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A problem with a valve in the Atlas 5 upper stage scrubbed the first crewed launch of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner Monday night. Controllers halted the countdown about two hours before the scheduled 10:34 p.m. Eastern liftoff because of a "buzzing" noise from a liquid oxygen relief valve in the Centaur upper stage. That noise was caused by repeated cycling of the valve that engineers concluded could cause the valve to exceed its rated life. NASA has rescheduled the launch for no earlier than Friday evening as United Launch Alliance studies whether the valve needs to be replaced. If so, that would likely delay the launch to next week in order to roll the rocket back to its hangar for repairs. Starliner itself was in good shape, with preparations for launch running ahead of schedule at the time of the scrub. [SpaceNews]
A top intelligence official urged the geospatial industry to pay more attention to cybersecurity. Speaking at the GEOINT Symposium Monday, Stacey Dixon, U.S. deputy director of national intelligence, said that while industry is demonstrating innovations in commercial geospatial products and services, "we lose a lot of that innovation to adversaries because we aren't properly protecting it." She said information security was also vital when applying AI to geospatial services as well as for verifying and validating data sources. [SpaceNews]
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) plans to use commercial capabilities for maritime monitoring. Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, director of NGA, announced Monday at the GEOINT Symposium the agency's first-ever solicitation for commercial solutions focused specifically on maritime domain awareness. NGA seeks to establish partnerships with private companies to develop AI-powered analytics that can automatically detect illegal shipping activities like smuggling, human trafficking and illegal fishing. The maritime initiative is part of a broader strategy at NGA to rely more heavily on commercial satellite imagery, data services and artificial intelligence capabilities. [SpaceNews]
Muon Space announced plans Monday to develop a satellite constellation for wildfire monitoring. Muon Space is partnering with Earth Fire Alliance, a new organization dedicated to wildfire resilience, on the FireSats satellites. The first phase of the FireSat constellation, projected to launch in 2026, will consist of three Muon Halo satellites equipped with six-band multispectral infrared instruments that will look for signatures of wildfires. The company says its instrument will help to differentiate genuine wildfire events from false positives, and enhance the accuracy of wildfire detection and assessment of fire intensity. [SpaceNews]
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging company Iceye will allow its customers to directly task its satellites. The company announced Monday it would offer customers an API that automates the satellite tasking process, enabling machine-to-machine interactions. Another API automates the process for customers to request SAR imagery from Iceye's archive of over 60,000 images. The direct tasking of satellites by customers is becoming an increasingly common capability offered by commercial remote sensing satellite companies, enabling users to dynamically adjust imaging priorities and respond to emerging events. [SpaceNews]
Airbus plans to improve the capabilities offered by a constellation of imaging satellites. The company announced last week the Pléiades Neo Next program, which builds on the two current Pléiades Neo satellites that provide high-resolution imagery. Upgrades for Pléiades Neo Next include sharper resolution, although the company did not disclose specifics. Airbus also plans to upgrade the ground segment for the constellation. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab announced the suppliers for the satellites it is building for the Space Development Agency (SDA). Rocket Lab said Monday it had signed contracts with CesiumAstro, Mynaric, SEAKR Engineering, Collins Aerospace, Redwire Space and Parsons for spacecraft components and the ground system for the 18-satellite fleet. Those suppliers will augment Rocket Lab's own components for the spacecraft. The company won a $515 million contract at the end of last year for the Transport Layer Tranche 2 Beta satellites for SDA, scheduled to launch in mid-2027. [SpaceNews]
| | | ENABLING A SAFER, MORE WEATHER-READY WORLD Extreme weather events, like hurricanes, flash floods, fires and tornadoes, are becoming more frequent, destructive and widespread than ever before. That's why L3Harris is moving with urgency to deliver next-generation weather solutions that advance upon our proven on-orbit instrumentation and ground heritage to improve short- and long-range forecast accuracy and increase life-saving warning times globally. These innovative solutions include a next-generation GeoXO imager and modernized GOES-R ground system for the U.S. and next-generation imaging and sounding technology for Japan. Our technology is paving the way toward a safer, more weather-ready world. LEARN MORE | | | Other News
China launched the first Long March 6C rocket late Monday. The rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:21 p.m. Eastern and placed four satellites into orbit. The main payload was Haiwangxing-1, or Neptune-1, an experimental 239-kilogram X-band SAR satellite, with the other three another SAR satellite and two optical and video satellites. The Long March 6C is a shorter version of the Long March 6A without four solid-fuel boosters. It can place 2,400 kilograms into a sun-synchronous orbit, a little more than half the capacity of the Long March 6A. [SpaceNews]
A Falcon 9 launched a set of Starlink satellites Monday. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 2:14 p.m. Eastern and placed 23 satellites into orbit. The launch was the 15th flight of this booster. Two more Starlink launches, from Florida and California, are scheduled for Wednesday. [Spaceflight Now]
Privateer is acquiring geospatial analytics firm Orbital Insight. Privateer, a company working on space situational awareness (SSA) products, said the acquisition will allow it to expand into geospatial services after finding little demand for its SSA offerings. Privateer financed the acquisition with the proceeds of a $56.5 million Series A round it closed last month, led by Aero X Ventures. Privateer did not disclose the price of the Orbital Insight deal or the company's valuation. [Reuters]
Geospatial search engine startup Danti has raised $5 million. The seed funding, led by venture capital firm Shield Capital, will support development of its search engine that leverages artificial intelligence to unlock insights from a vast array of Earth observation data, including from satellites. Users can ask questions in plain English and receive comprehensive answers that combine data points from all sources. Danti says there is growing interest in its capabilities from military and intelligence customers. [SpaceNews]
Radar imaging company Capella Space has developed a tool to automate the identification of vessels captured by satellite images. The technology allows users to request vessel classification as part of the imagery tasking process and can also analyze archives of SAR imagery. It is part of broader efforts by the industry to capitalize on the surging demand for maritime surveillance and maritime domain awareness. [SpaceNews]
Maxar will provide high-fidelity imagery for Lockheed Martin for use in F-35 simulators. The agreement announced Monday establishes standardized pricing, licensing and requirements for a suite of Maxar's geospatial data products, including imagery basemaps and 3D models. Imagery basemaps are a foundation layer for mapping and visualization projects and allow users to define the desired area of interest. [SpaceNews]
A senator is asking the Defense Department to help block the illicit use of Starlink by Russian forces in Ukraine. In a letter releases Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for details about what it knows about use of Starlink by Russian forces and efforts to halt that use, calling it a "serious national security threat." The Pentagon said in a statement that it is working closely with both SpaceX and the Ukrainian government to deal with those concerns. [Wall Street Journal]
| | Good News for Humans
"I'll ask it questions about the Fermi Paradox, about rocket engine design, about electrochemistry. And so far, the AI has been terrible at all those questions. So there's still a long way to go."
– Elon Musk, when asked during a discussion at the Milken Global Conference on Monday about the limits of AI. Musk said that SpaceX is not using AI technologies extensively today because they have not proved useful. [Axios]
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