Space

SpaceX will become the co-owner of valuable data, biological samples, and possibly even patents and intellectual property related to human spaceflight, according to the terms and conditions of a new program inviting research on crewed Dragon missions. The company started quietly inviting proposals

Advanced manufacturing startup Orbital Composites is teaming up with Virtus Solis Technologies to conduct a space-based solar power demonstration as soon as 2027. The two companies say the mission will be a precursor to an in-space “megawatt-class” solar power installation by 2030, which could

The vastness of the ocean allows polluters to evade detection in all but the most egregious violations. SkyTruth aims to change that with Cerulean, an orbital monitoring platform for coastal waters that spots not just oil slicks but also the ships that produce them faster and with more certainty th

Starlab, the private space station being developed by Voyager Space and Airbus, will go to orbit onboard a SpaceX Starship rocket before the decade is out, the companies announced Wednesday. Starlab is one of a handful of private space station initiatives currently under development. These projects

Hello and welcome back to technewss Space. Last week, NASA held its annual day of remembrance to commemorate all those who lost their lives in the pursuit of human space exploration — including the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia. The day is a sobering reminder of the pers of spac

Those of us lucky enough to be sitting by a window can predict the weather just by looking outside, but for the less privileged, weather forecasting and analysis is getting better and better. Tomorrow.io just released the results from its first two radar satellites, which, thanks to machine learnin

Ingenuity, the small helicopter that's been buzzing around the Red Planet for almost three years, has taken its final flight. NASA announced today that at least one of the helicopter's carbon fiber rotor blades was damaged during its last mission, grounding it for good. To say that Ingenuit

French small launch developer Latitude has closed $30 million in new capital as it eyes the first flight of its Zephyr rocket in 2025. While other rocket companies are going bigger, developing even more massive rockets, Latitude is taking a different approach: light, small and hopefully cheap enoug

Satellite startup Albedo aims to provide commercial orbital imagery so detailed that the military kept its own version under wraps — until it was leaked a few years ago by Donald Trump. In 2019, then-president Trump tweeted a detailed image of a heavily damaged Iranian launch pad captured by a cl

Sierra Space has completed a key test of its inflatable space habitat, as the company progresses toward launching and operating a private space station with Blue Origin before the end of the decade. The “ultimate burst pressure” test of the inflatable module was conducted at NASA's Marshall

Hello and welcome back to technewss Space. What a week! For the second week in a row, we have lunar lander news to report on. Plus, a final update on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, news on the Artemis program and the first crewed launch of the year. Want to reach out with a tip? Ema Aria at

Japan's first lunar lander has officially powered down on the moon after its solar cells were unable to generate electricity, though the nation's space agency said there is a possibility of turning things around when the direction of the sun's rays change. Japan made history last week w

Japan’s long-planned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon has successfully touched down on the lunar surface, making the nation the fifth in history to do so. But all is not well for SLIM, which may have a limited lease on life due to trouble with its solar cells. In a press conference followi

Astrobotic's lunar lander will be reentering Earth's atmosphere over a remote part of the South Pacific Ocean tomorrow afternoon, bringing to a close the failed moon landing mission. The Peregrine lunar lander is expected to reenter around 4PM EST over an unpopulated stretch of ocean near F