International Space Station Damage Triggers Apparent Detente

A micrometeorite the width of a pencil tip sliced through a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station at nearly 16,000 mph, wrecking a radiator for the spacecraft’s computers and delaying the return of three astronauts in orbit by months, officials from NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos said during a rare joint news conference Wednesday.

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November Space Council Meetings Could Shape Commercial Regulations

The National Space Council asked for comment on new commercial space systems and how the commercial space sector could be regulated during a pair of online meetings set for November. The council wants input from industry and the public. The move is part of a Biden Administration push to deal with issues including crowded orbits and the safety of space tourists.

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U.S. Defense Strategy Document Pledges Commercial Space Protection

In a first-of-its-kind shift in stated strategy, the Biden Administration pledged, in a document that outlines Pentagon plans, to protect growing American commercial interests in space while advancing military space capabilities and international cooperation in orbit. Military space has returned to the spotlight in recent years after a slump that accompanied the end of the Cold War.

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Rivals Launch Military Satellites Amid U.S.-led Space Defense Drills

A flurry of military and intelligence satellite launches by rival powers this month came as the United States and two dozen partner nations wrapped up the largest global space defense wargame in history.

Russia launched what some leaders have described as a spy satellite for Iran and its own on-orbit snooping satellite Cosmos-2558, which is circling Earth in an orbit conspicuously close to a recently launched U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite, a Netherlands researcher confirmed.

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Solving Space Junk Problem Could Net Federal Prize

Polar objects in orbit

A grand prize could be in the offing for inventors who come up with new methods to prevent orbiting debris or design tools that can clean up space junk, according to recommendations from the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

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Space Matters: Experts Call for More Governance in LEO

The Wild West regulatory environment in low Earth orbit was ranked as a top threat to space sustainability by a panel of experts convened for Space Symposium 365’s Space Matters webcast Thursday.

Clockwise from top left, panelists former Rep. Robert Walker, Carissa Christensen, former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, and Patricia Cooper.

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ESA Sending Heroic, Fictional Sheep Aboard Artemis I

Shaun the Sheep

NASA says its Artemis I flight set to launch as soon as late August will be an uncrewed lunar fly-by. The Paris-based European Space Agency would beg to differ. Shaun is leaving the happy confines of Mossy Bottom Farm to lead the flight around the Moon, an agency press release announced.

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Pentagon Nominates Domain Awareness Expert to Lead Space Force

Saltzman

One of the U.S. military’s top experts in space domain awareness has been nominated to become the Pentagon’s second Chief of Space Operations. Lt. Gen. Chance “Salty” Saltzman was nominated Thursday to take the space service’s top job. If his promotion is confirmed by the Senate, Saltzman will have rocketed in three years from wearing a single star to pinning four to his uniform.

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