Sunday, December 31, 2023

Japan's SLIM slides into lunar orbit • Firefly Alpha misfires • Rocket Lab's 18-satellite contract win

Here's your final Friday rundown for 2023 of the top stories from SpaceNews this week.

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Your weekly news rundown from SpaceNews.

Top Stories

Japan's SLIM spacecraft entered lunar orbit Dec. 25, setting up a moon landing attempt scheduled for Jan. 19.

A problem with the upper stage of a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket placed a Lockheed Martin technology demonstration satellite into the wrong orbit on a Dec. 22 launch.

Space launch provider and satellite manufacturer Rocket Lab has secured a deal worth over half a billion dollars to build 18 satellites for a U.S. government agency.

Latest Headlines

Launch

The Japanese space agency JAXA has set a mid-February date for the return to flight of the H3 rocket, nearly a year after the vehicle's first launch failed.

China added a new pair of satellites to its Beidou positioning and navigation system late Monday, but spent stages from the launch landed within inhabited areas.

Leading Chinese launch startup Galactic Energy has secured $154 million in funding for the development of its reusable Pallas-1 rocket.

The European Space Agency says the first launch of the Ariane 6 remains on track for the middle of 2024 despite an aborted test of the rocket's upper stage.

Civil

Engaging social scientists when planning and development spaceports could ensure that they're made in an ethical, community-engaging way.

A NASA study examined several options for continuing a national laboratory in low Earth orbit after the International Space Station but stopped short of recommending a specific option.

China's Shenzhou-17 astronauts embarked on their first extravehicular activity Thursday to address minor damage to a Tiangong space station solar array.

A delegation from the French Space Agency CNES visited Colorado and Texas last week in a campaign to expand ties between French and American aerospace companies.

Military

A national security space mission that had been projected to launch in December 2023 is being delayed until the second quarter of 2024 due to technical issues with one of the spacecraft.

Military leaders argue that the Department of Defense must be more involved if the US is to win the new space race for a lunar outpost.

Defense contractor L3Harris announced Dec. 20 it has received approval from the Space Development Agency to move into production on 16 satellites designed to detect and monitor hypersonic missiles aimed at the U.S. or its allies.

The U.S. Senate on Dec. 19 voted to confirm eleven senior officers to become four-star generals and admirals, including two Space Force leaders, Gen. Michael Guetlein and Gen. Stephen Whiting.







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