Space

Matching NASA’s needs with the ideal contracting mechanism is a challenge.

Launch service provider Arianespace’s order backlog totals 29 missions, with the next being planned for December.

The MOU, signed July 9, is a new milestone for the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space initiative.

The mission, designated Artemis IV, is to be the first aboard the more powerful SLS Block 1 rocket.

Starliner was launched June 5 on an anticipated nine-day flight test.

The Series B will bolster the Albuquerque, New Mexico, startup’s expansion plans for a new solid rocket motor factory in Luling, Texas.

Italian space logistics company D-Orbit has established a U.S.-based joint venture focused on satellite bus design, manufacturing and sales.

The first Ariane 6 medium- to heavy-lift launcher placed payloads into orbit in its debut flight July 9.

Four volunteers with astronaut-like credentials have concluded the first of NASA’s three planned yearlong Earth-based missions on a simulated Martian surface.

Sweden wants to become a defense space player in Europe.

Ovzon says its Ovzon 3 small geostationary orbit communications satellite is ready to start commercial service.

The European Space Agency (ESA) said that launch service provider Arianespace and Italian space company Avio have agreed to the handover of responsibility for Vega C rockets.

Russia plans to start deploying a new orbital station, ROS, in 2027 using an upgraded rocket, while also developing a new crew capsule.

A group of recently launched startups are bucking the strategy.

Germany has awarded Airbus a €2.1 billion ($2.3 billion) contract to build the new SatcomBW 3 constellation due to be deployed before the end of the decade.

Firefly Aerospace has deployed eight cubesats for NASA with a flight of its Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, amid operational expansion efforts.

The U.S. Space Force has awarded contracts to Blue Origin and Stoke Space under the Orbital Services Program (OSP)-4 effort.

Orbit Fab has successfully demonstrated the automated docking of its in-space refueling technology.

NASA has selected rookie astronaut Andre Douglas as a backup for the three agency astronauts assigned to the planned 2025 Artemis II mission.

Germany’s Tesat-Spacecom said it has secured a European Space Agency (ESA) project to deliver a cubesat to test 6G telecommunications technology.

NASA cites a gap in currently envisioned lunar cargo lander capabilities.

The designation enables Space Florida to tap the Florida Department of Transportation’s Spaceport Improvement Program.

Under this next tranche, the agency plans to procure around 54 satellites with infrared sensors from one or more vendors.

The next 18 months will be busy for United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) newest rocket, and no one is more aware of that fact than Tory Bruno.

Europe’s Eumetsat agency is turning to SpaceX to deliver its Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder 1 (MTG-S1) weather satellite into orbit in 2025.