmitting high-qua

Beijing (Sputnik) Sep 08, 2021
The newly developed and recently unveiled prototype miniature helicopter drone, a possible means to support China's Mars missions, is designed to become a navigator for the Mars rover. It will greatly boost the latter's ability to explore valuable targets on the surface of the Red Planet, the project leader said on 6 September. The newly developed and recently unveiled prototype miniature

Beijing (XNA) Sep 08, 2021
China launched the Gaofen 5-02 Earth-observation satellite on Tuesday morning at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, according to the China National Space Administration. The administration said the satellite was carried by a Long March 4C carrier rocket that blasted off at 11:01 am and then successfully entered orbit, marking the deployment of the 24th Gaofen-series sp

Houston TX (SPX) Sep 08, 2021
The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine has announced the first-of-its-kind research platform to study human health and performance in private spaceflight participants. Working with commercial spaceflight providers and their passengers, TRISH's EXPAND (Enhancing eXploration Platforms and Analog Definition) Program will collect in-flight health