Space Symposium Debates: Star Wars or Star Trek? - SpaceNews This Week

Top stories of the week from SpaceNews

A weekly roundup of the top SpaceNews stories from this week, every Friday This week, SpaceNews reporters were hard at work covering the news and announcements that broke at the 39th annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In case you missed it, read on to see some highlights of our coverage from the conference, as well as other news that broke during the week. Next week, we'll be back to our usual programming. Our Top Story Japanese astronauts to land on moon as part of new NASA partnership Jeff Foust, April 11, 2024 COLORADO SPRINGS — Japan will become the first nation after the United States to land an astronaut on the moon as part of the Artemis lunar exploration campaign under an agreement between the two countries announced April 10. At an event in Washington, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Masahito Moriyama signed an agreement regarding an additional Japanese contribution to Artemis, a pressurized lunar rover called Lunar Cruiser. However, let us not overshadow what may be the biggest news from the Space Symposium… Star Trek vs Star Wars Debate at 39th Space Symposium: Who Won? In a heated debate moderated by SpaceNews Senior Staff Writer Jeff Foust and judged by former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Team Star Wars and Team Star Trek squared off to argue that their respective franchises were superior to the other. Despite the audience's clear preference for Team Star Trek, Bridenstine declared Team Star Wars the victor. Do you agree? Let us know in the audience poll embedded in our article. Other News From the Week SPACE SYMPOSIUM HIGHLIGHTS FAA: no current plans to tax commercial space launches A Federal Aviation Administration official said April 10 that the Biden administration has no plans for the time being to levy taxes on commercial launches, similar to those on airlines, to address the launch industry's impact on airspace. Space investors question the merits of vertical integration The benefits of buying space companies to pursue vertical integration are becoming less apparent in the current economic climate.  Buying out suppliers can give a company more control over prices and capabilities, enabling it to scale faster than others relying on a network of partners. ESA awards contract to Thales Alenia Space to restart ExoMars The European Space Agency awarded a contract to a consortium of companies to resume work on a Mars rover mission that was derailed two years ago by geopolitics. Space Force unveils strategy to leverage commercial tech innovation Following the Pentagon's recent guidance urging greater use of commercial space technologies, the U.S. Space Force on April 10 released its own blueprint for integrating private-sector capabilities. NASA rolls out new space sustainability strategy NASA announced a new approach to dealing with an increasingly crowded and dangerous environment in Earth orbit with a space sustainability strategy that puts an initial emphasis on analyzing the problem rather than technologies to solve it. IN OTHER NEWS End of an era: Delta 4 Heavy soars one last time In a historic sendoff, United Launch Alliance on April 9 launched a classified National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite on the final flight of the Delta 4 Heavy rocket. SpaceX launches first mid-inclination dedicated rideshare mission SpaceX launched the first in a new line of dedicated rideshare missions April 7, delivering 11 commercial and military satellites into mid-inclination orbits. Musk outlines plans to increase Starship launch rate and performance SpaceX could attempt to land a Starship booster as soon as the vehicle's fifth flight as Elon Musk outlined plans to increase both the flight rate and the performance of the launch vehicle. Battling Without Borders: Cross-Domain Capability is the Future of Warfighting Sponsored Content by Boeing To triumph over their adversaries, warfighters in the 21st century must be just as prescient and adaptable as Proteus. Because they are neither telepaths nor shapeshifters, however, they must derive their clairvoyance and versatility through multi-domain integration: sharing functionality and data seamlessly across platforms that are on the ground, at sea, in the air and—increasingly important—up in space. 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