Innovation
June 16, 2021
Rocket Lab will design two Photon spacecraft for a NASA scientific mission to Mars, the company announced June 15. The mission dubbed ESCAPADE — Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers — will study Mars' hybrid magnetosphere. It is led by a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. ESCAPADE is being developed under…
June 16, 2021
LeoLabs will build its next space radar in the Azores islands of Portugal. The Space Situational Awareness (SSA) service company plans for the radar to be operational in the first half of 2022. The Azores islands are an autonomous region of Portugal located in the mid-Atlantic ocean. LeoLabs CEO Dan Ceperley said this investment into…
June 4, 2021
SpaceChain has successfully sent a blockchain-enabled payload into space on Thursday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. SpaceChain will conduct the first demonstration of Ethereum cryptocurrency technology integration when the payload is installed at its destination — the International Space Station (ISS). This milestone follows SpaceChain's in-space demonstration of…
June 2, 2021
NASA awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award to Colorado-based space technology company ExoTerra Resource (ExoTerra) to produce solar electric propulsion upper stages for microsatellites and micro-landers to reach Geostationary Orbit (GEO). ExoTerra is currently developing an upper stage engine in partnership with Virgin Orbit that is designed to deliver 150 kg…