 | Top Stories
Airbus and Thales are considering a combination of their space businesses. Sources said the companies have started preliminary discussions on a combination of at least parts of their space units, such as satellite manufacturing. One report called the discussions "low-key" and "exploratory in nature,"and any combination could face objections from national governments in Europe as well as antitrust concerns by the European Commission. Airbus executives said last month they were considering strategic options for its space business after taking a charge of nearly one billion euros because of cost and schedule overruns on space projects. [Reuters]
Satellites used by the U.S. military for nuclear command and control need hardening from attacks. A report Monday by the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security concluded that satellites in low Earth orbit used for nuclear command, control and communications (NC3) need protection from attacks that could include a nuclear detonation in orbit that could cripple unprotected satellites. The military uses satellites in geostationary orbit for NC3 missions, but is considering a shift to proliferated constellations in LEO. The report recommends accelerating deployment of radiation-hardened satellites and other protective measures for next-generation NC3 systems. [SpaceNews]
China is now planning to launch a planetary defense demonstration mission in 2027. The revised schedule for the unnamed mission, discussed at the COSPAR Scientific Assembly on Monday, involves launching two spacecraft on a single Long March 3A, one to orbit a near Earth asteroid and another to collide with the asteroid, altering its orbit. The mission was proposed to launch in 2025, but a representative of China's National Space Science Center did not disclose the reason for the delay. The center is also evaluating other missions to test asteroid deflection technologies and to deploy a space telescope to look for near Earth asteroids, but with no schedule yet for those concepts. [SpaceNews]
A NASA-funded cubesat in lunar orbit is now testing autonomous flight technologies. The CAPSTONE spacecraft, run by Advanced Space, has been in a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon for more than a year and a half, demonstrating operations in that orbit that will later be used by the lunar Gateway as well as testing navigation technologies. The spacecraft is now in an extended mission as a software test platform, including optimal maneuvers for autonomous station-keeping and spacecraft health monitoring. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News
SpaceX performed a static-fire test of the Starship booster that will be used for the vehicle's next test flight. The booster performed the test firing at Starbase on South Texas on Monday as part of preparations for an upcoming test flight, which could take place as soon as next month. SpaceX is considering having the booster fly back to the launch site where it would be "caught" by mechanical arms attached to the launch tower. [Space.com]
Scientists have discovered a lunar cave that could be an ideal future habitat. The cave, or "lunar pit," was spotted using radar observations of the moon's Sea of Tranquility, where the Apollo 11 mission landed 55 years ago. The cave, accessible from the surface by an opening 100 meters across, would provide shelter from radiation and temperature extremes on the surface. [BBC]
Missy Elliott has gone to space — or, at least, one of her songs has. NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) beamed the hip-hop star's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" to Venus last week, the agency announced Monday. It's only the second time that the DSN, operated by NASA for communicating with spacecraft across the solar system, has been used to transmit music. NASA beamed the song to Venus at Elliott's request because the planet "symbolizes strength, beauty, and empowerment," she said. [NASA]
NASA's "meatball" logo is 65 years old but is not headed for retirement. The logo, so named because of its blue circle, was formally unveiled by NASA on July 15, 1959, and was the agency's primary logo until 1974 when NASA replaced it with the red "worm" logotype. NASA restored the meatball logo in 1992 and it remains in use to this day, although in recent years NASA has also brought back the worm logo for special missions. [collectSPACE]
| |  | Path to Space Tech Enlightenment
"I've come to think of the space tech 'Valley of Death' less in terms of TRL [technology readiness level] and more as something that exists between the 'Peak of Aspirations' and the 'Plateau of Actually Being Needed'."
– Alex MacDonald, NASA chief economist, discussing the challenges of maturing technology during a session of the Glenn Space Technology Symposium on Monday.
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