Space

Stellar Solutions, a global aerospace and systems engineering services firm, has unveiled Stellar Ventures, a woman-led venture capital firm investing in the next generation of space entrepreneurs, the company said July 7.

NASA’s small Capstone mission satellite successfully carried out a delayed midday trajectory correction maneuver on July 7.

The European Space Agency (ESA), its commercial partners and potential customers are eagerly awaiting the inaugural launch of the Vega-C rocket.

A Minotaur II+ rocket, the first launch test supporting the development of the Mk21A re-entry vehicle, exploded shortly after launch late July 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

U.S. Air Force seeds new tanker competition; Aerojet’s new board; Europe seeks airlifter; and Northrop chooses Airbus satellite bus.

Virgin Galactic has signed an agreement to partner with Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to build two new White Knight Two jets to carry its air-launched passenger suborbital spaceships.

Ground control teams have re-established communications with NASA’s Capstone lunar mission, the space agency reported July 6.

L3Harris plans to invest €11.2 million ($11.4 million) in Mynaric in exchange for 7.2% of the laser communications company’s shares.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is testing its experimental receivers for the upcoming Navigation Technology Satellite-3 as it is integrating the satellite ahead of its planned launch next year.

The Singaporean Defense Ministry has played down the possibility of setting up a space division within its military in the near future, but nevertheless is closely studying the development of novel satellite technology, especially in the field of small to nano satellites.

The newly deployed Capstone lunar spacecraft has been unable to communicate with ground control teams, NASA said July 5.

Northrop Grumman has selected Airbus US Space & Defense as its satellite bus supplier for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) prototype constellation.

Norway’s Kongsberg is to purchase a majority holding in Lithuanian small satellite integrator and bus manufacturer NanoAvionics.

NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (Capstone) small satellite successfully separated from its orbital Photon propulsion stage early July 4, beginning a pioneering journey to near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon.

With a mostly successful tanking test complete, NASA sets its sights on Moon rocket’s first flight.

NASA has completed construction of a record-tying large primary mirror for a telescope to be carried aloft by a high-altitude balloon.

OneWeb, in partnership with the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency, says it demonstrated a 5G link between low Earth orbit satellites, a geostationary satellite and a mobile ground terminal on June 28.

Startup launch company Relativity Space has signed a multiyear, multiflight launch services agreement with OneWeb to deliver its next-generation broadband satellites into orbit beginning in 2025.

After nearly two years in the orbit of Mars, China’s Tianwen-1 has completed imagery mapping of the red planet.

Capstone dispatched to scout orbit for NASA’s lunar Gateway.

The House Appropriations Committee has advanced a $25.45 billion 2023 NASA budget proposal to the full House, which if enacted by the House and Senate would amount to a $1.4 billion increase over 2022, but less than the $25.97 billion requested by President Biden in March.

A U.S. Space Force mission scheduled to launch June 30 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will kick start a three-year experiment to test a missile warning and tracking satellite prototype.

With its new Vulcan rocket on track to debut late this year or in early 2023, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is aiming to end Atlas V launch services in late 2025, ULA clarified following a June 28 press conference where the company erroneously said Atlas V would be retired in late 2024.

The U.S. Space Force should avoid duplicating the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance resources of the National Reconnaissance Office for tactical needs, the newly confirmed head of space acquisitions says.

Virgin Orbit is targeting September for the first of two launches this year from the UK’s new spaceport in Cornwall, a mission that will mark the first rocket launch from British soil and the first commercial launch from Western Europe.