Momentus delays Vigoride-7 amid cash crunch • Fiery finale on tap for Astrobotic's lunar lander

Musk confident next Starship reaches orbit • EchoStar's 100 Mbps Jupiter-3 enters service

View this email in your browser A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Monday, January 15, 2024 Top Stories Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander will end its mission with an Earth reentry later this week. Astrobotic announced this weekend that the lander, which suffered a propellant leak shortly after launch a week ago that prevented the spacecraft from attempting a landing on the moon, is on a trajectory that will bring it back to Earth to reenter and burn up in the atmosphere. Astrobotic said late Sunday that, after consulting with the U.S. government and space experts, it will not attempt any maneuvers to change that trajectory. Astrobotic did not give a date for that reentry, but outside experts monitoring the spacecraft's path predicted a reentry late Thursday. [SpaceNews] SpaceX's Elon Musk says he is confident the next Starship launch will reach orbit. In a presentation Musk gave last week at Starbase, the company's facility in south Texas, he said the second launch failed when liquid oxygen, being vented late in the vehicle's burn, caught fire and caused an explosion. Musk said that propellant venting would not have been needed if the vehicle was carrying a payload. Musk said the third flight, projected for as soon as February, is designed to reach orbit and conduct several tests, including an in-space engine burn to demonstrate the ability to do a controlled deorbit. [SpaceNews] EchoStar's Jupiter-3 broadband satellite is in service and performing as expected. The satellite started commercial service to customers last month, five months after its launch, and is providing download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. EchoStar is seeing strong interest from existing customers seeking to upgrade from its Jupiter-2 satellite as well as new customers, following bandwidth constraints that have weighed on revenues. The company, which just completed a merger with Dish Network, hired financial and legal advisers last week to evaluate potential strategic alternatives following that merger. [SpaceNews] The U.S. Army is planning a new procurement of satellite communications terminals. The Army issued a request for information (RFI) Friday for its Family of Terminals - Large (FoT-L) program, which proposes to consolidate as many as six types of terminals into just two variants. Reducing the number of terminals is a key goal for FoT-L due to the logistics burden and rising cost of operating aging equipment. The new terminals must be able to operate across multiple satellite frequency bands and communicate with commercial high-throughput satellites as well as DoD's Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation. The Army expects to release a draft request for proposals for FoT-L later this year. [SpaceNews] In-space transportation company Momentus is delaying its next mission as it runs low on cash. The company announced in an SEC filing Friday that it will not launch its Vigoride-7 tug on a SpaceX rideshare launch in March as previously planned. Vigoride-7 was carrying satellites and hosted payloads from nine customers. Momentus said its "limited liquidity and cash balance" caused it to postpone the launch. The company also laid off 20% of its employees and contractors, also to conserve cash. Momentus said it is working to raise money to continue operations or seek a "strategic transaction" with another company. Shares of Momentus fell more than 20% in trading Friday. [SpaceNews]   Other News SpaceX performed a pair of Falcon 9 Starlink launches on Sunday. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:59 a.m. Eastern and placed 22 Starlink satellites into orbit. A second Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 8:52 p.m. Eastern and placed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. Poor weather delayed the Vandenberg launch by several days, while SpaceX scrubbed a launch attempt Saturday from Florida for undisclosed reasons. [Spaceflight Now | Florida Today] Congress is preparing another stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government open until March. Congressional leaders are working on a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund some agencies through March 1 and the rest through March 8. The current CR is set to expire this week for some agencies, like the Department of Transportation, and Congress has made slow progress on full-year appropriations bills for 2024. [Politico] A Chinese cargo spacecraft has undocked from the country's space station. The Tianzhou-6 undocked from the Tiangong space station at 3:02 a.m. Eastern Friday, eight months after its launch to the station. The spacecraft will later reenter and burn up over the South Pacific. The undocking clears the way for the launch this week of the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft. [Xinhua] NASA and Boeing have successfully tested the parachute system for the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle. The test last week at the Yuma Proving Ground was intended to confirm the redesign of a link joint in the parachute system after reviews found that the existing joint did not have sufficient margins of safety. Engineers are continuing to review the data from the test as Boeing prepares for the first crewed flight of Starliner, currently scheduled for as soon as mid-April. [NASA] Indian astronauts may use a Russian-made pressure suit. Documents from the Indian space agency ISRO show that while the agency is finishing development of its own pressure suits, it expects to use Russian suits on the first crewed Gaganyaan flight given "the programmatic requirements and to doubly ensure the crew safety." ISRO has declared 2024 the "year of Gaganyaan" with several uncrewed test flights planned, although the first flight with Indian astronauts is not expected until 2025. [Hindustan Times]   #sponsored "I won't support the development any further of large, big, fat, juicy targets. We are going to go down a different path. And we have to go down that path quickly," USAF General John Hyten said at a defense conference in 2017. At Astranis, we've heard the call to go faster. We've secured over $553M in funding and $2B in commercial sales to reimagine the way spacecraft operate in geostationary orbit. Our MicroGEO platform is small, fast, dedicated, and comes with a robust software defined radio which can serve a variety of frequencies and mission types. The Week Ahead Tuesday: Greenbelt, Md.: Sarah Kapnick, NOAA chief scientist, speaks at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable luncheon. Wednesday: Online: The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies hosts a webinar for the release of its report, "Securing Cislunar Space and the First Island Off the Coast of Earth" at 9 a.m. Eastern. Wenchang, China: Scheduled launch of a Long March 7 carrying the Tianzhou-7 cargo spacecraft at 9:20 a.m. Eastern. Washington: The House Science Committee's space subcommittee holds a hearing on "Returning to the Moon: Keeping Artemis on Track" at 10 a.m. Eastern. Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon on the Axiom-3 private astronaut mission to the International Space Station at 5:11 p.m. Eastern. Wednesday-Thursday: Washington/Online: The National Academies' Space Weather Roundtable meets to discuss space weather issues. Open sessions are on Wednesday only. Thursday: Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand: Scheduled launch of an Electron rocket on the "Four of a Kind" mission at 1:15 a.m. Eastern. Thursday-Friday: Noordwijk, The Netherlands: Space for Inspiration 2024, the annual conference of ESA's Business in Space Growth Network, will discuss commercial space opportunities in Europe. Alexandria, Va./Online: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee meets to discuss astronomy activities at NASA, NSF and the Department of Energy. Friday: International Space Station: Scheduled docking of the Ax-3 Crew Dragon spacecraft with the station at 5:15 a.m. Eastern. Moon: Scheduled landing of the SLIM lunar lander by the Japanese space agency JAXA at about 10:20 a.m. Eastern. Online: The National Academies' Committee on Planetary Protection holds an open meeting at NASA's planetary protection staff at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. Washington/Online: The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts "Tactically Responsive Space: A Holistic Approach" at 2 p.m. Eastern. Monday, Jan. 22: Online: SpaceNews hosts the webinar "Not Invisible Anymore: How satellites monitor atmospheric methane" at 1 p.m. Eastern. Forward First Up to a friend or Subscribe for yourself Copyright © 2024 Multiverse Media Inc., All rights reserved. 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