China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft—one of a trio of missions that successfully reached Mars in February—will dispatch a companion rover for a targeted mid-May landing on the planet’s surface, Chi Wang, director general of China’s National Space Science Center, said March 23.

NASA’s newly arrived Perseverance rover is preparing to dispatch a small helicopter that accompanied it to Mars for the first demonstration of powered flight on another planet.

The UK is looking to develop a constellation of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites as it expands its defense involvement in space.

Lockheed Martin and Omnispace, a startup targeting satellite-enabled 5G communications, on March 23 announced a “strategic interest agreement” to explore 5G business opportunities from space, and possibly creating the first dual-use commercial- and government-serving platform.

A Rocket Lab Electron booster has carried seven satellites on a rideshare mission into space from New Zealand. 

After a two-day delay to conduct additional ground equipment checks, the Soyuz 2.1a rocket flew through clouds above the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan at 2:07 a.m. EDT on March 22.

NASA’s nearly two-decade-long push to establish game-changing commercial partnerships in low Earth orbit operations to expand human exploration and scientific research and grow the economy is broadening its scope to include a new role for private sector communications and navigation assets and services.

Glynn Lunney, a member of the Space Task Group that launched NASA’s human spaceflight operations and the flight director remembered for leading the safe return of the Apollo 13 crew, has died at 84.