Mission success for Rocket Lab’s latest suborbital hypersonic launch – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2024-12-09 00:00
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. Successfully launched a suborbital mission in November to test hypersonic technology. This mission provided hypersonic test launch capabilities under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) project. The project aims to increase hypersonic flight testing for the United States in support of technology maturation.
Blue Ring Pathfinder payload ready for launch — Blue Origin’s New Glenn on track for this year – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2024-12-09 00:00
The pathfinder was developed by Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems business unit. NG-1 will carry the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload as part of the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Orbital Logistics prototype effort. The pathfinder will remain onboard New Glenn’s second stage for the duration of an expected six-hour mission.
Lockheed Martin’s newest tech demo for space connectivity is ready for launch – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2024-12-09 00:00
TacSat is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) spacecraft with a mission to prove specialized sensing and communications capabilities on-orbit. The satellite will participate in exercises next year that highlight cross-domain kill-. In an unceasingly complex battlespace, infrared sensing can be a decisive edge providing more complete situational awareness for allied forces.
Scotland loses a Spaceport – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2024-12-09 00:00
Orbex, a main contractor and backer of the Sutherland, Scotland spaceport is moving its activity to rival Scottish launch site at SaxaVord in the Shetland Isles. The decision means the Sutherland site on the A’Mhoine peninsula lies incomplete with a “floating road” over a peat bog stretching more than two kilometers but without launch facilities.
NASA awards contract for NOAA’s Next Generation Space Weather Program – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2024-12-09 00:00
The contract includes the development of two magnetometer instruments. The anticipated period of performance is from December 2024 through January 2034. The work will take place at the awardee’s facility in San Antonio, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
constellr’s multi-year contract with the German Space Agency to provide Earth Observation research – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2024-12-09 00:00
Constellr announces the signing of a multi-year contract with the German Space Agency. The agreement will see constellr provide the German Space Agency’s community in Earth Observation research with access to its high-resolution thermal data. The data will enable researchers to analyze crop health, understand urban heat islands, and study climate change impacts with unprecedented clarity and detail.
NASA’s update on Artemis missions, heat shield investigation findings – SatNews
Original Publication Date: 2024-12-09 00:00
Artemis I heat shield, which protects the capsule during re-entry, experienced unexpected material loss. NASA determined the cause was insufficient gas release from the Avcoat material, leading to cracking and detachment. Artemis II will carry four astronauts, including Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day mission around the Moon.
NASA Eyes Launching SPHEREx Sky-Mapping Mission in Early 2025
NASA and SpaceX are targeting late February 2025 for the launch of the agency’s next astrophysics observatory, SPHEREx. About the size of a subcompact car, SPHEREx will enter a polar orbit around Earth and create a map of the entire sky in 3D.
NASA’s PACE, US-European SWOT Satellites Offer Combined Look at Ocean
NASA's Earth System Observatory and PACE missions provide data on phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean. Overlapping data enables a better understanding of the connections between ocean dynamics and aquatic ecosystems. Integrating these kinds of datasets also helps to improve calculations of how much carbon is exchanged between the atmosphere and the ocean.
NASA Researchers Discover More Dark Comets
Dark comets are celestial objects that look like an asteroid but move through space like a comet. They fall into two distinct populations: larger ones that reside in the outer solar system and smaller ones in the inner solar system. Scientists got their first inkling that dark comets exist when they noted that the trajectory of “asteroid” 2003 RM had moved ever so slightly from its expected orbit.
Leader of NASA’s VERITAS Mission Honored With AGU’s Whipple Award
Smrekar’s passion for modeling and studying how rocky planets evolve led her to a previous stint as deputy principal investigator of NASA’s Mars InSight mission. Managed by JPL, VERITAS will study the planet in concert with NASA’s DAVINCI mission, which is also launching in the early 2030s.