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A Crew Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth this morning to conclude the Ax-3 private astronaut mission. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean near Daytona Beach, Florida, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The splashdown concluded a mission lasting more than three weeks, including two and a half weeks at the International Space Station. Poor weather delayed the spacecraft's return by nearly a week. [SpaceNews]
The National Guard is in discussions with the U.S. Air Force about the future of National Guard members who support the Space Force. The chief of the National Guard Bureau, Gen. Daniel Hokanson, said Thursday that he has discussed with Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall options for the approximately 1,000 members of the Air National Guard who support Space Force operations in seven states. Guard advocates on Capitol Hill have tried to establish a Space National Guard, a move opposed by the Biden administration because of its cost. The 2024 defense authorization bill directed Hokanson and Kendall to look at the pros and cons of transferring all space functions of the National Guard to the Space Force, as well as options to create a Space National Guard or maintain the status quo. [SpaceNews]
L3Harris Technologies has completed testing of a digital phased array antenna. The company said this week it completed a three-month test of a compact Digital Beamforming Phased Array Antenna System (DPAAS) in Alaska. The DPASS prototype handled an average of more than 300 satellite contacts per day, including up to eight simultaneous contacts. The antenna is intended to address government and commercial demand for innovative ground systems to communicate with large satellite constellations in low Earth orbit and with constellations that include spacecraft in different orbital planes. L3Harris conducted the test through an agreement with NOAA. [SpaceNews]
Maxar Intelligence, the satellite imagery and geospatial analytics arm of Maxar Technologies, has named a new CTO. The company said Thursday that it hired Arvind Srinivasan, who previously worked at Google, Meta and Apple on cloud technologies as well as Google Maps and Google Earth. The hiring is the latest change that Advent International, a private equity firm, has made at Maxar since taking the company private last year. [SpaceNews]
European startup OQ Technology is the latest company to study entering the direct-to-device market. Luxembourg's government is providing an undisclosed amount of funding to the company for a six-month feasibility contract to study ways to connect unmodified smartphones with its satellites. OQ Technology currently provides narrowband Internet of Things (IoT) services using eight cubesats, with two more to launch in March. The company plans to examine how it can use terrestrial spectrum to provide services. Several other companies are pursuing similar approaches, but other satellite operators warn that could cause interference with their services. [SpaceNews]
| |  There's a new MILSATCOM operator in town: Astranis.
In 2023, Astranis launched the world's first MicroGEO communications satellite — and used it to demonstrate end-to-end connectivity for a national security customer. Astranis has also successfully demonstrated passing the Space Force's Protected Tactical Waveform through our proprietary Software-Defined Radio.
This makes Astranis one of just a few operators capable of supporting government waveforms on commercial satellites. And it makes MicroGEO the smallest, most agile satellite to do so by a wide margin.
Learn more here. | | | Other News
Artificial intelligence technologies are accelerating innovation in space. Companies said at the SmallSat Symposium this week that they are using various AI tools to enhance their capabilities, from designing components to searching satellite imagery. All this progress would not be possible, they said, without cloud computing providers that give them access to extensive computing resources. Some companies are now examining space-based edge computing to enhance those AI capabilities. [SpaceNews]
Collins Aerospace has put a new spacesuit through a series of zero-gravity tests. The company recently completed tests of a spacesuit on an aircraft flying parabolic arcs that generate 15 to 25 seconds of microgravity at a time, showing how astronauts could carry out discrete tasks wearing the suit. Collins is developing the suit under a NASA contract with plans to eventually replace the aging spacesuits on the ISS. The company also seeks to offer the suits to commercial space stations and adapt them for use on the moon. [SpaceNews]
India plans to launch a weather satellite next week. The Indian space agency ISRO says it is planning a Feb. 17 launch of the INSAT-3DS spacecraft on a GSLV rocket. The satellite, which will operate from geostationary orbit, will join two other satellites, INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR, providing weather data for the Indian government. [Deccan Herald]
SpaceX says it has not authorized the use of Starlink in Russia even as Russian stores offer terminals for sale. In a statement Thursday, SpaceX says any Russian online stores offering Starlink terminals for use in the country are "scamming their customers." The statement came after reports that Russian companies are importing Starlink terminals though Dubai, selling them at a considerable markup. Starlink does not officially provide services in Russia or Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, but some sources on the ground claim the terminals do work in occupied regions and along the border. [PCMag]
A former Japanese astronaut is joining an advisory board for Voyager Space. Soichi Noguchi spent 27 years as an astronaut with the Japanese space agency JAXA, flying on the shuttle, Soyuz and Crew Dragon and spending two long-duration missions on the ISS. Noguchi will assist the company as it works on the Starlab commercial space station. [Voyager Space]
| | Just Another Silicon Valley Unicorn
"We're actually a small billion-dollar revenue organization. I say that because we're in Silicon Valley, and a billion dollars in Silicon Valley is like startup money."
– Dave Korsmeyer, acting deputy director of NASA's Ames Research Center, providing an overview of the center during a talk at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, this week.
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