NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio to build the Next-Generation Space Weather Magnetometer for the Lagrange 1 Series project as a part of NOAA’s Space Weather Next program. This cost-plus-fixed-fee contract is valued at approximately $26.1 million and includes the development of … Read more
NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the Dragonfly mission, a rotorcraft lander mission under NASA’s New Frontiers Program, designed to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. The mission will sample materials and determine surface composition in different geologic settings, advancing our search for the building blocks of life. The firm-fixed-price contract has a value … Read more
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission moves closer to launch as technicians worked on Wednesday, Sept. 11, inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to prepare the spacecraft for upcoming propellant loading at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, which is considered one of the most promising habitable environments … Read more
NASA and SpaceX are targeting a launch period opening Thursday, Oct. 10, for the agency’s Europa Clipper mission, which will help scientists determine if one of Jupiter’s icy moons could support life. The mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Europa Clipper … Read more
NASA has selected three additional companies to provide launch services for future agency missions through its VADR (Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract. The companies awarded are: Arrow Science and Technology LLC of Webster, Texas Impulse Space Inc. of Redondo Beach, California Momentus Space LLC of San Jose, California The VADR contract is a … Read more
A pair of CubeSats from NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator, or PTD, series lifted off on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rideshare mission at 11:56 a.m. PDT Friday, August 16, from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California. The two small satellites, PTD-4 and PTD-R, will help advance NASA’s efforts to validate novel technologies and increase small spacecraft capabilities in … Read more
NASA announced a new round of opportunities for CubeSat, developers to build spacecrafts on that will fly on upcoming launches through the agency’s CSLI (CubeSat Launch Initiative). CubeSats are a class of small spacecraft called nanosatellites. The initiative provides space access to U.S. educational institutions, certain non-profit organizations, and informal educational institutions such as museums and science centers, as well as … Read more
NASA launched CURIE (CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment) as a rideshare payload on the inaugural flight of ESA’s (European Space Agency) Ariane 6 rocket, which launched at 4 p.m. GFT on July 9 from Europe’s Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, in French Guiana. Designed by a team from the University of California, Berkeley, CURIE … Read more
As part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, Firefly Aerospace launched eight small satellites on July 3 aboard the company’s Alpha rocket. Named “Noise of Summer,” the rocket successfully lifted off from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:04 p.m. PDT. The CubeSat missions were designed by universities and NASA … Read more
NASA is readying for the launch of several small satellites to space, built with the help of students, educators, and researchers from across the country, as part of the agency’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. The ELaNa 43 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites 43) mission includes eight CubeSats flying on Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket for its “Noise of … Read more