Intelsat orders two flexible GEO satellites for post-bankruptcy growth plan
Intelsat has ordered two software-defined satellites from Thales Alenia Space as the operator edges closer to emerging from bankruptcy.
New NASA chief scientist to focus on climate change
NASA has hired a climate scientist as its new chief scientist, a move that reflects the greater emphasis the agency is placing on climate change studies.
China’s megaconstellation project establishes satellite cluster in Chongqing
A group leading China’s national low Earth orbit communications megaconstellation has founded two new firms to help develop the project, but overall plans remain vague.
Multi-orbit constellation startup Mangata Networks raises $33 million
U.S.-based startup Mangata Networks has raised $33 million from an international mix of investors for its multi-orbit connectivity constellation plans.
Machine learning algorithms help scientists explore Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover has been exploring the Red Planet's surface for nearly a decade, with its main mission being to determine whether Mars was once habitable. While the rover's investigations have indeed confirmed that Mars was once a watery world filled with potentially life-sustaining chemistry, there's still much to learn. Curiosity's mountains of data offer an opportunity to use machine learning algorithms to investigate the planet's surface in even more detail.
A new article in Earth and Space Science focuses on the data collected by Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument package. ChemCam combines two instruments: a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer (LIBS) and a remote micro-imager (RMI) for high-resolution imaging.
Pandora mission to study stars and exoplanets continues toward flight
The Pandora mission, co-led by a national laboratory and a NASA flight center, has passed a crucial step on its path to study stars and planets outside our solar system, or exoplanets.
After a successful concept study report and system requirements review, NASA approved the mission to continue toward flight.
Pentagon warns hundreds of programs in limbo until Congress passes full-year budget
U.S. military satellite procurements and contracts for launch services have been put on hold and cannot move forward until Congress passes a full-year defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2022.
Space Force on track to absorb Space Development Agency this fall
The Space Development Agency, created in 2019 as a separate entity under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, will be transferred to the U.S. Space Force in October, the agency’s director confirmed Jan.
Indian Space Agency tests cryogenic engine for its first-ever manned mission
India's flagship human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, has completed the design and testing phases. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch two uncrewed missions ahead of the final mission in 2023.
India's space exploration agency ISRO achieved a significant milestone with the successful long-duration cryogenic engine test for the Gaganyaan project on Wednesday. Widespread megaripple activity on Martian North Pole
Megaripples, intermediate-scale bedforms caused by the action of the wind, have been studied extensively and thought to be largely inactive relics of past climates, save for a few exceptions. A new paper by Planetary Science Institute Research Scientist Matthew Chojnacki shows that abundant megaripple populations were identified across the north polar region of Mars and were found to be migratin 
