SEATTLE — Virgin Orbit’s first launch from the United Kingdom failed to reach orbit Jan. 9, dealing a high-profile setback to a company that has been struggling financially.

WASHINGTON — L3Harris Technologies on Dec. 18 announced an agreement to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.7 billion.  

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s first robotic lunar orbiter, Danuri, entered the lunar orbit after conducting its first lunar orbit insertion maneuver Dec. 16.

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will have to wait until January for its next attempt at its inaugural Electron launch from Virginia after suffering delays because of weather and range issues.

WASHINGTON — The second flight of Arianespace’s Vega C failed to reach orbit Dec. 20 after its second stage malfunctioned, destroying two Pléiades Neo imaging satellites.

Satellite ground segment providers tend to be skeptical of ground-based optical communications.
They don’t doubt the utility of optical intersatellite links.

With the successful launch of Artemis I and the second SLS rocket nearing completion, aerospace experts engage the next generation, assuring them that this is just the beginning of a long and mind-blowing highway into deep space.

WASHINGTON — British regulators have issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first LauncherOne mission from the United Kingdom, now expected to take place in January.

The wild asteroid concept would see far-future humans gather up rock rubble in a massive bag made of nanofiber mesh, allowing future astronauts to build a habitat inside the loose asteroid bits as the rocks spin in space.

NASA delayed a planned spacewalk to venture outside the International Space Station at the last moment on Wednesday after a large piece of Russian space debris came dangerously close to the orbital outpost.

NASA’s Perseverance mission dropped its first cache of precious rock samples on the sands of Mars, leaving behind a record of material that a future mission could bring back to Earth. It’s a key moment in the search for life on Mars, NASA officials said in a statement on Wednesday (Dec. 21).

NASA announced Wednesday (Dec. 21) that its InSight lander, designed to understand the geologic life story of Mars, has completed its mission on the Red Planet. The spacecraft relied on solar power, and after four years on Mars, its sunlight-collecting panels have built up too much dust to generate enough power to run the lander. For months now, the InSight team have been expecting the lander to fall silent. Now, the robot has missed two calls home; scientists last heard from the robot on Dec. 15. NASA will keep listening, but doesn’t expect to hear anything more from the lander.

WASHINGTON — Two African countries became the first from the continent to join the Artemis Accords as the United States works to bring more emerging space nations into the agreement.

Riding on the shoulders of the Apollo generation, the Artemis missions will pave the way for humans to return to the moon, begin human exploration of Mars, and someday for humanity to reach the edges of our solar system and beyond.

Rocket Lab said Dec. 15 that its first Electron launch from Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, has slipped two days to Dec. 18 between 6 and 8 p.m. Eastern. The company said that NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration were still working to complete range documentation needed for the launch. A backup launch opportunity is available Dec. 19.

HELSINKI — China launched a Long March 11 solid rocket from Xichang early Friday, completing a campaign of seven orbit launch attempts in just over a week which included the debut of two new launch vehicles.