Astronomy Prints 🌌: Sierra Space wins piece of $2.5 billion SDA satellite order

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A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Top Stories

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has awarded $2.5 billion in contracts to three companies for missile-tracking satellites. SDA announced Tuesday it selected L3Harris, Lockheed Martin and Sierra Space to each build 18 Tranche 2 Tracking Layer satellites. Each vendor will provide 16 satellites equipped with wide-field-of-view infrared sensors and two satellites with more sophisticated infrared sensors that can generate "fire control-quality tracks," said SDA. The satellites are projected to launch in 2027 and would account for about half of the global architecture of about 100 satellites envisioned by the agency. While L3Harris and Lockheed have previously won SDA contracts, this is not only the first SDA award for Sierra Space but also its first major deal to build satellites for the U.S. military. [SpaceNews]

A private astronaut mission is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station today. A Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch a Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Ax-3 mission for Axiom Space, with liftoff scheduled for 5:11 p.m. Eastern. At a briefing late Tuesday, SpaceX said it compressed the schedule of preparations for the launch because of work over the weekend to replace bolts connecting the Dragon spacecraft to the rocket. SpaceX also adjusted parachute straps after seeing issues during the return of a cargo Dragon spacecraft last month. The Ax-3 mission will send astronauts from Italy, Sweden and Turkey to the ISS for a two-week stay. [SpaceNews]

The use of Starlink by John Deere tractors will include a new ruggedized terminal. The terminal would be about the size of a pizza box and based on the high-performance flat dish SpaceX started offering for its Starlink satellite broadband network in 2022, a John Deere product manager said. Deere announced this week it will incorporate Starlink into its tractors and other farm equipment to support precision agriculture and autonomy. [SpaceNews]

Northrop Grumman has tested the motor it will use on the second stage of a new intercontinental ballistic missile. The second-stage motor for the new missile, named LGM-35A Sentinel, was tested in a vacuum chamber at the Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Complex intended to simulate the conditions it would experience in flight. Northrop won a $13.3 billion contract in 2020 to design and develop the ICBM to replace the nation's aging Minuteman 3 missiles. [SpaceNews]

Other News

NASA has selected a new head of its space technology mission directorate. The agency announced Tuesday it has named Kurt "Spuds" Vogel the new associate administrator for space technology, effectively immediately. Vogel joined NASA in 2021 as director of space architectures, leading work on the development of the the agency's Moon to Mars architecture. He previously held roles at DARPA, Air Force Research Lab and National Reconnaissance Office. Vogel succeeds Jim Reuter, who retired from NASA last June. [NASA]

The number of maneuvers by Starink satellites has declined even as the number of satellites themselves has increased. In a semi-annual report to the FCC, SpaceX reported 24,410 collision avoidance maneuvers by its satellites from June through November 2023, down from 25,299 maneuvers in the previous six-month period even as the constellation has grown by about a thousand satellites. One expert said that improvements in the accuracy of satellite position data may explain the decline in maneuvers, along with "natural variability." [Space.com]

Cash-strapped Momentus plans to sell $4 million in stock. The in-space transportation company said Tuesday that an unnamed "U.S. institutional investor" had agreed to buy the stock in a deal expected to close Wednesday. Momentus announced Friday that it was delaying the next flight of its Vigoride space tug, and had laid off 20% of its workforce, because it was running low on cash. [Momentus]

The parent company of space software developer AGI is being acquired. Synopsys, a company known for semiconductor and electronic design software, announced Tuesday plans to acquire Ansys for $35 billion. Ansys, a developer of engineering simulation software, purchased AGI in 2020. AGI is known for its STK software suite used in aerospace and defense applications. Synopsys expects its acquisition of Ansys to close in the first half of next year. [AP]

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Hand Raised

"I'm happy to keep doing this. Axiom would definitely like to continue doing private astronaut missions. We'll probably have other commanders in the future, but as long as they ask me to fly, my hand will be raised.

– Michael López-Alegría, commander of Axiom Space's Ax-3 private astronaut mission, during a briefing last week about the upcoming launch. López-Alegría is a former NASA astronaut who will be making his sixth trip to space, the second with Axiom.