NASA appears to have been spared a major cut to its budget according to the NASA 2018 Fiscal Year (FY) Budget Blueprint. The Trump Administration’s FY2018 budget blueprint would see less than a 1% cut to NASA’s budget and is proposing it be set at $19.1 billion.
Read More »
MDA’s U.S. subsidiary, Space Systems Loral (SSL), today entered into an agreement with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop satellite servicing of spacecraft in geostationary orbit (GEO) for the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program.
Read More »
In December we wrote a story about MDA’s subsidiary Space Systems Loral (SSL) in the U.S. winning a long sought after satellite servicing contract with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Yesterday, the NASA Future In-Space Operations weekly telecon provided an update on the evolution of NASA Goddard’s satellite servicing efforts including the Restore-L Mission which will see SSL build the spacecraft bus.
Read More »
It seems patience pays off. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) yesterday announced that MDA’s U.S. subsidiary Space Systems Loral (SSL) has won a $127 million contract to develop the Restore-L Spacecraft Bus which will be used to service a government satellite in low earth orbit. According to the NASA press release, SSL “will provide spacecraft bus, critical hardware and services for the development, deployment …
Read More »Operations to test new robotic satellite refuelling techniques on the International Space Station have run into a small problem.
Read More »MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has announced that it has been selected as a key participant to support the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Phoenix Program.
Read More »On the third day of RRM operations, Dextre stowed the Multifunction tool and Wire-Cutting tool inside the RRM module for future operations. (Video: NASA/CSA).
Read More »Day 2 of the initial phase of the joint NASA-CSA Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) ended with a historic moment for Dextre, the Canadian-built robotic handyman on board the International Space Station (ISS). Dextre spent the better part of the day successfully releasing 7 launch locks that fastened 4 tool adapters (built by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) inside the RRM module during their flight to …
Read More »After completing operations with the Multifunction Tool, Canadarm2 repositioned Dextre to cut the first of two wires, each about as thick as four sheets of paper. With surgical precision, and only about a millimetre of clearance, Dextre captured the wire in the Wire-Cutting Tool (1:14-1:32). The Canadian-built robotic handyman then cut the thin wire (1:44-2:03) that fastened a mock gas cap to the RRM module …
Read More »The second day of Dextre’s most demanding mission wrapped up successfully on March 8 as the robotic handyman completed his three assigned tasks. Dextre successfully retrieved, inspected and stowed three of the four specialized tools built specifically for the Robotic Refueling Mission by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre.
Read More »
SpaceQ Space news and analysis.