Category Archives: Space Today

The first half of 2020 has been sluggish for the commercial launch industry, but its problems can’t be explained solely by the coronavirus pandemic. According to statistics compiled by SpaceNews, there were 45 orbital launch attempts in first six months of 2020, including four failed launches. That would put the overall launch industry on aRead More

The UAE’s Mars Hope Probe is scheduled to launch to the red planet on July 15, 2020, the Emirates Mars Mission has announced. The first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, the probe will undertake a 495,000,000km journey to Mars. It is anticipated to enter Mars’ orbit in February 2021. The countdown to theRead More

UAE officials have welcomed the return of manned missions to space by the United States and say the achievement will benefit the sector globally. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off on recently carrying Nasa astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station. “The launch was beautiful and flawless,” said Salem Al Marri,Read More

Virgin Galactic conducted the first test flight of SpaceShipTwo from its New Mexico spaceport recently as the company edges closer to finally beginning commercial flights of the suborbital spaceplane. The company’s WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, with the VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo attached to it, took off shortly before 11 a.m. Eastern from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.Read More

NASA announced in April that it has selected three companies to begin work on designs for human lunar landers, one of which the agency still hopes will be ready to land humans on the moon by the end of 2024. NASA selected teams led by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX for 10-month study contracts forRead More

NASA is forging ahead with its Artemis program to land humans on the moon by 2024, but the agency has also just offered its first plan for what a US lunar presence may look like after that milestone. “After 20 years of continuously living in low-Earth orbit, we’re now ready for the next great challenge of spaceRead More

Virgin Orbit has identified an airport in Japan as a potential site for launch operations, joining airports in the United States and Great Britain as hosts for the air-launch company. Virgin Orbit said that, working with ANA Holdings and Space Port Japan Association, it selected Oita Airport on the island Kyushu as its preferred site.Read More

The $117 million Psyche mission will use one of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rockets, and it is scheduled to launch from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in July 2022. The spacecraft will travel to a unique metal-rich asteroid named Psyche, which orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers believeRead More

L3Harris has been awarded a 10-year $1.2 billion contract by the US Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center to maintain and modernize the military’s network of space surveillance sensors. The award is for a new program named MOSSAIC, short for maintenance of space situational awareness integrated capabilities. The selection of L3Harris was announced inRead More

The commercial spaceflight industry is thriving, and regulators won’t get in the way. That’s the message that speakers at the 23rd Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington this week want to get out. “The innovation, the technology, the leading edge, in many cases, is coming from the private sector,” said Rep. Garret Graves, R-LA,Read More