Science

RSA won an SBIR contract funded by the Space Force to design a spacecraft with a solar-thermal propulsion system.  WASHINGTON — A startup under contract to the U.S. Space Force is investigating the use of solar-powered vehicles for operations in deep space beyond Earth orbit. As the Space Force plans possible missions in cislunar space

Neutron clustering measurements at the Walthousen Reactor Critical Facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Schenectady, NY. Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory The first ever live “snapshot” of an operating nuclear reactor has revealed a surprise: the neutrons in the reactor tend to cluster rather than spreading evenly. The observations, which were made by researchers in

ORLANDO — An Ariane 5 successfully launched two commercial communications satellites July 30 in the first flight of the rocket in nearly a year, and the first of two missions before it launches a NASA space telescope. The Ariane 5 lifted off at 5 p.m. Eastern time from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The

ORLANDO — The U.S. Government Accountability Office denied protests July 30 that Blue Origin and Dynetics filed of NASA’s award of a single lunar lander contract to SpaceX. In a statement, the GAO said that NASA did not violate procurement law when it decided to make a single Human Landing System (HLS) award to SpaceX

[embedded content] Fancy doing a PhD in physics while training for the Olympics? I can’t imagine how much hard work and commitment is involved, but the Irish runner Louise Shanahan knows. She is doing a PhD in atomic, mesoscopic and optical physics and competed today in the 800 m race in Tokyo. Sadly, Shanahan was

ORLANDO — A Russian module that docked to the International Space Station July 29 started firing its thrusters hours later, briefly knocking the station out of its normal attitude and forcing NASA to delay a commercial crew test flight that was scheduled to launch July 30. The Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), or Nauka, docked with

Over the past 25 years Plumb served in various positions at the White House, the Pentagon and the U.S. Senate WASHINGTON — President Biden has nominated John Plumb to be assistant secretary of defense for space policy, a White House spokesman said July 29.  Plumb currently is the chief of government relations at the Aerospace

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab returned its Electron rocket to flight July 29 with the successful launch of an experimental satellite for the U.S. Space Force. The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 2 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s two stages performed normally and, after a coast phase, the vehicle’s

TAMPA, Fla. — Scottish startup R3-IoT is expanding to North America after raising early funds for connecting sensors and devices with satellite-enabled solutions. The $4.3 million seed funding led by venture capital firm Space Capital puts R3-IoT on track to launch commercial services in November. R3-IoT’s gateways link up with nearby sensors and devices, using

Join the audience for a live webinar at 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. EDT on 18 August 2021 to explore the Augustyn Research Group’s investigation of the mechanistic understanding of water-mediated ion intercalation in transition metal oxides Want to take part in this webinar? Understanding host–guest interactions of layered inorganic solids ushered in the modern era

WASHINGTON — Isar Aerospace, a German small launch vehicle company, has raised an additional $75 million that will allow the company to expand its manufacturing and launch capabilities. The company announced July 29 that it added $75 million to a Series B round it raised in December 2020. The new funding brings the size of

Lawmakers are concerned about the infrastructure at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force Base WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces in its markup of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act raises concerns about the state of the U.S. space launch infrastructure and questions DoD’s procurement of commercial space data.  The

New materials strategy produces the lowest thermal conductivity reported in an inorganic material. Courtesy: University of Liverpool A new inorganic material with the lowest thermal conductivity ever reported could be a boon to technologies that convert waste heat into power. The material, which conducts heat almost as poorly as air, was designed and synthesized in

DoD’s John Hill: ‘The U.S. government’s view is that we should be pursuing voluntary, non-binding norms’ WASHINGTON — A set of guidelines issued by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for responsible space operations should be part of a wider conversation about how to maintain safety and security in space, a senior Pentagon official said July 26.

The agency will be seeking bids later this year for up to 150 satellites for the Transport Layer Tranche 1 projected to start launching in late 2024.  WASHINGTON — Launch services for Space Development Agency satellites will be procured under the National Security Space Launch program run by the U.S. Space Force, according to an