NASA estimates the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the agency’s major programs through fiscal 2020 and beyond at nearly $3 billion.

Russia has made another step toward the development of a new Soyuz 5 medium lift launch vehicle, with NPO Energomash reporting on March 31 that it had completed test firings of the first RD-171MV liquid rocket engine.

Just over a week after NASA outlined renewed plans to foster the development of U.S. commercial low Earth orbit free flyers to succeed the International Space Station, Sierra Nevada Corp. has unveiled ambitious plans to develop an orbital ecosystem based on its inflatable habitat design and Dream Chaser lifting body space vehicle.

Tapping into the crosscurrents of the commercial space boom and advanced technologies such as cloud computing, Amazon is opening an AWS Space Accelerator to assist and network with related startups, with applications due April 21.

Finland-based Iceye, an Earth observation data analytics provider with its own constellation of synthetic aperture radar satellites, said March 31 it plans to launch more satellites this year than previously planned, with the next launch booked for midyear.

The Space Telescope Science Institute has selected 286 proposals for the initial cycle of observations planned with the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope, which is planned for launch from French Guiana on Oct. 31.

SpaceX is aiming for a mid-September launch of a privately chartered Crew Dragon spacecraft on a three-day, 336-mi.-high, free-flying mission called Inspiration4, bankrolled and commanded by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.

The U.S. Space Force plans to release a solicitation in the second quarter of 2021 to purchase services from internet providers in low Earth orbit that will serve as an alternative to geostationary satellite communications.