By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: how an acquisition helps Cesium Astro's constellation plans, Space Command's growing presence in Alabama, a second New Glenn launch pad in Florida and more.
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Blue Canyon Technologies has shaped the small satellite industry for more than a decade. We helped pioneer the precision pointing, reliable spacecraft buses and efficient mission operations that made compact architectures possible. Today, our solutions support missions from low Earth orbit to cislunar space and beyond, holding a proven record of success across commercial, civil, and national security applications. We were here at the beginning, and we are still leading the way. From flight-proven components to our latest bus platforms and mission enablers, we continue to advance what small satellites can achieve. |
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Top Stories
Cesium Astro is buying a semiconductor company to aid its plans for a future satellite constellation. The company announced this week it is acquiring Jariet Technologies, which designs radio-frequency chips used in satellite communications, electronic warfare and radar systems, including technology for digital beamforming and wideband signal processing. The companies did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition. The company said the acquisition is a "big part" of enabling a proposed satellite constellation called Synchronicity. Cesium Astro filed plans with the FCC last month for 737 satellites that would use Ku-, Ka- and V-band spectrum to provide reconfigurable connectivity for fixed and mobile enterprise and government users. [SpaceNews]
Intuitive Machines won a $600 million contract to build three commercial GEO communications satellites. The company disclosed the contract Thursday in an earnings call, declining to name the customer. The contract was signed in June and will run for 30 months. Company executives declined to say if the order was linked to plans by satellite operators Eutelsat, SES and Telesat to clear C-band satellite spectrum for terrestrial uses. SES said in June it was in active negotiations for seven replacement satellites. [SpaceNews]
U.S. Space Command is expanding its presence at its new headquarters in Alabama. Since President Trump ordered the headquarters relocated to Huntsville last September, more than 100 Space Command personnel have begun working permanently at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. That number is expected to grow to 200 by the end of the year. If the current schedule holds, roughly half of the headquarters staff will be based in Huntsville by 2028, with the permanent facility completed in 2031 and the full workforce of about 1,800 personnel moving into the building the following year. The Pentagon's fiscal 2027 budget requests $951 million for the relocation, covering design, military construction, information technology and other aspects of the move. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force awarded $60 million to five companies to demonstrate how satellites from multiple vendors can connect to its Space Data Network. Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab and York Space Systems each received $12 million in contracts and prototype agreements, Space Systems Command announced Thursday. The work will test connections between commercial satellite systems and the Space Data Network, a military communications architecture whose core backbone is being supplied by SpaceX. SpaceX won a $2.29 billion contract in May to build the Space Data Network Backbone, or SDN-B, a proliferated constellation using optical crosslinks to route data from satellite to satellite. The latest awards address how systems supplied by other companies will connect to that backbone to reduce the Space Force's reliance on a single company. [SpaceNews]
The Bulgarian government has advanced plans to develop a space and defense innovation hub in the country. The government signed a draft memorandum of understanding with local company Starbase Europe to develop the hub at Dobroslavtsi Air Base near the capital of Sofia. The hub is intended to help bring together a growing but fragmented space industry in the country. Bulgaria does not have a national space agency but the government said this month it would create a National Center for Observation, Coordination and Management through Space Data. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
Blue Origin outlined plans this week to build a second New Glenn launch pad in Florida. The company said it will build a second pad at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36 designed for New Glenn 9x4, an upgraded version of the rocket. The existing pad, now called LC-36A, will be used for the current New Glenn 7x2 rocket. The company did not gove a schedule for the new LC-36B or the upgraded New Glenn, but Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said the company's priority is rebuilding LC-36A and returning New Glenn to flight by the end of the year. [SpaceNews]
Blue Origin is also building out a network of ground stations. The company said Thursday it successfully tested the first three stations of its Quartz network, located in Australia, Bermuda and New Zealand. Blue Origin is working with RBC Signals to construct the network, which is expected to reach nine stations by the end of the year. The company will offer Quartz for a range of customers and missions, with future ground stations including larger antennas for cislunar operations. [GeekWire]
The Indian space agency ISRO successfully tested an upgraded motor for its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). The upgraded solid-fuel motor for the SSLV's first stage completed a static fire this week, ISRO reported. The motor is designed to increase the payload capacity of the SSLV, currently about 500 kilograms, by 100 kilograms. SSLV has only flown a few times amid a push to commercialize the vehicle and its new launch site. [India Today]
A British sounding rocket startup has gone out of business. Gravitilab Aerospace Services entered liquidation earlier this month according to financial filings, reporting debts of more than £700,000 ($950,000) but assets of less than £100,000. The company had been working on a sounding rocket using a hybrid engine designed to carry payloads of up to 20 kilograms to an altitude of 170 kilometers. Gravitilab reportedly had lined up a £25 million investment in 2023, but the funding fell through. [European Spaceflight]
A vest tested on the Artemis 1 mission successfully reduced radiation exposure. The AstroRad vest was flown on Artemis 1, worn on an instrumented mannequin while an identical mannequin did not wear the vest. During the six-week flight in cislunar space, the 26-kilogram vest, using high-density polyethylene, significantly reduced radiation exposure. Researchers said that, in the event of a major solar storm, the vest would have cut the radiation exposure of an astronaut wearing it by up to 60%. [Science News]
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And You Thought Making a Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft Is Hard
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"The vehicle is called ASTRO. It stands for Advanced Space-vehicle Transiting Reactor in Orbit. Of course, we did try to stay within the theme of JETSON by coming up with this acronym, which was a real struggle to figure out how you get ASTRO out of that."
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– Michael Glogowski of Northrop Grumman, discussing his company's work on a space nuclear propulsion system for the Air Force Research Lab's Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-orbit Nuclear power (JETSON) program at the Space Nuclear Industry Symposium on Thursday.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Submit your nominations by this Friday, Aug. 14: Since 2017, the SpaceNews Icon Awards have celebrated the companies, teams and individuals driving breakthroughs across civil, commercial and military space. Nominate the innovators, collaborators, and change-makers whose work over the past year — or an entire career — has left a lasting mark on the industry. Submit your nomination today. |
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