U.S. company Blue Origin was awarded a contract by NASA to develop the agency’s Mars Telecommunications Network.
On Tuesday, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot concluded a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) for spacecraft navigation, scientific research and station maintenance.
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The duo began the spacewalk at 8:40 a.m. Eastern Time. During the 6-hour, 49-minute spacewalk, Meir and Adenot installed a new retroflector on the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module to support spacecraft navigation during rendezvous and docking operations.
They replaced a high-definition camera on the station’s truss and collected a swab of the space station’s exterior for microorganisms. They also partially completed work to install jumper cables for electrical systems and started work to prepare for the replacement of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer’s heat-rejecting radiator on a future spacewalk.
During the spacewalk, Adenot experienced some mobility issues with her left arm. Meir inspected Adenot’s spacesuit and determined that the glove heater harness was likely getting caught and restricting movement in the left shoulder joint. Unzipping the joint appeared to resolve the issue before the crew entered the airlock, according to NASA.
It was Meir’s seventh and Adenot’s third spacewalk, also the 284th spacewalk in support of ISS assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
From studying penguins to walking in space, Jessica Meir and Sophie Adenot took remarkably different paths to the sixth all-female spacewalk—showing that there is no single route to becoming an astronaut. https://t.co/s7VH6HymK1#JessicaMeir #SophieAdenot #NASA #ESA #Spacewalk… pic.twitter.com/o78T9wZfi8
— Sanjay Sharma (@sanjaysharmaTOI) September 2, 2026
NASA Awards Blue Origin Contract to Develop Mars Telecommunications Network
On Tuesday, American private aerospace company Blue Origin was awarded a contract by NASA to develop the agency’s Mars Telecommunications Network, a next-generation communications system designed to provide reliable, high-bandwidth communications and navigation services for current and future Mars missions.
The firm-fixed-price contract has a maximum potential value of approximately US$700 million. Under the contract, Blue Origin will deliver a high-performance telecommunications orbiter for Mars to NASA no later than Dec. 31, 2028.
Blue Origin will design, develop, integrate, launch, and operate the network as part of NASA’s broader space communications and navigation infrastructure.
The network will include a high-performance telecommunications spacecraft orbiting Mars to transmit science data, imagery, navigation information, and critical mission communications for spacecraft operating on and around the planet.
The network, managed by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program, is expected to be operational at Mars by 2030 and will support both current and future missions to the Red Planet.
NASA said the contract award marks a milestone in its strategy to expand communications and navigation services beyond Earth and the Moon, laying the foundation for sustained exploration of Mars in the coming decades.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: Xinhua
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