WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — On Friday, NASA celebrated the agency’s first African American female engineer, Mary W. Jackson, with a ceremony to formally name the agency’s headquarters building in Washington in her honor.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — Four advanced space concepts from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been selected to receive grants for further research and development.

TUCSON, Ariz. (Paragon Space Development Corporation PR) — Paragon Space Development Corporation (Paragon) is excited to announce that its latest life support technology was launched aboard Northrop Grumman’s 15th commercial resupply services mission (NG CRS-15) which arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday.  Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft successfully launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Saturday, February 20^th with over 8,000 pounds of scientific equipment and experiments and cargo aboard. 

Paragon’s Brine Processor System is a key part of the overall Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), which protects, preserves and promotes human life.  Paragon’s brine processing technology – which is vital to generating water for the crew of a spacecraft, space station or potential transport to or habitation on the Moon or Mars – represents a ground-breaking innovation that will be critical to long-duration human spaceflight missions.

The aerospace division of the Japanese trading company will promote and sell D-Orbit’s products and services in Japan and other geographic areas strategic for the space logistics company’s market expansion.

FINO MORNASCO, Italy — D-Orbit S.p.A, a space logistics company headquartered in Italy, and Marubeni, a Japanese diversified trading conglomerate, signed a commercial partnership that will enable D-Orbit to expand its sales network worldwide.

According to the agreement, Marubeni will promote and sell the entire catalog of D-Orbit’s solutions in Japan and other strategic markets where the space company aims to broaden its reach.

BRAMPTON, Ont. (MDA PR) — MDA is pleased to announce the appointment of Vito Culmone as the company’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mr. Culmone will play an integral role on the executive team with his deep expertise in finance leadership and strategic planning. He will assume his new position at MDA in early March.

Mr. Culmone brings 30 years of financial and operational expertise to MDA, having served as CFO for the last 14 years in a number of large publicly traded Canadian companies in a diverse range of sectors. He has a proven track record with a focus on building sustained shareholder value.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA has selected Astra Space Inc. to provide a launch service for the agency’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats (TROPICS) mission. The TROPICS mission consists of a constellation of six CubeSats and will increase the scientific community’s understanding of storm processes. The launch service contract for the TROPICS mission is a firm fixed-price contract valued at $7.95 million. […]

BRAMPTON, Ont. (MDA PR) — MDA today announced that it has been awarded a three-year contract with the Government of Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Defence Research and Development Canada to use satellite technology to detect vessels engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The contract will run for a period of three years.

The Dark Vessel Detection (DVD) program uses satellite technology to locate and track vessels that have switched off their location transmitting devices in an attempt to evade monitoring, control and surveillance.

PARIS (CNES PR) — The joint innovation team of CNES and ArianeGroup tested the first elements of the future Themis demonstrator in 2020. The project is gaining momentum in 2021, when the ArianeWorks device has entered its second phase.

For ArianeWorks , the joint innovation accelerator created by CNES and ArianeGroup to work on the launchers of the future, season 2 has just started. At the end of the 18-month pilot phase, and in view of the positive results of the first achievements, the mechanism was extended for a further 18-month period with increased resources and renewed support from external partners. 

BAIKONUR COSMODROME (Roscosmos PR) — The developer of the ELSA-d spacecraft, Astroscale, continues to work on site No. 92 of the Baikonur cosmodrome in preparation for the upcoming launch. At the moment, the software, solar batteries and their opening mechanisms have been successfully tested, the on-board batteries are charged, the electrical checks of the apparatus have been completed.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under a grant from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, is running a public challenge to develop an obstacle avoidance sensor for a possible future Venus rover. The “Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover” challenge is seeking the public’s designs for a sensor that could be incorporated into the design concept.

SWINDON, UK (UK Space Agency PR) — After a seven-month journey, NASA’s car-sized Mars Perseverance rover will make its final descent to the Red Planet to begin its search for traces of life.

The rover’s mission – backed by the UK government – is to explore and collect samples for future return to Earth from diverse ancient environments on Mars. Supported by over £400,000 in funds from the UK Space Agency, researchers at Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum will help to decide which samples are sent to Earth in a search for evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars.

• Rollout of Second Spaceship Scheduled to Take Place on March 30
• Announced Expected Timing of Revenue-Generating Flight with the Italian Air Force
• Next Rocket-Powered Spaceflight Targeted to Occur in May

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (Virgin Galactic PR) — Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) (“Virgin Galactic” or the “Company”), a vertically integrated aerospace and space travel company, today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020.