Leidos ($LDOS) announced Tuesday that it is partnering with NASCAR on its lunar rover, which it dramatically unveiled by removing a giant purple sheet at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Rover 101: Even though NASCAR is collaborating on the rover, astronauts won’t be whipping around the Moon at breakneck speed under checkered flags. The […]
The FCC opened its new space office on Tuesday to help the agency better consider the thousands of applications it receives each year for satellite approval and authorization of novel space activities. The agency is currently considering more than 60,000 applications for new satellites—the largest backlog in the FCC’s history. “This effort is part of […]
Launch company Stoke Space is getting into the software business. This week, the Washington-based startup, whose primary mission is building fully reusable rockets, debuted Fusion, a software platform to track physical hardware from “lightbulb to liftoff,” according to its website. Stoke Space developed Fusion to fill an internal need after “a history of pain all […]
Outpost has won a $1.7M DoD contract to help fund development and testing of its Ferry satellite, which can bring payloads safely back to Earth without burning up in the atmosphere. The Direct to Phase II Orbital Prime SBIR contract from SpaceWERX is the startup’s first contract with the Defense Department, Paul Tomko, the director […]
For All Moonkind, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the moon landing sites, has launched the Institute on Space Law and Ethics to develop guidelines for responsible behavior in space. The nitty-gritty: The institute will include a leadership board that will meet monthly as well as a group of fellows who will work on the project […]
The Space Development Agency is all about moving fast, but getting its first batch of satellites off the ground aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 will have to wait a little longer after Thursday’s launch was unexpectedly scrubbed three seconds before liftoff. SDA announced Friday morning that the expected launch attempt at 10:29 am ET Friday […]
It would be “catastrophic” if the Space Force had to operate under fiscal 2022 funding levels, the military’s top space official told lawmakers on Tuesday. Under a spending plan backed by a wing of the Republican party, dollars for research and development, launch, modernization, recruitment, missile defense, and domain awareness could all be at risk […]
Sen. Joni Ernst raised concerns about China’s growing space footprint “in our backyard,” which could increase the PRC’s ability to track and spy on American satellites in orbit. There are 11 space facilities linked to the PRC in South America – more than any other geographic combatant command, Gen. Laura Richardson, the head of U.S. […]
The National Reconnaissance Office on Wednesday awarded six companies study contracts for commercial hyperspectral imaging, which can detect changes in satellite images that would be invisible to the human eye. “We are operating the largest, most diverse, most capable overhead constellation in NRO’s history as we face increasingly complex threats in space and on the […]
Figuring out how the US remains a leader in low Earth orbit after the ISS plummets into the ocean should be a top priority for Congress in 2023, according to outgoing Science, Space and Technology Committee chair Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX.) There are no follow-on plans for a government-run space station in low Earth […]
Cognitive Space inked a pair of contracts with the Pentagon on Tuesday to automate and improve how quickly information can be shared in space. A first The SBIR Phase I contract with the Space Development Agency is the company’s “first engagement” with the Space Force office focused on quick development cycles and proliferated constellations, Cognitive […]
Happy Election Day to US readers. Hope you all are already sporting your “I voted” stickers. While we won’t know results for hours (or even days), these are the close races among space committee members that we’ll be watching as results roll in (with predictions c/o FiveThirtyEight and Cook Political Report): On the other side […]
