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NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is laying off 8% of its workforce because of budget uncertainties. JPL announced Tuesday it plans to lay off 530 employees as well as 40 contractors, with the affected employees notified after staff meetings today. The lab, run by Caltech for NASA, cited a lack of a fiscal year 2024 budget and wide variations between House and Senate spending bills on funding for Mars Sample Return, a major program for JPL. The lab laid off 100 contractors last month and implemented a hiring freeze as part of earlier efforts to reduce spending. NASA reduced spending on MSR in November while a continuing resolution is in place, citing those differences in funding for the program. Members of Congress from California, who have lobbied the White House and NASA to temporarily restore MSR funding, said they were "extremely disappointed" by the layoffs. [SpaceNews]
Viasat is preparing to put a satellite with a malfunctioning antenna into service. Company executives said Tuesday that ViaSat-3 F1 should be providing connectivity to commercial aircraft by the middle of the year. The spacecraft lost more than 90% of its one terabit per second of capacity when its large antenna failed to deploy properly after launch last year. Viasat said it is making changes to ViaSat-3 F2, which has a similar antenna, pushing back its launch to the first half of next year. ViaSat-3 F3 has a different antenna and remains scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter. Viasat filed a $421 million insurance claim for the hobbled spacecraft and has already received initial payments. [SpaceNews]
An upturn in broader markets doesn't mean a return to the freewheeling investment in space companies seen a few years ago. During a panel at the SmallSat Symposium in California Tuesday, investors said the "bubble" of investment that peaked in 2021 resulted in companies raising money at unsustainable valuations, as well as some that should not have been funded at all. While rising stock markets and expected reductions in interest rates give them optimism about the industry generally, they cautioned this will be a "year of reckoning" for some venture-funded companies as they try to raise new rounds amid a diminished supply of capital. [SpaceNews]
Those investors also said startups should think carefully about taking on government work. The SmallSat Symposium panelists said that while funding through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) government contracts and similar programs can help companies, they cautioned that work can lead to "scope creep" and working on projects outside of their core products. Startups also should be aware that the funding they win is not necessarily available at the time that the project is won, such as through awards known as a strategic funding increase, or STRATFI. [SpaceNews]
The space industry needs to take a broader view of space sustainability that goes beyond debris. Speaking at the SmallSat Symposium Tuesday, Richard DalBello, director of the Office of Space Commerce, said space sustainability needs to include issues such as equitable access to orbits, protection of astronomy from satellite interference and managing reentry risks. He said there is a need to define a set of "internationally accepted" actions to address those issues. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has taken a step in that direction, approving a resolution last fall to collect information on best practices for disposing of satellites at the end of their missions that could lead to more harmonized regulations. [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
A private astronaut mission is finally heading home. A Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 9:20 a.m. Eastern this morning carrying the four members of the Ax-3 mission by Axiom Space. They had been scheduled to undock last Saturday but were delayed several days by poor weather at splashdown locations. The spacecraft will now splash down Friday morning off the coast from Daytona Beach, Florida. [NASA]
Weather once again delayed the launch of a NASA Earth science satellite. NASA and SpaceX postponed the launch of the PACE spacecraft on a Falcon 9 that had been scheduled for early Wednesday, citing strong ground winds during the day Tuesday that prevented crews from performing prelaunch checks. The launch is now scheduled for Thursday at 1:33 a.m. Eastern with more favorable weather expected. [Spaceflight Now]
A California agency is investigating allegations of discrimination at SpaceX. The California Civil Rights Department notified SpaceX last month it is investigating complaints that workers suffered sexual harassment and discrimination at the company, ranging from women being passed over for promotions to inappropriate behavior. The employees who filed the complaints are among those involved in a National Labor Relations Board case against SpaceX. [Bloomberg]
Meteorites found from a German fireball last month are from a rare class. Scientists recovered meteorites from 2024 BX1, a tiny asteroid found hours before it burned up in the atmosphere, creating a brilliant fireball seen over parts of Germany. Analysis of the meteorites shows they come from a type called aubrites that make up only 1% of all known meteorites. Scientists said the meteorites could provide insights into the early solar system. [Space.com]
NASA is still working to resolve a computer problem that is preventing the Voyager 1 spacecraft from communicating with Earth. The problem, first noticed in November, prevents the spacecraft from returning telemetry, although it is able to receive commands from Earth. Engineers have been reviewing 50-year-old documentation about the spacecraft's computer to develop ways to resolve the issue, and are planning steps that include instructing the computer to go into modes not used for decades to isolate where the problem is located. Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said it would be "the biggest miracle" if they are able to fix the problem. [Ars Technica]
| | Venture Fun-ding
"What makes venture so much fun is that you start with an idea and you try to figure out some way to find somebody to buy something that doesn't work yet."
– Mike Collett, managing partner of Promus Ventures, speaking on a panel Tuesday at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California.
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