 | Top Stories
The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version of a defense policy bill that offers a compromise on space-related Air National Guard units. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2025, approved by the committee Friday, would allow the Air Force to transfer certain space functions of the Air National Guard to the Space Force, but not change the overall strength of affected state Air National Guard organizations. The bill would also formally authorize a Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve program and directs the Defense Department to identify poor-performing contractors and require approval for additional contracts. The Senate committee advanced its bill the same day that the full House passed its version of the NDAA after approving on party-line votes a number of controversial social policy amendments. [SpaceNews]
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will further extend its stay at the International Space Station. NASA announced Friday that Starliner's undocking, which had been scheduled for this Tuesday, would be delayed to no earlier than Saturday. That will allow more time for additional testing of the spacecraft, including a brief test of some of its thrusters. Starliner arrived at the ISS June 6 with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board for what originally was to be an eight-day stay, but NASA extended the mission early last week to avoid conflicts with a spacewalk. [SpaceNews]
Ovzon's first fully-owned satellite has reached its final geostationary orbit. Ovzon 3, launched in January, is now at its slot at 59.7 degrees east in GEO and will begin service "within a few short weeks," the company's CEO said. Ovzon says it continues to see rising demand for the 1,500-kilogram satellite among potential defense, national security and public safety customers, particularly in Europe. The company has a July 4 deadline to bring the satellite into use or risk losing spectrum rights. [SpaceNews]
Redwire has won the first contract for its very low Earth orbit (VLEO) spacecraft platform. The company announced Monday it will be the prime mission integrator for a DARPA satellite with a novel propulsion system. The mission will use Redwire's new SabreSat bus, designed to operate in very low orbits, equipped with an "air-breathing" electric propulsion systems being developed through DARPA's Otter program. Redwire did not disclose the value of the multi-year DARPA Otter contract, which includes pricing for design through on-orbit operations. [SpaceNews]
China has tested engines for its Long March 10 moon rocket. A Long March 10 first stage test article performed a static-fire test Friday, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) announced. The test article had three YF-100K kerosene-liquid oxygen engines installed across its 5.0-meter diameter; the full vehicle will have seven engines in the stage, along with two side boosters. CALT said the test was a complete success. The Long March 10 is a key element of China's lunar architecture, with two launches of the vehicle planned to send a crew spacecraft and lunar lander to the moon, where they will dock in lunar orbit. [SpaceNews]
Satellogic announced a new round of layoffs Friday, three weeks after an earlier round. The company said it was laying off about 70 employees, but did not describe what positions were affected. The company announced in late May it was laying off 34 people, 13% of its workforce at the time. Satellogic also said it would slow growth of its imaging satellite constellation, citing the success of its new Mark V satellites. The layoffs and reduced satellite investment are intended to cut costs at the company, which reported a net loss of $61 million last year. [SpaceNews]
| | | 
| Other News
SpaceX aborted a Falcon 9 launch Friday night. The rocket, scheduled to launch a set of Starlink satellites, fired up its engines but immediately shut them down. The company did not disclose details about the problem that caused the abort. SpaceX has now gone more than a week since its last Falcon 9 launch, a rare gap for the company. [Spaceflight Now]
The Space Force is terminating a contract with Raytheon to produce a set of missile warning satellites in medium Earth orbit. Space Systems Command cited cost overruns and schedule delays along with "unresolved design challenges" for its decision at the end of May to end a contract with Raytheon for the three Epoch 1 satellites that will operate in MEO. Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems, along with L3Harris, also have contracts to produce Epoch 1 satellites. [Breaking Defense]
It is still unclear if water ice at the lunar poles will be a useful resource for astronauts. At a conference earlier this month, researchers said there are still many questions about the amount of ice at the poles and what form it is in. Data from an instrument on South Korea's Danuri orbiter suggests there is little ice in "cold traps" in permanently shadowed portions of craters, but there may be abundant ice below the surface. How that could be extracted will depend on how deep the ice is. [SpaceNews]
Astroscale has released new images from its spacecraft of an upper stage it is inspecting. The images, released by Astroscale last week, were taken by the ADRAS-J spacecraft as it approached to within 50 meters of the H-2A upper stage it has been inspecting since April. ADRAS-J is the first phase of a program supported by the Japanese space agency JAXA to inspect and, later, deorbit the stage. [Space.com]
A Russian cosmonaut who was on the only Soyuz mission to end with a splashdown has died. Roscosmos reported the death last week of Vyacheslav Zudov at the age of 82. He was on the Soyuz 23 mission to the Salyut 5 space station that launched in 1976. The spacecraft was unable to dock with the station because of the failure of its automated docking system, and the spacecraft instead returned to Earth. Weather caused the spacecraft to land in Lake Tengiz in Kazakhstan. Zudov and fellow cosmonaut Valery Rozhdestvensky remained inside the capsule for several hours as waterlogged parachutes dragged the spacecraft into the lake before they were rescued. [collectSPACE]
| |  | The Week Ahead
Monday: Monday-Tuesday: Monday-Friday: - Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland: The European Lunar Symposium will discuss lunar science and exploration with a focus on European activities.
Tuesday: - Vienna/Online: The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Lunar Activities will examine the sustainability of future government and commercial lunar missions.
- Greenbelt, Md.: Makenzie Lystrup, director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is the speaker at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable luncheon.
- Mahia, New Zealand: Scheduled launch of an Electron carrying five satellite for French IoT company Kinéis at 2:13 p.m. Eastern.
- Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying the Astra 1P/SES-24 communications satellite at 5:35 p.m. Eastern.
- Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 11 p.m. Eastern.
Wednesday-Friday, June 28: Friday: - Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Rescheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 1:47 p.m. Eastern.
Saturday: - Xichang, China: Scheduled launch of a Long March 2C carrying the SVOM X-ray astronomy satellite at 3 a.m. Eastern.
| | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment