WASHINGTON — NASA’s plans to shift from the International Space Station to commercial space stations may force one key partner to rethink how it cooperates in low Earth orbit.

WASHINGTON — NASA expects to roll out the Space Launch System rocket for the first time in mid-March for a dress rehearsal of a launch that could come as soon as May but more likely some time in the summer.

HELSINKI — China’s second Long March 8 rocket launched late Saturday carrying a domestic record 22 satellites for a range of commercial Chinese space companies. The Long March 8 lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 10:06 p.m. Eastern Feb. 26, with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) later confirming launch success.

Scientists have shown how the swirling winds and searing heat on Venus work together in a revealing new study. The surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead with temperatures averaging 872 degrees Fahrenheit (467 degrees Celsius). This extreme heat is maintained by a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide that traps the heat on the planet in a greenhouse effect. This atmosphere also sports acid sulfuric clouds and a perpetual, swirling windstorm. In a new study, researchers reveal new insights into this planet’s strange wind and heat.

WASHINGTON — Sierra Space has signed an agreement to study future landings of its Dream Chaser vehicle at a Japanese airport. Sierra Space, working in cooperation with Kanematsu Corporation and Oita Prefecture, announced Feb. 26 the memorandum of understanding regarding landings of Dream Chaser at Oita Airport. As part of the agreement Sierra Space and Kanematsu will collaborate on potential business opportunities in Japan and elsewhere in Asia for Dream Chaser.

WASHINGTON — Roscosmos announced Feb. 26 that it is halting cooperation with Europe on Soyuz launches from French Guiana and withdrawing its personnel from the launch site in response to European sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In 2021, there was an upsurge in peculiar sightings reported, thanks to people with smartphones or other video gear that captured these strange glimmers in the sky. 

NASA’s Mars sample-return plan continues to come together.
The agency announced on Monday (Feb. 7) that it has selected the aerospace company Lockheed Martin to build the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), a small rocket that will launch pristine Red Planet samples back toward Earth a decade or so from now.

Perseverance drilled into a rock called Issole on Dec. 29, 2021, collecting its sixth cored sample since touching down inside the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater last February. But the car-sized rover couldn’t seal up the titanium tube as planned, a problem the mission team soon traced to a few meddlesome pebbles clogging up Perseverance’s sample-handling system.

The Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet, identified in 2021, is officially the biggest comet ever observed. 
The new record, reported on the preprint website arXiv and now accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, bumps the Hale-Bopp comet from the top spot. Hale-Bopp was discovered in 1995 and became visible to the naked eye in 1996; it was about 46 miles (74 kilometers) across. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, also known as comet 2014 UN271, has now been calculated to be about 85 miles (137 km) across

TAMPA, Fla. — Arianespace launched another batch of OneWeb satellites Feb. 10 in the launch provider’s first mission of 2022.

Geoengineering is the use of technology to alter Earth’s climate. It may have become the topic of daily small talk, but the weather and its changing states has a big impact on individuals, localized areas and our planet as a whole. 

One of China’s newest launch startups has been raising serious amounts of money for its range of increasingly complex “Gravity” launch vehicles.

TAMPA, Fla. — Viasat plans to deploy an antenna in Sweden in April to give its ground station-as-a-service business polar coverage for the first time, the California-based satellite operator said Feb. 9.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Kongsberg Satellite Services is providing ground network support for the Lunar InfraRed Imaging (LunIR) mission with ground stations in Punta Arenas, Chile, Svalbard, Norway, and Antarctica’s Troll station.

HELSINKI — A number of China’s emerging rocket companies have secured major funding rounds in recent weeks as competition to reach orbit intensifies.