Author: starpathwp-production
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Northrop Grumman in Build Phase for SDA Satellites After Critical Design Review
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—A little over a year after winning a Space Development Agency (SDA) contract to provide satellites for a Low-Earth Orbit mesh communications network, Northrop Grumman recently completed the critical design review (CDR), paving the way to begin building its spacecraft for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL), the company said on Tuesday. Northrop Grumman’s…
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Exolaunch Successfully Deployed 21 Satellites on Transporter-7 Mission
Exolaunch, a global company in small satellite launch services, mission management and deployment technologies has successfully deployed 21 satellites on SpaceX’s Transporter-7 mission. The mission was launched using a SpaceX Falcon 9 on April 14 at 11:48pm PT from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA. This is the 19th mission in Exolaunch’s flight heritage,…
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ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Captures Stunning Images of Earth from Space
ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) has taken its first monitoring camera images showing part of the spacecraft with Earth as a stunning backdrop. The mission launched on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou on 14 April 14:14 CEST and the images were captured in the hours afterwards. Juice has two monitoring cameras…
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DoD Space Policy Official Plumb Outlines Steps to Normalize Space as an Operational Domain
The U.S. Department of Defense is working to normalize space as an operational domain, just like land, sea, and air — and doing so requires collaboration with both allies and the commercial sector, John Plumb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, said Tuesday at Space Symposium. Plumb, who was confirmed in March 2022, is the first…
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Amazon Web Services gets set to ignite space accelerator program’s third stage
Startups in this year’s AWS Space Accelerator program include, from left, Lunasonde, which is developing a space-based radar sounding system; Raven Space Systems, which is building 3D-printed re-entry capsules; and Rogue Space Systems, which focuses of space robotic systems. The 14 startups selected for Amazon Web Services’ third annual AWS Space Accelerator program include a…
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McKinsey Report Analyzes Scenarios for Interconnected Launch Supply and Demand
The launch market likely faces a shortfall of capacity in the near-term, but also faces the risk of oversupply in the longer term, a new report from McKinsey finds. The launch market is in flux, as a number of legacy vehicles near retirement and replacement heavy-lift vehicles face delays, and many new vehicles in development…
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First-ever NASA asteroid sample arriving in September
Bennu was chosen because it is a carbon-rich asteroid that is believed to contain materials that scientists believe can help determine how the solar system formed and how life began on Earth. OSIRIS-REx reached Bennu in 2018 and began studying the asteroid from orbit, using its suite of onboard scientific instruments to map the surface…
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Live coverage: SpaceX scrubs launch attempt for Starship test flight
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of SpaceX’s first full-scale Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket from Starbase, SpaceX’s development and test facility at Boca Chica Beach, Texas. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. [tabby title=”LabPadre/SFN Commentary”] [tabby title=”SFN Launch Pad Live”] [tabbyending]
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South Korea Set to Launch First Commercial-Grade Satellite
South Korea plans to conduct its first launch of a commercial-grade satellite aboard a domestically built rocket next month as part of its space development program. South Korea’s officials say its homegrown Nuri space launch vehicle has no military purposes. But some experts say the development of such rockets would eventually help the country acquire…
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Maxar Rebrands its Spacecraft Portfolio
Maxar Technologies is rebranding its lineup of satellites to show the company’s broad manufacturing capabilities, Maxar announced April 17. The rebrand includes new names to commercialize two spacecraft buses. The new portfolio consists of the Maxar 300 series, Maxar 500 series, and the Maxar 1300 series. The Maxar 300 series is its smallest and most…