NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of State Office of Space Affairs recently held the fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise to enhance preparedness for potential asteroid threats, NASA said. Held at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the exercise simulated a hypothetical scenario where an asteroid […]
NASA has integrated eight cubesats from the CubeSat Launch Initiative into a Firefly Aerospace deployment hardware ahead of its launch in early summer 2024. Among the cubesats to form part of the mission are the University of Arizona’s CatSat, the MESAT1 from the University of Maine and the NASA Ames Research Center’s TechEdSat-11. After their […]
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Control Technology Branch has awarded Pacific Defense a two-year contract for a low size, weight and power space sensor that follows a modular open systems approach. Prototypes are to be demonstrated by the end of the performance period. The Moonraker system is planned to be used to gain situational […]
Mississippi-based Vertex Aerospace has secured a multiyear contract to oversee operations at NASA’s Sonny Carter Training Facility, a critical component of astronaut training at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Vertex Aerospace will provide technical, managerial and administrative support to ensure the ongoing functionality and reliability of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory’s integrated hardware and software […]
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Redwire a contract to lead the development of a satellite equipped with novel electric propulsion systems for a demonstration in very low Earth orbit under the Otter program. The spacecraft will be based on the SabreSat VLEO satellite design, a highly flexible orbital drone that can support […]
Four companies will support the Space Systems Command as it develops laser communication terminal prototypes under the initial phase of the Enterprise Space Terminal project. Under the $100 program, the U.S. Space Force selected Blue Origin, CACI International, General Atomics and Viasat as eligible vendors to compete for task orders related to designing and delivering […]
LeoLabs will support the innovation hub of the Department of the Air Force in developing and testing the capabilities of a new radar system designed to track objects in very low Earth orbit. Tony Frazier, CEO of LeoLabs, said the Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contract from AFWERX covers the delivery of an S-band-D […]
Plus3 IT Systems has announced its role as Parson’s subcontractor on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Traffic Coordination System for Space program. The contract entails providing system integration and cloud management services as well as implementing a secure and scalable cloud-based system for TraCSS, Plus3 IT said. The system will be responsible for ingesting, […]
Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance will be participating in the U.S. Space Force’s effort to develop the National Security Space Launch initiative. From 2025 to 2029, the three contractors will be competing for task orders valued at up to $5.6 billion under NSSL Phase 3, handling the government’s national security launches, which will […]
NASA has ordered two 12U cubesat buses from RTX’s Blue Canyon Technologies for the Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer mission, which will study high-altitude ice clouds in tropical and subtropical regions to improve the accuracy of climate forecasts. The satellite buses will carry PolSIR radiometers to monitor the full diurnal cycle of high-altitude ice clouds through […]
