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Northrop Grumman has warned employees of its space unit that up to 1,000 of them may be laid off. The company issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) to its California employees on Monday, stating that about 1,000 employees could be laid off from its Space Park facility. The company said it would move to find jobs elsewhere in the company for affected employees, and thus the number of people actually laid off could be less than the number that received the WARN notices. Northrop Grumman has not specified what is driving the job cuts, but the company reportedly had a multibillion-dollar classified satellite contract canceled by the Space Force recently and has also reported losses on a lunar Gateway module it is building for NASA. [SpaceNews]
Astranis has found a new customer for its first, malfunctioning small GEO communications satellite. The company said Tuesday that it will move its Arcturus satellite to an orbital slot assigned to Israeli operator Spacecom, allowing that company to meet an ITU deadline for bringing that slot into use. Astranis launched Arcturus last year with the original intent of providing Ka-band broadband services for Alaskan company Pacific Teleport. However, the failure of two onboard solar array drive assemblies shortly after launch means Arcturus is unable to keep solar arrays pointed at the sun for consistent power, and thus can't provide those services. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab is pushing to carry out its first Neutron launch this year. In an earnings call Tuesday, the company said it has a schedule that would allow a first launch this year, but acknowledged it is one that requires that no major issues crop up during final vehicle development and testing. The company has yet to begin hot-fire tests of the Archimedes engine that will power the rocket, with a test stand for it expected to be completed in March. Rocket Lab also announced Tuesday it was now offering four distinct spacecraft buses, versions of the original Photon bus called Lightning, Explorer, Pioneer and Photon, for different missions. Both the satellite buses and Neutron are key parts of a long-term vision of operating its own constellation, executives said on the call. They did not disclose what services the constellation would provide or when it would be deployed, but noted that vertical integration was essential for it to be successful. [SpaceNews]
Astra's founders have sharply reduced the price they are offering to take the launch and spacecraft propulsion company private. In a letter released Tuesday, Chris Kemp and Adam London said they were now offering only $0.50 per share to take the company private, a price two-thirds lower than their original offer in November. They cited delays in completing a deal and concerns Astra faced "imminent bankruptcy" if the company's board didn't accept a deal. Shares in Astra closed Tuesday at $1.745, virtually unchanged. [SpaceNews]
A Space Force general says he expects space domain awareness to be one area where private sector capabilities will be increasingly needed. Lt. Gen. David Miller, commander of Space Operations Command, said Tuesday the Space Force will need more sophisticated space tracking data and analytics capabilities that can transform raw data into actionable intelligence on activities in orbit, areas he said where commercial services would be useful. More generally, he said he was "all in" on using commercial capabilities that support core government capabilities. [SpaceNews]
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NASA said overnight one of its science satellites passed close to a Russian spacecraft. The agency said its Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Mission (TIMED) spacecraft came close to the Cosmos 2221 satellite at around 1:34 a.m. Eastern. NASA did not disclose a miss distance but said that neither spacecraft was maneuverable. NASA said this morning that TIMED was functioning, indicating no collision took place. TIMED was launched in 2001 to study the upper atmosphere, while Cosmos 2221 was a Russian electronic intelligence satellite launched in 1992. [NASA]
Space infrastructure company Redwire opened a new facility in Virginia to service government customers. The 7,300-square-foot facility in Chantilly, Virginia, is near the offices of several defense and intelligence agencies. Redwire develops and produces deployable structures, digital engineering models and sensors for space surveillance and tracking. [SpaceNews]
A Falcon Heavy issue will delay a weather satellite launch. NASA said Tuesday that the GOES-U geostationary orbit weather satellite, which had been scheduled for launch in April, has been delayed to no earlier than May. NASA said that tests of the Falcon Heavy center core booster uncovered a liquid oxygen leak that needs to be fixed. GOES-U is the fourth and final satellite in the GOES-R line of geostationary weather satellites operated by NOAA. [NASA]
The IM-1 lunar lander mission is nearly over. Intuitive Machines said in its most recent update Tuesday morning that the spacecraft had about 10 to 20 hours of power remaining as the sun sets out of view of its solar panels. The company released a few more images of the lander on its descent to the surface, but nothing more from after landing. NASA and Intuitive Machines are holding a press conference this afternoon to provide more information about the mission. [AP]
The impact of a NASA spacecraft reshaped an asteroid's moon. NASA's DART mission collided with Dimorphos, a moon orbiting the asteroid Didymos, in September 2022 in a demonstration of the ability to deflect the orbit of an asteroid. That impact, rather than creating a crater on Dimorphos, instead reshaped the entire moon and ejected a couple percent of its mass into space. Scientists modeling the impact say that shows Dimorphos is a "rubble pile" object without a solid core. [Sky & Telescope]
| | It'll Be Ready When It's Ready
"At the end of the day, it's a rocket program, right? Right now, we have a schedule that closes for a launch by the end of the year, but we've got a lot of testing to get through. If everything goes well, then everything goes well."
– Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, discussing the schedule for the first launch of the company's Neutron rocket during an earnings call Tuesday.
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