The contract is a sole-source award for a satellite called ROOSTER, short for Rapid On-orbit Space Technology Evaluation Ring WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $22 million contract to produce a satellite bus able to carry multiple small payloads that will be used to demonstrate on-orbit refueling in geostationary orbit. The
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A key challenge for the Space Force is how to assess cyber security risks, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting WASHINGTON — Satellite operators are dealing with the reality that the ground systems and network equipment used to operate space systems provide many entry points for cyber attackers. Cyber and malware attacks can be pulled off
Icy path: “Chasing ghost particles at the South Pole”. (Courtesy: Yuya Makino) This edition of the Red Folder looks at some images from two science-related photography contests. Last week the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) announced the winners of its IUPAP 100 Photo Contest. First prize in the “At a glance” category
TAMPA, Fla. — Lynk Global said it is still waiting for Spaceflight to rebook a flight for the second commercial satellite in its cellphone-compatible broadband network, four months after the launch services provider’s space tug was kicked off a SpaceX mission. Lynk-07 was supposed to launch onboard Spaceflight’s Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) in April
WASHINGTON — NASA strongly criticized Russia for using the International Space Station to promote its invasion of Ukraine, a break from the agency’s approach of emphasizing ongoing cooperation despite the war. In a statement late July 7, NASA said it “strongly rebukes” Russia for political activity on the station related to Russia’s ongoing invasion of
SAN FRANCISCO — Stellar Ventures unveiled a fund July 7 with $23 million to invest in early-stage space-related startups. “The cost of launch has come down so much that any person with an innovative idea can bring it to market,” Stellar Ventures co-founder Celeste Ford told SpaceNews. “It’s like the internet in the 90s. People
WASHINGTON — Spacecraft controllers have restored communications with a lunar cubesat that went silent shortly after its deployment earlier this week. NASA and Advanced Space, the company operating the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat, said the spacecraft started transmitting again early July 6. The spacecraft stopped communicating about 11
Andriy Nevidomskyy. (Courtesy: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) For decades, quantum spin liquids were seen as largely hypothetical, with real-world examples thought to exist only in unusual systems such as quasi-one-dimensional chain-like magnets and a handful of two-dimensional materials. Then, in 2019, researchers at Rice University in the US and McMaster University in Canada found experimental evidence
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic announced July 6 it signed an agreement with a Boeing subsidiary to build two new aircraft that will be used as launch platforms for its next-generation suborbital spaceplanes. Virgin Galactic said Aurora Flight Sciences will build two carrier aircraft, or motherships, that will succeed the original WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, called VMS Eve,
Airbus U.S. Space and Defense will produce 42 satellite buses for the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer Tranche 1 WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman announced July 5 it selected Airbus as its satellite bus supplier for the U.S. Space Development Agency’s low Earth orbit constellation. Northrop Grumman in February won a $692 million contract from SDA,
Physical and logical qubits: The ion trap used in the experiment, seen through the window of an ultra-high vacuum chamber. (Courtesy: Robbie Shone) Quantum computers are a study of extremes. On the one hand, they promise to be far more powerful than classical machines in solving certain problems. On the other, their quantum nature is
WASHINGTON — A NASA lunar cubesat mission has lost contact with Earth a day after its deployment, putting into jeopardy its plans to demonstrate the orbit that will be used for later Artemis missions. In a July 5 statement, NASA said the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat “experienced communications
WASHINGTON — House appropriators eliminated most of a proposed budget increase for the Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial space transportation office while also directing the agency on spaceports and cooperation with another agency on spaceflight investigations. The House Appropriations Committee approved June 30 its version of a transportation and housing and urban development spending bill for
WASHINGTON — A NASA-funded lunar cubesat is on its way to the moon July 4 after a series of burns by a Rocket Lab transfer stage. Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon stage released the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat at 3:18 a.m. Eastern, shortly after the seventh and final burn
WASHINGTON — The government of New Zealand has formally joined a U.S.-led ban on testing of destructive direct-ascent antisatellite (ASAT) weapons in an effort to build momentum for a global prohibition on such tests. In a July 1 speech at the University of Otago, New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced that the government would
Cash generator: a new study of philanthropic funding of science has found that support for science is more fragmented and more local than federal funding, and once an award is given that partnership tends to continue. (Courtesy: iStock/kentoh) Philanthropic funding of science in the US is now on a par with federal research funding. That