Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 10, 2024
The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory has announced a new opportunity for researchers and technologists: a solicitation for flight concepts aimed at leveraging the unique space-based environment of the orbiting laboratory for technology development. Titled "Technology Development and Applied Research Leveraging the ISS National Lab," this call is open to a wide array of techn

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 09, 2024
Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) has secured a $9.4 million contract from the National Oceanographic and Oceanic Administration (NOAA). This contract marks a continued collaboration between the two entities, focusing on the provision of radio occultation (RO) data for an eight-month period. This agreement is a part of the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract under NOAA's Commer

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 09, 2024
The realm of environmental monitoring and weather forecasting is set to receive a significant boost with the latest collaboration between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Under a recently awarded $54 million contract, SwRI is gearing up to develop QuickSounder, the inaugural satellite in NOAA's new Near Earth Orbit Net

Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2024
A private US lunar lander mission is doomed to fail, and NASA pushes back plans to return astronauts to the Moon. The twin developments Tuesday represent blows to America's ambitions to stimulate a commercial space economy, develop a lasting presence on Earth's nearest neighbor, and use it as a jump off point for Mars. China meanwhile is looming in the rear view mirror, targeting 2030 f

Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2024
An historic commercial US mission to the Moon will fail after suffering a critical loss of fuel, organizers admitted Tuesday, ending for the time being America's hopes of placing its first spacecraft on the lunar surface since the Apollo era. Fixed to the top of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket, Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander blasted off Monday from Florida's Cape Canaveral Sp

Glasgow, Scotland (SPX) Jan 10, 2024
New developments on a nearly century-old concept for a 'self-eating' rocket engine capable of flight beyond the Earth's atmosphere could help the UK take a bigger bite of the space industry. University of Glasgow engineers have built and fired the first unsupported 'autophage' rocket engine which consumes parts of its own body for fuel. The design of the autophage engine - the name c

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 9, 2024
NASA announced Tuesday it will delay its Artemis launches to "work through challenges" and "ensure crew safety," as the space agency targets 2026 to return astronauts to the moon. NASA revealed it will now shoot for September 2026, instead of December 2025, to land the first astronauts near the moon's south pole with Artemis III. While NASA was planning to launch Artemis II later this y

Join ESA's start-of-the-year press briefing with Director General Josef Aschbacher on 11 January from 10:00 CET.

Image: Micro-world within atomic clock

Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Jan 09, 2024
A research team, including astronomers of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), has detected a three-ringed structure in the nursery of planets in the inner planet-forming disk of a young star. This configuration suggests two Jupiter-mass planets are forming in the gaps between the rings. The detailed analysis is consistent with abundant solid iron grains complementing the dust composit