IMAGEU.S. Army approves plans for a future ‘tactical space layer’The U.S. Army has approved plans to explore the use of satellites in low Earth orbit to give soldiers dedicated communications, navigation and imaging capabilities.
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IMAGEApril 12 marks 60 years since Gagarin’s spaceflight, 40 years since shuttle debutSixty years ago Monday, a 27-year-old Russian test pilot named Yuri Gagarin strapped into a Vostok capsule in Central Asia and rode into orbit atop a launcher derived from a Soviet nuclear missile, becoming the first human to travel into the void of space. Twenty years later, in 1981, the era of reusable spacecraft dawned with the first launch of NASA’s space shuttle.
IMAGEEl helicóptero de Marte de la NASA intentará realizar su primer vuelo el domingoEl helicóptero Ingenuity Mars de la NASA está a dos días de llevar a cabo el primer intento de la humanidad de realizar un vuelo controlado y con motor de una aeronave en otro planeta.
IMAGE12 rare Einstein crosses discovered with GaiaThanks to ESA's star mapping spacecraft Gaia and machine learning, astronomers have discovered 12 quasars whose light is so strongly deflected by foreground galaxies that they are each visible as four distinct images, called an 'Einstein cross'. These crosses are unique tools to learn more about dark matter and the expansion rate of the...
IMAGEWatch Next Space Station Crew Launch Live on NASA TV, NASA AppThree space travelers, including NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, are poised to launch Friday, April 9, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station.
IMAGESpaceX Falcon 9 crushes next-gen ULA Vulcan rocket on cost in first competitionThe United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket appears to have made it through what could be described as its first...
IMAGEIs there still space for export credit agencies?Once a critical pillar for supporting commercial space projects around the world, export credit agencies have faded from the limelight in an industry awash with financing alternatives. But as an Indonesian satellite secures ECA support and Canada’s Telesat explores the option for its LEO constellation, there is still a role to play for these state-backed institutions.
IMAGEApax Partners seeks buyers for maritime connectivity provider MarlinkMarlink’s private equity owners have put the maritime connectivity provider up for sale, according to industry sources close to the matter.
IMAGESpaceX Starlink beta testers see big speed boosts, major outagesA portion of the thousands of consumers participating in SpaceX’s “Better Than Nothing” Starlink beta test have begun to see massive speed...
IMAGESpaceX eyes mobile connectivity market on eve of launching 60 more Starlink satellitesThe next 60 Starlink internet satellites are awaiting a ride from Cape Canaveral into space aboard a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday night as SpaceX seeks regulatory authority to expand the network’s services from homes and offices to airplanes, ships, and trucks.
IMAGEStarship SN11 prepares for rollout as SpaceX plans for the futureJust days after SN10 completed the first – albeit hard – Starship prototype landing, SN11 is set to rollout to the launch site for its own attempt. Incremental progress is being made with the test flights, with another tweak to the landing sequence set to be implemented, based on data gained from SN10. Meanwhile, the first Super Heavy prototype continues stacking operations while parts for up to Starship SN20 are being staged at the Production Site.
IMAGERocket Lab Reaches Deal to Merge With Vector SPACSpace-transportation startup Rocket Lab USA Inc. reached a deal to go public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, as a wave of such deals rolls on.
IMAGEPerseverance rover operating nominally in preparation for surface operationsAfter successfully touching down on the Martian surface on February 18, 2021, NASA teams have started the many checkouts required to begin operating the Perseverance rover. The mission touched down within five meters of their landing target (the landing target that was chosen by the terrain relative navigation system, not the pre-planned estimation), and several minutes later sent its first image of the Martian surface back to Earth.
IMAGEToast-shaped ThinSats attract educational and government customersThinSats are starting to catching on. ThinSats, the toast-shaped miniature satellites designed primarily as teaching tools, have attracted Small Business Innovation Research funding from NASA and the U.S. Space Force.
IMAGESpaceX Starship factory battles Texas power outages with Tesla solar and storageA major cold snap and the ineptitude of state governance have combined to throw millions of Texans into darkness as freezing temperatures...
IMAGESpectacular video released from China’s first Mars missionChina’s space agency has released a pair of spectacular video clips from “selfie” cameras on-board the country’s Tianwen 1 spacecraft as it braked into orbit around Mars on Feb. 10. One of the videos shows Tianwen 1’s high-gain directional antenna shaking from vibrations caused by the spacecraft’s main engine, which fired for 15 minutes to slow the probe down enough to be captured into orbit by Martian gravity. Another clip from a different camera is pointed at one of the spacecraft’s two power-generating solar array wings. The Martian horizon, appearing with the planet’s razor thin atmosphere, is visible in both black-and-white views. The time lapse videos also show Martian surface features, such as mountains and craters, as Tianwen 1 passed just a couple hundred miles over the Red Planet. The China National Space Administration released the videos on its website and through the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The Tianwen 1 probe is China’s first spacecraft to reach Mars. The amb
IMAGEPhotos: Falcon 9 test-fired before Starlink launchSpaceX test-fired nine Merlin engines Saturday before the company’s next launch from Cape Canaveral, clearing a key readiness test before liftoff as soon as Sunday night with 60 more Starlink internet satellites.
IMAGEAlpha Insights reveals plans for dual-band SAR satellitesEntrepreneur Scott Larson, who co-founded Urthecast and Helios Wire, is leading Alpha Insights, a Toronto company that acquired the SAR assets of Urthecast, which filed for protection from creditors in 2020 to avoid bankruptcy.
IMAGECloud computing services changing the calculus for space startupsThe cloud computing industry is developing products and services aimed at space companies that want to monetize data without having to invest in infrastructure.
IMAGESpace industry investment continues to growNearly a year after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic raised fears of a slowdown in commercial space investment, experts say the industry is, in fact, doing better than ever.