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The White House says that while it is concerned about a new Russian antisatellite weapon capability, it does not pose an immediate threat. The president's national security communications adviser, John Kirby, said Thursday that the administration had been tracking the threat posed by the system for several weeks and had been working on plans to release details about it when the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), disclosed it Wednesday. Kirby did not discuss details about the ASAT system, but said that while it is "troubling" it is not an immediate threat. There has been widespread speculation about that Russian system, with growing belief it is a nuclear-powered satellite rather than a nuclear weapon. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force has canceled a multibillion-dollar classified satellite contract with Northrop Grumman. The company said in a recent regulatory filing that it was notified of a termination in its "restricted Space Business," a reference to a classified program, in January, and reduced its backlog by $2 billion. Neither Northrop nor the Defense Department would disclose details about the program, but it is believed to be a classified military communications satellite program. [Bloomberg]
Iridium says its current satellite constellation should be able to operate for at least another decade. That constellation was launched from 2017 through 2019, along with five spares launched last year. Iridium said Thursday a recent engineering assessment led it to conclude that the constellation should be able to operate to at least 2035, delaying the company's need to invest in a replacement system. Iridium, which reported a 10% increase in revenue in 2023, said it is closely watching threats posed by Starlink to both its data services and direct-to-handset business, but said companies like SpaceX that plan to use terrestrial spectrum for direct-to-device offerings will likely run into regulatory delays. [SpaceNews]
Companies developing commercial space stations are asking for regulatory and financial support from NASA and Congress. At a hearing of the House space subcommittee this week, executives from Axiom Space and Voyager Space offered a range of recommendations to ensure there is no gap between the International Space Station and their facilities, including sufficient funding for both NASA's Commercial LEO Destinations program and a separate project to develop and ISS deorbit vehicle. They warned that any gap risked ceding U.S. leadership in LEO to China and its Tiangong space station. [SpaceNews]
Uruguay is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords. The country's foreign minister signed the Accords at a ceremony Thursday at NASA Headquarters. Uruguay is the 36th country to sign the Accords, which outline best practices for safe and sustainable space exploration, and is the second in as many weeks after Greece signed last Friday. [SpaceNews]
| |  Astranis makes Proliferated GEO a reality. 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. MicroGEO offers a ground-breaking amount of capacity in a bus about 5% of the size of a normal GEO asset while also being backwards compatible with existing user terminals. And because MicroGEOs can relocate on orbit, actively reject interferers, and be replenished at low cost, it simply does not make sense for our adversaries to try (and fail) to take them down. Learn more here. | | | Other News
India is preparing to launch a weather satellite that will mark the start of a surge in launch activity. A GSLV rocket is scheduled to lift off Saturday at 7 a.m. Eastern and place the INSAT-3DS satellite into orbit. The launch is one of an estimated 30 launches by the Indian government and private entities projected to take place over 15 months according to a manifest released last week by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe). Those plans face challenges, though, that include only one operational spaceport and competing demands among government programs and with commercial providers. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX's 300th Falcon 9 launch placed a set of Starlink satellites into orbit Thursday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 4:34 p.m. Eastern from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and placed 22 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the 300th flight of the rocket since its introduction in 2010, and the third in less than 24 hours. [Spaceflight Now]
Ukrainian intelligence believes Russians are using thousands of Starlink terminals in occupied regions of eastern Ukraine. The head of the Ukrainian military's intelligence operations, Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview that Russians have been using Starlink in occupied eastern Ukraine for "quite a long time" by acquiring terminals through third parties. SpaceX said several days ago it did not believe that Starlink terminals had been sold, directly or otherwise, to Russia, but did not comment about whether the service was operational in occupied regions of Ukraine. [Wall Street Journal]
NASA has a final accounting of the asteroid sample returned by the OSIRIS-REx mission. NASA said Thursday that, after opening the sample return canister and carefully removing the material inside, scientists measured 121.6 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu. That is double the mission's goal of returning 60 grams of asteroid samples, although before the sample return capsule arrived on Earth in September project scientists believed there could be as much as 250 grams of asteroid material inside. [Science News]
NASA and Texas A&M have agreed to build a research facility at the Johnson Space Center. Under an agreement signed Thursday, Texas A&M will construct a facility to enable human spaceflight research and development that enables the commercial space economy. The facility will be built at Exploration Park, a 240-acre portion of JSC that the center is offering to companies and organizations as a research park. [NASA/JSC]
| | Webinar: Automating for SmallSat Success - Register Today
Tuesday, Feb. 20
1 p.m. Eastern
The purpose of this webinar is to explore how today's smallsat leaders are employing automation in satellite operations and manufacturing.
Panelists - Chris Winslett, Blue Canyon Technologies
- Chuck Beames, York Space
- Marc Bell, Terran Orbital
- Chester Gillmore, Planet
Moderator - Jeff Foust, SpaceNews senior staff writer
| | sponsored by  | | Crazy Space Weapons
"Of course, all of the speculation could be completely wrong and it could be some other type of counterspace weapon. Russia has tested crazy things in the past, like firing a machine gun in space."
– Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, speculating on what the space weapon Russia is reportedly developing could be. [Breaking Defense]
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