Astronomy Prints 🌌: 🔎 NASA faces Artemis program scrutiny 🌖

A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Friday, May 24, 2024

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Intelsat has signed a new deal to make continued use of two Northrop Grumman satellite life extension spacecraft. The companies announced Thursday that the Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) 2 spacecraft currently docked to the Intelsat 10-02 spacecraft will remain there an additional four years, to 2030. MEV-2 has been docked to the satellite since 2021, providing stationkeeping services under a deal originally planned to last five years. The companies said the twin MEV-1 spacecraft, currently attached to Intelsat 901, will undock as planned in 2025 and then be used to extend another Intelsat spacecraft yet to be identified. [SpaceNews]

Senate appropriators raised cost and schedule issues with NASA's Artemis lunar exploration campaign. At a hearing Thursday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), chair of the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, suggested an independent review of Artemis cost and schedule problems may be in order. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson argued that the agency has "other eyes" on Artemis from the GAO and its own inspector general. Separately, the NASA manger for the Artemis 3 mission said the agency remains "fundamentally focused" on carrying out a crewed landing on the mission, but that it is willing to "choose an offramp" if there are issues, such as with SpaceX's Starship lunar lander. [SpaceNews]

European officials adopted a resolution calling for increased competitiveness of Europe's space sector. The resolution, adopted at a joint Space Council meeting of EU and ESA member states Thursday, did not include any new initiatives to support European companies but instead emphasized ongoing efforts. Eurospace, a European space industry group, said after the meeting that the resolution did not go far enough and called for an "industrial strategy for space" in Europe to address weak demand for space products within Europe and counter growing competition from the United States and China. EU officials also confirmed after the council meeting that it is unlikely a draft EU space law will be released until after parliamentary elections next month. [SpaceNews]

The U.S. Space Force is soliciting bids from commercial satellite manufacturers for a program to fly experimental payloads. The Space Test Program office issued Thursday its final request for proposals for the Space Test Experiments Platform (STEP) 2.0 contract, aimed at harnessing the commercial small satellite market. Space Systems Command will select vendors that can manufacture small satellite buses or pre-built spacecraft with capacity to host various experimental military payloads and sensors. The STEP 2.0 procurement is estimated to be worth up to $237 million. [SpaceNews]

A new center at Stanford University seeks to bring together industry and academia to develop spacecraft autonomy technologies. The Center for AEroSpace Autonomy Research (CAESAR) at Stanford held a kickoff event this week to discuss its plans to leverage AI technologies to improve spacecraft autonomy. While CAESAR held its kickoff this week, the center has been working on projects for the last nine months focused on autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations and docking, as well as rapid characterization of space objects. [SpaceNews]

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Other News

SpaceX marked the fifth anniversary of the first dedicated Starlink launch with another launch. A Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 10:45 p.m. Eastern and placed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch took place five years to the day after the first Falcon 9 launch dedicated to Starlink satellites. SpaceX has conducted more than 160 Starlink launches to date, more than half of which have taken place since the start of last year. [Spaceflight Now]

Russia has found new ways to disrupt Starlink services on the battlefront in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have reported an increase in jamming of Starlink signals, causing services to slow dramatically. It was unclear if Russia was able to interfere with the Starlink signals themselves or with GPS signals used by Starlink receivers. [New York Times]

Elon Musk says SpaceX is not trying to raise money with a new stock tender offer. A report Thursday said that the company was offering shares at a price that would value SpaceX at $200 billion. Musk responded to the report on X by stating that SpaceX "has no need for additional capital and will actually be buying back shares," adding that the company does "liquidity rounds" to allow employees to sell shares twice a year. [MarketWatch]

The owners of Firefly Aerospace are considering a sale of the company. Firefly investors, including AE Industrial Partners, are looking at strategic options that could include a sale of the company, which develops launch vehicles, orbital transfer vehicles and lunar landers. Firefly announced in November it closed a Series C round, raising $300 million that valued the company at $1.5 billion. [Bloomberg]

Astronomers have discovered a potentially Earth-like exoplanet relatively close to home. Astronomers announced Thursday the discovery of Gliese 12b, a planet orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years away. The planet is similar in size to the Earth or Venus and would have a surface temperature of about 40 degrees Celsius based on its distance to its star. While this is the closest Earth-sized temperate exoplanet found to date, astronomers noted they do not know if the planet has an atmosphere and, if it does, whether it would be suitable for supporting life. [The Guardian]

Note: FIRST UP will not publish on Monday because of the Memorial Day holiday. We will be back on Tuesday.

On the Clock

"Sen. Nelson, let me remind you of your days of being a United States senator. The clock only gives me five minutes."

– Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's commerce, justice and science subcommittee, after a long-winded answer by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a hearing Thursday on the agency's budget proposal.