AST SpaceMobile, a newly public company aiming to establish a space-based cellular broadband network for smartphones, has offered a peak inside its 85,000-ft.2 manufacturing headquarters in Midland, Texas.
Flight controllers overseeing the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope breezed through the deployment and positioning of the observatory’s five-layer, tennis court-sized sunshield, completing what was considered the most technically complicated part of the mission ahead of schedule.
Addman Engineering, the additive manufacturing rollup under private equity investor American Industrial Partners, has acquired Castheon, a refractory metals maker that has partnered with spacecraft-providing companies, the companies announced Jan. 3.
Large U.S. defense prime contractor L3Harris Technologies has reorganized to include just three main business divisions, with Aviation Systems and its top unit executive no longer part of the company’s structure.
After successfully unfurling the James Webb Space Telescope’s tennis court-sized sunshield, flight controllers on Jan. 3 completed tensioning three of the shield’s five diamond-shaped membranes.
The reconfiguration of the James Webb Space Telescope continued on Dec. 30 with the removal of covers that protected the observatory’s delicate sunshield for launch, setting the stage for the deployment of a five-layer, tennis court-sized structure needed to passively cool the telescope for its science program.
NASA and Roscosmos continue to pursue an astronaut/cosmonaut crew exchange agreement for Soyuz and NASA Commercial Crew launches to the International Space Station.
An Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket carrying the flagship James Webb Space Telescope was rolled out to launchpad ELA-3 at Guiana Space Center in French Guiana on Dec. 23 in preparation for liftoff at 7:20 a.m. EST on Dec. 25.
A Russian Progress propulsion module and instrument compartment that delivered the Prichal docking module to the International Space Station’s Russian-segment Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module departed the seven-person orbital science laboratory late Dec. 22 for a destructive atmospheric re-entry over the south Pacific Ocean.
SpaceX’s 24th NASA-contracted Dragon resupply capsule autonomously rendezvoused with and docked to the International Space Station’s (ISS) U.S. segment early Dec. 22.
DARPA has selected Germany-based Mynaric to create an architectural design for the experimental laser communication terminals called for by the agency’s Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node (Space BACN) program.
The FAA on Dec. 20 granted a license to Spaceport Camden in Camden County, Georgia, for small-rocket launches to low Earth orbit after several years of local community debate.
SpaceX set a new record for Falcon 9 booster reuse, launching and landing its fleet leader for an 11th time on Dec. 18 as the company neared the end of a 2021 launch manifest that aims for a record 31 flights.
United Launch Alliance, based in Centennial, Colorado, has selected Wichita-based Maynard to supply components for the Atlas V rocket following a November meeting with potential Wichita suppliers.
Initial nondestructive scientific assessments of the sample of the asteroid Ryugu affirm the value of such material in providing new insights into the formation and evolution of the Solar System.
