Space Industry Analysis
Dec 24, 2012
Teeing up an issue for Congress in 2013, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), have introduced a bill that would push the FAA to begin setting privacy rules for the use of UAVs in civilian airspace. UAVs can carry “infrared thermal imagers, radar and wireless network 'sniffers,' with the capability to collect sensitive detailed information while operating in the skies above,” according to Markey. As such, he is seeking to regulate their use.
Dec 17, 2012
Senior NASA managers and their White House overseers are pondering whether it might be politically possible to mount a near-term mission to capture a small asteroid and reposition it in orbit around the Moon, where it could serve as a proving ground for hardware and crews en route to larger objects deeper into space.
Dec 17, 2012
In 2004, the Joint Strike Fighter's program manager, Lockheed Martin Vice President Tom Burbage, observed that if any one big defense program falters, the rippling effects impact all programs.
Dec 17, 2012
After 14 years of trying, North Korea has finally joined the countries capable of launching a satellite into orbit. But the success was short-lived. The nation's space program is also experiencing the bitterness of the failure to keep its spacecraft stable. North Korea succeeded Dec. 11 on its six attempt to orbit what officials there call an Earth-observation satellite. The U.S. led a group of nations, including Russia and China, that warned North Korea not to proceed with the mission. China has since expressed “regret” over it.
Dec 17, 2012
A small engineering firm on Florida's Space Coast is looking to recover some of the revenue and jobs the region lost with retirement of the space shuttle fleet by offering maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services to the commercial spaceflight industry that the Obama administration hopes will take the shuttle's place.
Dec 17, 2012
Thales Alenia Space and Gazprom Space Systems are confident that efforts to recover Russia's Yamal 402 Ku-band commercial telecom satellite will succeed, but it remains unclear how much of the spacecraft's 15-year service life will be lost. A premature shutdown of the Briz M upper stage on its International Launch Services (ILS) launch vehicle Dec. 9 left Yamal 402 in the wrong orbit, and controllers are using its onboard station-keeping/attitude control propellant to adjust it.
Jul 17, 2020
NASA has resumed preparations for a key hot fire test of the first Space Launch System (SLS) core booster, but the agency is keeping a wary eye on coronavirus cases striking members of the Mississippi-based test team, Administrator Jim Bridenstine said on July 17.
Jul 17, 2020
The U.S. Space Force is asking industry what it needs to improve launch ranges on both the East and West coasts.
Jul 17, 2020
NASA’s long-running development of the Orion crew capsule for the safe launch and re-entry of up to four astronauts on missions to the Moon and Mars fails to account for more than $17 billion in related costs, a July 16 inspector general’s (IG) audit shows.
Jul 16, 2020
After overcoming years of delays to resolve technical issues, launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a long-awaited successor to the 30-year-old Hubble observatory, is being postponed at least seven months, largely due to pandemic-related workplace shutdowns, NASA said on July 16.
Jul 16, 2020
Launch of the United Arab Emirates’ Mars Hope mission, already twice delayed by poor weather, has been reset for no earlier than July 20.
Jul 16, 2020
NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken all but completed a long-running series of battery replacements on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) during a 6-hr. spacewalk July 16.
Jul 15, 2020
Virgin Galactic’s founding CEO George Whitesides is relinquishing daily management of the fledgling space tourism company to focus on future programs, including point-to-point hypersonic and orbital space transportation, the company said on July 15.
Jul 15, 2020
The first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is about halfway through an eight-part Green Run test program at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, with a full-duration static firing of the booster’s four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines expected in October, Boeing Vice President and SLS Program Manager John Shannon said on July 15.