HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA will host a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT today, Friday, April 16, to announce the company or companies selected to move forward in developing a single-source contract to SpaceX to develop a modern human landing system (HLS) that will carry the next two American astronauts to the surface of the Moon and pave the way for sustainable lunar exploration under the Artemis program. Tune in […]

By Mikayla Mace Kelley
University of Arizona

TUCSON — Like boot prints on the Moon, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft left its mark on asteroid Bennu. Now, new images — taken during the spacecraft’s final fly-over on April 7 — reveal the aftermath of its historic encounter with the asteroid.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a nomination hearing at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 to consider the presidential nominations of Bill Nelson to be National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator and Lina Khan to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Witnesses: The Honorable Bill Nelson, to be National Aeronautics and Space Administration […]

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — The Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station has concluded, and teams are proceeding toward a planned liftoff at 6:11 a.m. EDT Thursday, April 22, from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Crew-2 mission astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, […]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

In a few short weeks, the International Space Station (ISS) will no longer be the only station in Earth orbit.

China plans to launch the Tianhe core module core module of its first permanent space station aboard a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. Spaceflight Now‘s launch calendar has the flight taking place on April 29.

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Phase II Award
Amount: $500,000

Kerry Nock
Global Aerospace Corporation
Irwindale, Calif.

If low approach velocities are desired for orbiters or landers, ballistic flight times to Pluto and other similar distant Kuiper Belt Object-like targets like Triton can be very long – a generation. Even so, the New Horizons (NH) flyby took nearly 10 years to reach Pluto with the help of a Jupiter gravity assist and still the approach velocity was about 14 km/s.

How can one land on or orbit Pluto in a reasonable mission time without many hundreds of millions of dollars in nuclear power sources for low-thrust propulsion, or an exotic propulsion system that could take decades and many millions of dollars to develop, or a next generation launch vehicle and a massive chemical propulsion system? Also, can a Pluto mission be accomplished under the aegis of a NASA New Frontiers Program?

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

This week, the space community marked two triumphant achievements, and dutifully ignored a third space-related anniversary that marked the darkest depths of depravity to which human beings can sink.

OTTAWA, CANADA, April 13, 2021 (Telesat Canada PR) – Telesat Canada (“Telesat”) today announced the pricing of an offering (the “Offering”) of US$500 million aggregate principal amount of 5.625% senior secured notes due 2026 (the “Senior Secured Notes”) by Telesat and Telesat LLC. The Senior Secured Notes will be secured by a first priority lien on the collateral that secures Telesat’s existing credit agreement and existing 4.875% senior secured notes due 2027. The Senior Secured Notes are expected to be issued on or around April 27, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.

Telesat intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to fund additional investment into one or more unrestricted subsidiaries for the development of Telesat Lightspeed, Telesat’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network, for the payment of fees and expenses related to the Offering, and if the funding needs of Telesat Lightspeed are less than currently anticipated, for general corporate purposes.

Boosting the positioning performance and real-time operability of the system

CANNES, April 15, 2021 (Thales Alenia Space PR) – Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), as prime contractor for Galileo First Generation’s Ground Mission Segment, has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of the European Commission in the Horizon 2020 Satellite Navigation Program (HSNAV), to develop the Advanced Orbit Determination and Time Synchronisation (ODTS) Algorithms Test Platform (A-OATP). This new contract will support the implementation and experimentation of the navigation algorithms that will be used for Galileo Second Generation.

A Note from Nanoracks CEO Jeffrey Manber

Dear Friends,
 
This is a short note to let you know that The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill, a new documentary on the life and impact of Gerard O’Neill will be premiering and out for viewing April 17^th. The attached information has additional details.

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts 2021 Phase II Award
Amount: $500,000

Jeffrey Balcerski
Ohio Aerospace Institute
Cleveland, Ohio

The LEAVES (Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric VEnus Sensors) architecture is a “swarm” approach to obtaining key, in situ, Venus atmospheric data for exceptionally low cost and risk. This is made possible by an ultra-lightweight, passively-lofted, inexpensive atmospheric sensor package that can be deployed directly from orbit without an aeroshell and is sensitive enough to yield valuable new, transformative information on planetary atmospheres.

The Kremlin-backed news channel RT reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off on a new space station called ROSS to replace an International Space Station (ISS) expected to suffer an “avalanche” of failures after 2025.