Space

The Federal Aviation Administration is launching a new initiative exploring possible regulations on commercial human spaceflight, a first for a nascent industry that is rapidly increasing the number of humans that visit space. The new rulemaking committee will “help the FAA plan, conceive, and im

A year after the first congressional hearing on UFOs in 50 years, a House subcommittee revisited some enduring questions around a topic that once would have been laughed off. The hearing, held Wednesday by the House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, explored a rang

NASA awarded new funding to 11 companies today for advanced space tech projects ranging from advanced power generation on the lunar surface to additive manufacturing for space habitats. The awards, which total $150 million across all 11 companies, were announced as part of the space agency's Ti

In-space logistics startup Atomos Space will launch its first demonstration mission on SpaceX's Transporter-10 in the first quarter of 2024, as the company looks to gain an early foothold in the emerging market for orbital transfer services. The five-year-old company will send up two spacecraft

Hello and welcome back to Max Q! In this issue: A closer look at Umbra News from Rocket Lab, Astranis and more Umbra is a Silicon Valley outsider — they prefer it that way Umbra co-founder Gabe Dominocielo's last name is roughly translated from the Latin as “lord of the skies.” It'

As Twitter ditches its iconic branding in favor of owner Elon Musk’s favorite letter “X,” its open source rival Mastodon is seeing usage numbers soar. According to a new post from Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko, the number of monthly active users for his Twitter alternative

Impulse Space, the space logistics startup headed by founding SpaceX employee Tom Mueller, has closed a new tranche of funding to further develop its line of orbital transportation vehicles. The oversubscribed $45 million Series A was led by RTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of RTX (formerly Ra

Amazon will spend $120 million on a new satellite processing facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), as the company gears up to launch the first batch of Project Kuiper prototype satellites in 2024. Construction is already underway on the new facility, the company said Friday. It will be

Space-based internet startup Astranis said Friday that its first commercial internet satellite will be unable to provide continuous coverage to Alaska due to a malfunction with both spacecraft's solar panels. The San Francisco-based company launched the dedicated internet satellite for Alaska,

Swarm, the Internet-of-Things connectivity provider that was acquired by SpaceX, will no longer be selling new devices, according to an email sent to customers earlier this month. The news appears to be directly related to SpaceX's forthcoming expansion into the satellite-to-cell market, with S

The majority of Americans think it is “essential” that the U.S. remain a global leader in space, but that private markets won't ensure enough progress on their own, according to new polling data from Pew Research Center. Pew asked more than 10,000 American adults about their attitudes towar

Rocket Lab has made improvements to the first stage of the Electron rocket to make it more resilient to ocean water, upgrades that will be put to the test with tonight's launch. The “Baby Come Back” mission will launch from the company's launch complex on M?hia Peninsula, New Zealand,

Fresh off its first commercial mission, Virgin Galactic will return to the skies on August 10 to take three private citizens to suborbital space and back. The crew for the mission, called Galactic 02, includes 80-year-old Jon Goodwin, a former Olympian and an early Virgin Galactic ticket holder; an

Chandrayaan-3, India’s third mission to the moon, has taken off successfully — almost four years after its predecessor failed to touch down on the lunar surface in 2019. On Friday, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its “Launch Vehicle Mark-III” rocket carryi