Space

On Friday, the Chinese space station Tiangong-2 was spectacularly decommissioned — it was set on a crash course with a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean called the “Spacecraft Cemetery.” Tiangong-2 is no more, but we can re-live its final moments. The state-owned China Global Television Network posted a YouTube video of the space station

WASHINGTON — Satellite and rocket hardware provider Ruag Space signed a contract with Firefly Aerospace to provide payload adapters for its small launch vehicles.  Ruag Space will provide the adapters, which lock satellites in place during launch and release them once in space, as part of a long-term purchase agreement.  Ruag Space spokesperson Carrie Rice

WASHINGTON — The consortium buying British satellite operator Inmarsat has pledged to keep core functions of the satellite operator in the United Kingdom as regulatory oversight of the $3.3 billion purchase increases.  The Connect Bidco consortium told the British government that for at least three years it would keep Inmarsat’s core network operations center and

An orbit has now been decided for the first permanent lunar outpost. When the lunar Gateway space station gets into position around the Moon, it will be in a highly eccentric “halo” orbit, perpendicular to Earth. This particular type of orbit is called a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). It helps minimise the use of

The U.K. will invest $34 million in small satellites, will increase support for the Combined Space Operations Center. WASHINGTON — British Secretary of State for Defense Penny Mordaunt announced on Thursday that the U.K. will become the first international partner of Operation Olympic Defender, an effort started by U.S. Strategic Command in 2013 to strengthen

Stars aren’t supposed to come back to life after the death throes of the supernova stage, but astronomers have spotted three that have done just that – surviving the catastrophic explosion that usually marks the end of a star’s life, and heading off through the galaxy on a new adventure. These peculiar ‘zombie’ stars move

RENTON, Wash. — NASA has decided to extend the lifetimes of all eight astrophysics missions up for review, from large space telescopes to an instrument on the International Space Station. In a July 17 memo, Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astrophysics mission, announced he was approving extensions through 2022 for the eight missions after accepting

When astronauts first saw Earth from afar in the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 – the US’s second manned mission to the Moon – they described a cognitive shift in awareness after seeing our planet “hanging in the void.” This state of mental clarity, called the “overview effect”, occurs when you are flung so far

This op-ed originally appeared in the July 16, 2019 special Apollo 11 at 50 issue of SpaceNews magazine. On July 20, 1989, the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, President George H.W. Bush got up on the steps of the National Air and Space Museum flanked by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael

Exhale. We are safe from the asteroid that scary headlines were warning us about in early June, according to new observations from the European Space Agency and the European Southern Observatory. The space rock is called 2006 QV89. It’s around 20 to 50 metres (65 to 164 feet) across, and its orbit around the Sun

RENTON, Wash. — NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a Senate committee July 17 that a cost estimate for landing humans on the moon by 2024 likely won’t be ready until the administration submits a budget request next February. Appearing before the Senate Commerce Committee to discuss the agency’s deep space exploration plans, Bridenstine said a

WASHINGTON — A company Cisco is poised to buy for $2.6 billion is required to pay damages to Viasat for failing to pay royalties on a technology it used from the satellite operator.  A jury in the Superior Court for San Diego County awarded Viasat of Carlsbad, California, $49.3 million after concluding that Acacia Communications

If all goes to plan, in November this year the International Space Station (ISS) is about to get a bit spicier. Researchers are hoping to send up Española chili pepper plants (Capsicum annuum), which could make peppers the very first fruit to be grown in space by US astronauts. “We were also looking for varieties

SAN FRANCISCO – Momentus, a Silicon Valley in-space transportation startup, raised $25.5 million in its Series A funding round announced July 17. With the new funding, Momentus plans to speed up development and testing of its Vigoride and Vigoride Extended shuttles to move small satellites from one orbit to another. Prime Movers Lab led the

There may be fundamental flaws with our understanding of the Universe. The problem came to light as scientists tried to calculate and measure a value called the Hubble Constant, which represents how rapidly the Universe is expanding outward. The value was first calculated by astronomer Edwin Hubble in the 1920s. But since then, astronomers observing

WASHINGTON — 3D Glass Solutions, a company developing radiofrequency devices using glass-ceramics, has raised $12 million from investors in the United States and Japan.  Japanese conglomerate Nagase & Company led the round, with participation from Lockheed Martin’s investor arm Lockheed Martin Ventures, Sun Mountain Capital and Murata Manufacturing Co.  Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 3DGS

SpaceX thinks it may know what caused its new Crew Dragon spaceship to explode during a test on April 20. The capsule-like ship is designed to ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station, but it first has to pass a series of major tests. In April, SpaceX conducted an uncrewed ground test

Esper: “If confirmed, I want to engage both committees to come up with a right solution.” WASHINGTON — President Trump’s pick for defense secretary Mark Esper told the Senate Armed Services Committee that, if confirmed, he intends to get involved in the Space Force legislative debate. Esper testified in front the committee on Tuesday in

India called off the launch of its much-awaited second lunar mission shortly before liftoff Monday, citing a technical snag, in a setback for the country’s growing ambitions in space. The countdown clock for the Chandrayaan-2 mission – which had been due to blast off from the country’s east coast at 2:51 am – was halted

As part of our monthlong commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing,  SpaceNews is proud to present this special digital edition. This issue is packed with great content, including: Jeff Foust with the latest on Artemis, NASA’s renewed effort to return astronauts to the moon in time for Apollo’s 55th anniversary.

The plot has thickened on a huge discovery from earlier this year that appeared to prove the existence of seemingly ‘impossible’ long-lived galaxies – ones without any dark matter. According to new distance calculations, the galaxy in question is much closer than initial measurements suggested. This changes both the mass of the galaxy as a

Last week, I had the great pleasure of a live video call with Colonel Terry Virts, the former Commander of the International Space Station. Terry and the intrepid One More Orbit crew, drawn from many countries, were flying around the world to set a record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe via the North

Should everything go according to plan, more than 1.1 million strangers will gather in a remote Nevada town in mid-September, united by a common goal: to raid Area 51 in the wee hours of the morning — using a strength-in-numbers approach to reveal any extraterrestrial treasures stashed within the notoriously clandestine government base. Or, put

WASHINGTON — SpaceX said July 15 that the explosion that destroyed a Crew Dragon spacecraft during a ground test in April was likely caused by oxidizer that leaked into the spacecraft’s propulsion system and destroyed a valve, but didn’t give a firm schedule for resuming test flights. The April 20 explosion at Cape Canaveral took

While our warming atmosphere on Earth threatens many living things, spurring on global warming on Mars could be the key to making the planet habitable for Earthly life. And scientists think they may have identified a material that can help turn up the thermostat for parts of the Red Planet. “Mars is the most habitable

WASHINGTON — A month after NASA rolled out a strategy to increase commercial use of the International Space Station, some in Congress are skeptical of the effort. At a July 10 hearing of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee, some members suggested that allowing commercial activities on the station, including visits by private astronauts, wasn’t

Once upon a time, the great planet Jupiter was orbited by a glorious ring of dust, according to astronomers. Now, nothing of it remains, having coalesced long ago into the planet’s Galilean moons. But these moon-forming discs should be found around other planets in alien star systems. And for the first time we have confirmation

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate’s space subcommittee says he’s working with colleagues on a “bold” new NASA authorization bill to direct the future of the agency’s human spaceflight program. In his opening statement at a July 9 hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee on the past and future of NASA’s human

Earth is not alone, and a stunning new animation created using NASA data beautifully illustrates that point. There may be trillions of other planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way (which itself is one of hundreds of billions of other galaxies in the universe). But finding such extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, is not easy –

Proposed changes to the National Security Space Launch program that Smith introduced in the HASC version of the NDAA made it into H.R. 2500 untouched. WASHINGTON — The House on Friday approved the National Defense Authorization Act in a party-line vote of 220-197 following three days of debate and uncertainty on whether Democratic leaders would

Bathroom breaks on the moon? Forget about it. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin may have been the first people to set foot on the lunar surface when Apollo 11 landed there 50 years ago, on 20 July, 1969, but they had to forgo some Earthly conveniences in order to pull off the moon landing.

This article originally appeared in the June 10, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine. Founded in 1960 to help the U.S. Air Force develop the first missiles, rockets and satellites, the El Segundo, California-based nonprofit currently finds itself increasingly called upon to help the Defense Department navigate a rapidly evolving commercial space industry. Kevin Bell, vice

It’s easy to take for granted the detailed, almost real-time knowledge of Mars that we have at our fingertips. After all, in the not-too-distant past, Mars was largely mysterious. All we had were ground-based images of the planet. Now? Now we have daily weather reports and images of dust storms. Martian dust storms are one

WASHINGTON — NASA’s leadership offered few details July 11 about the sudden reassignment of two top officials in its human spaceflight program the day before, a move that drew criticism from leading House members. In a memo late July 10, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced he was reassigning Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human

WASHINGTON — The initial prototype of SpaceX’s next-generation reusable launch vehicle will make its first, albeit low-altitude, test flight early next week, Elon Musk announced July 12. In a series of late-night tweets, Musk, the founder and chief executive of SpaceX, said the “Starhopper” vehicle SpaceX is assembling at its test site near Brownsville, Texas,

Something strange is happening 130 milling light-years away in spiral galaxy NGC 3147: there’s a thin disc of material surrounding its small and ‘starving’ black hole that’s a complete surprise to astronomers. Discs like the one spotted in NGC 3147 – made up of gas, dust and other debris pulled into the black hole’s orbit

WASHINGTON — Airbus and the French Space Agency CNES have agreed to cofinance a constellation of four Earth observation satellites while leaving the door open for Airbus to finance additional satellites with other partners.  The four satellites, referred to as the CO3D system, are expected to launch in 2022 aboard a Vega C rocket, with

SpaceX is about to perform its most ambitious test-launch yet of a shiny Mars rocket prototype in south Texas. Workers have descended upon the developing coastal launch site over the past 8 months to build and prepare the stout, three-legged prototype for testing. It’s built out of stainless steel, has the shape of a badminton

SAN FRANCISCO — NASA awarded a $73.7 million contract to Made In Space to additively manufacture ten-meter beams onboard Archinaut One, a small satellite scheduled to launch in 2022. “As manufacturing progresses, each beam will unfurl two solar arrays that generate as much as five times more power than traditional solar panels on spacecraft of

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he reassigned the agency’s human spaceflight head, Bill Gerstenmaier, because time was limited to address cost and schedule issues with the agency’s key exploration programs and still meet a 2024 deadline for returning humans to the moon. In an interview with reporters from SpaceNews and The Washington Post

HELSINKI — China appears set to deorbit its Tiangong-2 space lab in the near future, according to a social media release from the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).CMSEO announced a quiz competition (Chinese) Friday through its WeChat social media platform account, testing knowledge of launch times and mission details, to mark the ‘return of

The life of an asteroid is lonely. The rocks spend eons drifting through the cold vacuum of space. But on Wednesday, the asteroid Ryugu welcomed a special visitor: Japan’s Hayabusa-2 probe successfully landed on the asteroid’s surface at 21:06 ET (01:06 UTC on Thursday). The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched Hayabusa-2 into space in

WASHINGTON — After years of delays, PlanetiQ says its constellation of commercial weather satellites will be ready to start launching in January thanks to $18.7 million in new capital.  A redesign that right-sized its satellites while increasing the overall constellation number from 12 to 20 helped make the system more affordable, PlanetiQ Founder and Chairman

Gen. Mark Milley said he fully supports the establishment of a Space Force and rejects the criticism that the new branch is just an “added layer of bureaucracy.” WASHINGTON — In his confirmation hearing as President Trump’s pick to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley said he

India is getting ready to launch its first-ever lunar lander on Sunday 14 July. As part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, the lander will be riding on top of the country’s most powerful rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III. The plan is to both launch an orbiter module and a 56-pound (25 kilogram) mobile

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The engineers who developed the computers that enabled the Apollo 11 lunar landing had little doubt the mission could be a success, and half a century later have advice for how NASA should return to the moon. In the 1960s, the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory had a NASA contract to develop the Apollo

Thanks to gravitational wave astronomy, we are getting a better understanding of what happens when black holes collide. But the closely orbiting black holes only generate ripples in space-time strong enough to be detected from just before they smash. What happens before then? We can only extrapolate. But a new discovery could change all that.

WASHINGTON — The fifteenth launch of a European Vega rocket ended in failure July 10, resulting in the loss of an imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates.  The Vega rocket, built by Italian manufacturer Avio, lifted off at 9:53 p.m. Eastern from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on the northern coast of South