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Recent layoffs and budget problems should not threaten the long-term growth of the space industry, say experts. During a panel at the 39th Space Symposium Monday, investors and other industry observers said government investment in space has grown by 10% annually over the last five years, and that recent budget pressures, including those at NASA that led to layoffs at JPL in February, are only a "short-term blip" in those longer trends. The Space Foundation said the space economy is currently valued at $546 billion and is on course to rise to $772 billion by 2027. [SpaceNews]
The Office of Space Commerce wants to work with other countries on space traffic coordination. Speaking at Space Symposium Monday, Richard DalBello, director of the office charged with creating a civil space traffic coordination system, said he envisions a "global, coordinated system" with regional hubs providing space situational awareness data and services to spacecraft operators. Coordination among those regional systems is essential, he said, to reduce the risk that operators would get conflicting data about potential collisions from different providers. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab has won a Space Force contract to launch an experimental disk-shaped satellite. The Space Force announced Monday it awarded a $14.4 million contract to Rocket Lab for a Space Test Program mission called STP-S30, scheduled to launch on an Electron rocket from Virginia in 2026. The payload for STP-S30 is a new smallsat design, called DiskSat, a plate-shaped satellite about a meter in diameter. The spacecraft, developed by NASA and The Aerospace Corporation, will test operations in very low Earth orbit as well as the suitability of the design as an alternative to the cubesat. [SpaceNews]
A startup is announcing plans this week for a new approach to expandable modules. Max Space is developing a line of modules that it argues will be less expensive to develop and easier to scale up to larger sizes than previous approaches. The company has raised a seed round of funding to build a prototype called Max Space 20 that will launch on a SpaceX rideshare mission next year and expand to 20 cubic meters to demonstrate the technology. It has plans for modules of up to 1,000 cubic meters, the same volume as the International Space Station, and is looking to work with commercial space station developers as well as those interested in other applications of such modules, such as in-space propellant depots. [SpaceNews]
The latest version of a space industrial base report says the U.S. needs to adapt and innovate to stay ahead in the space tech race. The fifth annual State of the Space Industrial Base report, released Monday by the U.S. Space Force, the Defense Innovation Unit, NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, says the commercial space industry is rapidly evolving. However, it argues that China is making major investments and rapid strides, and the U.S. must further leverage the commercial space sector as a critical partner for government space efforts. It recommends improvements in supply chain management and workforce recruitment and retention. [SpaceNews]
The Defense Department is supporting new entrants into the solid rocket motor market. Companies such as Ursa Major and X-Bow Systems have won recent contracts to produce solid motors for defense applications. These bets on new suppliers come amid concerns about over-reliance on a shrinking pool of domestic suppliers and a surge in demand for these solid rocket motors, a key component in hypersonic weapons, conventional and nuclear missiles. U.S. defense programs are now entirely dependent on Northrop Grumman and L3Harris, which acquired Aerojet Rocketdyne last year, for solid rocket motors. [SpaceNews]
| | Scientific Discovery Begins with L3Harris
For more than 20 years, every U.S. Martian rover mission and orbiting spacecraft has relied on L3Harris' transceivers and power and propulsion technology, including NASA's Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance vehicles. In fact, we've propelled missions to explore not only Mars – but every planet in the solar system and beyond. Learn more about our space capabilities here. | | Other News
Russia scrubbed a test flight of the Angara-A5 rocket this morning. The countdown for the 5 a.m. Eastern launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East was stopped about two minutes before liftoff, and Roscosmos later announced the launch was postponed to at least Wednesday. The agency said a problem with an oxidizer tank triggered the scrub. The launch will be the first from Vostochny for the Angara-A5, a long-delayed rocket intended to ultimately replace the Proton. [TASS]
SAIC and GomSpace have won a contract to build a smallsat for the Pentagon to test AI technologies. The companies announced they won a contract of undisclosed value from the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Manufacturing Science and Technology Program for the cubesat-class spacecraft, slated for launch in 2025. The spacecraft will demonstrate cutting-edge technologies in space, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, edge computing and software-defined radio communications with a "zero-trust" cybersecurity architecture. SAIC and GomSpace announced a partnership last year to work together on smallsats that will be assembled at an SAIC facility in South Carolina. [SpaceNews]
Space traffic management company Neuraspace has won a deal to provide services to Spire Global. The companies said Monday that Spire will use Neuraspace's premium service, which includes satellite management analysis and collision avoidance maneuver suggestions, to help manage much of its constellation of more than 100 satellites. The rest of the constellation will use a free service Neuraspace recently rolled out to give operators a common view of conjunction alerts. Spire is the first new customer Neuraspace has announced for its premium tier since the venture split its offering into a paid and free service in March. [SpaceNews]
Two companies are collaborating on a large data server for the International Space Station. Spacebilt and Phison said they will work together to qualify the Large in Space Server (LiSS), scheduled to launch to the station in 2025 and offer more than 100 terabytes of storage. Phison is providing the solid state drives used for LiSS while Spacebilt plans to use the technology for future projects, including a multi-orbit logistics vehicle it is developing. [SpaceNews]
Recently retired Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata is joining Axiom Space. The company announced Monday that it had hired Wakata as an astronaut and chief technical officer for the Asia-Pacific region, supporting the company's expansion in that region. Wakata retired from the Japanese space agency JAXA at the end of March, having flown five missions on the shuttle, Soyuz and Crew Dragon, spending more than 500 days in space. [Axiom Space]
The James Webb Space Telescope is coming to Colorado Springs. Northrop Grumman announced Monday it was donating a full-scale model of JWST to the Space Foundation, which will exhibit it as its Discovery Center museum in the city. The model was used for more than a decade at conferences and events to showcase the mission while it was in development. [Northrop Grumman]
| | Buzz Likes It
"I was never satisfied that we answered all the questions right until one time we had a briefing from NASA on what the architecture is — Buzz wasn't there in person but he was listening in — and at the end of the meeting, when Buzz said, 'Thumbs up, you're doing it right,' we breathed a sigh of relief and said we can press on. When Buzz says you're ok you can do that."
– Lester Lyles, chairman of the National Space Council's Users' Advisory Group, discussing the committee's work, including input from Buzz Aldrin, at Space Symposium Monday.
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