WASHINGTON — As Astra prepares for another launch attempt of its small launch vehicle, the company is facing a lawsuit from another company with a similar name. Astra announced Aug. 26 that it will make another attempt to launch its Rocket 3.1 vehicle from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island on Aug. 30.…
There’s some spaceflight action on tap early Thursday morning (Aug. 27). A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch the NROL-44 spy satellite at 2:12 a.m. EDT (0612 GMT). You can watch that liftoff here when the time comes, courtesy of ULA. Coverage begins at 1:52 a.m. EDT (0552 GMT).…
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — United Launch Alliance (ULA) is gearing up to launch its mightiest candle in the fleet of rockets: the Delta IV Heavy. The behemoth is set to blast off on Thursday (Aug. 27) at 2:12 a.m. EDT (0612 GMT), carrying with it a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, and you can…
Former NASA astronaut Gerald “Jerry” Carr, who in 1973 led the record-setting, final mission on the first U.S. space station, Skylab, has died at the age of 88. Carr’s death was confirmed by his family on Wednesday (Aug. 26) in a statement shared by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. “Throughout his life and career, Jerry Carr…
WASHINGTON — A new report offers ways both astronomers and satellite developers can reduce the effect megaconstellations have on ground-based astronomy, but warned that no combination of measures can entirely eliminate the problem. The report released Aug. 25 by the American Astronomical Society and the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab,…
To receive FIRST UP Satcom, a weekly SpaceNews newsletter for satellite and telecom professionals, sign up here. TOP STORIES Three Hungarian companies are forming a joint venture to launch the country’s first geostationary communications satellite in 2024. IT and communications company 4iG, TV and radio broadcast company Antenna Hungária, and international relations specialist New Space Industries, plan…
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) spend most of their days in the relatively safe environment of the orbiting spacecraft. But occasionally, astronauts must face the deadly rapture of space for hours, with only the thin protection of their spacesuits between them and the frigid vacuum. These jaunts are known as spacewalks. Spacewalks were…
WASHINGTON — The 45th Space Wing that oversees the space launch ranges in Florida will no longer be a wing, it will be a space delta. To create its own identity separate from the Air Force, the Space Force is naming its units deltas. The delta wing is the symbol the service adopted for its…
The United Arab Emirates’ first-ever interplanetary mission is well on its way to Mars and has the photos to prove it. The UAE’s Hope probe launched from Japan toward Mars on July 19, representing the first time an Arab nation has gone beyond Earth’s orbit. Now, the spacecraft is already one fifth of the way…
SAN FRANCISCO – Morpheus Space attracted a high-profile group of investors for its first venture capital round. The German propulsion startup received investments from Germany’s Vsquared Ventures, Lavrock Ventures of MacLean, Virginia, Airbus Ventures of Menlo Park, California, In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the U.S. intelligence community, Pallas Ventures and Techstars Ventures. Morpheus Space…
A unique satellite has joined the fleet of orbital eyes keeping watch over Hurricane Laura as it approaches the Gulf Coast. The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 is a crowdfunded solar sail that launched in June 2019 to test whether a satellite could successfully orbit Earth for a year powered only by the sun’s rays. It…
You’re reading SN Military Space, a weekly newsletter for national security space professionals. To get these insights on Tuesday morning, sign up for a free subscription. Today’s briefing• U.S. Space Force trying to stay lean • 2021 Space Pitch Day planned for spring • SPACECOM not moving for six to eight years NO BIG BUREAUCRACY…
We’re all familiar with Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a reboot of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Journey, which was originally broadcast in the 1980s. Now thanks to Celestron there’s a telescope in association with the TV series, offering skywatchers the chance to make their own tours of the universe. The Celestron Cosmos…
Space fans are in for a treat later this week. Four missions are scheduled to launch from Thursday to Sunday (Aug. 27 to Aug. 30), three of them from Florida’s Space Coast. The action begins Thursday at 2:12 a.m. EDT (0612 GMT), when a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will loft the U.S. National…
Huge constellations of internet satellites could fundamentally change how astronomers study the night sky and how the rest of us experience it, a new report finds. The potential impacts of megaconstellations in low Earth orbit (LEO), such as SpaceX’s Starlink network, “are estimated to range from negligible to extreme,” according to a report from the…
Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of “How to Die in Space.” He contributed this article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. White dwarfs are some of the strangest objects in the universe. The leftover cores…
WASHINGTON — Despite a weather-related pause in testing work, NASA still hopes to complete the Green Run test of the Space Launch System core stage in October, keeping its first launch on track for late next year. NASA said Aug. 24 that it suspended work on the SLS core stage at the Stennis Space Center…
WASHINGTON — For the first time since 2001, Cape Canaveral will attempt to launch three rockets over three days. Scheduled for Aug. 27 is a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy National Reconnaissance Office mission. On Aug. 28 a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the SAOCOM 1B satellite for Argentina’s space agency followed by…
WASHINGTON — A NASA astronaut dropped from a mission to the International Space Station more than two years ago will get a second opportunity as part of a Boeing commercial crew mission. NASA announced Aug. 25 that Jeanette Epps had been assigned to the first operational CST-100 Starliner mission to the station. She joins NASA…
The most massive stars in the universe are born inside cosmic clouds of gas and dust, where they leave behind clues about their lives for astronomers to decode. The nebula known as W51 is one of the most active star-forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy. First identified in 1958 by radio telescopes, it makes…