Scientists using NASA's Kepler spacecraft (see photo) to look for planets around other stars have been “surprised by the universe,” and the value of those surprises has earned the mission a four-year funding extension. Kepler was one of nine astrophysics programs granted peer-reviewed extensions on the recommendation of a NASA Senior Review Committee (SRC). Most of them—including the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory—also will continue operating through 2016.

A hosted payload agreement between Space Systems/Loral and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center offers the U.S. the chance to catch up with Europe's leadership in the use of optical systems, which hold the promise of faster data transmission for space communications and lower power demands.

The choice is between adding more muscle to the Ariane 5 rocket and building a new launcher designed to rely less on commercial business.

Innovation rules as new entrants look at alternate ways of getting payloads off the ground.

More than a decade after the bottom dropped out of the prospective U.S. commercial launch market, the U.S. Air Force is struggling to deal with the continued financial ramifications of that unrealized opportunity. Those challenges are compounded by NASA's decision to rely on Russian rockets for its cargo missions in the near future, so the burden of shepherding the bloated U.S. launch infrastructure has now fallen into the lap of the Air Force.

With the ability of heavy-lift rockets to perform piggyback launches, and even after making 100 A2100 geosynchroneous communications satellites since 1996, Lockheed Martin has not seen two launched on the same ride.