A cubesat sent to blaze a trail for NASA’s next space station arrived in lunar orbit Nov. 13—the first cubesat known to ever have done so—after a voyage that proved tense at times. Meanwhile the small company that created the tiny spacecraft secured a new ...
The effects of Russia’s 2021 anti-satellite weapon test on just one commercial satellite constellation illustrate the urgency of just one aspect of space safety. A “dominating commercial space market” is also expanding the scope of space missions to include the likes of commercial human spaceflight and ...
The Space Force’s goal of improving space domain awareness continues to advance along multiple avenues. New projects include ground-based radars to surveil high Earth orbits and data from a cubesat headed on a unique route around the moon. Northrop Grumman announced that it had received ...
Two satellites set forth to geosynchronous Earth orbit Jan. 21 to join a constellation of four others surveilling the high satellite belt. Collecting data for the National Space Defense Center and “other national users” will “enhance our ability to navigate freely and safely within the GEO ...
The Space Force’s top officer thinks the U.S. needs to be able to surveil cislunar space as soon as five years from now to defend U.S. interests on and around the moon. "As the nation goes further away, as the world goes further away, from ...
The U.S. government said Nov. 15 that a Russian anti-satellite missile test created hundreds of thousands of new pieces of orbital debris in a "dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible" act that threatens the interests of the whole world. State Department spokesperson Ned Price confirmed reports, saying ...
A startup figuring out how to surveil the cislunar domain thinks a swarm of self-guiding cubesats could cover it, each revisiting the moon every 26 days. Unlike spacecraft in deep space now, its cubesats would maintain “radio silence.” The physicist-run startup Rhea Space Activity announced ...
The Space Force wants to better visualize the space domain, so the Defense Innovation Unit is asking companies—both from the U.S. and internationally—to send in ideas for a shot at funding. Having teased the Global Space Innovation Project on social media, officials with the DIU ...
It’s that time of year when Congress rolls out its lists of the data, requirements, and strategies it wants to see from the Defense Department. The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee’s piece of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill is no different. Here’s what ...
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.—Handing off responsibility for space traffic management from the Space Force to the Commerce Department is proving slower than expected, a military official told Air Force Magazine. Mark Daley, the Commerce Department’s operations deputy in the Office of Space Commerce, joined ...