WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin will acquire the satellite technology assets of Vector by default after a bankruptcy court received no qualified bids by a deadline last week. In a Feb. 24 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, lawyers overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings for Vector said that they received no […]
This article originally appeared in the Jan. 20, 2020 issue of SpaceNews magazine. It was updated Feb. 26 to reflect OneWeb and SpaceX launches that have happened since. In 2019, the U.S. Space Force was formally established, NASA received a 2024 deadline for returning Americans to the moon, and private companies the world over raised […]
WASHINGTON — The Japanese space agency JAXA hopes to have an agreement in place outlining its contributions to NASA’s lunar exploration efforts in the next few months. In a Jan. 24 presentation at the Washington office of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Yoshikazu Shoji, director of the international relations and research department at JAXA, said […]
KONA, Hawaii — An all-female crew of analog astronauts have “returned to Earth,” completing a two-week mission in a mock Mars habitat on the big island of Hawaii. Six scientists entered the HI-SEAS habitat (the name is short for Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) — an analog Mars base for human researchers that sits […]
NASA astronaut Christina Koch has smashed another gender barrier. Koch recently surpassed her 300th consecutive day in space, which is the longest for any woman — and she’s still got several weeks of orbital work to go. This milestone represents only some of the notable recent work for the 40-year-old astronaut, who is still on […]
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 […]
With some blockbuster space missions under way, 2019 saw some amazing images beamed back to Earth from around the Solar System. Meanwhile, some of our most powerful telescopes were trained on the Universe’s most fascinating targets. Here are a few of the best. Up in the clouds Nasa’s Juno spacecraft has been sending back stunning […]
SANTA FE, N.M. — A revamped NASA mission to search for near Earth objects from space has secured funding to start development as the agency works out details about how it will be managed. The fiscal year 2020 “minibus” spending bill signed into law by President Trump Dec. 20 that provides $22.63 billion for NASA […]
Starliner just took a big step toward Friday’s critical test flight. Boeing’s Starliner astronaut taxi is on the launch pad. The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying Starliner rolled out to the pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex-41 early this morning (Dec. 18), riding a mobile launch platform 1,800 […]
Juno has now spotted seven giant cyclones near Jupiter’s south pole. SAN FRANCISCO — NASA’s Juno probe discovered a giant new storm swirling near Jupiter’s south pole last month, a few weeks after pulling off a dramatic death-dodging maneuver. Juno spied the newfound maelstrom, which is about as wide as Texas, on Nov. 3, during […]