BusinessEO

BlackSky Beams Gen-3 Images Home at Record Speed

Less than 24 hours after launch, BlackSky’s ($BKSY) latest Gen-3 imaging sat had deployed, captured very high-resolution images from orbit, and sent those images home for delivery into a customer’s hands.

EuropeLunar

Thales Alenia Space Picks its Lunar Lander Team for Argonaut

It’s been almost a year since Thales Alenia Space’s Italian subsidiary won the initial ESA contract to build a descent module for a lunar lander. Getting down to the lunar surface will be a team effort, though, and on Friday the space firm announced it has picked its team.

Military

Space Force Releases Vector 2025

The Space Force is plotting for a complex future in Earth’s orbit, and that takes a lot of big-picture thinking and coordination. To set the stage for that future, the branch released a new type of strategic guidance document on Friday, which it’s dubbed Vector 2025.

Deep SpaceLaunch

New Glenn Launches ESCAPADE, a NASA Mission to Mars

After a five-year gap in new missions focused on Mars, NASA is on its way back.

Yesterday afternoon at 3:55pm, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launched for the second time, carrying its first NASA mission—the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers project, better known as ESCAPADE.

Civil

NASA Lays Off ISS Workers at Marshall Space Flight Center

In anticipation of the ISS decommissioning and deorbit planned for the end of this decade, NASA has made a sweeping round of layoffs targeting staff working on programs related to the space station at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.

Deep Space

Venus Exploration Hangs in the Balance

Earth’s sulfuric, fiery, evil twin has been the subject of study for a long line of spacecraft over decades. But—while Venus remains a fascinating subject for planetary science and a candidate in the search for life away from home—there’s going to be a gap in our up-close study. The last spacecraft studying Venus up close, Japan’s Akatsuki orbiter, is officially out of commission.