Commercial space

On-orbit satellite maintenance ‘will change the space system paradigm’

NASA, DARPA, and others are developing technologies to support autonomous refueling and maintenance capabilities for satellites while they’re orbiting Earth, as part of a wider ambition to advance autonomous servicing capabilities that’ll enable a new era of infrastructure building in space. On-orbit satellite servicing will help extend the mission lives of satellites, but the technology that’s being developed to do so will help usher in a new era of space
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Made In Space: Manufacturing fiber optic cable could become the first space-based industry

Editor's note: The Enterprise Orbit was formally called The Downlink. Made In Space is about to embark on a new chapter of its space-enabled manufacturing business, and life on Earth could easily be transformed for the better because of it. Made In Space got its start in additive manufacturing back in 2011 when it built a 3D printing lab at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The company has since launched two
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York Space Systems brings standardized satellites to the space data frontier

Editor's note: The Enterprise Orbit was formally called The Downlink. This story has not been updated to reflect the name change. The cost of launching data-gathering satellites into space is about to get a lot cheaper, if Dirk Wallinger has his way. Wallinger is CEO and co-founder of York Space Systems, a two-year old company based in Colorado that promises to radically reduce a few of the astronomically high price
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NASA second-guesses its decision to use SpaceX for ISS taxi

By Kendra R Chamberlain NASA has ordered a slate of taxi flights that’ll shuttle astronauts from US soil to the International Space Station (ISS) in the future. But SpaceX’s recent Falcon 9 loss has raised new concerns about using private enterprise rockets to shuttle humans to and from the ISS. Last week, NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) voiced concern over using SpaceX for such missions in its annual report,
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