NASA and the Private Sector - Page 225

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s newly appointed space chief said Tuesday.

Yuri Borisov, who was appointed earlier this month to lead the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia will fulfill its obligations to other partners at the International Space Station before it leaves the project.

“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov said.

Borisov’s statement reaffirmed previous declarations by Russian space officials about Moscow’s intention to leave the space outpost after 2024.

It comes amid soaring tensions between Russia and the West over the Kremlin’s military action in Ukraine.

Despite the rift, NASA and Roscosmos made a deal earlier this month for astronauts to continue riding Russian rockets and for Russian cosmonauts to catch lifts to the International Space Station with SpaceX beginning this fall.

The agreement ensures that the space station will always have at least one American and one Russian on board to keep both sides of the orbiting outpost running smoothly, according to NASA and Russian officials. The swap had long been in the works and was finalized despite frictions over Ukraine in a sign of continuing Russia-U.S. cooperation in space.

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - Russian space officials told their U.S. counterparts that Moscow expects to remain on the International Space Station at least until their own outpost in orbit is built in 2028, NASA's space operations chief told Reuters.

The assurance on Tuesday from Russia came after the newly appointed head of its space agency, Roscosmos, surprised NASA earlier in the day by announcing that Moscow intended to end more than two decades of partnership on the space station "after 2024."

"We're not getting any indication at any working level that anything's changed," Kathy Lueders, NASA's space operations chief, told Reuters on Wednesday, adding the National Aeronautics and Space Administration relations with Roscosmos remained "business as usual."

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, today announced that it will host an investor day and Neutron launch vehicle development update in New York on September 21, 2022. This invite-only event will be held at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum from 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm ET.

Rocket Lab’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer Peter Beck, Chief Financial Officer Adam Spice, and members of Rocket Lab’s leadership team will host a series of presentations, followed by a Q&A, focused on progress the Company has made since its de-SPAC in August 2021, its current roadmap, development of the Neutron launch vehicle and future growth opportunities.

Astra announces that after two of its four Rocket 3.3 flights were successful, the Company will transition to the next version of its launch system and is working with customers to re-manifest all payloads onto the new launch system, designed for higher capacity, reliability, and production rate.

"We have increased the design point of our new launch system to deliver up to 600-kilogram satellites to mid-inclination low Earth orbit over the course of the product lifecycle, which we believe will allow us to service over 75% of the small satellite market, including many of the new mega-constellations," said Chris Kemp, Astra Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO.

Astra announced that the base bulk launch price for dedicated launches is expected to remain under five million dollars.

“We have made substantial changes to our operating plan to concentrate and focus our investments on the development and introduction of the upgraded version of our launch system and the increased production of the Astra Spacecraft EngineTM,” said CFO, Kelyn Brannon. “Furthermore, the $100 million Committed Equity Facility with B. Riley Principal Capital provides improved financial flexibility as we execute on these objectives.”

NASA and Boeing will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 25, to provide an update on the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT) to the International Space Station – the first flight with astronauts on the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.

Leadership on the call also will discuss data reviews from Boeing’s uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 to the space station, which successfully completed in May 2022.