Ball Aerospace has successfully completed the critical design review (CDR) of the flight system and advanced spectrometer instrument that will be integrated onto a 350-kilogram satellite for MethaneSAT, a subsidiary of the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The completion of CDR has enabled Ball to move into part fabrication and assembly.
Read More »Stephen Forbes Takes Blackjack Program Manager Role at DARPA
Stephen Forbes, deputy program manager for the Blackjack initiative at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has been appointed to lead the program. Forbes will replace Paul Thomas, who is slated to depart from DARPA to join the private sector.
Read More »Hughes Invests $50M in Consortium to Acquire OneWeb; Pradman Kaul Quoted
Hughes Network Systems will participate in the winning consortium that will acquire OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite operator, out of bankruptcy by investing $50 million in principle, the company reported on Monday.
Read More »Export-Import Bank to Help Space Companies Take On Chinese Competitors
Officials of the Export-Import Bank of the United States said they are extending help to U.S. space companies facing competition from firms backed by the Chinese government.
Read More »Col. Eric Felt: Air Force Research Lab Eyes ‘Nontraditional Orbits’
Col. Eric Felt, director of the space vehicles directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), said the lab's next major project in space will focus on “nontraditional orbits,” including very low-Earth orbits and those near the Moon, Breaking Defense reported Friday.
Read More »NASA Eyes Standalone Entity for Commercial Project Mgmt; Doug Loverro Quoted
NASA is planning to establish an organization that will handle commercial cargo and crew mission management as part of the agency’s efforts to restructure its industry engagement strategy, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.
Read More »Army Considers Opportunities in Low Eart Orbit Satellites
The U.S. Army is looking to use small satellite constellations instead to reduce vulnerability and accelerate communications speeds. Mark Lewis, who leads the Defense Research and Engineering for Modernization Office, chaired a discussion on this topic at a forum with the Association of the U.S. Army, the service branch said Tuesday.
Read More »John Ferrari: Army Looks to Space Development Agency for LEO-Based Satcom Capabilities
The U.S. Army kicked off discussions with the Space Development Agency to help provide ground forces access to satellites in the low-Earth orbit, SpaceNews reported Sunday. Ferrari, who most recently served as director of program analysis and evaluation at the Army, said that the SDA will play a lead role in serving as a space systems architect and establishing standards to facilitate the delivery of broadband communications and other LEO-based services to all service branches.
Read More »Paul Selva: LEO Satellites Could Provide Cheaper Broadband Services
Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Brookings Institute event that the efforts to miniaturize satellites are helping to reduce costs in constructing and deploying large constellations, C4ISRnet reported Thursday. Selva noted that this may result in broadband services hosted by low-Earth orbit satellites that are cheaper compared to fiber-optic networks.
Read More »Space Dev’t Agency Seeking Low-Earth Orbit Satcom Capabilities
The Space Development Agency looks to use rapid acquisition authorities for satellite communications capabilities to establish a low-Earth orbit constellation, Space News reported Tuesday. Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a breakfast meeting that the armed forces need “ubiquitous communications” that an LEO constellation can provide.
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