Sierra Space has signed a deal to use its Dream Chaser spaceplane in 2024 to deliver to the International Space Station a life sciences incubator made by German biotech company Yuri.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Ursa Major a $3.6 million contract to develop a rocket engine for the booster and upper stages of satellite launches to low Earth orbit by year’s end. The U.S. Air Force Tactical Funding Increase program to boost relationships with startup companies was seeking a flight-qualified 5,000-lb. oxygen-rich staged-combustion engine.
The weather forecast for a launch attempt on Sept. 3 is not ideal, with just a 40% chance conditions will be suitable for liftoff due to cloud cover and the chance of rain and lightning.
Space Norway has selected suppliers for a synthetic aperture radar satellite constellation that will be used by the Norwegian armed forces for monitoring Norway’s coasts for small boats conducting illegal activity.
NASA had planned to launch the SLS, carrying an uncrewed Orion spacecraft, during a 2-hr. window that opened at 8:33 a.m. EDT. The next launch opportunity is at 12:48 p.m. EDT on Sept. 2.
The Kennedy Space Center launch team was assessing a potential hydrogen leak in the tail service mast umbilical, located at the base of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage.
The launch weather outlook was 80% favorable as NASA began the nearly 4 hr. process of loading the SLS core stage with 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 537,000 gal. of liquid hydrogen.
After more than 30 countdown simulations, two core-stage Green Run static engine firings and four launchpad wet dress rehearsals, countdown clocks at Kennedy Space Center were scheduled to start ticking down on Aug. 27 for the long-awaited launch of the first Space Launch System rocket.
T-Mobile has announced an agreement to use SpaceX’s Starlink constellation of low-Earth-orbit communications satellites for text message coverage across the continental U.S., Hawaii, parts of Alaska, Puerto Rico and U.S. territorial waters—remote regions outside the signal of T-Mobile’s terrestrial network.
HawkEye 360 and the U.S. Army have signed a new, two-year agreement to develop and demonstrate new overhead radio frequency sensing capabilities that could be used to cue military surveillance assets.
NASA on Aug. 25 was on track to begin the two-day launch countdown for its first Space Launch System rocket, leading to a launch attempt at 8:33 a.m. EDT on Aug. 29 from Kennedy Space Center.
Boeing is aiming to launch its third CST-100 Starliner spacecraft—this time with a pair of NASA astronauts aboard—in about six months, managers told reporters on Aug. 25.
Amid growing orbital threats from China and Russia, U.S. Space Command is calling on industry for innovative solutions to form a global space domain awareness sensor network that will be interoperable with systems used by international allies.
NASA has chosen three companies to continue the development and environmental testing of prototype vertical solar arrays that could be positioned at the Moon’s south pole to provide electrical power for a range of future human and robotic operations.
Following an 11-hr. flight readiness review, NASA on Aug. 22 cleared the first Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for a launch on the kickoff mission of the Artemis program, a U.S.-led initiative to establish a permanent human presence in deep space.
