NASA And ESA Plan For Mars - SpaceNews This Week

Top stories of the week from SpaceNews

A weekly roundup of the top SpaceNews stories from this week, every Friday Welcome to our weekly roundup! This week, NASA and ESA settled how they'll cooperate on a Mars rover, the FAA extended its learning period, Omnispace says it's seeing interference from Starlink, and more. Our Top Story NASA and ESA complete agreement for cooperation on Mars rover mission By Jeff Foust, May 17 2024 WASHINGTON — NASA and the European Space Agency have completed an agreement under which NASA will provide hundreds of millions of dollars of support for a European Mars rover mission. Officials with NASA and ESA signed the agreement May 16 at ESA's Paris headquarters, formalizing previously announced cooperation between the agencies on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission, scheduled to launch in 2028. The agreement confirms NASA's planned contributions to the mission, including throttable braking engines that will be used on a new descent stage being developed by ESA and radioisotope heating units (RHUs), which use heat from the decay of plutonium-238 to keep the spacecraft warm. The RHUs also require a launch from the United States on a vehicle NASA will procure. Other News From the Week POLICY & POLITICS FAA reauthorization bill includes short-term learning period extension A reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration passed by Congress will extend current restrictions on the agency's ability to regulate commercial spaceflight occupant safety through the end of the year. Lithuania 40th nation to sign Artemis Accords Lithuania became the 40th nation to sign the Artemis Accords outlining best practices for responsible space exploration on May 15. Serbia becomes latest country to join China's ILRS moon base project Serbia has signed an agreement on participating in the China-led International Lunar Research Station. COMMERCIAL Omnispace reports interference from Starlink direct-to-device payloads Omnispace says it is seeing interference from direct-to-device payloads on recently launched SpaceX Starlink satellites, offering an early test of new Federal Communications Commission regulations about such services. Government revenue and AT&T direct-to-smartphone agreement lift AST SpaceMobile AST SpaceMobile's shares closed up more than 68% after announcing a revenue-sharing deal with AT&T, which plans to use its proposed direct-to-device satellites to keep smartphones connected in cellular dead zones. Seraphim picks nine startups for latest space accelerator program Seraphim Space announced May 15 the startups joining its 13th accelerator program, a three-month course designed to provide the networking and mentoring support they need to be investment-ready. OPINION It's time to figure out global space traffic management By Aditya Chaturvedi, May 17 2024 The recent acquisition of geospatial intelligence firm Orbital Insight, which has a satellite imagery search engine platform, by Privateer, the Steve Wozniak startup that came out of stealth to raise $56 million in Series A funding, may have important consequences for how we manage space traffic.. It stresses end-to-end vertical integration, cross-functionality, and newfound alignment between the Earth observation segment thanks to the two companies' focus on imagery and analytics aggregation, space traffic management and situational awareness. Beyond ISS: America must lead in LEO, cislunar and beyond By Charles Bolden, Scott Pace and Bill Liquori The U.N. needs to form a parliament to regulate space mining By Marko Filijović and ShahrYar Mahmoud Sharei SpaceNews is committed to publishing our community's diverse perspectives. Whether you're an academic, executive, engineer or even just a concerned citizen of the cosmos, send your arguments and viewpoints to opinion@spacenews.com to be considered for publication online or in our next magazine. Copyright (C) 2024 Multiverse Media Inc.. All rights reserved. You signed up to receive this newsletter on Spacenews.com. At times you may receive marketing material. Our mailing address is: Multiverse Media Inc. 100 Fillmore St. 5th Floor Denver, CO 80206 USA Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe