The 2024 SpaceNews Icon Awards honor extraordinary achievements that are driving humanity’s exploration of space and shaping the future of the industry. Chosen by the SpaceNews editorial team following an […]

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On Nov. 19, SpaceX launched its Starship vehicle on its sixth test flight. While the flight showcased key technical advancements, such as a successful engine relight on the Starship upper […]

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In the complex world of military reorganization, few initiatives have generated as much debate in recent years as the U.S. Space Force, created during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term. When […]

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Europe’s proposed sovereign broadband constellation is slowly chugging along, carrying with it the non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite upgrades that SES and Eutelsat will need to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink. The […]

The post Connecting The Dots | IRIS² anchors SES and Eutelsat next steps appeared first on SpaceNews.

By the end of this year, NASA may have a new plan in place for returning samples from Mars. The agency announced in October that it had convened an outside […]

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Expanding data storage in space is crucial for enabling more powerful artificial intelligence systems to process larger volumes of information directly from orbit. More capable hard drives would facilitate faster […]

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The Pentagon is putting $13 billion behind its talk of embracing commercial space, committing serious money to low-Earth orbit satellite services. This marks a dramatic increase in spending on commercial […]

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Enough commercial activity is heading to the moon in the next few months to create a traffic jam. Firefly Aerospace, ispace and Intuitive Machines are all launching commercial lunar lander […]

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The newer generation of AI tools is specifically designed to navigate the complex world of government contracting, where security protocols are strict and the stakes are high, as a single proposal can make or break a company's fiscal year.

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Space sustainability is attracting far more attention than in previous decades. “Historically, just getting people to think about it has been a problem,” said Marlon Sorge, executive director of the […]

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AI-driven technologies are on the cusp of unlocking true autonomy in orbit, with the potential to enable spacecraft to operate independently and deliver more customized, intelligently managed data to Earth. […]

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Almost no one thought SpaceX would make the catch, at least not on the first try. On the fifth integrated test flight of Starship, launched Oct. 13 from the company’s […]

The post Expending the Expendables: More launch companies are betting their future on reusability appeared first on SpaceNews.

Nearly 12 hours after the successful Falcon 9 launch of a Crew Dragon mission on Sept. 28, SpaceX announced there had been “an off-nominal deorbit burn” by the upper stage […]

The post Foust Forward | Elon Musk, SpaceX and the perils of social media distractions appeared first on SpaceNews.

The U.S. Space Force is mandated to “organize, train and equip” forces to protect American interests in space. That sounds straightforward on paper. In practice, however, the very definition of […]

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Efforts to standardize satellite and terrestrial communications are moving beyond narrowband capabilities toward a universal broadband terminal for seamless, global connectivity. Geostationary operator Intelsat recently partnered with Softbank, a Japanese […]

The post Connecting the Dots | The next connectivity frontier: A universal 5G broadband terminal appeared first on SpaceNews.

Before launching its own satellite, Peru purchased about 10 Earth observation images annually. Since the Airbus-built PeruSat-1 reached orbit in 2016, Peru has gathered and stored more than 500,000 satellite […]

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As the boundaries of warfare continue to extend beyond traditional battlegrounds, the U.S. Army is making strides into the space domain. With satellite capabilities now vital to military operations, the […]

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For the European space industry, the deafening rumble of the ascending rocket was a sigh of relief. On the afternoon of July 9, an Ariane 6 lifted off on a […]

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Satellites are the defacto communications technology when disaster strikes because of their resilience, broad coverage and speed to deploy. Space-based connectivity serves as a critical lifeline when natural disasters disrupt […]

The post Backing the Backups: Ensuring satellites are ready to restore communications when ground systems fail appeared first on SpaceNews.

Pressure is mounting on the Federal Communications Commission to do more to protect the environment from rising megaconstellations, even as a Supreme Court ruling casts uncertainty on its authority to […]

The post Connecting the dots | FCC’s space sustainability authority in question as need grows appeared first on SpaceNews.

In the high-stakes arena of military space technology, the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency is attempting to rewrite the rulebook with a mesh network of interconnected satellites in low-Earth […]

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On Aug. 27, NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an audit of Mobile Launcher 2, the mobile launch platform the agency is building for the Block 1B version of […]

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As geopolitical tensions extend beyond Earth’s atmosphere, the U.S. Space Force is sharpening its focus on dominating the electromagnetic spectrum. Space electronic warfare — the art and science of protecting […]

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It won’t be easy for NASA to buy commercial services to support Mars exploration. The vast distance between Earth and the Red Planet poses a significant challenge, as do the […]

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