| A SpaceX Starship vehicle broke apart on its latest test flight Thursday, dealing a setback to the company. The Starship/Super Heavy vehicle lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase facility at Boca Chica, Texas, at 5:37 p.m. Eastern on the seventh test flight of the system. The Super Heavy booster was able to return to the launch site for a "catch" by the launch tower, repeating a feat first accomplished on a flight in October. However, SpaceX lost contact with the Starship upper stage nearly eight and a half minutes after liftoff, after telemetry showed that several of its Raptor engines had shut down. SpaceX later confirmed the vehicle was lost, and videos on social media showed debris from the vehicle falling through the skies above the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. Dozens of airline flights in the region had to be rerouted to avoid the debris, which did not cause damage. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said a propellant leak likely triggered a fire in the vehicle. [SpaceNews]
The head of the Space Force's Space Development Agency (SDA) has been placed on administrative leave. The Department of the Air Force has removed Derek Tournear from his position as director of SDA Thursday pending the results of an investigation, but the department did not elaborate on the nature of the investigation. Sources claimed the investigation into Tournear may be linked to complaints from contractors about SDA's unconventional procurement methods and alleged improper sharing of proprietary information. Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, commander of the Space Force's Space Systems Command, will step in as acting director of the SDA during the investigation. [SpaceNews]
The incoming Trump administration will nominate an NRO official to be Secretary of the Air Force. Trump has selected Troy Meink, principal deputy director of the NRO, to be the next Secretary of the Air Force, pending Senate confirmation. Meink is a senior intelligence official with extensive space and defense experience, and his selection indicates a strong emphasis on space capabilities for the incoming administration. Meink has championed the agency's shift toward a more distributed satellite architecture, a strategy aimed at making space-based intelligence capabilities more resilient to potential threats. SpaceX's Elon Musk reportedly advocated for Meink. [SpaceNews]
Sierra Space has passed an early review of an alternative navigation satellite design. The company said Thursday the satellite it is designing for the Resilient Global Positioning System (R-GPS) program passed a system requirements review. Sierra Space is one of four companies selected for the R-GPS program to bolster the existing GPS satellite constellation with a fleet of smaller and more affordable satellites. The other three companies are Astranis, Axient and L3Harris. The Space Force plans to select up to two companies in 2026 to produce eight satellites, scheduled for launch by 2028. [SpaceNews]
Government officials expect the incoming Trump administration to preserve space weather programs. Efforts to better understand the sun, produce timely warnings of heightened geomagnetic activity and mitigate their terrestrial impact have been reinforced by the last several administrations. Officials at the American Meteorological Society annual meeting this week said they expect that trend to continue in the next Trump administration. Space weather experts do anticipate some changes, including a shift of national space weather activities toward providing timely alerts and warnings to the Defense Department and increasing the resilience of military systems. [SpaceNews]
Voyager Space is changing its name to better reflect a focus on national security and defense markets. The company announced Thursday it has renamed itself Voyager Technologies and is restructuring its operations into three business segments: Defense and National Security, Space Solutions, and Starlab Space Stations. The changes, company executives said, are intended to highlight its work on national security capabilities, including missile propulsion, advanced navigation, and sensing solutions. [SpaceNews]
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