BRUSSELS (NATO PR) — At the 14 June Brussels Summit, NATO and Luxembourg signed a Joint Statement to develop a Strategic Space Situational Awareness System (3SAS) in the Situation Centre’s Geospatial Section at NATO HQ. With 6.7 Million Euro funding from Luxembourg, this capability will allow the Alliance to better understand space objects and space events, and their effects across all domains. The project will support the NATO’s Space Centre […]

Company finishes “Fingerspitzengefühl” launch campaign at Cape Canaveral for its international customers flying aboard Falcon 9

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 14, 2021 – Exolaunch, the leading launch, deployment and in-space transportation services provider in the NewSpace sector, has just completed its launch campaign named ‘Fingerspitzengefühl’* by integrating 29 small satellites from the USA, Europe and South America aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rideshare mission scheduled for June 2021. With a combined mass of close to one ton, Exolaunch doubles its mass capacity from SpaceX’s previous rideshare for small satellites, making ‘Fingerspitzengefühl’ its largest mission in terms of payload mass to date. This will also be one of the most diverse rideshare missions for the company bringing the total number of satellites launched by Exolaunch to 170.

Orbiter is contracted with SpaceX to Fly to Sun-Synchronous Orbit in October 2022

HAWTHORNE, Calif., June 16 2021 (Launcher PR) – Today, Launcher (launcherspace.com) announced Orbiter, its universal orbital transfer vehicle and satellite platform designed to be compatible with both Launcher Light and SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flights. Orbiter is interoperable with either launch vehicle via a common 24-inch ESPA Grande adapter ring and is contracted to make its inaugural flight to sun-synchronous orbit via SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission in October 2022.

Flight extends flawless record of Minotaur product line to 28 missions

WALLOPS, Va. – June 15, 2021 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) launched its Minotaur I rocket today at 9:35 a.m. EDT, successfully placing a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) payload into orbit. The Minotaur I was launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0B at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.

LONG BEACH, Calif.. June 15, 2021 (Rocket Lab PR) — Rocket Lab, a global leader in dedicated launch and space systems, has been awarded a contract to design two Photon spacecraft for a scientific mission to Mars.

The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, led by Rob Lillis at the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, is a twin-spacecraft science mission that will orbit two spacecraft around Mars to understand the structure, composition, variability, and dynamics of Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere. The mission will leverage its unique dual viewpoint on the Mars environment to explore how the solar wind strips atmosphere away from Mars to better understand how its climate has changed over time.

The former CEO of Alaska Aerospace Corporation will be leading Phantom’s ongoing launch developments, preparations, and executions.

TUCSON, Az. , June 15, 2021 (Phantom Space PR) – Phantom Space Corporation, the space transportation technology development and manufacturing company, today announced the hiring of Mark Lester. He will be fulfilling the role of Vice President of Launch Operations. This comes alongside the news of Phantom’s latest expansion: a new 32,000 square foot facility in Tucson, Arizona, that will serve as Phantom’s first rocket factory.

ICEYE’s persistent monitoring customers now have access to the world’s most comprehensive set of radar imaging capabilities.

HELSINKI, Finland (ICEYE PR) – Finnish New Space leader ICEYE announced today the commercial availability of wide area imaging capabilities covering 10,000 km² data acquisitions with its SAR (synthetic-aperture radar) satellite constellation. ICEYE is the only New Space SAR satellite provider to achieve wide-area Scan mode imaging, with up to a 100-times larger area coverage from the closest alternatives in the marketplace. Thanks to the completely unique system design of ICEYE’s SAR satellites, ICEYE is now able to provide the world’s single most comprehensive persistent monitoring capabilities both for land and sea data use cases.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — The top management of Glavkosmos (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) visited the Zvezda Research and Production Enterprise in Tomilino, Moscow Region. Representatives of Glavkosmos and the leadership of NPP Zvezda held substantive negotiations, during which they discussed work on the implementation of contracts for the manufacture of spacesuits, cradles and chairs for the Indian manned program, as well as the manufacture of appropriate equipment for participants […]

TOKYO (JAXA/Honda PR) — The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Honda R&D Co., Ltd. (Honda) today announced the plan to begin a joint feasibility study on a “circulative renewable energy system” in space, which is designed to supply oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity for human outposts and rovers. JAXA and Honda have been conducting a joint research on this system to create an environment in space where people can stay and conduct activities over an extended period of time.

NASA, in partnership with the National Space Grant Foundation, has selected six university teams to develop innovative design ideas that will help NASA advance and execute its Moon to Mars exploration objectives. 

The selections are a part of the 2022 Moon to Mars eXploration Systems and Habitation (M2M X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge, sponsored by NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) division. The winning teams will be given monetary awards ranging from $15,000-$50,000 to assist them in designing and producing studies, research findings, or functional products that could advance capabilities and lower technology risks related to NASA’s Moon to Mars space exploration missions. 

This year’s winning M2M X-Hab Challenge teams will design, manufacture, assemble, test, and demonstrate functional prototype subsystems and innovations that enable increased functionality for human space exploration missions in the following areas: 

This week on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston: Tuesday, June 15. 7 PM PST (9 PM CST; 10 PM EST): We welcome DR. KEVIN CANNON from the Colorado School of Mines to discuss lunar geology and more. Wednesday, June 16. Hotel Mars pre-recorded. See the Upcoming Show Menu at www.thespaceshow.com for details. Friday, June 18. 9:30-11 AM PST; 11:30 AM- 1 PM CST; 12:30-2 PM EST: We welcome […]

WASHINGTON (AFNS) — The U. S. Space Force successfully launched the Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) mission on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on June 13 at 4:11 a.m. EDT, delivering a technology demonstration satellite to Low Earth Orbit.

Pegasus, the world’s first privately-developed commercial space launch vehicle, is an air-launched threestaged rocket carried aloft by Northrop Grumman’s specially modified “Stargazer” L-1011 aircraft. Shortly after its release from Stargazer, at approximately 40,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, Pegasus ignited its first stage, beginning its successful flight carrying TacRL-2 to its intended orbit.