Space

Axiom aims to include two Saudis during next private mission to the ISS.

The Space Development Agency has awarded a $176 million agreement to Ball Aerospace to create 10 space vehicles and ground systems to test new payloads to potentially be incorporated into future National Defense Space Architecture tranches.

AE Industrial Partners, the leading private equity investor in aerospace and defense by deal volume, has acquired a majority stake in small satellite builder York Space Systems, the companies announced Oct. 4.

Planned liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 29 was scuppered by Hurricane Ian.

The U.S. Space Force has awarded small satellite manufacturer Millennium Space Systems and launch service provider Firefly Aerospace contracts for its Victus Nox mission, an attempt to demonstrate the ability to launch a small satellite into low Earth orbit less than 24 hr. after requested.

The Space Development Agency, the defense space acquisition startup launched more than three years ago to shake up how the Pentagon acquires capabilities in orbit, is now officially part of the U.S. Space Force.

U.S. space infrastructure specialist Redwire said it will buy Qinetiq Group’s Space NV business, a provider of integration, equipment and other backbone space systems in Europe, for about €32 million ($31.4 million).

The new facility will enable the integration of eight satellites onto Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket.

The rocket upstart recently shelved its troubled small launch vehicle to focus on developing a larger launcher.

Firefly Aerospace has recovered from the unsuccessful 2021 debut launch of its Alpha small-satellite booster with a successful follow-on flight test.

Vulcan’s debut launch, targeted for late this year or early 2023, will send a privately owned lander, carrying payloads for NASA and other customers, to the surface of the Moon.

A joint U.S.-Australian space surveillance telescope—relocated from New Mexico to Australia to help avoid potential collisions and monitor asteroids—reached initial operational capability (IOC) on Sept. 30.

The U.S. Department of Defense has released a request for proposals for “Proliferated Low Earth Orbit Satellite-Based Services.”

Delays have slowed the gathering of experience that ArianeGroup needs for its proposed family of reusable launchers.

Three Russian cosmonauts descended safely to Earth aboard their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft early Sept. 29, continuing an International Space Station (ISS) crew exchange process that has been extended due to Hurricane Ian’s threat to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Analysis is needed determine whether slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid belongs in the Earth’s future planetary defense arsenal.

The National Reconnaissance Office on Sept. 28 increased its work with commercial space companies, awarding six study contracts for commercial radio frequency remote sensing.

Over the past two weeks, SpaceX has started selling two “high performance” user terminals.

NASA is looking to mid-November as the most likely opportunity for its next attempt at launching the Artemis I test flight around the Moon, though it has not completely ruled out a late-October opportunity, agency officials said Sept. 27.

The UK Space Agency has awarded £4 million ($4.3 million) to two companies—ClearSpace and Astroscale—to design spacecraft capable of removing space debris, such as defunct satellites.

NASA's probe slammed into a targeted asteroid on Sept. 26 to demonstrate a kinetic impact strategy as a potential means of shielding the Earth from a disastrous collision in future.

In response to the approach of Hurricane Ian toward the eastern Gulf of Mexico, NASA announced early Sept. 26 that the Artemis I Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule will be rolled back from the launchpad to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

Concerns about the approaching Tropical Storm Ian, which was moving toward the Florida peninsula, spurred managers to postpone the launch.

After the U.S. Treasury announced exemptions to new sanctions, Elon Musk said SpaceX is “activating Starlink” internet in Iran.

Satisfied with the outcome of a cryogenic-propellant demonstration on Sept. 21, NASA has confirmed plans to proceed at least temporarily toward a third attempt to launch the Artemis I test flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule.