China.org.cn released a news report about China's new planetary exploration mission on 9 May 2020, revealing "Tianwen" as the name of the mission:
Read More »NanoAvionics To Build Satellites For NASA Funded AERO-VISTA Mission
NanoAvionics has received a contract to build two nanosatellites for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AERO-VISTA mission team at NanoAvionics’ recently-opened manufacturing facility in Columbia, Illinois, USA.
Read More »VOX Space Readies To Launch from Andersen Air Force Base In Guam
VOX Space, the Virgin Orbit subsidiary which provides responsive and affordable launch services for the U.S. national security community, has signed a new agreement with the Department of the Air Force, allowing the company’s LauncherOne system to conduct missions to space from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.
Read More »ICEYE Demonstrates SAR Interferometry With An 18-Day Global Repeat
Finnish New Space leader ICEYE is the first in the world to demonstrate interferometric capabilities from synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellites under 100kg (220 pounds) in mass.
Read More »Gigabits From Space – TNO And Hyperion Commercialise Ground Detector
The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and Dutch space company Hyperion Technologies have successfully commercialised a key optical component to receive satellite laser links on Earth. The jointly developed Gigabit Detector will benefit operators of optical ground stations worldwide.
Read More »NASA Space Laser Missions Map 16 Years Of Ice Sheet Loss
Using the most advanced Earth-observing laser instrument NASA has ever flown in space, scientists have made precise, detailed measurements of how the elevation of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have changed over 16 years.
Read More »Roscosmos Confirms Destruction Of Russian Fregat Upper Stage’s Tank In Space
The TsNIIMash rocket and spacecraft scientific center has confirmed the destruction in the earth’s orbit of tanks of the Russian Fregat-SB upper stage, the press service of Roscosmos space agency told TASS on Sunday, 10 May 2020.
Read More »Airbus’ Sentinel-6A “Gets An Earful”
Earth observation satellite Sentinel-6A is currently getting an earful.Airbus space engineers are ‘bombarding’ the latest satellite for the European environment and security programme ‘Copernicus’ with sound in a dedicated chamber at the Space Test Centre of Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH (IABG) in Ottobrunn, near Munich.
Read More »Firefly Aerospace Achieves AS9100 Quality Certification
Firefly Aerospace, Inc., a leading provider of economical and dependable launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services, announced on 6 May 2020 that it has secured AS9100 quality certification as it advances from developmental to production phase ahead of the inaugural flight of its Alpha launch vehicle later this year.
Read More »Head of Russia’s Human Spaceflight Program Dies After COVID-19 Diagnosis
Yevgeny Mikrin, the head of Russia's human spaceflight program, has died, the country's space agency Roscosmos announced on 5 May 2020. The statement did not specify a cause of death, but a report in Space.com indicates Mikrin had tested positive for Covid-19 last month.
Read More »