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The departing assistant secretary of defense for space policy says that Russia's pursuit of a nuclear weapon for use in space is a deeply troubling threat. In an interview, John Plumb said that the weapon stands apart from other feared "counterspace" weapons being developed by Moscow, Beijing and others, calling it "a thing apart" that must be dealt with differently from those other threats. He said hardening all U.S. satellites against such radiation would be unrealistic and prohibitively expensive. Instead, the Pentagon and other government agencies should do further studies and modeling of the potential impact of a nuclear detonation in orbit, and develop options to increase the resilience of military systems. [SpaceNews]
Plumb also weighed in on debate about how the Pentagon and intelligence community should work to provide timely space-based intelligence for battlefield commanders. He said the division of labor between the DoD and intelligence community is decided at higher levels than his office, but that agency leaders need to sit down and resolve the ongoing tug-of-war between the military's demands for rapid access to raw data from space-based sensors and intelligence agencies' processes for vetting and analyzing that information before dissemination. An example of that debate is disagreement between the Space Force and NRO on who should task sensors for a new Ground Moving Target Indicator satellite constellation. [SpaceNews]
The FAA is starting a new environmental review for Starship launches from the Kennedy Space Center. The FAA said Friday it is kicking off an environmental impact statement (EIS) for Starship launches from Launch Complex 39A, where SpaceX currently conducts Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. An environmental assessment in 2019 allowed SpaceX to start building infrastructure at LC-39A for Starship launches, but the FAA said changes in Starship's design and flight rate prompted the need for an EIS. That review will be done in parallel with one by the Department of the Air Force studying Starship launches from two locations at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Separately, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on social media Saturday that the next Starship test flight is likely in three to five weeks. Musk said a month ago that the company would be ready for launch in about a month. [SpaceNews / Reuters]
Japanese lunar lander company ispace says an agreement between Japan and the United States on Artemis could open new opportunities for the company. That agreement, signed last month, calls on the Japanese space agency JAXA to provide a pressurized lunar rover in exchange for NASA allocating two seats for JAXA astronauts on lunar landing missions. In an earnings call Friday, ispace said that implementing that agreement could require additional robotic landers, like those ispace develops, for science and logistics, but the company added that is was too early to estimate how big this demand will be. The company reported a net loss of nearly 2.4 billion yen ($15 million) in its fiscal year that ended in March, and is projecting a much larger loss for the current fiscal year as it launches its second lander mission and increases work on a third being built by its U.S. subsidiary. [SpaceNews]
Serbia has joined China's International Lunar Research Station program. Serbia's Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation signed a memorandum of understanding with the China National Space Administration on ILRS, according to a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement last week. It is not clear how Serbia, with only modest space capabilities, will be involved in and contribute to the ILRS at this stage. Serbia becomes the 11th country to join the ILRS, following Nicaragua and Thailand in April. [SpaceNews]
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SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites Sunday evening. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Caper Canaveral at 8:53 p.m. Eastern and deployed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. With the launch SpaceX has 5,999 Starlink satellites in orbit, although not all of them are operational. [Spaceflight Now]
China launched a space environment satellite Saturday night. A Long March 4C satellite lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 7:43 p.m. Eastern and placed the Shiyan-23 satellite into orbit. The satellite will be used for space environment monitoring, Chinese media said, but did not provide any additional details about its mission. [Xinhua]
NASA and JAXA will operate an X-ray astronomy satellite as-is for the next year and a half despite a glitch affecting one of its instrument. A gate valve, or aperture door, for the XRISM spacecraft's Resolve instrument failed to open after launch last September. The instrument itself is working fine, but the valve's beryllium disk attenuates X-rays, particularly at lower energies. At a National Academies meeting last week, the head of NASA's astrophysics division said NASA and JAXA decided not to make any more attempts to open the valve for the time being, instead collecting science data for the next 18 months before trying again. [SpaceNews]
Yahsat has partially restored service on its Thuraya 3 satellite. The company said Friday that it was able to resume voice and data services in the Indochina region from the satellite, which suffered a problem last month. Yahsat said it is still working to restore service in other parts of the Asia-Pacific region where that satellite operated. [Yahsat]
A solar storm produced brilliant auroral displays Friday night, but with some disruption of satellite services. The aurora from the storm was seen Friday night at unusually low latitudes, including as far south as Florida and the Bahamas. The storm did not cause any major power grid problems, but there were reports of interference with communications and navigation satellite signals, including tractors that use GPS for precision agriculture. SpaceX reported late Sunday that all its Starlink satellites "weathered the geomagnetic storm and remain healthy" although some customers reported degraded service during the storm. NASA said the storm did not affect International Space Station operations. [New York Times]
| | The Week Ahead
Monday: Monday-Tuesday: Tuesday: Tuesday-Wednesday: Wednesday: Wednesday-Thursday: - Logan, Utah: The Consortium for Space Mobility and ISAM Capabilities (COSMIC) holds its COSMIC Convergence workshop to discuss issues associated with in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing.
Thursday: Friday: - Washington: Space Force Col. Richard Kniseley, head of Space Systems Command's Commercial Space Office, speaks at a Washington Space Business Roundtable luncheon.
- Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of an Atlas 5 carrying Boeing's Starliner on a crewed test flight at 6:16 p.m. Eastern.
- Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites.
Sunday: - Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 on the NROL-146 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.
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