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NASA has selected three companies to work on lunar rover designs that could be used on future Artemis missions. NASA announced Wednesday that it selected teams led by Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab for its Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) Services contract. The three companies will each get task orders to spend the next 12 months refining the designs of the rovers and conduct a preliminary design review. NASA will then select one company for a demonstration task order, funding development of the rover and delivery to the moon. NASA will then procure use of the rover as a service, both for use by astronauts on missions starting with Artemis 5 as well as for robotic exploration when astronauts are not present. Companies can also use the rover for other customers. The contract has an overall maximum value of $4.6 billion over 15 years, but NASA did not disclose the value of the initial task orders. [SpaceNews]
Orbital Sidekick released first images from two hyperspectral satellites launched a month ago. The company says the two Global Hyperspectral Observation Satellites (GHOSts) launched on the SpaceX Transporter-10 rideshare flight are working well and have been returning data since mid-March. The new satellites, the fourth and fifth in the company's constellation, gather data in 468 spectral bands from 400 to 2,500 nanometers with 8-meter resolution. Orbital Sidekick plans to launch a sixth satellite later this year and has a long-term goal of a constellation of 14 to 20 spacecraft. [SpaceNews]
Scout Space is developing a space domain awareness sensor aimed at the military market. The company said Thursday it won a $1.8 million Small Business Innovation Research contract under the SpaceWERX Tactically Responsive Space program. Scout Space is using a portion of the funding to accelerate the development of Owl, an optical telescope designed to track objects in space with great detail and is intended for what the company calls "more exotic deployment opportunities" that include lunar missions. The award comes as the U.S. seeks new ways to monitor and protect its assets in orbit. [SpaceNews]
HawkEye 360 has raised an additional $40 million in debt financing. The company, which operates a constellation of satellites to collect radio-frequency geolocation data, said this week it secured the debt deal with Silicon Valley Bank. The company has raised $108 million in the last year between this debt financing and its Series D-1 round, which it said will go towards building out its constellation and other elements of its technical infrastructure. [HawkEye 360]
| | Integrated Deterrence Begins with L3Harris
As missile threats become faster and more elusive, L3Harris is helping the U.S. military build a proliferated constellation of missile warning and defense satellites to stay ahead. Our technology plays a key role on several U.S. missile warning and defense satellite programs, including those for the U.S. Space Force's Space Development Agency and Space Systems Command as well as the Missile Defense Agency. We're answering the call to protect against advanced missiles by rapidly developing and deploying responsive, multilayered solutions that provide near-global and persistent indications, detection, warning, tracking and identification. Learn more. | | Other News
The schedule for the second launch of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket, and its Space Force certification, is up in the air. The Cert-2 mission will carry Sierra Space's Dream Chaser cargo spaceplane, and had been expected to take place by this summer. However, it is not clear when Dream Chaser will be ready to fly, with estimates now ranging from September to next year. ULA needs to conduct two Vulcan launches in order to win Space Force certification for national security payloads, and the company is reportedly looking into "partial certification" of the rocket now so it could carry a military payload on Cert-2 if Dream Chaser is delayed. [Ars Technica]
The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) will build a refueling spacecraft for Astroscale. SwRI announced this week it won a contract worth about $17 million from Astroscale to build the spacecraft for the Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling (APS-R) mission. Astroscale received a $25.5 million Space Force contract last year for the APS-R mission to demonstrate satellite refueling. [San Antonio Express-News]
Colorado's governor is opposing a Pentagon proposal to turn some National Guard units into active duty Space Force units. The proposal would move 14 space-focused National Guard units into the Space Force, seven of which are in Colorado. Gov. Jared Polis said he opposed the proposal, which would take authority for National Guard units away from governors and could lead to high attrition as guardsmen elect to leave rather than go on active duty. [Colorado Springs Gazette]
Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed testing of a new version of the RS-25 engine for the Space Launch System. A final hot-fire test took place Wednesday at the Stennis Space Center to complete qualification of the updated RS-25 engine. Aerojet Rocketdyne, now part of L3Harris, restarted RS-25 engine production to support SLS missions beginning with its fifth launch. The first four SLS launches use RS-25 engines built for the shuttle program. [L3Harris]
ESA is preparing to launch a mission that will make its own solar eclipses. The agency showed off the Proba-3 spacecraft Wednesday at a Redwire Space facility in Belgium where it was built. Proba-3 features two spacecraft that will fly in formation 150 meters apart, with the Occulter spacecraft lined up to block the sun for the Coronagraph spacecraft, allowing it to observe the solar corona. The spacecraft will maintain a separation with an accuracy of millimeters for up to six hours at a time. Proba-3 is scheduled to launch in September. [ESA]
| | The Perfect Satellite
"It should cost nothing, it should weigh nothing and have no parts."
– Greg Wyler, founder of E-Space and, previously, O3b and OneWeb, when asked to describe the perfect satellite during a fireside chat Wednesday at the SpaceTech 2024 conference by MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
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