The four-way competition for a pair of National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts remains on track for award this year despite work restrictions stemming from concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, the U.S. Air Force said on March 24.
In the midst of shutdowns and work restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, United Launch Alliance and the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing at Cape Canaveral AFS here are preparing for the March 26 launch of an Atlas V rocket carrying the sixth and final member of the Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite network.
Representatives from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program are joining the SpaceX investigation into why a Falcon 9 engine shut down early during launch last week, NASA said on March 23.
British scientists and academics are studying the potential use of diamond batteries to provide long-lasting energy resources that could power small satellites and sensors.
Looking to close dozens of capability gaps for reaching Mars with human explorers, NASA expects to rely on activities aboard the International Space Station and future lunar-orbiting Gateway, as well as terrestrial work in locations that can act as analogs for the red planet.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida remained open on March 23 to personnel working on Mars 2020, Commercial Crew and Cargo and other mission-critical programs despite its first confirmed case of the coronavirus COVID-19.
Launching the Mars 2020 rover, recently named Perseverance, this summer remains among NASA’s highest priorities, despite agency-wide shutdowns of its facilities due to health concerns over the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program, which provides ground processing and launch facilities for the integrated Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, is in better shape now than when the program was last audited in 2016, but the agency needs to improve cross-program integration and testing, the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) said March 19.
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy is confident in the well-being of the International Space Station (ISS) and ongoing efforts to soon resume full staffing of the 15-nation orbiting science lab with launches from U.S. soil.
New research based on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid sample return mission has revealed the surface of the asteroid Ryugu is composed of a sand-like, cohesionless material, making it essentially a “rubble pile” in space.
The mission will mark the first flight of astronauts aboard a U.S. orbital spaceship since space shuttle Atlantis rolled to a stop at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21, 2011
A SpaceX Falcon 9 booster, making an unprecedented fifth flight, successfully dispatched another 60 Starlink websats into orbit, then failed to touch down on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
As NASA struggles with cost and schedule challenges in the development of the Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule, it is facing similar difficulties with another key piece of hardware, the Mobile Launcher.
Launch provider Rocket Lab is being considered by NASA for certification to loft higher value payloads on future research and demonstration missions following initial space agency approval to launch low-cost, small satellites.
Rocket launching company Rocket Lab has reached a deal to acquire satellite hardware maker Sinclair Interplanetary, the companies announced late March 16.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s planetary science decadal survey for 2023 to 2032 has some significant new themes—astrobiology and planetary defense—according to a virtual presentation sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC).
