 | Top Stories
A spending bill a Senate committee will debate this week includes a funding increase for NASA. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up its commerce, justice and science (CJS) fiscal year 2025 spending bill Thursday, along with three other bills. While the text of the bill has not been released yet, the leaders of the CJS subcommittee said Monday that the bill will include an unspecified increase for NASA, and will specifically protect the Artemis lunar exploration effort. They didn't discuss how the bill will differ from a House bill that appropriations advanced earlier in the month to provide a smaller increase than requested by NASA for 2025. [SpaceNews]
A team lead by Thales Alenia Space won a French government contract to operate a satellite inspection mission. Supported by undisclosed funding from the French space agency CNES and state-owned investment bank Bpifrance, the mission would use a pair of spacecraft due to launch before the end of 2028 as part of the European Robotic Orbital Support Services (EROSS) program. The French effort, called Démonstration d'Inspection et Amarrage Novatrice Embarquée (DIANE), will use the EROSS spacecraft to inspect a spinning satellite and capture it. The timeline for DIANE depends on the availability of the EROSS assets, but in principle the mission could start as soon as the initial EROSS demonstration is over. [SpaceNews]
ESA is allowing a proposed mission to the asteroid Apophis to move ahead before a funding decision next year. ESA announced last week that it gave the Ramses mission permission to begin preparatory work before a funding decision at the 2025 ministerial meeting. Ramses, or Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety, is based on the Hera asteroid mission scheduled to launch in October. It would launch in 2028 and arrive at Apophis about two months before the asteroid makes a very close flyby of Earth. It would complement NASA's OSIRIS-APEX mission, which will arrive at Apophis after the flyby. Project officials said they needed the approval to start work now before the ministerial to keep Ramses on schedule. [SpaceNews]
South Korea's new space agency used an international conference to outline its plans. The Korea Aerospace Administration, or KASA, formally started operations in May and is intended to serve as a "control tower" for the country's space activities, agency leaders said at the COSPAR Scientific Assembly last week. KASA will focus its efforts on space transportation, satellites, space exploration and aviation. That includes a proposed space science mission to study the sun from the Earth-sun L4 Lagrange point. KASA will also handle international cooperation, such as a meeting with NASA last week during the conference. [SpaceNews]
NASA says it has completed ground tests of thrusters on Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. The agency announced last week the tests had wrapped up, but did not mention what insights the tests provided for the thruster problems Starliner experienced during its approach to the International Space Station last month on a crewed test flight. Starliner remains at the ISS with a return expected no earlier than the end of July. NASA said it will hold a briefing later this week about the tests and plans to bring the spacecraft back. [NASA]
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| Other News
Rocket Lab postponed an Electron launch that had been scheduled for the weekend at the request of its customer. Rocket Lab said Capella Space sought the delay to perform additional testing of the satellite, with no new launch date announced. The next Electron launch will now be for another SAR imaging company, Synspective, scheduled "within the next few weeks." [X @RocketLab]
The Space Foundation says the global space economy grew by more than 7% last year. The organization estimated the value of space activities worldwide at $570 billion in 2023 according to its annual report released last week. That is a 7.4% increase over the $531 billion for the global space economy in 2022. The increase was driven by an 11% increase in international government spending, with commercial revenues growing 5.4%. [Space Foundation]
A British "parastronaut" can safely fly to space, an ESA study has concluded. The feasibility study by ESA found no "technical showstoppers" that would keep John McFall, a British man with a prosthetic leg, from going to space. ESA selected McFall as an astronaut candidate in 2022 to see if people with physical limitations could participate in missions. McFall would still wear his prosthesis in space, with studies ongoing about any design changes needed for it. The study does not guarantee that McFall will go on a future mission to the International Space Station but shows that, if selected, he could be a full member of the crew. [The Telegraph]
NASA renamed a building at the Johnson Space Center after one of the Apollo-era "hidden figures." At an event Friday, NASA formally renamed Building 12 at the center the "Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of Women of Apollo." Vaughn was a human computer for NASA and its predecessor NACA who went on to become the first Black manager at the agency. She was one of the people highlighted in the book and movie "Hidden Figures" about the roles that Black women played in the early space program. [Houston Chronicle]
Pete Theisinger, a key figure in several JPL planetary missions, has died at the age of 78. He spent 50 years at JPL in roles that included being manager of the Curiosity Mars rover mission. He also worked on Mariner missions to Venus and Mars, the Voyager missions and Galileo, and helped start the Perseverance Mars mission. [Pasadena Star-News]
| |  | The Week Ahead
Monday: Monday-Thursday: Monday-Friday: - Farnborough, U.K.: The Farnborough International Airshow features a "Space Zone" track of space sessions as well as presentations from companies and government agencies.
Tuesday: Tuesday-Wednesday: Tuesday-Thursday: Wednesday: Wednesday-Thursday: - Adelaide, Australia: The 17th Australian Space Forum will discuss space activities in Australia as well as other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
Thursday: | | | Join our expert panelists as they dive into the growing race for moon resources. REGISTER HERE | | | |
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