The eighth — and most likely final — meeting of the National Space Council under the Trump Administration will take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. at 12:30 p.m. EST. Vice President Mike Pence will chair the meeting. NASA TV will livestream it. The Trump Administration revived the National Space Council after a long period of non-existence. It’s not clear whether the Biden Administration will continue […]

New Ardoride vehicle will pave the way to regular rideshares to orbits beyond LEO

SANTA CLARA, Calif., December 01, 2020 (Momentus PR) — Momentus Inc. (“Momentus” or the “Company”), a commercial space company providing in-space infrastructure services, signed a deal with Canadensys Aerospace Corporation to deliver a payload to low lunar orbit (LLO). Canadensys will be the first customer to book Ardoride, Momentus’ next-generation rideshare service vehicle.

KENT, Wash. (Blue Origin PR) — Blue Origin today announced the formation of its Board of Advisors, which includes notable former government space leaders and industry executives. The Board will provide strategic counsel on the company’s mission to radically reduce the cost of access to space and the utilization of in-space resources. In doing so, the Board will further advance Blue Origin’s vision of millions of people living and working in space to benefit the Earth. 

High-power supercapacitors – already found within terrestrial electric cars, trains, lifts and cranes – are on their way to space.

PARIS (ESA PR) — An ESA-led project with Airbus Defence and Space developed and tested a supercapacitor design able to provide brief bursts of very high power levels to space missions as required. Potential uses might include operation of high-power satellite radar systems, to stabilise overall onboard power during solar eclipses or other such events or launcher thrust vectoring.

KOUROU, French Guiana (Arianespace PR) — Arianespace has successfully launched FalconEye, a very-high-performance Earth observation satellite for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces.

With the eighth launch in 2020, Arianespace once again confirms the reliability and flexibility of the Soyuz launcher, which just realized its 24th launch from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana.

Chairman who led the effort to kill net neutrality will depart with the Trump Administration and his massive coffee cup FCC approved constellations of thousands of satellites by SpaceX and Amazon under his leadership Official announcement from the FCC is below WASHINGTON, November 30, 2020 (FCC PR) —Today, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he intends to leave the Federal Communications Commission on January 20, 2021. Chairman Pai […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA will hold a media teleconference Thursday, Dec. 3, at 1 p.m. EST to announce the companies it has selected to collect lunar resources as part of the Artemis program. NASA’s Acting Associate Administrator for International and Interagency Relations Mike Gold and Director of Commercial Spaceflight Development Phil McAlister will provide an update on the selections and answer questions from the media. Audio of the teleconference will stream […]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

MOJAVE, Calif. — Virgin Orbit has set a window for its Launch Demo 2 mission. The primary date is Saturday, Dec. 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST. There is a similar backup launch window on Dec. 20.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (Virgin Galactic PR) — Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE), today announced its new flight window since it paused the spaceflight preparations in response to state guidelines from the New Mexico Department of Health to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The new flight window will open on December 11, pending good weather conditions and technical readiness. This flight expects to fulfill a number of objectives, including testing elements of the customer cabin as well as assessing the upgraded horizontal stabilizers and flight controls during boost. The flight will also carry payloads as part of the NASA Flight Opportunities Program.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla., November 30, 2020 (CASIS PR) – The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced a “Transport Phenomena” joint solicitation open to investigators interested in leveraging resources onboard the orbiting laboratory for research in the areas of fluid dynamics, particulate and multiphase processes, thermal transport, nanoscale interactions, and combustion and fire systems.

Up to $400,000 will be awarded for multiple research projects that will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory (NSF will award up to $3.6 million in total grant funding). CASIS is the organization responsible for managing the ISS National Lab through a Cooperative Agreement with NASA.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (NSF PR) — The instrument platform of the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico fell at approximately 7:55 a.m. Atlantic Standard Time Dec. 1, resulting in damage to the dish and surrounding facilities.

No injuries were reported as a result of the collapse. The U.S. National Science Foundation ordered the area around the telescope to be cleared of unauthorized personnel since the failure of a cable Nov. 6. Local authorities will keep the area cordoned off as engineers work to assess the stability of the observatory’s other structures.

BEIJING (CNSA PR) — At 23:11 on December 1, the Chang’e-5 probe successfully landed on the pre-selected landing area on the nearside of the moon at 51.8 degrees west longitude and 43.1 degrees north latitude, and returned the landing image. At 22:57 on December 1, the combination of Chang’e-5 lander and ascender began to perform a power drop from about 15 kilometers away from the moon surface. The 7,500 N […]