White House releases mission authorization policy framework

Sabbagh leaves E-Space to lead Space42 • Chinese launch startup Galactic Energy raises $154 million for Pallas-1 reusable rocket

View this email in your browser A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Thursday, December 21, 2023 Top Stories The White House released a policy framework Wednesday for oversight of novel space activities. The policy is a companion to a legislative proposal for "mission authorization" released last month that would split responsibility between the Commerce and Transportation Departments for overseeing commercial space activities not licensed today. The policy creates a Private Sector Space Activities Interagency Steering Group co-chaired by those two departments with participation from several other agencies to develop best practices and standards regarding commercial space activities. The policy calls on agencies to use "their existing statutory authorities" to oversee activities while legislation for a formal mission authorization regime is developed. [SpaceNews] The release of that mission authorization policy was tied to a meeting Wednesday of the National Space Council that emphasized international partnerships. In remarks at the meeting, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that a non-NASA astronaut would land on the moon by the end of the decade on an Artemis mission, but offered no details. NASA and other space agencies had long expected that astronauts from Artemis partners would be included on later Artemis missions. The meeting largely emphasized ongoing efforts in international cooperation, like the Artemis Accords and a ban on destructive direct-ascent ASAT testing. [SpaceNews] Chinese launch vehicle startup Galactic Energy has raised $154 million to fund work on a reusable launch vehicle. The company announced this week the Series C and C+ funding rounds after raising $200 million in two funding rounds in the second half of 2021. The money will support the development of Pallas-1, a rocket designed to place up to 5,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit whose first stage is designed to land and be reused. The first Pallas-1 launch is scheduled for the third quarter of 2024. Galactic Energy is also planning a triple-core variant of the Pallas-1 capable of placing up to 14,000 kilograms into orbit, with a first launch as soon as 2026. [SpaceNews] A former CEO of satellite operator SES will lead the company formed by the merger of Yahsat and geospatial intelligence provider Bayanat. Karim Michel Sabbagh, who most recently had been working for satellite constellation startup E-Space, will serve as managing director of Space42, the company formed by the Yahsat-Bayanat merger announced this week. Space42 plans to leverage Yahsat's communications networks with Bayanat's geospatial technologies to create the region's "first AI-powered space technology company." Sabbagh has been leading strategy work in Europe and the Middle East for E-Space, which launched three prototype satellites last year but has not provided recent updates on plans to develop its full constellation. [SpaceNews] L3Harris has won approval to produce a set of missile-tracking satellites for the Space Development Agency (SDA). The company said Wednesday those satellites passed a critical design review and production readiness review, allowing the company to proceed with manufacturing those 16 satellites. L3Harris won a $700 million contract from SDA in 2022 to design and produce 16 Tracking Layer Tranche 1 satellites, and to provide ground systems and support services for them. Maxar is providing the buses for those satellites. [SpaceNews]   Other News Weather delayed a Firefly Aerospace launch from California. The company planned to launch its fourth Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday, but scrubbed the flight about two hours before the scheduled 12:18 p.m. Eastern liftoff time because of poor weather conditions. The company has rescheduled the launch for Friday at the same time. The "Fly the Lightning" mission is carrying a technology demonstration satellite for Lockheed Martin. [X @Firefly_Space] The French space agency CNES is establishing a presence in Denver and Houston to tap into American entrepreneurial space expertise. The "virtual hubs" in those cities are part of Connect by CNES, a government initiative to spur space-related innovation. Those hubs will help establish partnerships between American and French companies. That effort is part of the France 2030 national investment plan that will spend more than $1.6 billion on space technologies over the next five years. [SpaceNews] NASA and SpaceX hope today is finally the day a Dragon cargo spacecraft can depart the International Space Station. The planned undocking of the CRS-29 Dragon spacecraft was scheduled for Wednesday evening but was called off because of unfavorable weather in splashdown zones off the Florida coast. Those weather conditions have delayed the undocking of the spacecraft for about a week. That undocking is now scheduled for 5:05 p.m. Eastern Thursday, and would be followed by the departure of the Northrop Grumman NG-19 Cygnus spacecraft Friday at 8:05 a.m. Eastern. [NASA] SpaceX is pressing ahead with preparations for the next Starship test flight. The company performed what it called a "full-duration" static-fire test of the Ship 28 Starship upper stage at the company's Starbase test site in South Texas Wednesday. That will soon be followed by a similar test of the Booster 10 Super Heavy first stage. SpaceX is preparing for what would be the third integrated test flight of the vehicle, likely in the first quarter of 2024, a schedule that will depend on completion of the investigation into last month's test flight and receiving a new FAA launch license. [Ars Technica] Note: First Up will not publish on Friday or Monday. We will be back on Tuesday, December 26. Happy Holidays!   Setting the Pace of the Space Race Chase "Since 2018, the United States has outpaced the PRC's growth in space launches and payloads by 2 to 12 times. From that standpoint, the space race has become a space chase." – Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, speaking Wednesday at a National Space Council meeting about competition with China in space.   Forward First Up to a friend or Subscribe for yourself Copyright © 2023 Multiverse Media Inc., All rights reserved. You signed up to receive this newsletter on Spacenews.com. At times you may receive marketing material. 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