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U.S. Space Force Gen. Stephen Whiting formally took over leadership of U.S. Space Command on Wednesday. At a change-of-command ceremony at Peterson Space Force Base outside Colorado Springs, Whiting took over from Army Gen. James Dickinson, who is retiring. Whiting was nominated in July, but his Senate confirmation was among those held up for months by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) In remarks at the ceremony, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks highlighted the importance of the command as "space is integral to military operations, and our competitors know it." Whiting's deputy commander is U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Thomas James. [SpaceNews]
D-Orbit, an Italian company offering in-space transportation services, has raised 100 million euros ($110 million). The company announced the first closing of a Series C round Thursday, led by Japanese company Marubeni Corporation. D-Orbit currently operates the ION line of orbital transfer vehicles for smallsats and hosted payloads. The company says it will use the new funding to expand its space logistics services, including space cloud computing and satellite servicing. [SpaceNews]
A Chinese commercial rocket made its inaugural launch Thursday. The Gravity-1 rocket by OrienSpace lifted off at 12:30 a.m. Eastern from a ship just off the coast from Shandong Province. The rocket placed three Yunyao-1 Earth observation satellites into 500-kilometer orbits successfully. The solid-fuel rocket is designed to place several tons into low Earth orbit. Orienspace CEO Yao Song, who first rose to fame in the semiconductor industry, stated previously that the firm has already secured orders for the launch of hundreds of satellites and has been shortlisted in plans for a number of satellite constellations. [SpaceNews]
The Ovzon 3 commercial communications satellite has successfully deployed its solar arrays. Redwire, which provided the Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) hardware, confirmed Wednesday the successful deployment of the arrays on the spacecraft, a week after its launch. Ovzon 3 is the first commercial satellite to use the ROSA technology. The spacecraft is due to enter service in the middle of 2024 if it passes in-orbit health checks after reaching its orbital slot at 59.7 degrees east in geostationary orbit, where it would provide mobile connectivity mainly to government customers, including the U.S. Department of Defense. [SpaceNews]
A Japanese Mars mission that was scheduled to launch this year is being delayed two years. The Japanese space agency JAXA confirmed its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, which had been planned to launch in September, will instead launch in 2026. JAXA said the delay was in large part due to issues with the mission's H3 rocket, which failed in its debut last March and is slated to make its second launch in February. MMX will go into orbit around Mars and land on the moon Phobos, collecting samples for return to Earth in 2031. [SpaceNews]
| | Other News
Another Chinese rocket launched an experimental satellite overnight. A Kuaizhou-1A lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 10:52 p.m. Eastern Wednesday and placed the Tianxing-1 02 satellite into orbit. Chinese media said Tianxing-1 02 will perform space environment experiments. [Xinhua]
SpaceX says it has successfully tested the first direct-to-device payloads on Starlink satellites. Those payloads, on six Starlink satellites launched last week, used T-Mobile spectrum to connect with unmodified phones on the ground, transmitting text messages. SpaceX said those tests validated the technology that it will incorporate on more Starlink satellites. SpaceX is working with T-Mobile and mobile carriers in other countries to provide direct-to-device services to their customers in the next year. [CNBC]
Axiom Space has completed a review for its next private astronaut mission. The company said Wednesday it successfully completed the flight readiness review for its Ax-3 mission to the International Space Station. Ax-3 is scheduled to launch Jan. 17 carrying astronauts from Italy, Sweden and Turkey to the station for a two-week mission. Ax-3 is commanded by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, who also commanded Ax-1 in 2022. [Axiom Space]
Engineers have tested a rocket engine that consumes itself as it burns. A group at the University of Glasgow tested a small "autophage" engine dubbed Ouroborous-3 that uses oxygen and propane propellants. The plastic tube that holds the propellants is also fed into the engine, providing about 20% of the total propellant used. The engine currently produced only 100 newtons of thrust, but the researchers are planning one 10 times as powerful. The technology is intended to reduce debris from spent stages left in orbit, although some researchers are skeptical the technology can be effectively scaled up. [New Scientist]
| | Maybe Not Even Him
"In 1967, do you think anyone was thinking about living in a world where we're launching tens and hundreds of thousands of satellites in space besides, maybe, I don't know, Arthur C. Clarke?"
– Kelsey Johnson, president of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), discussing the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 during a session on satellite interference with astronomy at the 243rd Meeting of the AAS on Wednesday.
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