News
Daily coverage of the global space industry with an emphasis on business and political news.
NASA, Defense Department support giving space traffic management role to Commerce
As the House prepares to take up a bill giving the Commerce Department new authorities for space traffic management, the leaders of NASA and U.S. Strategic Command offered their support for such a move.
Air Force pressing on with space programs amid uncertainty about future reorganization
“We’re executing exactly the way we’ve been executing to try to speed up acquisition,” said Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr., military deputy at the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition.
Commerce Department moves ahead with space regulatory reforms
Nearly a month after the signing of a policy directive calling for commercial space regulatory reforms, Commerce Department officials said this week they’re moving ahead on a number of fronts.
NASA to study converting centers into FFRDCs
The White House has directed NASA to study the possibility of converting one of more of its field centers into federal labs, revisiting a proposal made nearly 15 years ago.
SpaceX wins $130 million military launch contract for Falcon Heavy
The Falcon Heavy beat United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 in a competition under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
Blue Origin plans to start selling suborbital spaceflight tickets next year
Blue Origin expects to start flying people on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle “soon” and start selling tickets for commercial flights next year, a company executive said June 19.
C-Com, University of Waterloo test hardware for new phased array antenna
Canadian satellite antenna manufacturer C-Com said June 21 it successfully tested the building blocks of a phased array antenna it hopes to sell next year.
Rep. Mike Rogers: Space Force will be done ‘responsibly’ with minimal disruption
Rogers: Whether you call the new branch a Space Corps or a Space Force is not all that important.
White House releases near Earth object action plan
A report released by the White House June 20 outlines a set of goals to address the small but “high-consequence” threat posed by near Earth objects (NEOs), but does not commit to spending more money to achieve them.
Space Force: Pentagon navigates the way ahead and awaits direction from Congress
Former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James: "The Air Force and the DoD have to come up with something to back up what the president said.”
China appears to be preparing to deorbit its Tiangong-2 space lab
China has lowered the orbit of its Tiangong-2 space lab, likely in preparation for deorbiting the orbital facility and thus averting a similar scenario to the uncontrolled re-entry of Tiangong-1 earlier this year.
Space council’s “think tank” starts work
An advisory group dubbed the “think tank” for the National Space Council formally kicked off its work June 19 with a broad but vague mandate to study space policy issues.
SES, Intelsat plead for an extension for C-band dish registration
Fleet operators SES and Intelsat asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to extend the deadline for their customers to register C-band dishes before the commission decides on the band’s future use.
Former astronaut criticizes lunar gateway plans
A former NASA astronaut used an appearance at a National Space Council meeting June 18 to argue that a key element of NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon should be reconsidered.
Trump: ‘We are going to have the Space Force’
Trump: Creating a Space Force and promoting space exploration by NASA and the private sector will be “important for the nation’s psyche.”
President to sign space traffic management policy
President Trump will sign a new space policy directive June 18 addressing space traffic management issues, closely following the proposed policy that Vice President Pence announced in April.
