The head of U.S. Air Force Space Command says it is true that the military would rather not carry the burden of helping anyone and everyone with collision avoidance and orbital analysis.
New Zealand-based space launch company Rocket Lab has completed the qualification of the second stage of the Electron launch vehicle which will be lofted from a newly constructed site on the east coast of the country’s North Island.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) acknowledges it faces a complex challenge as it strives to improve the quality and analysis as well as the timely acquisition and distribution of the environmental data it traditionally gathers and distributes to enhance weather forecasting by opening a door for the commercial sector.
Global cooperation will be required to launch an interstellar reconnaissance mission to the nearest solar system, using a powerful laser beam to propel tiny “nanocraft” to relativistic speeds. But the technology exists or is expected to be available within several years, according to Internet investor Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives program.
As Senior Space Editor Frank Morring says, companies are looking for "pots of gold" in space. That gold could come from commercial efforts that would extend the life of the International Space Station or to mine water from the Moon. Civilian space agencies might benefit as well—working with each other to reach the Moon and ultimately charting a path to Mars. Frank joins Mark Carreau and Jen DiMascio at the annual space symposium in Colorado Springs and discuss the latest efforts to explore—and profit from—outer space.
The European Space Agency's director general believes a “Moon Village," open to all, has a better chance of combining global resources for the more challenging and expensive push to Mars.
Space-policy panelists at the annual Space Symposium here used the nascent satellite-servicing industry as an example of the problems that arise when technology outstrips government oversight and regulation.
Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) is proposing legislation to tackle a broad range of space issues, foremost is ending the use of the Defense Department to manage space traffic.
India will launch its new Earth observation satellite, Cartosat-2C, in May, in an effort to boost the country’s military reconnaissance and surveillance capability.
A new Orbital ATK venture set up to develop commercial on-orbit satellite-servicing capabilities has signed Intelsat as its first paying customer, with launch of the initial Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-1) to an out-of-service Intelsat bird as early as 2018.
Lockheed Martin is leveraging power, environmental control, galley and waste compartment systems already under development for its Orion crew exploration capsule for an in-space habitat the company is developing under one of a dozen NASA commercial partnership agreements.
Oklahoma Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine hopes to build consensus around space policy issues that could feed into a number of other bills – defense authorization, NASA reauthorization or FAA reauthorization — before the year is out.
A Texas-based company has signed a five-year agreement with Spaceport America in New Mexico to begin commercial flights of its reusable suborbital launch vehicle later this year.
An assessment of telemetry streaming back to Earth for the remainder of this week could permit the planet hunter to join a novel joint microlensing observation campaign that got underway April 7.
A successful multinational strategy to reach Mars with human explorers in the 2030s will require the commitment of a long-term, risk-tolerant investor, according to the most recent joint assessment from Explore Mars, Inc. and the American Astronautical Society.
