NASA’s Space Launch System core stage fired up its four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines on March 18 for a critical, 8-min. integrated test ahead of the booster’s debut launch on the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.
With its Starlink broadband network now exceeding 1,200 satellites, SpaceX formalized an agreement with NASA to operate its megaconstellation on a noninterference basis with the International Space Station and other agency spacecraft in low Earth orbit.
The FAA has renewed two launch operator licenses for Northrop Grumman for its aircraft-launched Pegasus rocket system from Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, and Cape Canaveral, the agency said March 17.
Though the Martian surface is now cold and dry, imagery dating back to the 1960s reveals a planet where large amounts of water once flowed and pooled, perhaps contributing to an environment amenable to life.
SpaceX continues to expand the operational envelope of its Falcon 9 fleet, with a successful ninth launch and landing of a first-stage booster, setting the stage to meet its goal of 10 launches per rocket with minimal refurbishment between flights.
Maxar Technologies has selected European companies TTTech Aerospace and RUAG Space to provide the backbone of the fault-tolerant communications network for the foundational Power and Propulsion Element of NASA’s lunar-orbiting Gateway.
Relativity Space has secured its first contract with the Pentagon, through the Defense Innovation Unit, to provide responsive launch capability for the military.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei has endorsed his March 9 assignment to lift off aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 on April 9 to help ensure a continuous U.S. presence aboard the International Space Station.
China orbited another trio of Yaogan-31 Earth remote sensing satellites using a Long March 4C rocket launched from the country’s oldest and most northern spaceport in Jiuquan, Inner Mongolia on March 13, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC).
Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC-3) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was reactivated over the weekend, following a low-voltage incident linked to the aging observatory’s recent lapse into safe mode.
The French Air and Space Force is conducting its first virtual exercise for military operations in space, a weeklong simulation of various threats against satellites to test the fledging space command’s reaction.
After working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a robot arm for the Perseverance Mars 2020 rover, Motiv Space Systems is developing durable, multi-jointed limb also capable of functioning at the Moon’s south pole during long periods of darkness and extreme cold.
Responding to U.S. advances in in-space manufacturing, Airbus has been selected to study an orbital factory and potential demonstrator mission to establish a European capability to manufacture and assemble satellites in orbit.
Showing signs of its 30-plus years in Earth orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope resumed science operations late March 11, four days after slipping into safe mode due to a software error detected within the observatory’s main computer.
China successfully launched its new Long March 7A heavy rocket for the first time at 1:51 am local time on March 12 from the Wenchang launch site on Hainan island.
In another step in their growing space partnership, Russia and China have agreed to cooperate on an international lunar research station, potentially similar to the U.S. led-Artemis program’s Gateway project.
Scientists say they are pleased with the initial performance of SuperCam, a rock-vaporizing collection of lasers, high-tech cameras, spectrographs and microphones aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars 2020 rover.
NASA plans to try again on March 18 to fire up the four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines on the Space Launch System core stage for a critical integrated test ahead of the booster’s debut flight in late 2021 or early 2022.
Nanoracks has proclaimed its benchmark Bishop airlock, which was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in December, “open for business” and ready to commercially support science experiments, spacewalks and equipment transfers on the exterior of the orbiting science lab.
