SpaceX

[New] With next-generation telescopes like the James Webb and Roman Space Telescope taking to space in the next few years, astronomers anticipate another explosion in the number of exoplanets that are available for study.
[New] SpaceX and ULA will launch a constellation of oceanographic satellites developed under the international programme involving NASA and ESA.
[New] If everyone had access to sufficient green space, the benefits associated with increased physical activity could save the health system at least £2.1 billion per year.
[New] Nasa's Perseverance rover and the recently launched UAE Hope mission will blaze a trail ahead of the launch of the UK-built Rosalind Franklin rover, due to blast into space in 2022.
[New] A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Anasis 2, or KMilSatCom 1, a communications satellite for the South Korean military, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
[New] As part of a consortium that includes Indian telecom Bharti Global, the UK government will invest $500 million and take a significant equity share in space exploration firm OneWeb.
While the value of the global economy continues to stall from the COVID-19 pandemic, space exploration is emerging as a business powerhouse that could soon be worth a trillion dollars.
With a constellation of over 400 satellites already orbiting the earth and plans to put 40,000 more into space, Starlink has potential to provide net access well outside the control of national governments worldwide.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is targeting 2021 for near global coverage and plans to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites.
With new laser facilities coming online next year, NASA plans to beam messages up and down from Earth using infrared lasers, vastly improving the space agency's bandwidth.
SpaceX has plans to deploy 12,000 satellites by mid-2020s which can be potentially increased to even 42,000.
SpaceX has launched 597 Starlink satellites in total, and plans to start initial service later in the year after public testing.
The European Space Agency is preparing to select two companies to build the second generation of Galileo navigation satellites under contracts to be signed in early 2021.
China has now demonstrated a super heavy launch system to deep space, and if it succeeds with a soft landing on Mars and deep space operations, it will be close on NASA's heels in Mars sample return.
As an effort to strengthen its military power in space, South Korea is promoting a three-stage space development program dubbed Space Odyssey, which aims to build satellite and surveillance systems and deterrence power by 2050, to protect the military's space forces.
The Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy plans to launch a limb observing spectrometer in 2023 as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Watch Programme to monitor ozone and aerosol changes.
If Tianwen succeeds, the China National Space Administration will become the second space agency after NASA to operate a rover on Mars.
Assuming NASA makes the goal of landing humans on the Moon by 2024-which is theoretically possible but would require a lot of budgetary, political, and technical factors to fall the space agency's way - a Lunar Terrain Vehicle would follow in 2025.
South Korea is expected to launch its first military exclusive communications satellite, Anasis-II, aboard a reused SpaceX Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
China has laid the groundwork to assemble a space station by 2022 and gain a permanent foothold in Earth orbit.
The United Arab Emirates launched its first Mars orbiter Sunday, and NASA has said it plans to send its Perseverance rover into space in late July or August.
Last year, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched the first satellites for its massive Starlink project, which will eventually beam high-speed internet service around the world from a constellation of about 12,000 satellites.
Japan is working with Canada and the European Space Agency on Heracles, a robotic transport system that could deliver cargo to the moon or help bring back valuable resources mined there.

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Last updated: 13 September 2020