Space Exploration

Australia’s first Mission Control Centre is one step closer to lift off with local company Saber Astronautics chosen to establish the state-of-the-art space hub in Adelaide. The Mission Control Centre will provide facilities for space businesses and researchers to control satellite and space missions, and include a live link to …

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Friday selected Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders to be the agency’s next associate administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate. Since 2014, Lueders has directed NASA’s efforts to send astronauts to space on private spacecraft, which culminated in the successful launch of …

Astrobotic, the world’s leading lunar logistics service provider, has been selected by NASA to deliver the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, to the south pole of the Moon in 2023. Astrobotic will provide an end-to-end delivery for VIPER on board the company’s Griffin lunar lander through a $199.5 …

In this week’s Space Cafe Web Talk, Yvette Gonzalez shared her thoughts about the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) program, future of Citizen Science research application and deployment, engaging unexpected multidisciplinary experts, and ultimately how it enables diversity and inclusion …

An artificial intelligence (AI) system analysing data from the Gaia space telescope has identified more than 2,000 large protostars, young stars that are still forming and could hold clues to the origin of the stars in our Milky Way. Scientists had previously catalogued only a 100 of these stars and …

Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service TM today announced on 3 June 2020 that space industry leader Dylan Taylor plans to reserve payload space on Xplore’s first mission beyond Earth orbit. The payload will be hosted onboard the Xcraft TM , Xplore’s highly capable, multi-mission …

NASA has finalized the contract for the initial crew module of the agency’s Gateway lunar orbiting outpost. Orbital Science Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Space, has been awarded $187 million to design the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO) for the Gateway, which is part …

By John B. Sheldon The heads of the space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency (ESA) are scheduled to meet on 9 June 2020 via video conference in order to discuss cooperation on lunar exploration and the International Space Station (ISS). The meeting …

In this week’s Space Cafe Web Talk Dr. Raji Rajagopalan discussed how India’s approach to outer space has changed over the last decade and how it is now driven increasingly by national security concerns. Dr. Rajagopalan also addressed a range of other significant topics, including India’s controversial ASAT test, her …

NASA has selected Astrobotic for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II award to continue its development of UltraNav, a low-cost, autonomous, visual navigation system for spacecraft. The system has wide-ranging applications, from the servicing of Earth satellites to journeys to challenging space destinations such as the lunar poles …