Polaris

The next president must make space more resilient by boosting cooperation with the private sector, protecting the domestic supply chain, and increasing government investment in promising tech, according to a memo released Monday by MITRE. 

Commercial EO providers contribute to sectors ranging from agriculture to climate monitoring to defense—and now they’re banding together to make sure policymakers know the results of an administration-ordered study could put all of that in jeopardy.

The space community gathered at Payload’s first Space Capitol Forum on Tuesday to talk about ways for policy to adapt and better support the rapid advancements in space tech.

“I don’t care what way you look at this,” she told Payload. “Farming, national security, commercial—whatever angle you take, space affects us every day.”

Over the next several months, traffic is expected to ramp up on the Moon, but unlike the first race to the Moon, it will be commercial vehicles leaving their tracks behind.  NASA’s decision to tap commercial partners to deliver scientific payloads to the Moon is the latest in a broader space agency move toward boosting…

Four top lawmakers sent a letter to NASA late Friday casting much doubt on the agency’s decision to halt its VIPER mission after already sinking $450M into the spacecraft, which was fully assembled and awaiting testing.

The ISS has been a bastion for international cooperation and scientific discovery for nearly three decades, but as the orbiting habitat nears the end of its time in service, NASA is preparing to pass the torch on these three pillars to the commercial sector. 

Though the vice president did not do much public work on space before joining President Joe Biden’s ticket, she has overseen the debate of two major space policy issues as chair of the National Space Council

The long-promised trillion-dollar space economy, space-based internet for the world, ambitious science missions, and a long-term human presence in orbit all have one thing in common—space needs to be safe and clear of debris for them to thrive. 

“Where commerce goes and wealth is created, crime and piracy follow.”

More than 2,000 supporters ranging from engineers to space enthusiasts signed a letter last week led by the Planetary Society asking lawmakers to add the program back into NASA’s budget.