Space News for Wednesday, December 07, 2022

Orion swings by the moon on its way back to Earth Original Publication Date: 2022-12-06 10:14 NASA's Orion spacecraft flew by the moon for a second and final time Dec. 5. The maneuver sets up the spacecraft for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in six days. Orion, which launched nearly three ...

Space News for Saturday, November 26, 2022

Orion enters lunar distant retrograde orbit Original Publication Date: 2022-11-25 23:44 Orion spacecraft fired main engine in its European Service Module at 4:52 p.m. Eastern. The maneuver changed the velocity of the spacecraft by about 110 meters per second. Orion will perform a maneuver Dec. ...

Space News for Friday, November 11, 2022

Atlas 5 launches weather satellite, reentry tech demo mission Original Publication Date: 2022-11-10 11:37 The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 401 lifted off at 4:49 a.m. Eastern Nov. 10. A problem loading liquid oxygen in the rocket’s Centaur upper stage delayed the liftoff by 24 minutes. JPSS-2 ...

Space News for Wednesday, November 09, 2022

Intelsat orders small GEO satellite from 3D printing specialist Original Publication Date: 2022-11-07 20:34 Swissto12 has sold its first small satellite to Intelsat for a launch in 2025. Intelsat 45 (IS-45) will be based on Swissto12’s HummingSat satellite platform. At about the size of a ...

Space News for Friday, November 04, 2022

FCC proposes new bureau for space activities Original Publication Date: 2022-11-03 15:04 FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announces plans to reorganize agency. She wants to create a bureau devoted to the commission's increasing work with space systems. Announcement comes as some in the ...

Space News for Wednesday, November 02, 2022

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches first U.S. national security mission Original Publication Date: 2022-11-01 15:01 USSF-44 was SpaceX’s 50th launch of 2022. USSF-44 was a direct-to-geostationary orbit launch. It carried two Space Force satellites and small rideshare payloads. Both side boosters ...

Space News for Tuesday, November 01, 2022

Final module docks at China’s Tiangong space station Original Publication Date: 2022-10-31 21:02 Mengtian is a 17.9-meter-long, 4.2-meter-diameter and roughly 22-ton module. It joins two earlier modules: the Tianhe core module and Wentian experiment module. China plans to keep Tiangong occupied ...

Space News for Monday, October 31, 2022

Perseverance to establish sample cache for later return to Earth Original Publication Date: 2022-10-31 11:18 NASA and the European Space Agency have selected a location on Mars to cache samples. It's one step in the overall process of returning those samples to Earth. The sample cache is part ...

Space News for Friday, October 28, 2022

As clock ticks on Amazon’s constellation, buying Starship launches not out of the question Original Publication Date: 2022-10-27 18:27 Amazon's Project Kuiper needs half of its internet constellation operating by July 2026. Most of the rockets that are under contract to launch these satellites ...

Space News for Saturday, October 15, 2022

DoD eyeing options to provide satcom in Ukraine as it continues talks with SpaceX Original Publication Date: 2022-10-15 17:01 Pentagon says it is looking at options to provide satellite communications services for Ukraine. Deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh declined to comment on substance of ...