Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been selected by NASA to provide solid propulsion systems and controls for NASA’s Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), which will be launched to Mars in 2026 along with a “fetch” rover that will collect soil and rock samples prepared by NASA’s Perseverance rover, which launched in July of 2020 and […]
Propulsion
Ball Aerospace Sails into Space With Test “Sailcraft” for NASA’s Solar Propulsion Technology Demonstration
Ball Aerospace has been selected by NASA to provide a solar sail for the Solar Cruiser mission. The spacecraft will deploy an 18,000-square-foot sail — roughly the size of four regulation basketball courts stitched together. This is a NASA small satellite technology demonstration on the use of solar photons for propulsion in space. Ball will […]
Momentus To Provide Orbital Maneuvering Services To Qosmosys
Momentus Inc. (“Momentus” or the “Company”) and Qosmosys, a new venture founded in Singapore last year, have announced a service agreement for two 3UXL protoflight cubesats in 2022, followed by two options in 2023. Momentus will provide the orbital maneuvering services necessary to deliver the spacecraft to a circular or elliptical orbit, depending on each […]
Iodine Propulsion Proven Viable For Smallsats In Space By ThrustMe + Spacety
The space industry seeks new solutions to ensure economic and environmental space sustainability with the rise of satellite mega-constellations. A solution lies in the use of on-orbit propulsion, but traditional systems are not fit for the New Space paradigm. ThrustMe has announced that they have successfully tested the first iodine-fueled electric propulsion system in space […]
Space Mobility On-Orbit Demo Success By Exotrail
Exotrail reports the full success of the first-ever cubesat mission equipped with Hall-effect electric propulsion technology. Through an In-Orbit Demonstration mission launched to LEO on November 7, 2020, onboard a PSLV rocket, Exotrail nominally ignited its ExoMG™ Hall-effect electric propulsion system on the first attempt. Smallsat constellations will now be able to quickly change their […]
Iodine Electric Propulsion To Become A Critical Subsystem For SAR Constellations
ThrustMe and Spacety have announced a new space launch, the 3rd in an ongoing series — this time, Spacety launched their Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, Hisea-1, which is the world’s first, commercial, C-band, smallsat SAR with a phased array antenna. On board is ThrustMe’s Iodine Electric Propulsion system to provide the satellite with crucial […]
Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Powerful Contribution to ULA’s Launch of National Reconnaissance Office Payload
The force that sends a rocket into space is amazing, and Aerojet Rocketdyne did just that. Aerojet Rocketdyne powered the recent successful launch of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket yesterday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket launched a classified national security payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance […]
Relativity Space Receives $500 Million In Funding
Relativity Space has closed a $500 million Series D equity funding round, which was led by Tiger Global Management with participation from new investors Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Baillie Gifford, ICONIQ Capital, General Catalyst, XN, Senator Investment Group, and Elad Gil. Existing investors participating in the round include BOND, Tribe Capital, K5 Global, […]
Orbit Fab’s First Operational Gas Station In Space To Launch In 2021
Orbit Fab has signed an agreement with Spaceflight Inc. to launch the company’s first operational fuel depot to orbit. Tanker 001 Tenzing, which will provide fuel for the fast growing in-orbit servicing industry, is expected to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 no earlier than in June 2021. Once launched, Tanker 001 Tenzing will store […]