Japan’s SLIM Spacecraft is Set to Attempt a Soft-Landing on the Moon
Japan’s SLIM spacecraft is gearing up for its soft-landing on the lunar surface Friday morning, a milestone that would make the country the fifth to achieve the feat.
Space-Based Solar Project Completes its Mission
The concept that we could beam unlimited, concentrated solar energy from space down to Earth via microwaves has piqued the interest of scientists for decades. Until recently, though, space-based solar power was purely theoretical.
UKSA and CSA Announce Aqualunar Challenge
Nations around the world are racing to find, land near, and utilize water ice on the lunar surface. That race just got a little more interesting.
Artemis III Could Face Further Delays, Watchdogs Say
One week after NASA announced new launch dates for two upcoming Artemis missions, officials were already saying that the agency may not be able to stick to the new schedule.
Impulse Space is Making a Very Big Kick Stage
The man who built the Falcon 9’s Merlin engine is back with a new vehicle that aims to make reaching geostationary orbits cheaper.
SDA Awards Tranche 2 Tracking Layer Contracts
The Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded another batch of big ticket contracts yesterday to the three companies that will build the Tranche 2 Tracking Layer of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
The Future of CRSRA With Its New Director
The commercial remote sensing industry is showing no signs of slowing down, and the new head of the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs division wants to make sure the government can keep up.
Exclusive: Apex Completes Ultra-Fast Satellite Qualification
LA-based satellite manufacturer Apex Space Systems has assembled, integrated, and tested its first satellite bus less than a year after beginning the design process.
Private Space Firms Had Their Worst Fundraising in a Decade
Private space companies raised $17.9B last year—a 25% reduction from 2022 and the lowest in ten years, according to a report released today by venture fund Space Capital.
NASA Nixes Solar Power From Space (At Least For Now)
The dream of using solar panels in space to deliver electricity to the Earth below has animated engineers for 80+ years, but even with the falling cost of space access, we’re still far from solving the climate change problem with orbital power plants.
ESA’s 2024 Budget Rises 10% to €7.8B
The European Space Agency budget will increase this year by 10% to €7.8B ($8.5B), the agency announced at its annual press briefing yesterday.
Orphaned Stars Mapped to their Parents
Despite the millennia humanity has spent looking up at the stars and pondering their existence, and despite all the fancy tools we’ve dreamed up and built to help clarify the cosmos, the precise process of star formation is still an enigma—let alone the details of the rest of the long, slow lifetime of any individual star.
