Austin TX (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
CesiumAstro, Inc. announces the successful launch and deployment of its first two satellites featuring their leading-edge communications payloads aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V-401 rocket. Dubbed Cesium Mission 1(CM1), the duo of satellites will provide an on-orbit testbed for next generation wireless communications and sensing technologies. "We will see major advancements over th

Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
Space Systems Command's (SSC) Production Corps achieved a major milestone with the completion of the final Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite, SBIRS Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO)-6 on Sept. 2 at Lockheed Martin's Sunnyvale, California production facility. SBIRS GEO-6 will begin final preparations for a scheduled launch in the first half of 2022 on a United Launch Alliance Atl

Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
The U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command's (SSC) Cross-Mission Ground and Communications Enterprise (ECX) has awarded a cost-plus fixed fee contract totaling $46.5 million to Sev1Tech LLC of Woodbridge, Virginia. The contract was awarded through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement for meshONE-T. This prototype effort will deploy and demons

Dubai (AFP) Oct 5, 2021
The United Arab Emirates will launch a spacecraft to explore a major asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, officials said Tuesday, after a UAE probe reached the red planet early this year. The five-year journey from 2028 will traverse 3.6 billion kilometres (2.2 billion miles), with the unmanned craft drawing on gravity assists from Earth and Venus to reach the main asteroid belt beyond Ma

Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
The newest known example of a rare type of object in the Solar System - a comet hidden among the main-belt asteroids - has been found and studied, according to a new paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Henry Hsieh. Discovered to be active on July 7, 2021, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey, asteroid (248370) 2005 QN137 is just the eighth main-be

Las Vegas NV (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
In a distant star system - a mere 1,300 light years away from Earth - UNLV researchers and colleagues may have identified the first known planet to orbit three stars. Unlike our solar system, which consists of a solitary star, it is believed that half of all star systems, like GW Ori where astronomers observed the novel phenomenon, consist of two or more stars that are gravitationally boun

Courtland, AL (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
Lockheed Martin is breaking barriers in hypersonic technology, adding to its world-class portfolio another milestone with the grand opening of an advanced production facility in Courtland, Alabama, focused on hypersonic strike production. Capitalizing on critical digital factory capabilities to deliver this technology, the corporation is working closely with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)

Orlando FL (UPI) Oct 06, 2021
A Russian actor, director and cosmonaut entered the International Space Station Tuesday, where they will stay nearly two weeks to film the first full-length movie shot in space. The newcomers came aboard the space station just after 11 a.m. EDT. Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who piloted the Soyuz spacecraft, entered first, followed by actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko.

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The European Space Agency is playing a vital role in humankind’s return to the Moon. In a few months NASA will launch Artemis I from the Kennedy Space Center. The uncrewed mission will carry NASA’s Orion spacecraft incorporating ESA’s European Service Module (ESM-1), built and tested by Airbus Bremen, in Germany, with the help of 10 European nations. ESM-1’s main engine and 32 thrusters will propel Orion into orbit around the Moon and return it to Earth.

As Artemis I prepares for launch, the second European Service Module (ESM-2) is about to ship to the US with ESM-3

Image: Visitors with disabilities at ESA Open Day