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Intuitive Machines became the first company to land a spacecraft on the moon, but there are few other details about the status of the mission. The Nova-C lander touched down in the south polar regions of the moon at 6:23 p.m. Eastern Thursday, although it took about 15 minutes for the company to confirm it was receiving signals from the spacecraft. The company said a couple hours later that the lander was upright and that it was receiving data from it, but has not provided any more information about the status of the lander, or any of the images of other data it may have returned. The IM-1 mission is the first privately developed spacecraft to land on the moon after three failed attempts over the last five years, and is the first American spacecraft to soft-land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The spacecraft is carrying six NASA payloads and six payloads from other customers, with plans to operate on the surface for about a week. [SpaceNews]
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is making a big bet on commercial satellite imagery with a new procurement. The agency plans to spend up to $290 million on the Luno program to leverage commercial satellite imagery and data analytics to enhance NGA's global monitoring capabilities. Luno is expanding an earlier program called Economic Indicator Monitoring that NGA launched in 2021 with a $29 million budget over five years. Luno is drawing widespread attention in the geospatial intelligence sector and a large number of bids because of its projected size. [SpaceNews]
Avanti, which provides broadband services with GEO satellites, will add capabilities from Telesat's future Lightspeed constellation. Under a strategic partnership announced Thursday, the companies will jointly develop ways to incorporate connectivity from the Telesat Lightspeed constellation for Avanti's enterprise and government customers. They will also explore using Avanti's existing ground infrastructure across Europe, the Middle East and Africa to support and accelerate the LEO constellation's commercial deployment. Avanti currently offers services using five Ka-band satellites in GEO, while Telesat plans to start launching its 198-satellite Lightspeed constellation in 2026. [SpaceNews]
Commercial space station developer Vast plans to bid on future NASA private astronaut mission opportunities to the International Space Station. Vast said this week at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference that it expected to bid for the fifth and sixth private astronaut missions that NASA offers to the ISS, hoping to use the missions to gain experience ahead of its planned stations. Axiom Space has been selected by NASA for the first four such missions, three of which have flown with the fourth scheduled for this fall. Vast plans to launch its Haven-1 single-module station at the end of 2025 as a precursor for larger stations it will develop for potential use by NASA and other customers. [SpaceNews]
China launched a classified satellite to geostationary orbit Friday morning. A Long March 5 lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 6:30 a.m. Eastern and deployed the TJS-11 satellite. The satellite is described as being mainly used to carry out multi-band high-speed satellite communication technology verification. TJS satellites are thought by observers to serve a range of purposes including early warning and signals intelligence, and are part of growing Chinese capabilities in GEO that have raised concerns among U.S. Space Force officials. [SpaceNews]
| | Other News
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites from California Thursday night. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:11 p.m. Eastern and deployed 22 Starlink satellites into orbit. The booster used for the launch made its 19th flight, tying a company record. Those missions have included ISS commercial crew and cargo flights, commercial satellites and several Starlink missions. [Spaceflight Now]
A Portuguese startup has raised funding to use excess capacity on satellites to deploy a narrowband connectivity network. The company, Connected, has raised $2 million to develop payloads using standard 5G narrowband network protocols that can provide Internet of Things services. The company would fly those payloads on other companies' satellites, taking advantage of excess mass and power on those spacecraft, rather than building and launching its own satellites. Connected hopes to fly a first demo mission around the end of the year. [SpaceNews]
India's prime minister will attend the groundbreaking for a new Indian spaceport next week. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the launch site in Tamil Nadu at a Feb. 28 event. The spaceport, to be constructed over the next two years, will be used by the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle. Unlike the current Indian spaceport at Sriharikota, the new site will allow launches directly to the south, enhancing the performance of the rocket to polar orbits. [Deccan Herald]
Astronomers have discovered a neutron star in the remnants of a 1987 supernova explosion. In a paper published this week, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope identified a neutron star in the heart of SN 1987a, an explosion of a star 20 times the mass of the sun in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. Astronomers believed that the supernova left behind a neutron star, but past efforts to detect it had come up short. Infrared observations by JWST, though, detected emission lines of key elements that prove, researchers concluded, that there is a neutron star present in the supernova remnant. [Science]
| | Moon Madness
"Did you know that Purdue is probably the only school that's had more success sending people to the moon than a basketball team to the Final Four?"
– Col. Shannon DaSilva, deputy director of operations for Space Systems Command and a graduate of Purdue University, speaking Thursday at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference.
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