SPARKS, Nev., November 05, 2020 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the global aerospace and national security company owned by Eren and Fatih Ozmen, today announced that former NASA Glenn Research Center Director and astronaut Janet Kavandi, Ph.D. has been named executive vice president of SNC’s Space Systems Group (SSG) business area based in Louisville, Colorado.

Kavandi will oversee all aspects of SNC’s space business including the much-anticipated first flight of its Dream Chaser^® spaceplane, the world’s first commercial, non-capsule space vehicle capable of a runway landing. Dream Chaser is currently in full production and under NASA contract to perform at least six cargo missions to the International Space Station for the agency’s CRS-2 program.

• Reconstruction of second surface contact by Rosetta’s Philae lander during unplanned ‘hopping’ in November 2014 before its final ‘touchdown’.
• The probe, rotating like a windmill, scraped a furrow in a highly porous, dark rocky area made of ice and dust on comet 67P, exposing 4.5-billion-year-old ice.
• The ice has very weak internal cohesion and a consistency that is fluffier than cappuccino froth.

COLOGNE, Germany (DLR PR) — After years of detective work, scientists working on the European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta mission have now been able to locate where the Philae lander made its second and penultimate contact with the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014, before finally coming to a halt 30 metres away. This landing was monitored from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Philae Control Center.

I joined John Batchelor and David Livingston on Wednesday to discuss the challenges NASA is having with the Congressional restriction that the space agency launch its Europa Clipper only on the Space Launch System. Enjoy! https://www.thespaceshow.com/show/04-nov-2020/broadcast-3599-hotel-mars-doug-messier-parabolic-arc

CNBC reports that Jeff Bezos, who has been selling Amazon stock to fund his Blue Origin space company, has liquidated more of his holdings. Bezos has accelerated his stock sales in the last year. In August, Bezos offloaded more than $3.1 billion of Amazon shares, after selling more than $4.1 billion worth of shares in February. The sales this week bring his total cash out in 2020 to more than $10.2 billion so […]

The only radio antenna that can command the 43-year-old spacecraft has been offline since March as it gets new hardware, but work is on track to wrap up in February.

CANBERRA, Australia (NASA PR) — On Oct. 29, mission operators sent a series of commands to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft for the first time since mid-March. The spacecraft has been flying solo while the 70-meter-wide (230-foot-wide) radio antenna used to talk to it has been offline for repairs and upgrades. Voyager 2 returned a signal confirming it had received the “call” and executed the commands without issue.

SpaceX launched the GPS III SV4 navigation satellite for the U.S. Space Force on Thursday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. GPS III SV4 is part of the U.S. military’s latest generation of navigation satellites for the Global Positioning System. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft. The Falcon 9 booster made an on-time liftoff at 6:24 p.m. EST. The navigation satellite was deployed from the rocket’s second stage […]

LONG BEACH, Calif., November 5, 2020 (Rocket Lab PR) – Rocket Lab has today revealed that it will attempt to recover the first stage of its Electron rocket during its next mission, the ‘Return to Sender’ launch, scheduled for lift-off in mid-November.

The test will see Rocket Lab attempt to bring Electron’s first stage back to Earth under a parachute system for a controlled water landing before collection by a recovery vessel.

• First of three additional flight tests set for later this month
• Richard Branson scheduled to fly on third flight test in Q1 2021
• New SpaceShipTwo set to rollout in Q1 2021

LAS CRUCES, N.M., November 5, 2020 (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 third quarter ended September 30, 2020.

• The company has developed a solution to save the more than 33,000 dollars per ton that cleaning our seas represents today.
• Using satellite images and Machine Learning technologies, it detects the volume of waste, manages its removal and subsequent auction.

LISBON (Fregata Space PR) — Fregata Space, the company owned by Sateliot and that transforms satellite images into high-resolution information and high predictive value , uses the New Space ecosystem, as well as its own Big Data and Machine Learning technologies to prevent more 8 million tons of plastics end up in the oceans each year .

LONDON, 02 November 2020 (Inmarsat PR) — Inmarsat, the world leader in global mobile satellite communications, has been awarded a three year contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), which will co-fund the development of a new capability for governments to plan, procure, manage and monitor their satellite communications (satcoms) services from Inmarsat and other operators and service providers.

The new Inmarsat capability, called the International Virtual Satellite Operators Network (INVISON), is a secure, user centric platform. It is being supported by ESA as part of its Space Systems for Safety and Security (4S) Strategic Line, which is a new component of ESA’s programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (ARTES), aimed at transforming R&D investment into successful commercial products and services.

MONTREAL (NorthStar Earth & Space PR) — NorthStar Earth & Space (NorthStar), a Canadian company with a first-in-space mission to deliver safe and sustainable operations for the rapidly accelerating New Space Economy, has contracted Thales Alenia Space (TAS) to build the first three satellites of its debut “Skylark” constellation for Space Situational Awareness (SSA) services, with Seattle, WA’s LeoStella overseeing the final assembly.

By Tiffany Fairley
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center

Three spacecraft adapter jettison fairing panels have now been fitted onto Orion’s European Service Module as production accelerates inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s  Kennedy Space Center in Florida.