Breaking news
Pence calls for human return to the moon by 2024
Vice President Mike Pence directed NASA to return humans to the surface of the moon by 2024, a dramatic acceleration of the agency’s human space exploration plans but a directive accompanied by few technical or fiscal details.
NASA budget proposal targets SLS
The White House’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for NASA proposes to delay work on an upgraded version of the Space Launch System and would transfer some of that vehicle’s payloads to other rockets.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson to step down
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson informed President Trump on Friday that she will be stepping down May 31 to become president of the University of Texas El Paso.
Crew Dragon departs ISS and returns to Earth
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon departed from the International Space Station early March 8, heading to a splashdown that will mark the end of a successful test flight for the commercial crew program.
Maxar to retain but restructure GEO satellite business
Maxar Technologies has decided not to sell or shut down its commercial geostationary orbit satellite business, but will restructure it with a greater emphasis on smaller satellites and government customers.
OneWeb’s first six satellites in orbit following Soyuz launch
The first six satellites in a constellation that could one day number close to 2,000 lifted off at 4:37 p.m. Eastern aboard a Soyuz rocket.
DARPA’s Fred Kennedy tapped to lead Space Development Agency
The Space Development Agency is being created to "reenergize the space development culture, shorten the time cycles that we talked about, bring some new things to the table.”
Air Force awards $739 million in launch contracts to ULA and SpaceX
ULA and SpaceX will split six national security launches planned for 2021 to 2022, the Air Force announced Feb. 19.
SSL cancels DARPA satellite servicer agreement
The company said it backed out the servicer program in order to focus on "other capital priorities, such as WorldView Legion.”
New Shepard carries research payloads on latest suborbital test flight
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital vehicle launched on its tenth test flight Jan. 23 as the company edges closer to flying people into space.
House spending bill fires warning shot at JWST
A new appropriations bill the House plans to vote on next week would provide $21.5 billion for NASA in 2019 but warns that any further problems with the James Webb Space Telescope could lead to its cancellation.
SpaceX laying off 10 percent of its workforce
SpaceX is laying off about 10 percent of its workforce, a cost-cutting move the company says is required to focus on development of its next-generation launch system and a broadband satellite constellation.
Chang’e-4 returns first images from lunar farside following historic landing
China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft made the historic first ever soft-landing on the far side of the moon Wednesday in a mission aims to reveal clues to the history of the solar system and paving the way for future exploration.
Virgin Galactic achieves space on SpaceShipTwo test flight
Virgin Galactic achieved a long-awaited milestone Dec. 13 when its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle performed its longest test flight to date, exceeding one altitude often used as the boundary of space.
China launches Chang’e-4 spacecraft for pioneering lunar far side landing mission
China launched its Chang’e-4 moon mission Dec. 7, successfully sending the lander and rover into a lunar transfer orbit ahead of an unprecedented attempt at a landing on the far side of the moon early in the New Year.
InSight successfully lands on Mars
NASA’s InSight spacecraft successfully landed on Mars Nov. 26, completing a journey of nearly 500 million kilometers and starting a mission to study the planet’s interior.
