spacecraft
The company has faced two main issues related to communications and the spacecraft rotation rate — and it’s largely solved both those problems.
Follow the space industry long enough and you’ll notice that an outsized number of catastrophic failures of satellites or launch vehicles can be traced to a physically small but ubiquitous…
Space is a tough place for electronic circuits since radiation causes short circuits that result in mission failure, said Hwai Lin Khor, vice president of Zero-Error Systems. Many companies currently…
Varda Space Industries, the in-space manufacturing startup that wants to revolutionize the production of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and more, is in the process of raising $25 million in new capital that…
NASA’s InSight mission is winding down — a look back at the Mars lander’s many accomplishments
Another Mars robot is settling in for a long, long sleep. With dust caking its solar panels, InSight has been losing the ability to recharge for months — in the…
The portable power bank first came on the scene in 2001, and since then, on-the-go charging has been a possibility for most mobile device users. Now, a new space company…
South Korea is headed for the moon. Last night, the country launched its first-ever lunar mission — in fact, its first-ever mission beyond low Earth orbit. Formerly called the Korea…
Armed with $19.5M, LiveEO plots a big data course between satellite geospatial information and industry
When it comes to geospatial and mapping data and how they are leveraged by organizations, satellites continue to play a critical role when it comes to sourcing raw information. Getting…
Some consolidation is afoot in the world of moving and storage startups: Clutter and MakeSpace, two erstwhile rivals in the market, are merging to form a single company, which will…
“Carl Sagan had it right, with Voyager and the pale blue dot: If you’re anywhere else in the known universe, Earth is the most interesting place to study and be…
With the “final frontier” now open to private companies, how do we transform the way we continually update the software that runs in space?
Featured Article
Peter Beck says Rocket Lab actively prepared for interplanetary missions ‘from day one’
Rocket Lab long ago graduated from underdog launch provider to industry heavyweight (with funding to match). Now the company is planning to go to the moon, Mars and Venus in the next decade.
SpaceX stacks the full Starship launch system for the first time, standing nearly 400 feet tall
SpaceX has achieved another major milestone in its Starship fully reusable launch system: It stacked the Starship spacecraft itself on top of a prototype of its Super Heavy booster, which…
Blue Origin’s final passenger for its first human spaceflight will be 18-year-old Oliver Daemen
The mystery of who will occupy the final seat on Blue Origin’s debut human spaceflight next week is a mystery no longer: The company revealed today that the winning bidder…
SpaceX plans to use its Starlink internet on Starship orbital launch to demonstrate connection quality
SpaceX’s upcoming Starship orbital test flight could end up being a veritable smorgasbord of its technological capabilities, as the company has filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to request…
SpaceX is hoping to attempt to fly its in-development spacecraft Starship to orbit for the first time in July, according to company president Gwynne Shotwell. Shotwell shared the timeline at…
Electric propulsion developer Orbion Space Technology has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round, which it says it will use to scale production capacity of its Aurora propulsion…
Max Q is a weekly newsletter from TechCrunch all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Mondays in your inbox. This week, China started staffing up its…
Rocket Lab is developing two spacecraft based on its Photon platform to orbit Mars, studying the planet’s magnetosphere in order to gain a better understanding of the ways in which…
Max Q is a weekly newsletter from TechCrunch all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Mondays in your inbox. This week actually includes two, since I…
SpaceX’s bourgeoning Starlink satellite-based broadband internet service just got a big boost from a significant new partner: Google Cloud. Thanks to a new partnership between the two, SpaceX will now…
SpaceX is fresh off a high for its Starship spacecraft development program, but according to CEO Elon Musk, it’s already looking ahead to potentially repeating its latest success with an…
SpaceX has launched 60 more of its Starlink internet broadband satellites — on “Star Wars Day,” no less, and only five days after it launched the last batch. The company…
SpaceX has launched another batch of Starlink satellites, adding 60 more to the constellation on orbit. This is the 24th Starlink launch in total, and means SpaceX has now sent…
SpaceX has another successful human space launch to its credit, after a good takeoff and orbital delivery of its Crew Dragon spacecraft on Friday morning. The Dragon took off aboard…
Watch SpaceX launch its second crew of Space Station astronauts on a flight-proven Falcon 9 live
SpaceX is set to launch its second operational commercial crew mission to the International Space Station for NASA, with a liftoff time of 5:49 AM EDT (2:49 AM PDT) on…
Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite constellation is one step closer to actually making it to space: The company announced it has secured an agreement with the United Launch Alliance (ULA) to…
NASA has marked a major milestone in its extraterrestrial exploration program, with the first powered flight of an aircraft on Mars. The flight occurred very early this morning, and NASA…
The winner of NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) contract award is SpaceX, which bid $2.9 billion for the privilege of developing the means by which NASA astronauts will return to…
SpaceX has launched another batch of Starlink satellites, keeping up its rapid pace of launches for the broadband constellation it’s deploying in low Earth orbit. This now makes 300 Starlink…
