News
Daily coverage of the global space industry with an emphasis on business and political news.
Ukrainian government investigation concludes no engine transfers to North Korea
In a 1,300-word letter addressed to Poroshenko Tuesday, the Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksandr Turchynov laid out his government’s defense against a controversial New York Times story published last week.
NGA & NRO Leaderboard compares agency’s needs with industry capabilities
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office are eager to compare their near-term needs with the capabilities of companies that obtain data from small satellites or have innovative ways of using space-based data to make sense of activity on the ground.
Internet of Things startup Helios Wire raises $4 million for satellites
Helios Wire will use the money to pay for satellites to help customers track and communicate with billions of devices worldwide.
No aerospace firms among Chinese, Russian entities Treasury just sanctioned for North Korea ties
The 10 companies and six individuals targeted by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control are alleged to have conducted business with North Korea in violation of United Nations’ sanctions aimed at preventing Pyongyang from funding its weapons programs.
Back-to-back commercial satellite wins leave China Great Wall hungry for more
Fu Zhiheng, executive vice president of Beijing-based China Great Wall Industry Corp. , speaks with SpaceNews about his company's global ambitions.
All-electric satellites halfway to becoming half of all satellites
Satellite manufacturers are trying to figure out how to maximize their share of the electric propulsion market while not abandoning more conservative customers.
3-D printing and in-orbit manufacturing promise to transform space missions
Made In Space is changing the way people plan for spaceflight missions by demonstrating that tools, spare parts and spaceflight hardware can be manufactured in orbit. The company is building Archinaut, a sophisticated 3-D printer equipped with a robotic arm to manufacture and assemble complex structures in orbit such as satellite reflectors and antennas.
Ukraine changes tactics on North Korea engine claims
In the days that followed Monday’s report in The New York Times that North Korea may have illicitly procured advanced Soviet-era rocket engines from Ukraine, the response out of the post-Soviet nation could best be described as trolling.
CASIS awards Audacy grant to test radio on space station
Audacy, a company established in 2015 to create a commercial space-based communications network, plans to send the Audacy Lynq demonstration mission to the space station’s NanoRacks External Payload Platform on a NASA commercial cargo fight in late 2018.
Air Force names space operations officials
The U.S. Air Force has named Shawn Barnes to be assistant deputy chief of staff for space operations directorate, and Maj. Gen. Pamela Lincoln to be mobilization assistant to the deputy chief of staff for space operations.
Options grow for smallsats seeking secondary payload opportunities
As the number of small satellites seeking launch continues to grow, new opportunities are emerging fly those satellites as secondary payloads on other launches as well as tools to identify those opportunities.
Google Lunar X Prize teams get extra time to win competition
After months of stating that it would offer no further extensions of the Google Lunar X Prize competition, the X Prize Foundation announced Aug. 16 it was effectively giving the five remaining teams a little extra time.
Smallsat developers propose self-regulation to address orbital debris concerns
As the number of cubesats and other small satellites grows, experts advise that some degree of industry self-regulation will be needed to avoid collisions that could lead to more restrictive government regulations.
UrtheCast building precursor radar satellite, delays OptiSAR constellation by a year
An unnamed backer of Canadian Earth observation company UrtheCast’s proposed radar and optical satellite constellation has asked for UrtheCast to develop a standalone radar satellite ahead of the rest of its constellation.
Nuclear command and control problems dominate U.S. Air Force focus, GAO finds
While the U.S Air Force is taking more steps to oversee nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3), the service must focus more on short-term problems than long-term issues, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.
