Chinese launch service provider Expace has secured $237 million in B round funding, following last week's return to flight of its Kuaizhou-1A solid rocket.

Congress should fully fund NASA’s $25.97 billion FY23 budget request, including the full requested amount for STMD, as it drafts and advances the FY23 appropriations bills.  

The post Op-ed | NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is More Important Now Than Ever appeared first on SpaceNews.

Long Beach CA (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has successfully launched CAPSTONE, a microwave-oven-sized satellite designed to test a new orbit around the Moon for NASA. CAPSTONE was launched at 09:55 UTC, June 28 on an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The mission was Rocket Lab's 27th Electron launch. Designed and built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a Terra

Wellington (AFP) June 28, 2022
NASA blasted a nanosatellite barely bigger than a microwave oven into outer space Tuesday, part of a landmark mission to return humans to the Moon. A rocket carrying the tiny CAPSTONE module successfully launched from New Zealand's eastern Mahia Peninsula to a deafening blast and a wash of fiery propulsion. "We have liftoff!" NASA said in a statement shortly after the 09:55 GMT launch, d

For six decades, Spectrolab has been building the long-lasting solar cells that power satellites and spaceships. Next up: compact, ultra-powerful new solar arrays for the ISS.

The post Spectrolab electrifies space through advanced solar cell technology appeared first on SpaceNews.

A Cygnus cargo spacecraft departed the International Space Station June 28, three days after it demonstrated its ability to raise the station’s orbit.

The post Cygnus departs ISS after reboost test appeared first on SpaceNews.

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
A microwave oven-sized CubeSat dubbed CAPSTONE will blaze an untested, unusual yet efficient deep space route to the Moon that NASA is greatly interested in and future spacecraft may want to imitate. The destination for CAPSTONE - short for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment - is a unique lunar orbit intended for?NASA's?Gateway, a mul

Long Beach CA (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
Virgin Orbit (Nasdaq: VORB)'s launch system is in place at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The dress rehearsals are complete, and the company remains on track for its upcoming Straight Up launch, with a launch window opening on June 29 at 10 pm PDT. The launch will support the United States Space Force's STP-S28A mission and carry payloads for the Department of Defense (DOD) Space Test Prog

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
Scientists using data from NASA's Curiosity rover measured the total organic carbon - a key component in the molecules of life - in Martian rocks for the first time. "Total organic carbon is one of several measurements [or indices] that help us understand how much material is available as feedstock for prebiotic chemistry and potentially biology," said Jennifer Stern of NASA's Goddard Space Flig

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
According to a new NASA laboratory experiment, rovers may have to dig about 6.6 feet (two meters) or more under the Martian surface to find signs of ancient life because ionizing radiation from space degrades small molecules such as amino acids relatively quickly. Amino acids can be created by life and by non-biological chemistry. However, finding certain amino acids on Mars would be consi