Impulse Space, a startup focused on space transportation and exploration, announced Feb. 21 that retired Space Force general John “Jay” Raymond has joined its board of directors. Based in Redondo Beach, California, Impulse Space was founded in 2021 by Tom Mueller, a founding member of SpaceX who helped design the Merlin rocket engine that powers the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles.

Direct communications could ward off miscalculation as space militarizes faster than norms develop, officials say. The U.S. Space Force wants a hotline with China to prevent crises in space, as China’s growing number of anti-satellite weapons challenge U.S. dominance in the domain.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) ERS-2 earth-observing satellite has spent nearly three decades in orbit, but was decommissioned in 2011 and moved into a position where it would eventually be pulled back to Earth for a fiery demise in the atmosphere.

The U.S. Space Force’s VICTUS NOX on-orbit mission has successfully concluded. From acquisition to on-orbit operations, the historic mission set a new standard for Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) by demonstrating an end-to-end capability to rapidly respond to adversary aggression.

The U.S. Space Force is preparing to kick off environmental studies that could lead to SpaceX Starship launches from either the Cape Canaveral facility used by the Delta 4 or a new complex. A new website outlines plans by the Department of the Air Force, which includes the Space Force, to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding Starship launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

This month, two years ago, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine started with a cyber attack that changed everything and yet nothing for the U.S. commercial space sector. This is the third in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems.

NASA has opened applications for a second set of four volunteers motivated to spend a year in confinement in a simulated, 3D-printed Mars mission habitat on the grounds of the agency’s Johnson Space Center (JSC). The first four volunteers began the initial 378-day simulation on June 25, 2023, and are scheduled to complete their activities on July 6.

The US is at risk of losing leadership in LEO to China if commercial space stations do not come to fruition before the ISS plunges into the sea, two industry officials told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Revelations that Russia may be seeking to deploy a nuclear weapon in space raise fears that go back to Sputnik and the dawn of the Space Age. Russia is developing a space-based capability to attack satellites using a nuclear weapon, an aggressive move that has alarmed U.S. national security officials and lawmakers who worry that Russia could interfere with or disable critical communications and intelligence systems, according to people familiar with classified intelligence on the matter.

The Kremlin dismissed on Thursday a warning by the United States about Moscow’s new nuclear capabilities in space, calling it a “malicious fabrication” and a trick by the White House aimed at getting U.S. lawmakers to approve more money to counter Russia.