Space

U.S. Air Force experiments with satellite to augment GPS.

Russian film actress Yulia Peresild and producer/director Klim Shipenko descended safely to Earth early Oct. 17 on the steppes of central Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft with International Space Station (ISS) cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy.

A NASA spacecraft has begun a 12-year, 4 billion-mi. mission to explore an unusual population of asteroids that became locked in Jupiter’s orbit during the early days of the Solar System’s formation.

Axiom Space, which is working with NASA to develop a commercial successor to the International Space Station, announced this week the completion of three joint design reviews for the project.

The partnership enables the two entities to partner on research and development opportunities, promoting U.S. space industry growth.

The venture capital and private equity firehose fueling space startups continues unabated.

NASA’s Human Landing System strategy, a key element of the agency’s effort to establish a sustained human presence at the Moon and go on to Mars, may appear embattled.

Startup Space Perspective announced a $40 million venture capital fund raising on Oct. 14, claiming the largest round yet for a space tourism balloon company and coming months after a successful demonstration.

Satellite broadband provider OneWeb has successfully placed more than half of its constellation into low Earth orbit following the 11th launch of its campaign from Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East at 5:40 a.m. EDT Oct. 14.

The trio will spend six months living on the Tianhe core module, which will be the longest-ever duration in space for a Chinese crew.

More than 50 years after portraying the fictional captain of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise, actor William Shatner joined two paying passengers and a Blue Origin vice president for the company’s second crewed flight to suborbital space.

Advanced versions of NASA’s Space Launch System, the world’s most power rocket, could be used in the long term to carry out a human Mars flyby and dispatch an interstellar probe to study the realm beyond the Solar System, experts say.

The customer slated to launch on the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket now expects to fly in mid-2022.

Major small-satellite launcher Rocket Lab is making good on plowing some of its new publicly provided cash haul into bolt-on acquisitions.

The cargo ship transporting the James Webb Space Telescope arrived in French Guiana on Oct. 12, completing a 1,500-mi. journey that sets the stage for the observatory’s launch aboard an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket on Dec. 18.

Airbus has started production of the UK’s new £500 million ($679.5 million) Skynet 6A satellite, which is due for launch in 2025.

UK space launch startup Skyrora has signed agreements to use the SaxaVord spaceport on the Shetland Islands for satellite launch as early as 2022.

Two of the four crewmembers assigned to the upcoming SpaceX Crew-3 Dragon launch to the International Space Station are part of NASA’s “Artemis Team” of 18 freshmen and veteran fliers chosen for the agency’s human lunar return.

OneWeb and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have signed a letter of intent to fly OneWeb broadband satellites aboard Indian’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the heavier-lift Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle from India beginning next year.

Rick Ambrose, Lockheed Martin’s executive vice president for space and a well-known industry veteran, will retire March 1, 2022, the company announced late Oct. 7.

Oslo is to provide NOK365.6 million ($42.85 million) in equity and grants to Andoya Space, which aims to begin launches next year.

Transportation to the launch site, like everything with Webb, is complicated.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

With more countries and companies eyeing missions to Mars, a U.S. National Academy of Science report recommends NASA develop and demonstrate a more nuanced, flexible approach toward meeting planetary protection protocols for landed missions, while still protecting potentially habitable zones from contamination by Earth microbes.

CAES, the former Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions now under private equity, has announced construction of its new additive manufacturing (AM) operations in Exeter, New Hampshire, for the 3D-printed radio frequency (RF) products partnership that the U.S. company unveiled earlier this year with SWISSto12.