Including the Chinese Perspective 🇨🇳 - Race to the Moon Webinar

A SpaceNews webinar

July 2 | 11:00 AM ET Don't miss this important webinar: Race to the Moon Join our expert panelists as they dive into the growing race for moon resources. With nations and companies now vying for water, metals, and minerals across the lunar surface, will NASA's commercial strategy prove effective? And can countries coexist in this new frontier? Sponsorship available. Contact Us. Moderated by: David Ariosto, SpaceNews The panelists include: Douglas Terrier, Associate Director for Strategy, NASA Johnson Space Center Yao Song, Co-CEO, Co-founder, Orienspace (Beijing) Blaine Curcio, Founder, Orbital Gateway Consulting Namrata Goswami, Author, Professor, Founder Webinar introduction. Register Now Copyright © 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 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Falcon Heavy launches final GOES-R satellite 🚀

Plus: Space Force's GPS plans, Collins descopes spacesuit work, Sift raises $17.5M

A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Wednesday, June 26, 2024 Top Stories A Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched a NOAA weather satellite Tuesday. The Falcon Heavy lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 5:26 p.m. Eastern and deployed the GOES-U satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit four and a half hour later, after three burns by the upper stage. GOES-U, which will be renamed GOES-19 after reaching GEO, is the fourth and final satellite in the GOES-R series of advanced geostationary orbit weather satellites. It will replace GOES-16 at the GOES-East location at 75 degrees west longitude in GEO. GOES-U carries the same instruments as the earlier GOES-R satellites as well as a new compact coronagraph instrument for monitoring the sun. The launch was the 10th for the Falcon Heavy and the second for NASA, which managed the development and launch of the satellite for NOAA. [SpaceNews] The U.S. Space Force is moving forward with plans to deploy smaller, cheaper GPS satellites based on commercial designs. The Space Systems Command earlier this month issued a solicitation through the Space Enterprise Consortium for the Resilient Global Positioning System (R-GPS) program, seeking innovative design concepts. Space Systems Command will pick five concepts for further study. The program seeks to augment the existing GPS constellation in medium Earth orbit with smallsats that will provide a subset of the primary GPS signals. The goal of R-GPS is to provide an additional layer of resilience for military, allied and civilian users. [SpaceNews] Collins Aerospace says it is "descoping" work for NASA on a new spacesuit for the International Space Station. The company won a NASA task order in late 2022 to develop a spacesuit for ISS spacewalks that would be offered to the agency under a services contract. However, the company said Tuesday the company and NASA mutually agreed to descope that work, but did not elaborate on the reasons why. Industry sources believe the company has run into cost and schedule problems with the suit's development that make the fixed-price contract no longer acceptable to the company. NASA has a separate contract with Axiom Space focused on lunar spacesuits, but with an option to develop one for the space station as well. [SpaceNews] Sift, a startup working on ways to better manage telemetry data, has raised $17.5 million. The company says the Series A funding, led by Google Ventures, will allow it to expand its staff and accelerate work on a platform intended to make it easier for engineers to handle hardware sensor data. Sift, founded by former SpaceX engineers, is working with aerospace companies as well as those in defense, energy and transportation. [SpaceNews]   Other News The commercial arm of India's space agency ISRO has signed a deal to launch an Australian satellite. NewSpace India Ltd. said Wednesday that it will launch the 450-kilogram Optimus spacecraft built by Space Machines Company, an Australian startup developing satellite servicing technologies. The spacecraft will launch on a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) in 2026 under a contract valued at $18 million. The contract was announced at the Indian Space Congress conference where the head of ISRO, S. Somanath, said he sought to launch SSLV 20 to 30 times a year. [Mint] Shareholders of Astra Space are filing suit over a deal to take the company private. The suit, filed in a Delaware court this week, seeks access to company documents about the deal finalized in March where the company's co-founders would take the company private at $0.50 per share. Shareholders believe the deal may undervalue the company. [Bloomberg Law] Virgin Galactic's chief pilot is retiring. The company announced Wednesday that Dave Mackay is stepping down after 19 years at the company, including three suborbital spaceflights on the company's VSS Unity vehicle. He will be succeeded by CJ Sturckow, a former NASA astronaut who flew on four shuttle missions and joined Virgin Galactic in 2013, flying several suborbital missions on Unity. The company retired Unity earlier this month to focus its development on the new Delta class of suborbital spaceplanes, scheduled to enter service in 2026. [Virgin Galactic] The Great Red Spot seen on Jupiter today may not be the same storm that was first discovered centuries ago. A new study argues that the storm, first seen in the 1600s in early telescope observations, may have disappeared and later reformed, based on more than 100 years of observations of Jupiter in the 18th and 19th centuries that did not record it. Scientists noted that, in recent decades, the current Great Red Spot has shrunk, and speculate that it, too, may disappear at some point and reform later. [Sky & Telescope]   Bold Prediction "Honestly, I don't think Starship will be a game-changer or a real competitor. This huge launcher is designed to fly people to the moon and Mars. Ariane 6 is perfect for the job if you need to launch a four- or five-ton satellite. Starship will not eradicate Ariane 6 at all." – Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA director of space transportation, in an interview about the upcoming inaugural launch of the Ariane 6.   Forward First Up to a friend or Subscribe for yourself Copyright © 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 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? 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RESEND — U.S. SPACECOM raises fresh concerns about Russian satellites 🛰️

National security insights for space professionals. Delivered Tuesdays.

View this email in your browser National security insights for space professionals. Delivered Tuesdays. In this week's edition: • Space Command chief warns of Russian satellite threat • Who does what in space? • Big contract wins for Lockheed Martin If this newsletter was forwarded to you, sign up for free here Today's highlights: RUSSIAN SATELLITE RAISES CONCERNS — U.S. Space Command is bracing for possible Russian targeting of American satellites. Gen. Stephen Whiting, speaking on Monday at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, highlighted Russia's May 16 launch of Cosmos 2576, which the Pentagon views as a counter-space weapon now in "operational capacity." Whiting noted the satellite's "co-planar" positioning relative to a U.S. national security satellite, allowing for close monitoring and potential interference. This deployment aligns with previous Russian counter-space weapon tests observed in 2017, 2019, and 2022. The threat extends beyond military concerns, potentially impacting critical services like GPS navigation and weather forecasting. Whiting said Space Command is focused on preparedness efforts. WHO DOES WHAT IN SPACE? In the evolving realm of military space operations, confusion often surrounds two key U.S. military entities: Space Command and Space Force. "Space is a team sport and it takes a lot of different organizations," Whiting said at the Mitchell Institute talk. "Unfortunately, a lot of those agencies all have the word space in the name and so it can be confusing who does what," he noted. Despite their similar names, organizations serve distinct roles. U.S. Space Command, reactivated in 2019, functions as a unified combatant command. It orchestrates space-related military operations, drawing personnel from all service branches and reports directly to the Secretary of Defense and the President. The U.S. Space Force, established in the same year, is the newest branch of the U.S. military. Operating under the Department of the Air Force, it focuses on training space professionals and developing space-related capabilities. These assets are then provided to Space Command and other combatant commands for operational use. The relationship between these entities mirrors that of other military branches and combatant commands. While Space Force builds and maintains space capabilities, Space Command employs these resources in actual operations. Three commercial firms have won contracts from the U.S. Navy in recent months to develop solid rocket motors for the Standard missile — the Navy's go-to weapon for air defense and missile interception. X-Bow Systems, Anduril Industries and Ursa Major have inked agreements to develop and test solid rocket motors for the first and second stages of the Standard missile. The Pentagon has been sounding the alarm on the shrinking pool of domestic rocket motor suppliers. With conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East straining production capacity, DoD is eager to tap into commercial innovation. LOCKHEED MARTIN clinched a $2.2 billion deal announced last week to build the next generation of U.S. geostationary weather satellites. The contract, awarded by NASA on behalf of NOAA, covers three Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellites with options for four more. First launch is expected in the early 2030s. On the military front, Lockheed secured a $977.5 million contract extension for its Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) program. This brings the total contract value to $8.2 billion. The deal extends work until 2029 on two geosynchronous satellites designed to detect and track ballistic missile launches. Join our expert panelists as they dive into the growing race for moon resources. REGISTER HERE In other news 🚀 Northrop Grumman last week delivered two satellites to Space Norway for the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) that seeks to provide internet connectivity in the challenging northern polar region. The satellites are set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as early as mid-July. The pair will provide broadband coverage over the North Pole and high-latitude areas underserved by existing satellite networks. Honeywell plans to acquire the defense electronics firm CAES for $1.9 billion. CAES (Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions) is part of Cobham, a British defense and aerospace contractor that the private equity firm Advent International bought for about $5 billion in 2020. Advent sold Cobham's space-related assets to a separate private equity firm in 2023. The sale to Honeywell does not include the remaining part of Cobham that Advent still owns, Cobham Satcom, which provides ground-based terminals for satellite communications. The commercial space industry is facing an onslaught of cyber attacks and other threats, but lacks the resources and coordination to adequately defend itself, warned the head of the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC). "Every week we're recording over 100 attacks against critical infrastructure related to space systems," said Erin Miller, executive director of the Space ISAC, a non-profit organization that analyzes and shares information on cyber threats and vulnerabilities related to space systems. Thanks for reading ! Please send comments, suggestions and tips to serwin@spacenews.com 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 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe