Author: starpathwp-production
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NASA’s Deep Space Network can’t keep up with demand
All hands on deck at DSN during Artemis 1 NASA’s Deep Space Network comprises of arrays of antennas across the globe, located in California, Spain, and Australia. These antennas connect NASA with its various science missions that operate outside of Earth’s orbit, many orbiting the Moon and beyond. This means it was used for the…
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NASA officials sound alarm over future of the Deep Space Network
NASA officials sounded an alarm Tuesday about the agency’s Deep Space Network, a collection of antennas in California, Spain, and Australia used to maintain contact with missions scattered across the Solar System. Everything from NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon to the Voyager probes in interstellar space rely on the Deep Space Network (DSN) to…
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SpaceX notches 60th launch of the year with Starlink mission, one shy of tying record
Update 11:00 p.m. EDT: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The first stage booster, tail number B1077, landed on the drone ship, A Shortfall of Gravitas. Update 8:58 p.m. EDT: SpaceX shifted the launch time of the mission to a new T-0 at 10:21 p.m. EDT (0221…
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MDA Acquires SatixFy’s Digital Payload Division
MDA is acquiring SatixFy’s digital payload division in a $40 million acquisition to increase its offerings in the digital satellite communications market, the Canadian manufacturer announced Thursday. SatixFy is headquartered in Israel and is known for developing user terminals and modems and its in-house chipsets. The digital payload division, SatixFy Space Systems UK Ltd., is…
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SpaceX launches of Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission
Following two scrubs, SpaceX launched on the third attempt with a batch of 13 communications and missile tracking satellites from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Tranche 0 Flight 2 mission for the Space Development Agency (SDA) on Friday. An issue with engine 4 scrubbed the first attempt,…
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Space junk is on the rise, and no one is in charge of cleaning it up
There’s a lot of trash on the Moon right now—including nearly 100 bags of human waste—and with countries around the globe traveling to the Moon, there’s going to be a lot more, both on the lunar surface and in Earth’s orbit. In August 2023, Russia’s Luna-25 probe crashed into the Moon’s surface, while India’s Chandrayaan-3…
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AFRL Awards Benchmark Space Systems Funds to Develop ASCENT Thrusters
The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded Benchmark Space Systems a $2.81 million award to further develop and test thrusters running on ASCENT fuel. ASCENT stands for Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic fuel, and it is an AFRL-developed fuel. The award announced Wednesday is a Space Propulsion Research and Innovation for Neutralizing Satellite Threats (SPRINT) award…
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Benchmark Awarded Second Contract by AFRL to Test New Thrusters on Non-Toxic Fuel
Tapped to help U.S. defense agencies deploy safer propellant alternatives to hydrazine, Benchmark Space Systems announced a two-year, $2.81 million AFRL SPRINT (Space Propulsion Research and Innovation for Neutralizing Satellite Threats) award to further develop and test flight-optimized thrusters running on ASCENT (Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic) fuel. It is Benchmark’s second SPRINT award in two…
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Firefly Aerospace and Millennium Space Systems Stand Ready for SSC’s Responsive Space Mission
Firefly Aerospace, an end-to-end space transportation company, and Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing Company small satellite constellation prime, have entered the hot standby phase for VICTUS NOX, a Tactically Responsive Space mission led by Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Space Safari Program Office. The team stands ready for the 24-hour callup and orbit requirements to complete…
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SpiderOak Successfully Demonstrates OrbitSecure on International Space Station
SpiderOak, a provider company of zero-trust cybersecurity and resiliency software for space systems, announced the successful deployment and demonstration of its OrbitSecure technology aboard the International Space Station. This milestone, achieved using Amazon Web Services (AWS) Snowcone edge computing device provided by Axiom Space, completes the next critical step in SpiderOak’s plan to demonstrate increasingly…