ORLANDO, Fla., (Tupperware Brands PR) — Tupperware Brands announces the issuance of a U.S. patent for PONDS (Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System) a unique device designed to grow vegetables in low earth orbit with minimal maintenance.

SAN FRANCISCO (Spire Global PR) — Spire Global, a leading data analytics provider with the world’s largest earth observation constellation of satellites for advanced weather data, maritime analytics, and aircraft tracking, today announced its first dedicated LEMUR satellite, named Djara, developed for Australia’s Office of National Intelligence (ONI).

The close collaboration between Spire and ONI – together with the LEMUR satellite’s extensive spaceflight heritage – saw the rapid development of Djara from concept to orbital deployment. The Djara satellite is part of an Australian National Intelligence Community program to experiment with commercial satellite technologies, including the on-board application of advanced machine learning capabilities.

ICEYE offers public access to the rapidly growing archive of radar satellite imagery acquired with the company’s SAR satellite constellation.

HELSINKI, Finland (ICEYE PR) – Finnish New Space leader ICEYE has announced access to ICEYE’s Public Archive, containing nearly 18,000 images from ICEYE satellites. The ICEYE Public Archive includes radar imagery in various imaging modes taken with ICEYE’s SAR satellite constellation between mid-2019 and now. The ICEYE Public Archive consists of preview images from around the world, which are released under CC BY-NC 4.0 license, allowing for non-commercial use.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — SpaceX launched 60 Starlink broadband satellites into orbit on Sunday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket whose first stage launched and landed successfully for a record sixth time. Elon Musk’s company has launched 835 Starlink satellites into Earth orbit, with 51 spacecraft being de-orbited to date. SpaceX has approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch nearly 12,000 Starlink satellites. “As our Starlink network is […]

Made of a pair of two-wheeled vehicles, NASA’s DuAxel is designed to descend crater sides and near-vertical cliffs on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — A rover trundles over rocky terrain, its four metal wheels clattering along until they encounter a seemingly insurmountable hazard: a steep slope. Down below is a potential trove of science targets. With a typical rover, the operators would need to find another target, but this is DuAxel, a robot built for situations exactly like this.

A bit of humor on this Sunday morning. Spot the Historical Anachronism: For 10 points and the ever lasting respect of your fellow readers, what did the animators get wrong?

BETHESDA, Md. (Lockheed Martin PR) — On Oct. 14, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced a $370 million investment with 14 U.S. partners that will demonstrate and mature space technologies to help forge a path to sustainable Artemis operations on the Moon.

As a recipient of an $89.7 million contract from this Tipping Point solicitation, Lockheed Martin will complete an in-space demonstration mission using liquid hydrogen — the most challenging of the cryogenic propellants. This allows us and our partners to test more than one dozen cryogenic fluid management technologies over the next five years.

Now that the heat probe is just below the Martian surface, InSight’s arm will scoop some additional soil on top to help it keep digging so it can take Mars’ temperature.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s InSight lander continues working to get its “mole” – a 16-inch-long (40-centimeter-long) pile driver and heat probe – deep below the surface of Mars. A camera on InSight’s arm recently took images of the now partially filled-in “mole hole,” showing only the device’s science tether protruding from the ground.

LUXEMBOURG, 16 October 2020 (Kleos Space PR) – Kleos Space S.A, a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data-as-a-service (DaaS) company, confirms that their team mission experts have arrived in Chennai, India in preparation for the launch of Kleos’ four Scouting Mission nanosatellites aboard PSLV C49 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, with launch targeted for the 1st half of November 2020.

Despite the unprecedented 2020 challenges of the launch industry to follow schedule, Kleos Space’s Gavin Bowyer supported by Ed Stevens from In-Space and mission manager Marcy Rugland from Spaceflight arrived in Chennai yesterday at 3:00 am local time.

VOSTOCHNY, RUSSIA (Roscosmos PR) — On Thursday, October 15, 2020, the installation of technological equipment began at the Angara launch site of the Vostochny cosmodrome. The Vostochny Space Center (a branch of the Center for Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities, part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) transported large tanks for storing naphthyl from the storage site of the Industrial Construction and Operational Base to the construction site, where the contractor’s […]

The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has terminated Spaceport America Executive Director and CEO Dan Hicks four months after he was placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into alleged financial mismanagement and abuse of authority.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports the board voted 5-1 to remove Hicks after discussing his status in closed session for about an hour. Board members did not comment on the reason for the dismissal.

Hicks, who was hired in 2016, was placed on leave in June after former CFO Zach De Gregorio submitted a complaint that alleged the spaceport CEO had created a toxic work environment and removed adequate internal controls on the expenditure of funds.

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines of Houston approximately $47 million to deliver a drill combined with a mass spectrometer to the Moon by December 2022 under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The delivery of the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment known as PRIME-1 will help NASA search for ice at the Moon’s South Pole and, for the first time, harvest ice from below the surface.