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China's Chang'e-6 mission has collected lunar samples from the far side of the moon and launched them into lunar orbit. The Chang'e-6 mission ascent vehicle lifted off from atop the mission lander in Apollo Crater at 7:38 p.m. Eastern, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced. The ascent vehicle will rendezvous with the Chang'e-6 orbiter, which will bring the samples back to Earth in late June. The ascent vehicle blasted off two days after the spacecraft landed. During its time on the surface, the lander collected samples and operated several other instruments, as well as deployed a small rover that took images of the lander. [SpaceNews]
Aalto has raised $100 million to fund development of stratospheric vehicles that could compete with satellites. The investment was led by mobile operator NTT Docomo, which is looking to use Aalto's fixed-winged Zephr drone to keep subscribers connected in areas without terrestrial connectivity that are traditionally served from space. Several other Japanese companies participated in the funding round. Aalto said it marks the start of a strategic alliance to commercialize non-terrestrial connectivity and Earth observation services across Asia using payloads attached to HAPS, or high-altitude platform stations. HAPS promise significantly lower latency than satellites in orbit because they would operate much closer to Earth. [SpaceNews]
The ability to track ships from space, once a highly classified technology, is now being widely developed commercially. That technology relies on using satellites to monitor radio-frequency (RF) emissions from ships and triangulate their positions. Interest in RF monitoring from space has soared in recent years as geopolitical conflicts disrupt vital maritime shipping lanes and supply chains, underscoring vulnerabilities. Companies have developed constellations of smallsats capable of performing that tracking, and are now looking to expand into adjacent applications, like tracking RF emitters on land. [SpaceNews]
Congressional language intended to jumpstart work on a new space telescope had the side effect of forcing NASA to shut down a group assisting in its development. A provision in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill directed NASA to establish a project office for the Habitable Worlds Observatory at the Goddard Space Flight Center by the end of the fiscal year. That took the agency by surprise, since it had not planned to formally set up a project office for that observatory for several years. At a meeting Monday, NASA said that a committee it chartered last year called the Science, Technology, Architecture Review Team (START) with academic and industry representatives, designed to help formulate the scientific objectives and instrument requirements for the telescope, will have to be closed to avoid conflicts of interest with future calls for the science team and instruments. Shutting down the START, NASA said, won't affect work being done by volunteer working groups on science goals for the telescope or the agency's overall strategy to focus on technology maturation first before starting design of the telescope. [SpaceNews]
Cash-strapped Astra Space is consolidating its facilities. The company, in a recent quarterly SEC filing, said it will shift satellite propulsion work being done at a facility in Sunnyvale, California, to its Alameda, California, headquarters. The company opened the Sunnyvale facility last year devoted to production of spacecraft electric thrusters, allowing its Alameda factory to focus on launch vehicle work that has since been deferred. Astra did not disclose a reason for the consolidation, but noted it remains low on cash as it works to close a deal to take the company private. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News
SpaceX says it will be ready to start offering direct-to-smartphone satellite services this fall. The company informed the FCC last week that it expects to start offering connectivity directly to smartphones through its Starlink satellites by this fall, working with T-Mobile. That will likely involve about 300 satellites with direct-to-cell payloads, analysts estimate, a fraction of the about 2,000 satellites with those payloads SpaceX ultimately plans to operate. Starting service this fall would give SpaceX a lead of 18 to 24 months over rivals like AST SpaceMobile, which is working with AT&T and Verizon. [FierceWireless]
Canada is joining the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO) radio telescope project. Canada's National Research Council said Monday it will invest $269 million Canadian ($197 million) in SKAO over the next eight years. Canada is the tenth country to join the SKAO, which is working on two large arrays of radio antennas in South Africa and Australia. Canada had been cooperating on the project for two decades before finally agreeing to formally join and contribute to the observatory. [SpaceQ]
ESA's first cubesat has completed its mission. The OPS-SAT cubesat reentered on the night of May 22, four and a half years after its launch. The 3U cubesat was the first cubesat owned and operated by ESA and used for a variety of technology demonstrations. The mission's end was accelerated by high solar activity that increased atmospheric drag, lowering its orbit. [ESA]
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck is now Sir Peter Beck. He was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, part of birthday honors from King Charles III, for his work founding Rocket Lab and building it up to a leading company in the small launch and smallsat industries. Beck called the knighthood a "huge, humbling honor" and hoped it would be inspirational to other entrepreneurs in New Zealand. [New Zealand Herald]
| |  | It's Not Like You Can Argue with the Ump
"When you're playing a game and you get a bad call, you're a little irritated at first, a little frustrated at first, but you need to focus on the next pitch."
– Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and commercial crew program manager, at a briefing Saturday when asked if he was frustrated by the latest Starliner launch delay caused by a ground computer system.
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