AFGHANISTAN The Taliban is creating a “grand army” for Afghanistan that will include officers and troops who served the old regime, says the official tasked with overseeing the military’s transformation. Latifullah Hakimi, head of the Taliban’s Ranks Clearance Commission, also told a news conference on Monday that they had repaired half the 81 helicopters and planes […]
Tag: SpaceNews
Vice President Harris’s chairmanship of the first National Space Council under the Biden administration earlier this month is a welcome step toward a whole-of-government approach for securing the space domain for the U.S. economy, military and civil society. Such an approach is urgently needed, as the last two months have shown: China conducted a hypersonic glide vehicle test and […]
The U.S. military wants to buy more products and services from commercial space companies. This is easier said than done, however, as the Pentagon is still trying to figure out how to work with the new space sector and attract suppliers that have not traditionally pursued government contracts, officials said Dec. 14 at TechCrunch Sessions: Space […]
A week after a OneWeb executive told British officials that the company would move production of its second generation of satellites to the United Kingdom, another executive said the company has yet to decide where it will build those satellites. At a Dec. 8 hearing by the U.K. Parliament’s science and technology committee, Chris McLaughlin, chief […]
In 1956, a mid-air collision between two commercial planes above the Grand Canyon killed all 128 passengers. The rapid growth of commercial air traffic combined with a lag in air traffic control (ATC) improvements made such a disaster inevitable. Federal budget cuts prevented the government-operated ATC framework from establishing the necessary radar systems to improve air […]
Stoke Space raised $65 million in a Series A round announced Dec. 15, funding development and testing of the upper stage of a reusable launch vehicle. The company, based in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington, said Breakthrough Energy Ventures led the round. Several other new investors also joined the round, including Spark Capital, Point72 […]
Raytheon Technologies received a $67 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to build a weather satellite to provide imagery of cloud cover and other data needed for military operations, the company announced Dec. 15. Raytheon wins $67 million U.S. Space Force contract to build weather satellite prototype – SpaceNews
U.S. aerospace giant Honeywell announced Dec. 15 it has teamed with telecommunications startup Skyloom to produce laser crosslink terminals for commercial and military satellites. Optical links enable satellites to communicate with each other and reduce networks’ reliance on ground stations. They provide much higher transmission data rates than traditional radio-frequency communications. Honeywell and Skyloom to produce laser […]
NASA’s Earth Science Division is preparing to launch four satellite missions in 2022 to provide observations of weather conditions, mineral dust, oceans and surface water. First up is TROPICS, which stands for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats. Six TROPICS cubesats are scheduled to launch in March on […]
Canada’s MDA is acquiring an X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite from Iceye that will be part of its Chorus system intended to replace Radarsat-2. The companies announced at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week Dec. 15 that Iceye will provide an X-band satellite that will complement a C-band SAR satellite that MDA previously announced it would […]
The House and Senate approved a stopgap spending bill Dec. 3 that funds the U.S. government until Feb. 18. By passing a “continuing resolution,” Congress averted a government shutdown and federal agencies can continue to operate at last year’s funding levels. U.S. government funding by CR instead of Congress passing full-year appropriations has been more the norm […]
Blue Origin is performing “final testing” of the BE-4 engines that will boost United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno said Dec. 3. “We’re in the end game now,” Bruno told CNBC in an interview. Tory Bruno: ULA won’t get engines by Christmas, BE-4s coming in early 2022 – SpaceNews