Russian rocket engine manufacturer NPO Energomash plans to ship six RD-180 rocket engines to the United States this year, government procurement website data shows. The RD-180 engines will be used to power the first stage of the Atlas V launch vehicles. In December, Energomash said that it shipped a total of six RD-180 rocket engines […]

An innovation that helps speed the design of fishing rods, skis and cell phone electronics soon will help NASA do its work in space. AnalySwift LLC, a Purdue University-affiliated commercial software provider, has received a $125,000 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from NASA. The STTR award will help the company further develop its SwiftComp […]

The European Union on Tuesday announced 200 million euros ($222 million) of funding for the Ariane 6 rocket launcher and for small and medium-sized space technology companies. Half the money is in the form of a loan for the new Ariane 6 heavy launcher programme, a collaboration between the European Space Agency programme and the […]

Space Flag, the Department of Defense’s premier exercise for training space forces, successfully concluded its eighth exercise iteration (Space Flag 20-1) at the Boeing Virtual Warfare Center in St. Louis Dec. 20. The two-week exercise started Dec. 9 under the auspices of the former Air Force Space Command, but finished on the very day the […]

Researchers from the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos found a way to hide sensitive activity on Russian soil from the vigilant eyes of foreign surveillance satellites. The new method suggests shutting down orbital spying in the early stages of the vehicle’s approach toward Russian territory, according to the agency. “During certain periods of time, when the […]

Experimental nanosat payload developed in nine months tests new software-defined mission, on-board multi-core processing and orbital cloud communications A new era of space-based computing is now being tested in-orbit that will enable artificial intelligence, data analytics, cloud networking and advanced satellite communications in a robust new software-defined architecture. Recently, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) launched the […]

Vice President Mike Pence formally swore in Gen. John “Jay” Raymond as the new Chief of Space Operations Tuesday at the White House, a U.S. official told VOA. Raymond assumed the duties of the first head of the Space Force on December 20, 2019, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the National Defense […]

Think of it as a celestial parlor game: What is the minimum number of satellites needed to see every point on Earth? And how might those satellites stay in orbit and maintain continuous 24/7 coverage while contending with Earth’s gravity field, its lumpy mass, the pull of the sun and moon, and pressure from solar […]

SpaceX is set Monday to launch its third batch of 60 mini-satellites into orbit, part of its plans to build a giant constellation of thousands of spacecraft that will form a global broadband internet system. The US company is targeting a 9:19pm (0219 GMT Tuesday) launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, […]

President Donald J. Trump signed into law legislation creating the first new armed service since 1947 — the U.S. Space Force. Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act during a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, Md, today. The $738 billion fiscal year 2020 authorization funds military and civilian pay raises, new aircraft, ship construction, tanks […]