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China appears to be trying to salvage a pair of spacecraft intended to go to the moon but were stranded in a transfer orbit. China launched the DRO-A and -B spacecraft March 13, but a malfunction by the rocket's upper stage kept them in low Earth orbit. Tracking data now shows one object from the launch, which may be the two satellites still attached to each other, now in a highly elliptical orbit with an apogee of 225,000 kilometers, more than half the distance to the moon, suggesting that spacecraft controllers are trying to salvage the mission. China has not disclosed the mission of the two spacecraft, but they are presumed to be designed to operate in distant retrograde orbit around the moon to test communications technologies. [SpaceNews]
Japanese lunar lander developer ispace has raised more than $50 million in a stock sale. The company announced Thursday it sold $53.5 million in stock to international institutional investors. The company says it will use the proceeds to support development of future lunar lander missions, including Mission 3, which ispace U.S. is building for Draper for a NASA mission. The company, which went public nearly a year ago, lost its first lunar lander last April when it crashed during final descent. A second lander mission is scheduled to launch late this year. [SpaceNews]
Planet has won a contract to provide hyperspectral data. Planet said Thursday that Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit effort to track greenhouse gases, will pay Planet $20 million from 2026 to 2030 for data to help identify "super-emitter" sources of methane and carbon dioxide. The data will come from Planet's upcoming series of Tanager satellites. Planet reported a 15% percent increase in annual revenues Thursday and, while still not profitable, says it is on a path to show an adjusted EBITDA profit by the fourth quarter of its current fiscal year, which started Feb. 1. [SpaceNews]
Satellite operators say they are cautiously optimistic that the Defense Department will buy more commercial services. The Pentagon's proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 includes a $134 million line item for "commercial satcom integration," an increase from $71 million in the 2024 budget. Companies that provide commercial satellite connectivity services welcome the increase but noted it was unclear how the Defense Department will use the additional funds. Those companies hope that the funding will go to the Space Force's Commercial Space Office to establish a dedicated working capital fund that could streamline the ability for combatant commands and others to take advantage of commercial services. [SpaceNews]
South Korean company Hancom InSpace has ordered two remote sensing satellites from Spire Global. Spire said this week it will build and operate Sejong-2 and Sejong-3 on behalf of Hancom InSpace to join Sejong-1, a 6U cubesat launched in May 2022. Sejong-2 would have an optical imager and serve as an extension of Sejong-1 while Sejong-3 would be equipped with a hyperspectral imager. Hancom had ordered another cubesat from Spire, called Hancom-2, shortly after the Sejong-1 launch, but the companies have not disclosed the status of that spacecraft. [SpaceNews]
Japanese launch startup Interstellar Technologies has signed an agreement with Japan's space agency JAXA. The agreement announced this week makes Interstellar a "priority launch provider," giving it priority for future contracts to support JAXA smallsat missions and advance the commercialization of space transportation services. Interstellar is developing its Zero rocket, with a first launch planned for 2025. Space One, whose Kairos rocket exploded seconds after liftoff earlier this month, also has such an agreement, as do Space BD and Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, which offer services aimed at the commercial utilization of space. [SpaceNews]
| | Footprints on the Moon Begin with L3Harris
For six decades, L3Harris has teamed with NASA to develop technology that's been critical to the evolution of human spaceflight. In fact, our technology has been part of every crewed NASA mission: from Project Mercury to Apollo to the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station era and now beyond – as part of NASA's Artemis campaign. L3Harris' contributions to NASA's Artemis missions include propulsion, communications and launch avionics for NASA's Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft and Gateway lunar space station. Learn more. | | Other News
The final farewell of the Delta 4 Heavy will be delayed. United Launch Alliance scrubbed the launch of the rocket Thursday afternoon, initially halting the countdown because of high winds. After stopping the countdown, ULA called off the launch for the day because a problem with a pump in gaseous nitrogen pipeline. The company had hoped to reschedule the launch for today but said late Thursday that it needed more time to fix the problem and has not announced a new launch date. The launch will be the last not just for the Delta 4 Heavy but also for the entire family of Delta rockets. [Orlando Sentinel]
SpaceX also postponed a Falcon 9 launch Thursday. The company had planned to launch a set of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Thursday evening, but postponed the launch without an explanation. SpaceX has rescheduled the launch for Friday night. [Spaceflight Now]
South Korea's government is allocating nearly $735 million to space programs in 2024. The budget, announced Thursday by a government ministry, is a 13.6% increase from 2023. The funding will go towards launch vehicle and satellite development as well as work on a space exploration roadmap that includes opportunities to cooperate with NASA on the Artemis program. [Pulse]
The FCC is allowing SpaceX to expand direct-to-device Starlink tests. The FCC, which originally limited SpaceX to testing direct connections between smartphones and Starlink satellites to three locations, has expanded those locations to include all of California, Hawaii, Texas and Washington as well as specific locations in other states. That decision came after the FCC, earlier this week, rejected a request by SpaceX to expand the spectrum available for those direct-to-device services to additional bands where Globalstar and Iridium have priority. SpaceX will instead have to go through a formal rulemaking process to request use of those bands. [PC Mag]
Indian launch startup has tested the second stage of a small launch vehicle. The company test-fired the solid-fuel stage for its Vikram-1 rocket at a facility operated by the Indian space agency ISRO on Wednesday. The company said the test was a success and keeps the company on track to conduct a first launch of the rocket later this year. [The Hindu]
| | Pretty Magical
"As you open the hatch to the airlock and you look down and see the Earth glide by, 250 miles below, and you're out there in your own little spacecraft, my own little satellite, it's pretty magical. It's all the things I dreamed of when I was five years old."
– NASA astronaut and Space Force Col. Nick Hague, discussing the experience of performing a spacewalk during a call with reporters Thursday about his trip to the International Space Station later this year on the Crew-9 mission.
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