Tag Archives: spacecraft

Ball Aerospace was selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to conduct four, six-month study contracts that will inform mission, spacecraft and instrument concepts for future operational weather architectures and Earth observation capabilities. 

SpaceX’s Dragon resupply spacecraft will leave the International Space Station (ISS), carrying over 4,000 pounds of scientific experiments and other cargo, on Monday, April 6. NASA Television and the agency's website will broadcast its departure live beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT, the company announced on Thursday. 

SpaceX has announced the upcoming launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) on Jan. 18, 2019 to test the spacecraft’s in-flight abort capabilities, the company reported on Monday. 

A NASA-operated space observatory has passed the preliminary design review phase, marking a major milestone for the spacecraft's development, Space News reported Monday. Michael New, deputy associate administrator for science at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope passed the PDR phase with successful results.

NASA formed a partnership with the Canadian government to support a moon to Mars exploration effort. Canada is the agency's first international partner of a planned Mars expedition.

Military space programs are prioritizing the construction of spacecraft ground segment systems to avoid instances wherein a satellite cannot perform at its optimum capacity because of insufficient ground segment capability, Space News reported Thursday.

 

NASA has chosen 14 early stage technology proposals from different universities as part of an effort to advance and support future space science and exploration programs.

NASA has decommissioned the Kepler space telescope, now out of fuel, after nine years of detecting planets beyond the solar system. The space agency said Wednesday it deactivated Kepler in a safe orbit, concluding the spacecraft's discovery record of over 2.6K distant planets.

Philip McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight development at NASA’s headquarters, has said the space agency’s collaboration with the private sector has resulted in a cultural change, broadened the scope of ideas and allowed NASA to view how commercial techniques operate, Federal News Radio reported Friday. “We’re giving more responsibility to the …

David Davis, chief systems engineer for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, has said the service branch’s focus on resilience to counter emerging space threats has implications for spacecraft production and testing, SpaceNews reported Wednesday. “The technical practices we employ today will continue to drive high costs,” Davis said at …