NASA has picked nine out of 33 scientific instrument proposals for the agency’s planned space mission to investigate whether the structure of a Jupiter moon could support life. The agency said Monday it aims to build and put a solar-powered spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter for three years to study the planet’s Europa moon. Participants […] More

The U.S. Air Force launched a Boeing-built X-37B spacecraft Wednesday morning at Cape Canaveral AF Station in Florida to conduct on-orbit scientific experiments, Space.com reported Wednesday. Mike Wall writes the launch marks the fourth mission of the military service’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle program. “OTV missions allow us to examine a payload system or technology […] More

Northrop Grumman has designed a Venus mission aircraft technology as the company aims to compete for an upcoming $1 billion NASA planetary science program, Space News reported Tuesday. Dan Leone writes that Northrop wants to propose its Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform to the space agency’s next New Frontiers competition in fiscal 2016. “I think we […] More

Airbus Defence and Space has signed a $198.8 million contract to design and produce a second satellite for Copernicus, a European Commission-led program that uses satellites to observe and collect information about the planet Earth and its environment. The company said Monday it will develop the  Jason-CS/Sentinel-6A satellites with the European Space Agency based on the […] More

NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging spacecraft crashed into the planet Mercury’s surface on April 30 as planned, marking the completion of its four-year mission orbiting the planet. NASA said Friday the impact, estimated to have created a crater up to 50 feet wide on the planet’s surface, was confirmed by mission controllers at the […] More

NASA‘s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft has uncovered several key information about the planet Mercury during its nearly four years of on-orbit operations. NASA said Thursday the Messenger spacecraft is now anticipated to crash-land on Mercury by the end of the month as it runs out of helium gas propellant following a series of orbit correction maneuvers. “While spacecraft […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne has been selected to complete development work for NASA’s gridded ion thruster system under a nearly $18 million contract with Glenn Research Center. The company will carry out the task on the Evolutionary Xenon Thruster-Commercial system and power processing units designed to pump solar power into each of the thruster’s components, Aerojet Rocketdyne said […] More

Omar Balkissoon helped to start Chantilly, Va.-based OGSystems in 2005 and has served as CEO of the systems integration contractor ever since. The company made a push to grow its geospatial market footprint earlier this year through the acquisition of Urban Robotics, a maker of aerial data collection technology. Balkissoon recently caught up with ExecutiveBiz to discuss OGSystems’ […] More

The Lockheed Martin-built Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft has detected aurora-like atmospheric lights and a dust cloud at orbital altitude during its mission for NASA‘s Mars Exploration Program. NASA said Wednesday MAVEN’s Langmuir Probe and Waves instrument and Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph observed the two phenomena in the spacecraft’s fourth month on Martian orbit. The dust cloud, which has been present throughout MAVEN’s […] More

NASA and Orbital ATK confirmed that the Dawn probe has made it into orbit around the Ceres dwarf planet after a 7.5-year journey. Ceres’ gravity captured the Orbital ATK-built spacecraft Friday at 4:39 a.m. Pacific time, NASA said Friday. Dawn took off in September 2007 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and initially encountered Vesta, orbiting the […] More

Ball Aerospace and Technologies‘ Scripps NISTAR radiometer instrument will launch to space as part of the Deep Space Climate Observatory mission of NASA, the U.S. Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The instrument will support the DSCOVR program in measuring irradiance on the Earth’s surface to study the planet’s exchange of energy with the sun, Ball said Tuesday. […] More

Lockheed Martin has launched a cloud-based version of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s interactive Map of the World application in a move to link Earth’s features and intelligence observations in real time. This map works to show manmade and natural changes to the surface of or beneath the planet and be searchable on the map for users through the […] More