Space

HOUSTON — Nearly a month after Virgin Galactic’s debut on public markets, the investment community is largely taking a wait-and-see approach to whether it will be a model for other space companies seeking to go public. Virgin Galactic started trading on the New York Stock Exchange Oct. 28, three days after it closed its merger

With ESA set to convene its triennial ministerial later this month, SpaceNews spoke with ESA Director General Jan Woerner about his hopes for Space19+ In a conference room at the Washington Convention Center, site of the 70th International Astronautical Congress, Jan Woerner slouches a bit in his chair. As director general of the European Space

BREMEN, Germany – Spacety and  ThrustMe reported success in initial on-orbit testing of an iodine-fueled cubesat thruster at the Space Tech Expo Europe here. “It all operates as expected but we cannot give you data on the performance because we have just thrusted a little bit,” ThrustMe CEO Ane Aanesland told SpaceNews. ThrustMe’s I2T5 cold

GAO disagreed with Blue Origin that the terms of the launch procurement unduly restrict competition WASHINGTON — Blue Origin won a favorable ruling last week from the Government Accountability Office in its protest of the Air Force launch contract rules. GAO, however, dismissed outright one of the company’s central complaints that the Air Force set

Europe’s space industry won’t be able to keep its technological edge without government support, the European Space Agency concludes in a report released ahead of the Space19+ ministerial conference. By ESA’s estimates, commercial and non-European sales generated 45% of Europe’s space industry revenue in 2015. Those revenues kept space companies healthy enough to support ESA’s

Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is a year away from its maiden flight, but prime contractor ArianeGroup is already preparing upgrades its says can be introduced in the launcher’s first three years of service. The 3.6-billion-euro Ariane 6 program, funded 89% by the European Space Agency and 11% by ArianeGroup and its industry partners, is on

HOUSTON — The announcement this week by the head of the Federal Communications Commission that he will seek a public action of satellite C-band spectrum is unlikely to be the final word in that debate, industry officials believe. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced Nov. 18 that he will propose the commission conduct a public auction

Top acquisition executive Will Roper said the Air Force will amend the solicitation “to make clear that each award will be made solely on the basis of the defined criteria.” WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force will change the criteria for evaluating launch providers that have submitted proposals for the National Security Space Launch program,

HOUSTON — As NASA adds new companies to a commercial lunar landing services program, some existing participants worry its value to them may now be diminished. NASA announced Nov. 18 that it had selected five companies to join the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, a NASA initiative to purchase rides on commercial lunar landers

BREMEN, Germany – Development of spaceplanes for suborbital tourism, satellite launches and point-to-point terrestrial transportation are benefiting from advanced technology, panelists said at the Space Tech Expo Europe here. “It was completely different 30 years ago,” said Koichi Yonemoto, co-founder and chief technical officer of Space Walker, a Japanese startup developing a suborbital spaceplane to

BREMEN, Germany — The International Telecommunication Union on Nov. 20 said the world’s spectrum regulators had reached consensus on milestones for constellations of satellites outside of the geosynchronous arc to preserve their spectrum rights.  Regulators meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference this month said that for non-geosynchronous constellation operators to keep

HOUSTON — The first prototype of SpaceX’s next-generation launch system was damaged Nov. 20 during a tanking test, a setback the company claimed would not serious affect their development plans. Video from several observers in the vicinity of SpaceX’s test site in Boca Chica, Texas, near Brownsville, showed a white plume erupt from the top

HOUSTON — NASA plans to issue a call for ideas for a lunar rover that could be used by future crewed missions to the moon and, like many other elements of the Artemis program, be developed in a partnership with industry. Speaking at the SpaceCom Expo here Nov. 20, Tom Cremins, NASA associate administrator for

BREMEN, Germany — OHB Chief Executive Marco Fuchs says people wrongly classify his company as a satellite manufacturer.  “We believe that our industry is the space industry at large,” Fuchs said Nov. 19. “We are not just satellites.” OHB is best known for building Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites, but the company also supplies many of

BREMEN, Germany – A European Earth observation cubesat scheduled to launch in 2020 will demonstrate an important space application for artificial intelligence. One of the two six-unit cubesats that comprises the FSSCat mission will rely on artificial intelligence to determine which images to send from the satellite to ground stations. “For instance if you have

The report titled ”Iran Military Power” is part of a Defense Intelligence Agency effort to inform government leaders and the public on major foreign military challenges. WASHINGTON — The Defense Intelligence Agency released a new unclassified report that highlights Iran’s space program as a means to advance that nation’s civilian and military technologies. The report

WASHINGTON — Boeing said Nov. 18 that a report issued last week by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) regarding the commercial crew program, including claims that the company considered withdrawing from the program, was inaccurate. In a lengthy release, Boeing took on a number of statements in the Nov. 14 OIG report that concluded

WASHINGTON — NASA announced Nov. 18 that it was adding five companies to a contract to perform commercial deliveries of payloads to the surface of the moon, a group that ranges from small ventures to Blue Origin and SpaceX. NASA said the five companies — Blue Origin, Ceres Robotics, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), SpaceX and

WASHINGTON — Satellite operators Intelsat, SES and Telesat on Nov. 15 detailed how they would calculate the proceeds they have pledged to contribute to the U.S. treasury if the Federal Communications Commission accepts their proposal to privately auction C-band spectrum sought by 5G network operators.  The satellite operators, acting collectively as the C-Band Alliance, would

WASHINGTON — A group of planetary defense advocates is asking European governments to fund a mission to a near Earth asteroid, three years after a similar mission failed to win approval. At a press conference in Berlin Nov. 15, backers of the proposed Hera mission said more than 1,200 scientists and other supporters had signed