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Millennium Space won a $414 million Space Development Agency (SDA) contract to develop satellites for tracking hypersonic missiles. The contract announced Tuesday is for the Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) program, featuring eight satellites equipped with advanced infrared and optical sensors. Millennium, a Boeing subsidiary, will also provide the ground systems and support in-orbit operations under the contract. SDA plans to use the satellites to demonstrate advanced technologies for tracking hypersonic missiles, a crucial capability it is pursuing. SDA plans to launch the FOO Fighter satellites in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027. [SpaceNews]
Astroscale, the Japanese satellite servicing and debris removal company, plans to go public. The Tokyo-based company announced Wednesday it will go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market, with shares scheduled to start trading June 5. The company has not set a price for the 20.8 million shares it plans to offer in the IPO. Astroscale is working on a range of technologies to service satellites and remove debris, and recently won the second phase of a JAXA contract to demonstrate the removal of an H-2A upper stage left in low Earth orbit. [SpaceNews]
The head of the Space Force says he is still studying whether refueling satellites in orbit is worth the cost. Testifying Tuesday before a House appropriations subcommittee, Gen. Chance Saltzman said the value of on-orbit refueling is still in question given the military's shift to cheaper, disposable satellites as part of a proliferated architecture. He noted refueling would make sense for large, high-value satellites in geostationary orbit. Defense budget analysts expressed concern that the Space Force's cautious approach to in-orbit refueling and other emerging commercial space services could have unintended consequences, such as affecting private sector investment. [SpaceNews]
SES has started providing services on its first six O3b mPower satellites. The Boeing-built satellites, which have experienced electrical problems, feature an integrated payload array to offer gigabits per second of throughput. Two more mPower satellites are scheduled to launch later this year, with a total of 13 now planned for the constellation. [SpaceNews]
A startup has unveiled plans for highly maneuverable satellites. Portal Space Systems emerged form stealth Tuesday, disclosing it has received more than $3 million in Defense Department awards to support work on a spacecraft bus called Supernova. That bus uses solar thermal propulsion that offers high thrust and large amounts of delta-V, or change in velocity, to enable it to maneuver quickly between orbits. Portal's founders argue that maneuverability will be desired by both government and commercial customers. The company is planning to launch the first Supernova spacecraft on a demonstration mission by the end of next year. [SpaceNews]
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A new report highlights the growing congestion in Earth orbit. The report, released Tuesday by Slingshot Aerospace, warns that the space domain is becoming crowded to unprecedented and potentially dangerous levels. There were nearly 12,600 satellites in orbit at the end of 2023, a 12.4% increase over 2022, with more than 3,350 of them inactive. The report also warned of "unsustainable" losses in the space insurance field caused by claims last year for problems with the ViaSat-3 Americas and Inmarsat-6 F2 satellites. [SpaceNews]
Hubble is back in service after its latest gyro problem. NASA said Tuesday that controllers returned Hubble to normal science operations, a week after problems with one of its three gyros put it into safe mode. The agency did not elaborate on the problems with that gyro, which had triggered a similar safe mode last fall. [NASA]
Astronomers have found 27,500 asteroids by reanalyzing images. The effort, by the B612 Foundation and the University of Washington, used a new algorithm to analyze an archive of 412,000 images of the night sky. The project used cloud computing resources by Google to carry out the computationally intensive search. That bounty of asteroids includes about 100 near Earth asteroids, none of which pose an impact threat for the foreseeable future. [New York Times]
A Chinese concept for a lunar base includes an unexpected element: a space shuttle. The China National Space Administration released a video last week of a concept for its International Lunar Research Station. Visible in the background of the video, though, was a space shuttle, identical in design to the NASA vehicle retired more than a decade ago, lifting off. It was unclear why CNSA included the shuttle in the video, but an updated version blurred it out. [Space.com]
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"The space station cannot be operated without both Russia and the U.S. It simply cannot. It's been famously called, 'You can't get a divorce but you can kill each other.'"
– NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, explaining the interdependence of Russia and the United States on the International Space Station during a panel discussion Tuesday at the Meridian Space Diplomacy Forum.
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