January 13 – January 19, 2020 | Colorado Space News

Honeywell To Provide Critical Components For Lockheed Martin’s Orion Spacecraft

Artist’s concept of an Orion spacecraft and its European-built service module near the moon. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

November 17, 2020 – Honeywell has been awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin to support production of NASA’s Orion spacecraft fleet for the upcoming Artemis missions, which will bring humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972. The contract to supply key components of the Orion crew module and service module will be managed and performed out of Honeywell’s facility in Clearwater, Florida. Work will also be conducted at the company’s facilities in Glendale, Arizona, and Puerto Rico. Read More

Outbound Comets Are Likely Of Alien Origin

Researchers calculated the typical paths of long-orbit comets (blue) perturbed by a passing gas-giant-sized object (white) and objects of interstellar origin (red). Image Credit: NAOJ

January 17, 2020 – Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) have analyzed the paths of two objects heading out of the Solar System forever and determined that they also most likely originated from outside of the Solar System. These results improve our understanding of the outer Solar System and beyond. Read More

Lockheed Martin Launches First Smart Satellite Enabling Space Mesh Networking

The Pony Express 1 mission is a hosted payload on Tyvak-0129, a next-generation Tyvak 6U spacecraft. Image Courtesy: Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

January 16, 2020 – A new era of space-based computing is now being tested in-orbit that will enable artificial intelligence, data analytics, cloud networking and advanced satellite communications in a robust new software-defined architecture. Recently, Lockheed Martin launched the Pony Express 1 mission as a hosted payload on Tyvak-0129, a next-generation Tyvak 6U spacecraft. Read More

Space Foundation Announces CU Boulder Inductee To Colorado Space Heroes Hall Of Fame

January 16, 2020 – George Born has been announced as a 2020 inductee into the Colorado Space Heroes Hall of Fame. The Space Foundation announced the posthumous induction of Born, who was a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder for three decades and founded the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR).

Lockheed Martin Launches Vocational Scholarship, Renews STEM Scholarship

January 16, 2020 – Lockheed Martin is launching a groundbreaking vocational scholarship for high school seniors and college students pursuing vocational and trade degrees. This effort is the first of its kind within the domestic aerospace and defense industry. Read More

Collins Aerospace Signs $320 Million Contract With Lockheed Martin To Provide Critical Subsystems For NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Fleet

Orion graphic. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

January 15, 2020 – Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp., has signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to provide critical subsystems to support production of NASA’s Orion spacecraft fleet for Artemis missions III through VIII. Valued at $320 million, the systems being provided by Collins Aerospace will play an important role in enabling NASA’s goal of boots on the Moon by 2024, as well as establishing a sustained presence on and around the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars. Read More

Raymond Sworn In As First Chief Of Space Operations At White House Event

Vice President of the United States Michael Pence congratulates General John Raymond after swearing him in as the first Chief of Space Operations during a ceremony in the Executive Eisenhower Office Building, Washington, D.C., January 14, 2020. Image Credit: U.S. Air Force Photo by Andy Morataya

January 15, 2020 – Vice President Mike Pence January 14 swore in Gen. John W. Raymond as the highest-ranking military leader of the newly created U.S. Space Force, adding a prominent White House ceremony that recognized the arrival of the nation’s newest, separate branch of the military. Read More

Final Images From Cassini Spacecraft

Composite of a true color image of Saturn, observed by Cassini in 2016, overlaid with a false color representation of the ultraviolet aurora in the northern hemisphere as observed on 20 August 2017. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/A. Bader (Lancaster University).

January 15, 2020 – Researchers are busy analyzing some of the final data sent back from the Cassini spacecraft which has been in orbit around Saturn for more than 13 years until the end of its mission in September 2017. Read More

Newly Released Satellite Data Poised To Significantly Improve Weather Forecasts

An artist’s rendering of a COSMIC-2 satellite. Image Credit: Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

January 15, 2020 – As the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) releases the first data from the newly launched COSMIC-2 satellite system, meteorologists are finding evidence that the detailed observations of the atmosphere will significantly improve short-term weather forecasts. Read More