Zac Hall

Apple already invested early half a billion dollars into its satellite communications partner Globalstar, and now the iPhone maker is upping its payout. This time there are more strings attached, however, as the $252 million investment comes in the form of a loan.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard any news around Phobos and Deimos, SpaceX’s retired oil rigs being converted into sea platforms for Starship. It turns out that’s because SpaceX quietly abandoned plans to turn either of its rigs into launchpads at sea.

NASA and the European Space Agency are on track to bring the first-ever Mars soil and atmosphere samples back to Earth. Today both space agencies shared an update on exactly how they plan to do that thanks to the Mars helicopter Ingenuity.

Want to collect a piece of James Webb Space Telescope history? Later this year, the U.S. Postal Service will release a special stamp collection celebrating the new deep space telescope. JWST launched last Christmas and delivered the most detailed views of deep space earlier this month.

Update: As of July 20, NASA says it is holding three placeholder dates for possible launch targets: August 29 between 8:33 a.m. and 10:33 a.m. ET, September 2 between 12:48 p.m. and 2:48 p.m. ET, and September 5 between 5:12 p.m. and 6:42 p.m. ET. Mission duration would be 42 days, 39 days, and 42 days, respectively.

NASA conducted its fourth wet dress rehearsal attempt for its Space Launch System rocket this week, completing a critical trial run at fueling the rocket mostly without issue. Officials were uncertain one day after the test if the Moon rocket would require another round of fueling. The agency has since communicated that it intends to launch SLS as early as last August without a fifth go at working out the kinks during fueling.

NASA planned to launch a mission this year to explore a unique asteroid called Psyche. Unfortunately the team behind the Psyche mission ran out of time to properly test the spacecraft in time to make this year’s launch window.

United Launch Alliance is preparing for the debut flight of its next generation rocket called Vulcan. There are certain developments to follow, however, while the first mission date awaits hardware readiness.

Everyone loves a good engine shot, and Bezos and Bruno are probably especially enjoying this one. Blue Origin shared shots of its BE-4 rocket engine in an important test phase today. Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos is awaiting engine readiness before his company’s New Glenn rocket can take flight, and United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno needs BE-4 engines for its Vulcan Centaur system.

NASA’s ‘Moon to Mars’ Artemis program is proceeding as planned on a micro level. Engineers are completing a fueling trial run of the Space Launch System rocket ahead of its trip around the Moon later this fall. On a macro level, however, a new report details how bigger picture plans for Artemis may not be progressing as planned…

Boeing and its launch partner ULA successfully sent the uncrewed Starliner space to Earth orbit today. The mission, called OFT-2 (orbital flight test two), has already surpassed the status of Starliner during OFT-1 in 2019. Next up are several key events, including docking to the International Space Station and the return flight back to Earth. Here’s what you need to know:

Three years after the release of the first image of a black hole captured in another galaxy, astronomers are revealing the first image of what is believed to be the black hole at the center of our own galaxy.

Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*, pronounced A-star) is an object 27,000 light-years from Earth that is four million times more massive than the Sun. The image of the object was created by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration based on eight radio telescopes around Earth.

NASA is on track to conduct its first mission of the new Artemis lunar exploration program sometime in spring 2022. It’s been a long time coming for the space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. It appears the historic first flight of SLS will have to wait a little longer, however, as NASA buys more time to complete prep work before liftoff.

United Launch Alliance is scheduled to conduct the third Space Test Program mission, or STP-3, for the Space Force’s Space Systems Command in the early hours of Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Here’s how to the ULA’s Atlas V rocket launch.