Science Streets

SAN FRANCISCO – Capella Space unveiled the new design Jan. 21 for its Whitney constellation of seven synthetic aperture radar satellites scheduled to launch in 2020. Weighing in at 100 kilograms, the new satellites are about twice the size of Denali, Capella’s 48-kilogram technology demonstration spacecraft launched in December 2018. “We spent a lot of

The agency issued a broad area announcement on “National Defense Space Architecture Systems, Technologies and Emerging Capabilities.” WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency is soliciting pitches for technologies that will be used to build a network of satellites in low Earth orbit that would help the military find targets on the ground and track

SAN FRANCISCO – Made In Space is moving its corporate headquarters from Mountain View, California, to Jacksonville, Florida. The company founded in Mountain View in 2010 established a presence in Jacksonville in 2015 and a partnership with Space Florida in 2017. Since then, Space Florida has provided financing to help the commercial space startup expand

Named “Birds of a Feather,” the mission is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand as early as Jan. 31. WASHINGTON — Small satellite launch services provider Rocket Lab announced Jan. 20 that its Electron vehicle’s first mission of 2020 will be for the National Reconnaissance Office. Named “Birds

ARLINGTON, Va. — A consortium established last year to develop a rating to measure how well satellites comply with space sustainability guidelines expects to have an initial version of its rating system ready by late this year or early next year. The World Economic Forum (WEF) announced in May 2019 it selected a group that

HELSINKI — U.S. and Chinese officials are working towards meeting for a bilateral Civil Space Dialogue around March in the first such discussion since 2017. “The U.S. and China were not able to schedule a Civil Space Dialogue in 2019, but are in the planning stage for the U.S. to host the Dialogue during the

WASHINGTON — NASA will decide in the coming weeks whether to extend a crewed SpaceX test flight to the International Space Station, a move that could help alleviate a crew time crunch on the station. A successful in-flight abort test of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Jan. 19 makes it increasingly likely that that the spacecraft

WASHINGTON — SpaceX successfully tested the abort system of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, one of the final milestones before the vehicle is cleared to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. A Falcon 9 carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:30 a.m. Eastern, one

HELSINKI — China carried out its second orbital launch in just over 24 hours late Wednesday, sending the Yinhe-1 commercial 5G satellite into low Earth orbit. A Kuaizhou-1A solid launch vehicle lifted off from a mobile platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 10:02 p.m. Eastern.  Aboard was the 227-kilogram Yinhe–1

WASHINGTON — The government of Luxembourg has invested in a new fund intended to support space startups in the country, a move that will be one of the last for the country’s most prominent backer of the industry. Étienne Schneider, deputy prime minister of Luxembourg and the country’s economy minister, said Jan. 16 that the

Space Force members will wear a full color flag on the left arm, whereas members of the U.S. Air Force wear a spice brown flag on the right arm. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force on Friday revealed the nameplates that airmen who are assigned to the Space Force will wear over their existing utility

WASHINGTON — European launch provider Arianespace completed its first launch of the year Jan. 16, sending two communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbits.  The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Center at 4:05 p.m. Eastern with the 3,600-kilogram Eutelsat Konnect satellite and the 3,400-kilogram GSAT-30 satellite.  Eutelsat Konnect separated from the rocket’s

WASHINGTON — A Eutelsat Communications satellite that launched in October will enter service this month with only 45% of its intended capacity due to an unusable solar array, Eutelsat said Jan. 17.  Eutelsat said an investigation into the Eutelsat 5 West B satellite concluded that one of its two solar arrays was unusable, reducing power

WASHINGTON — NASA and SpaceX are ready to perform a test of the launch abort system of the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft that will also serve as a dress rehearsal of sorts for upcoming crewed flights of the vehicle. At a Jan. 17 briefing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, officials with NASA and SpaceX said

WASHINGTON — SpinLaunch, a startup pursuing an alternative approach for placing payloads into orbit, has raised $35 million in a new funding round disclosed Jan. 16. The company, headquartered in Long Beach, California, said the new round featured several funds that included Airbus Ventures, the venture capital arm of aerospace company Airbus. Other investors include

In an exclusive interview, Gen. John Raymond, the first chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, talks about the initial steps in organizing the new service. WASHINGTON — The United States’ first chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force is still wearing his U.S. Air Force uniform. “But I’m not in the

WASHINGTON — Space startups are becoming more acquainted with the U.S. government as a customer and an investor, though the pathways to both remain difficult, a panel of experts said Jan. 14.  “2019 was the year of government,” Carissa Christensen, CEO of analyst firm Bryce Space & Technology, said at a Washington Space Business Roundtable

WASHINGTON — With its funding secured for the next three years, the head of the European Space Agency is now focused on implementing those key programs while establishing a new cooperative agreement with the European Union. At a press briefing Jan. 15 at ESA’s Paris headquarters, ESA Director General Jan Woerner reviewed the outcome of

BOSTON – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks to dramatically increase the supply of radio occultation soundings it feeds into weather forecast models. NOAA currently obtains slightly more than 2,000 soundings daily from its own satellites and those of its international partners. The agency has a target of acquiring 20,000 soundings per day, Steve

A study by the Aerospace Corporation says ending the New START Treaty could destabilize outer space. WASHINGTON — The military and intelligence community’s space agencies may have to cope with growing instability in outer space if the United States and Russia don’t renew the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) that is set

BOSTON – Spire Global shared early data from new Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Reflectometry cubesats at the American Meteorological Society conference here. Spire launch two GNSS Reflectometry cubesats Dec. 11 on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The spacecraft, equipped with bistatic radars to observe how GNSS signals scatter after bouncing off Earth surface

Ellen Lord: A reorganization of the U.S. Space Force’s acquisition bureaucracy should not harm space programs WASHINGTON — In the legislation that creates the U.S. Space Force, Congress has directed a major reorganization of the office that manages the acquisition of space systems. Although it could take some time to figure out the details of