The Department of the Air Force has confirmed the need to procure the 12th Boeing-built Wideband Global Satcom satellite, noting that no other existing commercial satellite can meet the communications requirements of the United States and its allies. The agency made the certification in a letter sent to congressional committees. Kay Sears, vice president and […]
NASA’s Johnson Space Center is soliciting proposals to develop the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, a spacecraft that will remove the International Space Station from its operational orbit once the laboratory reaches the end of its life in 2031. The U.S. space agency and its partners operating the ISS, namely the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space […]
The Federal Communications Commission has started mandating that satellite operators work with the National Science Foundation to ensure that their space activities do not obstruct optical ground-based astronomy. Recent license updates issued to Iceye and Planet require them to report annually on their coordination with the NSF and on their efforts to minimize their potential […]
True Anomaly has secured from the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command a $17.4 million Phase III Small Business Innovation Research supply contract for space domain awareness applications leveraging analytics and scalable artificial intelligence. Under the contract, the Denver, Colorado-based space company will provide its integrated software operating system Mosaic to support a human-machine team-up […]
The U.S. Space Force has awarded ABL Space Systems a $15 million task order to undertake a responsive launch mission. According to its website, ABL is a California-based startup that develops launch vehicles and launch systems technology. It is responsible for RS1, a small two-stage rocket designed to lift up to 1,350 kilograms into low-Earth […]
Kelvin Coleman, the Federal Aviation Administration’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said safety reviews to modify SpaceX’s Starship launch license could conclude by the end of October. The company’s original clearance was valid only for the operation that occurred in late April. Regardless of the outcome, the FAA is requiring SpaceX to seek a […]
Ten communication spacecraft equipped with Terran Orbital satellite buses were sent to low Earth orbit following the Tranche 0 Transport Layer launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on Sept. 2, the company announced Monday. Tranche 0 is a component of the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture that had its initial launch in […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded the environmental testing for the final satellite in the agency’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R series. The testing process, which started in November 2022, included checking to see how well GOES-U can withstand conditions in space, vibrations during launch, shocks during transit and electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility. […]
An imaging spectrometer designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure carbon dioxide and methane has arrived at a Planet Labs facility in San Francisco to await its integration onto a satellite. Planet Labs is part of a public-private coalition led by nonprofit organization Carbon Mapper seeking to gather greenhouse gas point-source emissions data. The […]
The U.S. Space Systems Command and Firefly Aerospace have launched the Victus Nox mission in just over a day, marking a new record for space launch responsiveness. Victus Nox is an effort to advance the SSC’s Tactically Responsive Space capabilities. Within 27 hours of receiving launch orders, SSC and Firefly mated a Millennium Space Systems-built […]
