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Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation is joining the Starlab Space joint venture to develop a commercial space station. Starlab Space, a joint venture of Voyager Space and Airbus Defence and Space, said Thursday that Mitsubishi had become a strategic partner and taken an equity stake. The companies did not disclose the size of the stake or other financial details. Mitsubishi's participation in the project could open the door for use of the Starlab station by the Japanese government or companies. [SpaceNews]
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has completed a demonstration of satellite-based broadband for the U.S. Army using a virtual ground system. The demonstration was performed as part of a contract awarded in 2022 by the Army as it seeks to modernize voice and data communications for its tactical units. Kratos showed how it could use a software-defined alternative to traditional hardware-based ground stations for controlling satellite constellations, linking an antenna to Telesat's LEO 3 broadband demonstration satellite. [SpaceNews]
Blue Origin is preparing to resume crewed flights of its New Shepard vehicle. The company revealed Thursday the six-person crew for the NS-25 suborbital mission, although it did not disclose a specific launch date. The crew includes Ed Dwight, a U.S. Air Force pilot who was announced in 1961 as the first Black astronaut candidate, although not ultimately selected as an astronaut by NASA. Dwight, who later became a sculptor, is in line to become the oldest person to go to space at the age of 90. NS-25 will be the first New Shepard flight to carry people since August 2022, a hiatus caused by a mishap during a payload-only flight of New Shepard in September 2022. [SpaceNews]
Virgin Galactic is countersuing Boeing over a project to develop a new mothership aircraft for its suborbital spaceplanes. Boeing filed suit against Virgin last month, claiming that Virgin refused to pay more than $25 million in invoices for the project and has misappropriated Boeing trade secrets. Virgin, in a suit filed Thursday, alleges that Boeing performed "shoddy and incomplete" work on initial phases of the project and that the trade secrets in question are intellectual property that either belongs to Virgin or which Virgin has a license to use under a master agreement between the companies. [SpaceNews]
Thailand has signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). The agreement, announced Friday, involves cooperation on the demonstration, project implementation, operation and application of ILRS, an effort to develop a lunar base at the south pole of the moon. The announcement included few details on specific contributions by Thailand, the ninth nation to join ILRS. The two countries also signed a more general agreement on cooperation in the exploration and peaceful use of outer space. [SpaceNews]
| | 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
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites early this morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 5:12 a.m. Eastern and placed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. SpaceX is also preparing for another Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites Friday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and a rideshare mission, Bandwagon-1, Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center. [Florida Today]
Geospatial analytics company Hydrosat has won its first NOAA contract. The company said it received a $175,000 Small Business Innovation Research contract to provide high-resolution measurements of Earth-surface temperatures and geotechnical analysis using thermal infrared imagery. The data is intended to offer insights for wildfire, drought, urban heat, agriculture and aquaculture monitoring. [SpaceNews]
Satellite servicing company Astroscale is considering going public. The Tokyo-based company has lined up financial managers for a public offering that could take place as soon as June on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Astroscale is developing technologies to refuel and service satellites and to remove orbital debris. If it does go public, it would follow ispace, a lunar lander company, and iQPS, a radar imaging company, that went public in Japan last year. [Reuters]
The White House is proposing that launch companies pay taxes similar to those levied on airlines to support air traffic management. Airlines are charged a tax of 7.5% of the cost of each ticket, plus a per-passenger fee, that goes into a trust fund that supports FAA operations, including air traffic management. The White House proposal would requite commercial launches to also pay taxes to support that fund to cover the costs of disruptions to air traffic caused by the growing number of commercial launches. The launch industry opposes the proposal, stating that it has been working with the FAA to minimize airspace disruptions caused by launches. [New York Times]
NASA says it has identified the cause of a computer problem on the Voyager 1 spacecraft. NASA said Thursday that engineers believe a memory unit on the spacecraft, accounting for 3% of its overall memory, has been corrupted. That corruption could have been caused by a cosmic ray strike or simply because the unit has worn out on the spacecraft, launched in 1977. Engineers are working to rewrite flight software to avoid using the corrupted memory, a process that could take weeks or months. [NASA]
| | It's an Event
"So, the next one over Indiana will be like 100 years from now. We'll all be dead. I might not be, but you guys are going to be dead the next time. So it's an event."
– William Shatner, talking to reporters about his plans to watch Monday's solar eclipse at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. [Space.com]
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