Slingshot Aerospace announced this morning that it will add 80 new sensors by the end of the year, doubling its tracking capabilities and getting closer to its goal of building the most comprehensive space tracking network on the planet. The story so far: CEO Melanie Stricklan founded Slingshot in 2017 to tackle the growing need […]
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 […]
EU sanctions imposed on Russia-owned rocket maker Khrunichev Center will not slow rocket production, but they will impact customer demand, center Chief Alexey Varochko said Monday in an interview with TASS. On Feb 23, the EU passed its 10th round of sanctions on Russia, which included the rocket maker on the list of prohibited entities. […]
An uncrewed spaceplane prototype developed by ISRO successfully landed on a runway at Chitradurga, India, on April 2. The winged vehicle, officially called the Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), was heli-dropped from 4.5 kilometers to simulate an approach from space. The RLV-TD plane then maneuvered itself to the runway and deployed a parachute to […]
Everywhere Communications, a seven-year-old company providing satellite-enabled emergency comms for teams operating in extreme environments, has announced new integrations in its emergency notification and messaging platform. Everywhere, all at once: The Annapolis, MD-based software company aims to provide a “single pane of glass” for companies to communicate with teams operating out in the field, wherever […]
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 […]
Beijing is working to shore up international support for its joint lunar program with Russia, and has asked Venezuela to become the first partner on its planned Moon base. The head of Venezuela’s space agency met with Chinese officials last week and voiced support for signing an MoU promoting the construction of the International Lunar […]
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 […]
New Zealand startup Dawn Aerospace announced Wednesday that it successfully completed three flights of its rocket-powered Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane last week. During the test flights, the vehicle reached an altitude of over 6,000 feet. “When we set out to change how we access space, we didn’t want an iterative step on expendable rockets – […]
The countdown has begun for the maiden orbital flight of SpaceX’s Starship. SpaceX has notified the FAA that they are targeting April 10 for Starship’s orbital flight, with April 11 and April 12 as backup dates. On Tuesday, Elon Musk further stoked excitement and seemingly confirmed the date by “liking” three tweets regarding an April […]
A moratorium on regulating human commercial spaceflight—aka space tourism—is set to expire in October, and the folks at the FAA are at a crossroads: to renew or not to renew? In a report published this week by RAND, researchers determined that the commercial human spaceflight industry has progressed far enough that it’s time for the […]
On Monday, NASA announced the four Artemis II astronauts who will travel around the Moon aboard the Orion capsule next year. NASA selected Christina Hammock Koch, who holds the record for longest continuous spaceflight by a woman at 328 days, as a mission specialist for the flight. She is the only professional engineer on the […]
