Space

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

Pence: “The next year is going to be a busy year and we are going to see literally thousands of Air Force personnel move into the Space Force.” WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 14 administered the oath of office to Gen. John “Jay” Raymond as the first chief of space operations for

BOSTON – Anyone who thinks the international weather community has given up the fight to protect key portions of the radio frequency spectrum from 5G interference is mistaken. After losing a battle at the International Telecommunication Union’s World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 in Egypt, meteorologists, atmospheric scientists, aerospace engineers and radio frequency experts met at the

BOSTON – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is preparing to update its aging space weather fleet with instruments to gather imagery of coronal mass ejection and monitor solar winds. Congress provided NOAA funding in the 2020 budget for Space Weather Follow On (SWFO), a satellite destined for Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 1. The Commerce Department also

BOSTON – The U.S. Air Force is turning increasingly to U.S. government, industry, academia and international partners for help gathering and making sense of terrestrial and space weather data, Air Force officials said Jan. 13 at the American Meteorological Society annual meeting here. “We are reaching out to the broader community, both in the U.S.

WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic is making progress in the development of its next SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, although the company is saying little about when its existing SpaceShipTwo will be ready to resume test flights. In a Jan. 8 statement, Virgin Galactic announced that the next SpaceShipTwo vehicle achieved a milestone called “weight on wheels,” where

WASHINGTON — SpaceX performed a successful static-fire test Jan. 11 of the Falcon 9 booster that will launch a Crew Dragon spacecraft on a test of its abort system. The Falcon 9 first stage that will be used for the in-flight abort test fired its nine main engines in the test shortly at 10 a.m.

The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center earlier this month hosted one-on-one meetings with executives from 30 companies from across the space industry. This was the start of a multiyear market study that will influence Air Force (and Space Force) spending on private sector technologies and services over the coming decade. The market study

Stopher will be a senior fellow at the Prague Security Studies Institute’s space security program WASHINGTON — Former principal assistant to the secretary of the U.S. Air Force for space policy John Stopher has joined the Prague Security Studies Institute as a senior fellow in the space security program. “Stopher will provide expertise on American

A three-year research and development agreement was signed July 10, but AFRL did not disclose it until Jan. 9 at the company’s request WASHINGTON — The Air Force Research Laboratory announced Jan. 9 that it signed an agreement with small launch startup ABL Space Systems to jointly develop and test rocket propulsion components for future

HONOLULU — A team led by Dynetics that includes Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is among the bidders for a NASA program to develop landers that will carry astronauts to the surface of the moon. In a Jan. 9 conference call with reporters to discuss their company’s plans for the upcoming year, executives with SNC’s space

This article originally appeared in the Dec. 11, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine. Jim Morhard may be a newcomer to space, but not to astronauts. The NASA deputy administrator often tells the story of how, as a six-year-old in Arlington, Virginia, he and his older brother knocked on the door of a famous neighbor. “He

Technology entrepreneur Ben Lamm outlines three space opportunities for budding founders not interested in building hardware. I did not start out as a space entrepreneur — in fact, I know almost no one who has. Instead, I created and sold four other companies in different industries before I got into the space business. Yet, in

WASHINGTON — Hispasat purchased a satellite from Thales Alenia Space Jan. 10, marking the operator’s first satellite order since being acquired by Spanish power company Red Eléctrica last year.  Thales Alenia Space will build a new satellite called Amazonas Nexus, designed with Ku-band coverage over both American continents, plus Greenland and North Atlantic transportation routes.

SAN FRANCISCO – The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology approved legislation to coordinate federal government space weather research, forecasting and operations with input from academia, commercial firms and groups affected by space weather. The legislation, Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act, was introduced in

Walker replaces Keoki Jackson, who will become Lockheed Martin’s chief engineer WASHINGTON — Former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Steven Walker has been named vice president and chief technology officer of Lockheed Martin Corp. effective Jan. 13. Steven Walker. Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Michael Pausic Walker replaces Keoki Jackson, who

HONOLULU — The first core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System finally rolled out of its factory Jan. 8, ready to be shipped to a NASA center for a key series of tests in the coming months. The core stage of the SLS rolled out of the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, accompanied by

HELSINKI — Chinese private space launch firm Galactic Energy has raised $21.5 million for the development and launch of new rockets. The round was led by Puhua Capital and Huaqiang Capital with six further investors. The funding was secured in October and announced by Galactic Energy late December (Chinese). The funds will be used for

HONOLULU — SpaceX says it’s committed to working with the astronomy community to address the brightness of its Starlink satellites, but some astronomers remain concerned about the deleterious effect that system and other megaconstellations will have on their field. One of the 60 satellites in the latest Starlink launch Jan. 6 featured an experimental coating

To receive FIRST UP Satcom, a weekly SpaceNews newsletter for satellite and telecom professionals, sign up here. TOP STORIES Thales Alenia Space and its majority shareholder Thales Group have signed a study contract with the French defense procurement agency DGA to evaluate the use of a Stratobus-type airship for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applications. The study contract

HONOLULU — As one astronomy cubesat reaches the end of its mission, scientists and NASA officials argue that such spacecraft have demonstrated they can perform useful science often not feasible with larger missions. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced Jan. 3 that it had lost contact with the Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics, or

HONOLULU — NASA and Boeing will cooperate on an investigation into a timer anomaly that cut short December’s uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft as NASA weighs whether to require another such test flight. In a Jan. 7 statement, NASA said the agency and Boeing were establishing a “joint, independent investigation team” to

Arianespace will launch ESA’s Euclid mission to explore the dark universe in mid-2022 on a Ariane 62 or Soyuz rocket. HELSINKI – Arianespace and the European Space Agency announced the signing of a contract Tuesday for launch of the Euclid dark universe exploration mission. Euclid will be compatible with both the Ariane 62 and Soyuz

WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched 60 of its own Starlink broadband satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket Jan. 6, becoming the operator of the world’s largest commercial satellite constellation.  The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 9:19 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on SpaceX’s first launch of the year. The company’s 60 Starlink satellites, built

Today, the military services compete for talent at a disadvantage due to limited public awareness of military space programs. The creation of the United States Space Force demonstrates a national leadership emphasis on the importance of the space domain to military operations. In order to meet Space Force personnel requirements, the Air Force will have

WASHINGTON — MethaneSAT, a subsidiary of the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, has selected Blue Canyon Technologies to supply the platform for its donor-funded satellite.  MethaneSAT said Jan. 6 it will use X-SAT, Blue Canyon’s largest offered spacecraft bus, to carry a methane-detection payload from Ball Aerospace. The nonprofit hopes to launch the 350-kilogram satellite in

HONOLULU — A NASA Earth science hosted payload mission to study the planet’s carbon cycle has been confirmed for development, although exactly when and how it will fly have yet to be determined. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced in a Dec. 28 tweet that the GeoCarb mission had passed its confirmation review. “The innovative GeoCarb