Space Force's Tough Sell - SpaceNews This Week

Top stories of the week from SpaceNews

A weekly roundup of the top SpaceNews stories from this week, every Friday Welcome to our weekly roundup. This week, the Space Force challenged industry players to make a real use case for the technologies its developing before the military buys in, NASA launches a solar sail and more. Our Top Story Space Force to industry: Prove value of new commercial space services By Sandra Erwin, April 23 2024 WASHINGTON — The Space Force's new commercial strategy is an attempt to kick off real talks with the private space industry about partnering on new business opportunities, a senior official said April 23. While the military has been buying bread-and-butter commercial space services like launches and satcom for decades, it's still figuring out if — and how — it would actually put emerging offerings like in-orbit refueling to use. "We talk a lot about space refueling, but we don't really know what the case is for its military utility," Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements, said at an Atlantic Council event. Other News From the Week Artemis Accords vs. ILRS Recently, China's International Lunar Research Station initiative saw one new national membership compared to the Artemis Accords' three new signatories. Artemis: Switzerland: GDP: $818.4 billion. Space Flex: Contributed to first comet landing; launching privately-owned, global IoT connectivity constellation. Sweden: GDP: $591.7 billion. Space Flex: Operates space data lab for AI imagery analysis. Slovenia: GDP: $60.1 billion. Space Flex: "A rising leader in space," —Jamie Harpootlian, the U.S. ambassador to Slovenia. ILRS: Nicaragua: GDP: $15.7 billion. Space Flex: Opened domestic satellite navigation system monitoring station. Commercial Starliner crewed test flight passes key review The first crewed flight of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is a step closer to launch after completing a major pre-launch review April 25. Commercial space station module developer Gravitics wins Space Force contract Gravitics, a startup developing modules for commercial space stations, will use its technologies for tactically responsive space applications for the U.S. Space Force. CIVIL Companies offer proposals for Apophis asteroid missions Companies ranging from Blue Origin to a startup are proposing concepts for missions to visit an asteroid before it makes a very close flyby of Earth in five years. China's Shenzhou-18 crew arrive at Tiangong space station China's latest crew of three astronauts arrived at the Tiangong space station Thursday following launch from Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi Desert. Major changes approved for ClearSpace-1 mission The European Space Agency has approved major changes in the ClearSpace-1 debris-cleanup mission. Under the new plan approved April 23 by ESA, OHB SE of Bremen, Germany, will provide the satellite bus in addition to leading systems integration and launch. China on track for crewed moon landing by 2030, space official says China is on target to reach its goal of putting its astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade, according to the country's human spaceflight agency. Electron launches South Korean imaging satellite and NASA solar sail Rocket Lab launched a South Korean smallsat and a NASA solar sail experiment on the company's fifth flight of the year April 23. Copyright (C) 2024 Multiverse Media Inc.. All rights reserved. You signed up to receive this newsletter on Spacenews.com. At times you may receive marketing material. Our mailing address is: Multiverse Media Inc. 100 Fillmore St. 5th Floor Denver, CO 80206 USA Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe