Editor’s Note: Engineers appear to have worked out problems with the engine on the new Nauka science module heading for a docking with the International Space Station next week. MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — On Thursday, July 22, 2021, specialists of the flight control group of the multipurpose module Nauka in the Moscow Region Mission Control Center conducted two corrective maneuvers of the module launched the day before to the International […]

WALLOPS, Va. (NASA PR) — NASA is inviting the public to take part in virtual activities and events ahead of the launch of Northrop Grumman’s 16th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station for NASA.

Members of the public can register to attend the launch virtually. NASA’s virtual guest program for NG CRS-16 includes curated launch resources, notifications about interaction opportunities, and a virtual guest passport stamp following a successful launch.

Northrop Grumman is targeting liftoff of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft for no earlier than 5:55 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 10, from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA is making final preparations for its Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock, which future planned missions will transport to Earth. The six-wheeled geologist is searching for a scientifically interesting target in a part of Jezero Crater called the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough.”

Three papers published today share new details on the crust, mantle, and molten core of the Red Planet.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — Before NASA’s InSight spacecraft touched down on Mars in 2018, the rovers and orbiters studying the Red Planet concentrated on its surface. The stationary lander’s seismometer has changed that, revealing details about the planet’s deep interior for the first time.

The Kymeta™ u8 terminal is the first and only terminal available today capable of establishing COTM and COTP with LEO and GEO constellations

REDMOND, Wash. (Kymeta PR) — Kymeta, the communications company making mobile global, announced today seamless interoperability between the Kymeta™ u8 terminal, Kepler Communications low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and geostationary (GEO) SATCOM terminals at an annual military battle lab exercise focused on the integration of operations, intelligence, and technology.

PARIS (ESA PR) — A sophisticated telecommunications satellite capable of being completely repurposed in orbit has been fuelled ready for its launch on 30 July.

Developed under an ESA Partnership Project called Quantum, the satellite is pioneering a new generation of fully reconfigurable satellites that can respond while in orbit to changing demands on Earth during their 15-year lifetimes.

FRASCATI, Italy (ESA PR) — ESA will further increase the competitiveness and environmental sustainability of Europe’s Vega launch system beyond 2025 through a contract signed with Avio in Italy.

Vega operates from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana to launch light satellites to one or multiple orbits in a single launch. This contract takes Vega a step further and marks the start of a new phase in preparation of a new Vega launch vehicle called Vega-E, which will make extensive use of Vega-C building blocks.

PHOENIX (ASU PR) — Arizona State University is partnering with Intuitive Machines on a mini extreme mobility lunar vehicle, called Micro-Nova, that will hop around the moon’s surface and take the first-ever pictures inside craters close to the lunar south pole.

On July 16, 2021, NASA awarded the project a $41.6 million “Tipping Point” contract to develop, fly and operate a deployable lunar “hopper lander” on the moon. For this mission design, Micro-Nova can carry a 1-kilogram payload more than 2.5 kilometers to access lunar craters and enable high-resolution surveying of the lunar surface under the flight path.

Russia’s new ISS science module Nauka ran into trouble after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday. A number of anomalies have popped up; the most serious issue at the moment appears to be with the Nauka‘s engine, which is needed to maneuver the module for a docking with the International Space Station. Roscosmos has been of no help in sorting out the reports. The Russian corporation in charge of […]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

FAA Associate Administrator Wayne Monteith has issued an order laying out requirements for the awarding of Commercial Space Astronaut Wings for trips to space and honorary astronaut wings to those who have advanced the field.

This is a trailer for “The Problem with Jon Stewart,’ a new program that will debut in September.

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — On July 21, 2021 at 17: 58: 24.938  Moscow time, the launch vehicle “Proton-M” with the multipurpose laboratory module “Nauka” was launched from the launcher No. 39 of the launch pad No. 200 of the Baikonur cosmodrome. According to the received telemetric information, all stages of the launch vehicle flight (separation of stages and dumping of the nose fairing flaps) passed in the normal mode.