Momentus' Vigoride spacecraft arrives at launch site for first flight with SpaceX
Sunday, 08 May 2022 11:03
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS), a U.S. commercial space company that plans to offer transportation and other in-space infrastructure services, has announced that its Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle has arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for its inaugural launch.
The Vigoride spacecraft and customer payloads will now be integrated with SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle ahead of the Transpor Japanese radar constellation iQPS selects Virgin Orbit for 2023 launch
Sunday, 08 May 2022 11:03
Virgin Orbit (Nasdaq: VORB), a leading satellite launch provider, reports the signing of a launch services agreement with Japanese earth observation constellation operator Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. ("iQPS"). The satellite is expected to join Virgin Orbit's manifest for early 2023.
Selected for LauncherOne's proven ability to provide direct access to diverse orbits, Virgin AST SpaceMobile announces $75M committed equity facility
Sunday, 08 May 2022 11:03
AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network designed to be accessible directly by standard mobile phones, today announced it has entered into a common stock purchase agreement with B. Riley Principal Capital, LLC ("B. Riley").
The agreement governs a Committed Equity Facility that provides AST SpaceMobile with the rig China prepares to launch Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft
Sunday, 08 May 2022 11:03
The combination of the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft and a Long March-7 Y5 carrier rocket has been transferred to the launching area of the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said Saturday.
The CMSA said the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft will be launched in the near future at an appropriate time.
The facilities and equipment at the launch site are in go Briton, Belarusian held at Kazakh spaceport: Roscosmos
Sunday, 08 May 2022 04:07
A British man and a Belarusian woman have been detained at the Russian spaceport of Baikonur in Kazakhstan, Russia's space agency Roscosmos said on Saturday.
On Saturday evening, "a report was received from the space centre concerning the detention of British citizen Rich Benjamin and Belarusian citizen Zelupa Alina", Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Telegram.
The two were apprehen FAA and NTSB discussing roles in commercial spaceflight investigations
Saturday, 07 May 2022 21:29
Two federal agencies in a turf battle over commercial spaceflight investigations say they are now talking with each other to better define their roles and responsibilities.
The post FAA and NTSB discussing roles in commercial spaceflight investigations appeared first on SpaceNews.
Astra prepares for TROPICS launch campaign
Saturday, 07 May 2022 16:27
Small launch vehicle developer Astra says it is ready to perform a series of launches for NASA once it receives a license for those missions.
The post Astra prepares for TROPICS launch campaign appeared first on SpaceNews.
Deep Blue Aerospace completes kilometer-level rocket launch and landing test
Saturday, 07 May 2022 12:18
A Chinese launch startup sent a small rocket test stage up to an altitude of one kilometer Friday before a performing a powered descent and vertical landing.
NASA's Crew-3 astronauts splash down in Gulf of Mexico
Saturday, 07 May 2022 10:57
After a 24-hour delay to be sure of weather conditions in the Atlantic Ocean, NASA's Crew-3 returned to Earth on Friday with a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of Florida.
NASA's Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn and Germany's Matthias Maurer splashed down in their Dragon Endurance capsule at 12:43 a.m. EDT.
"We're glad to be back," Chari told the Spac Matthias returns to Cologne
Friday, 06 May 2022 23:42
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Matthias returns to Cologne Telesat to order 100 fewer satellites for LEO constellation
Friday, 06 May 2022 18:51
TAMPA, Fla. — Increasing costs and delays have forced Telesat to downsize plans for 298 low Earth orbit satellites by a third to keep within its $5 billion budget.
The post Telesat to order 100 fewer satellites for LEO constellation appeared first on SpaceNews.
Virgin Galactic pushes back commercial suborbital flights to 2023
Friday, 06 May 2022 18:16
Virgin Galactic is again postponing the start of commercial service of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane from late 2022 to early 2023, blaming the latest delay on supply chain and labor issues.
The post Virgin Galactic pushes back commercial suborbital flights to 2023 appeared first on SpaceNews.
SpaceX moved NROL-85 from the Cape to Vandenberg at no extra cost, in exchange for reusing booster
Friday, 06 May 2022 17:50
The NRO and SpaceX worked out a deal to move NROL-85 to the West Coast at no extra cost to the government and in exchange the NRO agreed to fly the mission on a reused first stage
First rays of sunlight for balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise III
Friday, 06 May 2022 16:30
Approximately a month before it begins its research flight in the stratosphere, the balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise III has looked at the Sun for the first time from its launch site at the Arctic Circle. In June, Sunrise III will take off from Esrange Space Center, the Swedish Space Agency's (SSC) balloon and rocket base in Kiruna (Sweden), and will climb to an altitude of about 35 kilometers. During its flight of several days, it will then take unique measurements of the Sun. In this way, processes in the chromosphere, the highly dynamic layer between the visible surface and the outer atmosphere of the Sun, will become visible more precisely than ever before. In the remaining weeks until launch, the technical and scientific teams from Germany, Spain, Japan, and the U.S. will prepare all systems and the scientific instruments for their mission and rehearse flight procedures and operations.
NASA's Artemis I launch likely slipping to August with retry of pad test in June
Friday, 06 May 2022 16:27
NASA officials gave an update Thursday on the status of the Artemis I moon rocket launch saying it likely is targeting early- to mid-June before it rolls back out to the launch pad for a wet dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson suggested last week that August would be the earliest for a launch attempt, and NASA's Jim Free, the associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, confirmed that.
"As we've been saying, we'll set that official launch date after we get through wet dress," Free said. "But you know based on some of historical challenges from similar programs over the years and the schedule performance we've seen thus far, we are looking at a couple of launch periods through the August time frame."
One of the previously announced launch windows runs from July 26 to Aug. 9.
NASA rolled the Space Launch System rocket topped with the Orion spacecraft to KSC's Launch Pad 39-B back in mid-March and attempted to run through a simulated countdown along with the filling and draining the core and upper stages with 730,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.