U.S. space and defense agencies are helping to fund lightweight optics in a project that could produce a hundredfold reduction in the size, weight and power consumption of remote-sensing telescopes.
An anomaly resolution team continues to pursue the source of a worrisome water blob that formed in the helmet of the NASA spacesuit worn by U.S. astronaut Tim Kopra during a Jan. 15 spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
Australian researchers pursue a different approach to cutting launch costs—a wing-borne, fly-back booster and a reusable, scramjet-powered second stage.
As part of SpaceX’s plan to develop a human-rated version of the Dragon crew capsule capable of precision powered landings on the ground, the company has revealed first images of propulsive hover tests undertaken in late November at its McGregor, Texas facility.
Sixty days after Blue Origin achieved its first milestone vertical landing with the New Shepard sub-orbital launch vehicle, the company has repeated the feat with the same rocket.
From NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services-2 award to the Dream Chaser spaceplane, to Space-X’s recent near miss landing in Vandenberg, California, the field of reusable space systems is expanding. Join our editors as they discuss developments and competition in the burgeoning commercial and defense space launch markets.
The European Data Relay System (EDRS) is a new space and ground infrastructure that will provide near-real-time data delivery services of up to 50 terrabytes per day using laser technology.
The second member of China’s new space launch family, Long March 7, is due to fly in June, with the third, Long March 5, following in late September or early October.
SpaceX successfully launched the Jason-3 ocean altimetry mission to low Earth orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket Jan. 17, though an attempt to land the vehicle's core stage on a barge in the Pacific Ocean was unsuccessful.
Orbital ATK plans to start ground tests next year of first elements for an all-new, next-generation launch vehicle to compete for the U.S. Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
The European Space Agency is expected to ask member states next December for a three-year portion of financing valued at several hundred million euros to fund the agency’s continued participation in the NASA-led International Space Station.
Ahead of new budget talks in late 2016, German Aerospace Center DLR and the European Space Agency are evaluating the cost of continuing support for the International Space Station beyond 2020, even as the other four space station partners pledge to fund the orbiting science lab to 2024.
NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne are negotiating the final details of a public-private “tipping-point” partnership designed to produce a low-cost propulsion system for CubeSats that uses non-toxic “green” propellant in lieu of hydrazine.
The European launch consortium, which today lifts more than half of the world’s communications satellites, says the recent successful recovery of a Falcon 9 core stage is only the first step for SpaceX in reusing the already-low-cost rocket.
As India moves into the new year, it plans a shift toward launching bigger space missions ranging from larger satellites aboard heavy-lift launchers to improved Earth observation spacecraft.
