Two NASA-funded demonstrations have successfully launched into low Earth orbit aboard the SpaceX Bandwagon-5 rideshare. Over the coming weeks, both spacecraft will showcase advanced satellite communications capabilities designed to support the agency’s science missions. After Tuesday’s launch, two of NASA’s partners, Viasat and SES Space and Defense, will prepare to test high- and low-rate communications […]
Two student-built satellites launched on Tuesday to the International Space Station to take university engineering projects beyond the classroom and into orbit. The two CubeSats were part of more than 6,300 pounds of cargo that lifted off aboard the 35th SpaceX commercial resupply mission for NASA. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched at 6:33 a.m. […]
Three NASA-supported small spacecraft launched at 11:32 a.m. PDT Thursday to demonstrate new propulsion technologies, study how galactic dust and high-energy radiation move through galaxies, and advance capabilities for inspecting inactive satellites. The missions launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as […]
NASA’s Starling mission has marked another milestone in spacecraft autonomy by using a new system that determines a satellite’s position in orbit by referencing other objects in space, instead of relying on a navigational network. The FALCON (Fast Autonomous Lost-in-space Catalog-based Optical Navigation) technology demonstration is a step toward spacecraft being able to operate more independently. As NASA prepares for more missions beyond Earth’s orbit, technologies like FALCON can support lunar satellite swarms, distributed science missions, and human exploration. Traditional satellite navigation […]
The R5-S9 (Realizing Rapid, Reduced-cost high-Risk Research project Spacecraft 9) CubeSat, developed by NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, lifted off at 12:12 a.m. PDT Tuesday, July 7, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as part of the Transporter-17 rideshare mission with SpaceX. […]
GRITSS will demonstrate the feasibility of a new technique for improving precision navigation and geodetic measurements.
Teams working on NASA’s INCUS (Investigation of Convective Updrafts) mission, the first space-based survey of the dynamics of tropical convective storms, have completed assembly and tested two of the mission’s small satellites, or SmallSats. Testing continues on the third SmallSat and is scheduled for completion no earlier than September in advance of a 2027 launch. […]
NASA’s Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT), designed to enable interoperability between satellite relay networks, has completed its planned technology demonstration. Given the primary mission’s success and the flexibility of the technology, NASA has extended operations to pursue new partnership opportunities and additional capability demonstrations. The terminal launched July 23, 2025, aboard York Space Systems’ BARD spacecraft […]
Editor’s note: The article has been updated to reflect who developed AEPEX Several NASA science and technology payloads launched in the early morning hours on March 30 to test new thermal protection methods, improve in‑space communications, and study Earth’s atmosphere, advancing future innovation and exploration. The missions launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from […]
Editor’s Note: This post was updated April 21, 2026, to reflect mission funding by the U.S. National Science Foundation. NASA’s latest small satellite mission is now in orbit studying how natural and human-made radio waves travel from Earth’s surface into space, helping scientists better understand and predict changes in the near‑Earth space environment. The Climatology […]
