Launched in June 2001, Intelsat-901 is healthy but running low on fuel. MEV 1 aims to fix that. Credit: Intelsat

Why Intelsat’s going with life extension over refueling

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Intelsat-901, a 17-year-old communications satellite running low on propellant, is awaiting a first-of-its-kind service call from a robotic spacecraft carrying a fresh tank of fuel.

From the Magazine IntelsatMEVsatellite servicing
Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital vehicle on the pad prior to an April 29 launch. Credit: Blue Origin

Blue Origin plans to start selling tickets in 2019 for suborbital spaceflights

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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.

From the Magazine Blue OriginNew ShepardsuborbitalVirgin Galactic
U.S. commercial remote sensing regulations will be put to the test by new ventures, such as EarthNow, a Bill Gates-and-SoftBank-backed venture that aims to distribute live video of the Earth. Credit: NASA’s Epic camera aboard DSCOVR Satellite

Op-ed | We’ll need more than Trump’s Space Policy Directive to fix commercial remote-sensing regulations

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At the rate the commercial sector is innovating, regulatory practices will need to be agile, evolving quickly while still providing needed order and protections.

From the Magazine Commercial spaceSpace Policy Directive 2
An image accompanying a Chinese Academy of Space Technology announcement of a successful airdrop parachute test in April. Credit: CAST

China claims progress in new landing technology for crewed spacecraft, Mars landings

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China is claiming progress on a number of reentry and landing technologies for human spaceflight and Mars missions, underlining apparently significant plans for deep space exploration.

From the Magazine ChinaMars
Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA in the Destiny laboratory module June 11 with gear for measuring and analyzing red blood cell function to help doctors understand how blood cell production is altered in microgravity. Credit: NASA Johnson via Flickr

Trump wants NASA out of the ISS operations business. Easier said than done.

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For clues on the space station’s current status and the transition ahead, SpaceNews spoke with Sam Scimemi, ISS director at NASA headquarters.

From the Magazine ISSLEOSam Scimemi
U.S. President Donald Trump holds the signed copy of Space Policy Directive 2 in the Oval Office May 24 along with Vice President Mike Pence, National Space Council Executive Secretary Scott Pace and Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief of Staff of the National Space Council Jared Stout. Credit: White House Official Photo

Op-ed | Regulatory reform is not a one-off event

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The American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act takes a number of important steps to provide regulatory certainty for emerging commercial space applications; and to implement the United States’ international obligation to provide authorization and supervision for its private sector actors.

From the Magazine regulatorySpace Policy Directive 2
This image from the ISS shows strong tropospheric storm clouds pushing up against and being blocked at the tropopause, illustrating the decoupled and isolated nature of the stratosphere from the troposphere below. This relative isolation allows rocket emissions to accumulate in the stratosphere. Credit: NASA

Op-ed | Time to clear the air about launch pollution

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Combustion emissions from launch vehicles present the space industry with a concern comparable to orbital debris that we can begin to address now, before it grows and becomes a potential impediment to space access.

From the Magazine emissionslaunch pollution
A five-segment solid rocket motor similar to those Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems will supply NASA for its Space Launch System undergoes a 2011 test in Utah. Credit: NASA/Orbital ATK

In the wake of Northrop-Orbital merger, Aerojet’s solid rocket engine business teetering on the brink

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There are now technically two companies that still manufacture large solid rockets for military ICBMs. The industry is poised to become a monopoly, however, as Aerojet’s large solid rocket motor business is on not-so-solid ground.

From the Magazine Aerojet RocketdyneNorthrop Grumman Innovation SystemsOrbital ATK
The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A on May 21, 2018 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: NASA

Foust Forward | For commercial space, fewer-stop, not one-stop, shopping

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For an administration that likes to play up even the smallest space policy milestone, the signing of Space Policy Directive 2 on May 24 almost flew under the radar.

From the Magazine Commerce Dept.regulatorySpace Policy Directive 2
“DARPA and NASA have done [servicing] demonstrations in the past but to get traction for a sustained business is a big deal.” — Al Tadros, SSL vice president for space infrastructure and civil space. Credit: SSL

SSL aims to parlay NASA, DARPA work into viable in-orbit repair business

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SSL is investing in on-orbit servicing because “mission extension is a game changer,” said Michael Gabor, advanced programs director for SSL Government Systems.

From the Magazine satellite servicingSSL
An Orbital ATK technician monitors a ground demonstration of MEV docking systems. Credit: Orbital ATK

Orbital ATK’s giant leap into satellite servicing begins with baby steps

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Orbital ATK subsidiary SpaceLogistics plans to offer customers a wide range of products and services, beginning with its Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) and progressing to in-orbit spacecraft assembly, repair and cis-lunar transportation.

From the Magazine MEVOrbital ATKsatellite servicingSpaceLogistics
This NASA Goddard Space Flight Center illustration shows a servicing spacecraft, left, approaching a satellite needing assistance. Credit: NASA Goddard

Orbital ATK, SSL and others are gearing up to make house calls to ailing satellites

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Satellite owners, satellite manufacturers, NASA and DARPA are planning a series of demonstrations to prove spacecraft can be repaired or refueled in orbit without the type of ambitious and expensive effort NASA devoted to servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.

From the Magazine DARPAOrbital ATKsatellite servicing
An Orbital ATK Mission Extension Vehicle docks with a satellite to take over pointing and station keeping. Credit: Orbital ATK

In-orbit services poised to become big business

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The Mission Extension Vehicle built by Orbital ATK on behalf of subsidiary SpaceLogistics, will the first of several such robotic craft that are poised to compete for a share of about $3 billion worth of in-orbit services that satellite operators and government agencies are projected to buy over the coming decade.

From the Magazine in-orbit servicingOrbital ATKsatellite servicing
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at U.S. Northern Command headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Credit: DoD

On National Security | On matters of space, Congress keeps up pressure as it demands change

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are not letting up on efforts to keep the Air Force and the Pentagon focused on space issues.

From the Magazine Jim MattisSpace Force
OHB System will build the PLATO spacecraft and its instruments at OHB Optics & Science Space Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. Credit: OHB System

OHB System to sign PLATO construction contract in June

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German satellite manufacturer OHB System expects to finalize a contract in June with the European Space Agency to build a spacecraft to search for exoplanets.

From the Magazine European Space AgencyOHBPLATO
Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos. Credit: SpaceNews photo illustration/KREMLIN.RU

Putin’s sanctioned space boss a new wrinkle for U.S.-Russian relations

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The U.S.-Russian space partnership is one of technicalities, not of personalities. But Dmitry Rogozin is potentially toxic to this relationship from the standpoint of technicality.

From the Magazine Dmitry RogozinRoscosmosRussiaVladimir Putin

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