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Intuitive Machines' IM-1 lunar lander is likely on its side, having tipped over when landing. The company said Friday that the telemetry it has received from the lander indicates it came down faster than expected and with some lateral motion, and the foot of one of its six landing legs likely caught on the surface and tipped the lander over. The lander may be resting on a rock, elevating it slightly above the surface. The company said the lander was generating power and communicating, although at low data rates. The spacecraft touched down despite the lack of working laser rangefinders, which could not operate during the descent because a safety switch had not been flipped before launch. Engineers were able to instead use data from a NASA payloads, a Navigation Doppler Lidar, to enable the landing. The company announced early Monday it expects to maintain communications with the lander until Tuesday. [SpaceNews]
A Japanese lunar lander has unexpectedly come back to life after the two-week lunar night. The Japanese space agency JAXA said Monday that it briefly received telemetry from the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) on Sunday. SLIM landed in January and was not expected to survive the two-week lunar night because it lacks systems to keep the spacecraft's electronics warm. JAXA said it hopes to carry out additional observations using SLIM's multiband spectroscopic camera before the sun sets again Thursday. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force is willing to make an exception to its preferred use of fixed-price contracts. Space Force acquisition executive Frank Calvelli said Friday that the service has decided to not use fixed-price contracts for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications System (ESS), a critical component of the U.S. military's nuclear command, control, and communications network that provides nuclear-survivable communications. He said the designs of the spacecraft under development by Boeing and Northrop Grumman for the $8 billion ESS program are not mature enough to use fixed-price contracts. Calvelli has previously indicated a preference for fixed-price contracts as a means to control costs and incentivize efficiency in satellite procurements. [SpaceNews]
Space industry executives and investors are awaiting more clarity from the Space Force on how to make greater use of commercial capabilities. Business leaders said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event Friday that they see bright spots in the defense market such as the Space Development Agency's development of satellite constellations using commercial spacecraft, but want to see greater use of commercial space products and services across the Defense Department. The industry is perceiving some demand signals, but they would like for these signals to be amplified and transition into actionable commitments in the foreseeable future. [SpaceNews]
The next commercial crew mission to the International Space Station has passed a key review. NASA said Sunday the Crew-8 mission passed its flight readiness review, confirming plans for a launch just after midnight on Friday. The Crew Dragon spacecraft will carry a crew of four from NASA and Roscosmos to the station for a six-month stay. NASA and SpaceX officials said late Sunday they were closing out a few minor technical issues with the Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 ahead of the launch. NASA also said they were targeting April 22 for the launch of the first crewed Boeing CST-100 Starliner mission to the station after completing work to address technical problems that delayed its launch from last summer. [SpaceNews]
A congressman says that SpaceX is not providing Starlink services to the U.S. military in and around Taiwan. In a letter to the company, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who chairs the House Select Committee on China, said SpaceX is "possibly withholding broadband internet services in and around Taiwan" to the military through its Starshield program, which uses Starlink satellites to provide defense services. Gallagher alleged that SpaceX could be violating the terms of a contract the Pentagon awarded SpaceX for Starshield services. [Wall Street Journal]
| | Other News
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Sunday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:06 p.m. Eastern after a one-day delay and placed 24 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch included one more of the V2 mini Starlink satellites than previous launches from Florida, which SpaceX said was because of increased performance of the Falcon 9 rocket. [Spaceflight Now]
China has set a goal of 100 orbital launches this year. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) plans around 70 launches to send more than 290 spacecraft into orbit, it announced Monday, with the remaining launches coming from commercial launch providers. CASC did not disclose a detailed manifest but said that the schedule for the year includes two crew and two cargo missions to the Tiangong space station, the Queqiao-2 lunar relay satellite and Chang'e-6, a first-ever lunar far side sample return mission. China is also ramping up its use of the Long March 5, its largest current rocket, with four launches planned for this year and five in 2025. [SpaceNews]
A "learning period" limiting the FAA's ability regulate safety for commercial human spaceflight occupants is nearing its expiration. That restriction, enacted in 2004 and extended several times, is set to expire March 8. Many in industry expect Congress to extend the learning period as part of a broader FAA reauthorization bill, with some seeking an extension as long as eight years. The FAA has argued that the learning period should not be extended, giving it the ability to start enacting regulations, a process that will still take several years. [SpaceNews]
The FAA is separately establishing a committee to help it refine new launch licensing regulations. The agency announced last week at its Commercial Space Transportation Conference that it establish an aerospace rulemaking committee, or SpARC, this year to allow industry to provide input on ways to finetune the Part 450 regulations enacted in 2021. Those regulations were intended to streamline the process of licensing commercial launches and reentries, although many in industry have reported problems working with those rules. All commercial launch licenses have to switch over to the Part 450 regulations by March 2026. [SpaceNews]
A startup focused on engineering services and optical communications technology development is growing rapidly thanks to recent government contracts. Maryland-based Relative Dynamics said it has doubled in size annually since 2021 as it wins business from the Space Force and NASA. The company was founded in 2011 to provide engineering services but moved into optical communications and ground terminal technology several years ago. [SpaceNews]
Another startup is finding success producing high-quality optical fibers on the ISS. Silicon Valley startup Flawless Photonics has produced more than five kilometers of the ZBLAN optical fiber on the ISS in two weeks. ZBLAN has long been considered a potential killer app for in-space manufacturing because the material, difficult to produce on Earth, offers much better performance than other materials used in fiber optics. However, companies have struggled to produce ZBLAN in large quantities on the station until Flawless Photonics. The fibers being produced on the ISS will be returned in April for testing. [SpaceNews]
| | The Week Ahead
Monday-Wednesday: Tuesday: Tuesday-Wednesday: Wednesday: Wednesday-Thursday: - Long Beach, Calif.: The Space Beach Law Lab conference will discuss space law and policy topics.
Thursday: - Vostochny, Russia: Anticipated launch of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket carrying a Meteor-M weather satellite and several secondary payloads at 12:43 a.m. Eastern.
- Xichang, China: Expected launch of a Long March 3B rocket carrying an unidentified payload at 8 a.m. Eastern.
- Washington: The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing about U.S. Strategic Command and Space Command at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.
Friday: - Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying the Crew-8 Crew Dragon spacecraft at 12:04 a.m. Eastern.
Saturday: - International Space Station: Scheduled docking of the Crew-8 Crew Dragon spacecraft at about 7 a.m. Eastern.
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