Space

Aviation Week Staff
Virgin Galactic on Feb. 16 will reopen ticket sales to the general public for rides to space, the company said.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA is prepared to invest up to $200 million to work with commercial partners focused on advancing technologies for the Moon and near Earth space.
Space

By Mark Carreau
Russia’s Progress MS-19 resupply capsule was on course for a Feb. 17 automated docking with the International Space Station following launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying almost 3 tons of food, water, propellant and other supplies.
Space

By Irene Klotz
After a year’s hiatus, the Indian Space Research Organization returned its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle into service, sending an Earth-observation satellite and two small satellite rideshares into low Earth orbit.
Space

By Irene Klotz
Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur who financed and commanded Inspiration4, SpaceX’s first private charter, plans a new venture with SpaceX for up to three more missions, culminating with the first crewed flight of the company’s Starship transport.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
All 18 segments of the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) large primary mirror have gathered their first photons from a target star, a major milestone in the months-long process of aligning the light-gathering elements of the space observatory to begin its mission of studying the first stars and galaxies.
Space

By Bill Carey
Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expect that a data repository of satellites will be operational by 2024, providing U.S. government agencies and commercial space companies with a resource to prevent potential collisions as the number of spacecraft in orbit grows exponentially.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA has selected a pair of heliophysics missions for development that are intended to provide a better understanding of solar dynamics, the Sun/Earth connection and the changing space environment.
Space

By Irene Klotz
Platform and space tug planned for Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1.
Commercial Space

By Jen DiMascio
An inflight anomaly prevented an Astra Space rocket from delivering four small research satellites to orbit, according to NASA.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
Northrop Grumman’s upcoming 17th NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station includes a more than 2,000-lb. payload to support future human deep space exploration and address issues on Earth like cancer treatment.
Space

By Chen Chuanren
China is planning to conduct at least 50 rocket missions and place over 140 spacecraft in orbit in 2022.
Space

By Chen Chuanren
Hungary is inviting space experiments from Singapore to be part of the research agenda for the astronaut it will send to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024.
Space

By Brian Everstine
Raytheon Intelligence & Space announced Feb. 9 that it has finished thermal vacuum testing of the payload for the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Block 0 program, ensuring the satellite’s sensor payload can survive in space.
Space

By Irene Klotz
The day after a SpaceX Falcon 9 delivered a batch of 49 Starlink satellites into orbit, a solar storm struck, causing atmospheric particles from Earth to expand into space, increasing drag on the newly launched flock.
Commercial Space

By Chen Chuanren
Having achieved steady progress in the areas of space technology and manufacturing, Singapore outlined a three-pronged strategy to encourage further growth in the local space sector at the Global Space & Technology Convention.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA has selected Lockheed Martin Space of Littleton, Colorado, to develop a Mars Ascent Vehicle, a small rocket capable of launching samples of Martian rock, soil and air gathered by the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover for return to Earth.
Space

By Michael Bruno
The investment fully funds E-Space’s Beta 1 launch of its first test satellites in March, as well as its Beta 2 launch “later” this year, the company says.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s upgraded Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T—the third in the GOES-R series of weather observation and environmental monitoring spacecraft—is undergoing preparations for a March 1 launch.
Space

By Tony Osborne
Satellite programs are taking the lion’s share of a £1.4 billion investment in the defense space domain.
Space

By Graham Warwick
The UK is moving to bolster its burgeoning sustainable space sector with government funding for projects to advance capabilities ranging from situational awareness to debris removal.
Space

By Irene Klotz
A team including former NASA Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk has unveiled a new business venture to develop and operate a reconfigurable robotic outpost and space tug in cislunar space, with an eye on providing payload hosting, communications, in-space transportation, remote sensing and other services to commercial and government customers, including the Defense Department.
Commercial Space

By Guy Norris
Boeing says successful tests of an all-composite cryogenic fuel tank at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center clear the way for large-scale application of the lightweight technology in future spacecraft and aircraft.
Emerging Technologies

By Irene Klotz
Billionaire investor Eytan Stibbe’s privately funded flight to the ISS is intended to spark Israeli space startups.
Commercial Space

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aerospace