Actionable data from space could be delivered in seconds in the future, thanks to progress towards the European Space Agency’s (ESA) faster and more secure laser communications network, HydRON. At the 41st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Canadian satellite communications company Kepler was awarded a contract to lead the next phase in the project’s evolution. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Beijing in mid-April and declared that the stability of China-Russia relations is “precious” — a word that, in the context of a global energy crisis triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, amounts to a strategic confession. Beijing is not […]

The post The Gravity of Dependence: How the Hormuz Crisis Is Pulling Beijing Into Moscow’s Orbit appeared first on Space Daily.

The White House recently released a formal policy directing NASA, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy to jointly develop nuclear power systems for space, with orbital reactor launches reportedly targeted for the late 2020s and a lunar surface variant by 2030. The directive amounts to a significant federal commitment to space nuclear technology, and […]

The post After $20 Billion and Zero Reactors in Orbit, the White House Finally Puts a Deadline on Space Nuclear Power appeared first on Space Daily.

COLORADO SPRINGS – Blue Origin moved a step closer to launching New Glenn rockets from Vandenberg Space Force Base with a U.S.

COLORADO SPRINGS – The National Reconnaissance Office, the agency responsible for U.S. spy satellites, seeks partners to accelerate its adoption of state-of-the-art intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

The Philippines has accused Chinese fishermen of deliberately dumping cyanide into waters around Second Thomas Shoal, calling it an act of environmental sabotage designed to starve Filipino troops stationed on a rusting warship at the contested atoll. The charge, backed by what Philippine officials describe as laboratory results from seized bottles, opens a strange and […]

The post Poison in the Shallows: How Cyanide Allegations Are Reshaping the South China Sea Standoff appeared first on Space Daily.

NASA’s science program is being hollowed out, and the agency’s leadership appears content to let it happen. What is underway is not a budget dispute or a temporary pivot toward fiscal restraint. It is a structural abandonment of the approach that produced NASA’s most significant discoveries over six decades — the dedicated science mission, designed […]

The post NASA’s Ride-Along Science Strategy Is a Structural Retreat, Not a Pivot appeared first on Space Daily.