NASA’s astronaut corps, currently historically lean, is so structured around International Space Station (ISS) operations that it may not be prepared to deal with attrition and reassignments as it faces numerous challenges, the agency’s inspector general says.
NASA will strive for a closer relationship between its climate science activities and its other research and technology pursuits—whether they be human space exploration or aeronautics—with this week’s appointment of a new combination chief scientist and senior climate advisor, Administrator Bill Nelson told a Jan. 11 news briefing.
Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, will be the base for several micro-launchers, which will help the European industry progress in reusability, according to Philippe Baptiste, chairman and CEO of French space agency CNES.
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has encountered another “small” obstacle in its campaign to collect and cache samples of rocky materials from the floor of the red planet.
Two weeks after the JWST was launched into orbit, the final segment of its 21-ft.-dia. primary mirror—the largest mirror ever flown on a space observatory—was rotated into position, completing NASA’s risky and most technically complicated series of in-space deployments.
Flight controllers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore are closing in on the final steps to reconfigure the James Webb Space Telescope, with the first of two primary mirror wing panels extended and latched into place on Jan. 7.
The Space Force’s two launch ranges have a shortage of spare parts for critical systems, which could impact future launches as the service projects a vast increase in missions, a new Pentagon report says.
After contributing 31 flights to a global record 146 orbital launches in 2021, SpaceX kicked off the new year by adding another 49 new satellites to its growing Starlink broadband network.
Paragon Space Development Corp. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Final Frontier Design as part of a joint financial effort to enhance future private spacesuit development for NASA and other spaceflight customers.
Flight controllers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore deployed the secondary mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope on Jan. 5, as the list of critical reconfigurations to prepare the observatory for its unprecedented science mission neared completion.
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.
