HOUSTON — Ad Astra Rocket Co., developer of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (Vasimr), is moving forward with modifications to the company’s 200-kw. VX-200 ground test article intended to allow characterization of the engine’s thermal steady state.

NEW MOON: An astronomer using the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a tiny moon orbiting Neptune, bringing to 14 the number of known satellites orbiting the blue-green gas giant. Designated S/2004 N 1, the moon measures an estimated 12 mi. across and completes an orbit every 23 hr. at an altitude of about 65,400 mi. above the planet’s clouds. Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute found the new moon between the orbits of Larissa and Proteus while trying to track fast-moving ring segments around Neptune.

Lockheed Martin has completed and delivered seven antenna assemblies

NEW CREW: U.S., Japanese and Russian astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Kononenko will launch to the International Space Station in June 2015, where they will join American commander Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, who are scheduled to be three months into the station’s first year-long stay. Lindgren, a former NASA flight surgeon, and Yui, a retired Japanese military officer, are rookies. Kononenko logged 393 days on two previous ISS missions. They’ll spend about six months in orbit, the ISS partnership announced July 10.

PARIS — Sweden launched an enormous, helium-filled balloon from its Esrange Space Center on July 12, carrying the PoGOLite (Polarised Gamma-ray Observer) telescope dangling beneath it.

To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 15 - 17 — 49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, San Jose, Calif. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/EventDetail.aspx?id=16854 July 16 - 17 — RotorTech Asia Pacific 2013 Conference and Exhibition, "Embrasing Asia's Growing Helicopter Market," Singapore. For more information go to www.cdmc.org.cn/2013/rap/

PARIS — Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy expects to complete a new turnkey satellite integration and test center for the Turkish military this fall, with final acceptance of the new facility, including all test systems, slated for May 2014.

Non-toxic hydrazine monopropellant replacement has passed ground test