 | Top Stories
A Soyuz spacecraft safely landed in Kazakhstan this morning, returning three people from the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft landed at the designated landing zone on the Kazakh steppes at 7:59 a.m. Eastern, nearly three and a half hours after undocking from the ISS. The Soyuz returned Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, who spent 374 days on the ISS, a record for an ISS mission. It also returned NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, who spent six months on the station. [NASA]
A reusable launch vehicle technology demonstrator flown by a Chinese company suffered a crash landing Sunday. Deep Blue Aerospace carried out the test of its Nebula-1 first stage at 1:40 a.m. Eastern at a test site in Inner Mongolia. The rocket ascended to its planned altitude on the three-minute hop, but suffered a problem as it hovered above the landing pad, causing it to hit the pad hard and explode. Despite the failure, Deep Blue Aerospace emphasized the positives in a statement, claiming that its Nebula-1 stage successfully completed 10 out of 11 major verification tasks outlined for the flight. Notably, the test was the first high-altitude vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing (VTVL) test in China using an orbital-class rocket stage. The company is planning another test in November. [SpaceNews]
A U.S. Space Command organization established to harness commercial technology for space domain awareness is taking on broader responsibilities. Speaking at the AMOS conference in Hawaii Friday, Barbara Golf, U.S. Space Force strategic advisor and head of the Joint Task Force-Space Defense Commercial Operations (JCO), said that the JCO is moving beyond its original purpose to assist efforts between government agencies and commercial partners to monitor space activities, detect threats and plan operations. Golf said the JCO is venturing into new areas, such as tracking electronic signals emissions to identify jamming sources and delivering battlefield intelligence to military commands using commercial sources like Earth observation satellites. [SpaceNews]
NASA has established a division that will better coordinate its various activities in space sustainability. Speaking at AMOS on Friday, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy announced that the agency received congressional approval the previous day to formally establish a Space Sustainability Division. That division, located in the Space Operations Mission Directorate, will manage several existing offices devoted to orbital debris studies and related policy and technology issues. Creating such an organization was one goal of NASA's Space Sustainability Strategy it announced in April. She also called on orbital debris researchers to redouble efforts to reduce uncertainties in debris modeling, stating that one reason there has been little policy action on reducing debris is because of vast differences in models of debris population and risks. [SpaceNews]
The Office of Space Commerce is on track to roll out the first version of its TraCSS space traffic coordination system this month. Richard DalBello, director of the office, said at AMOS on Friday that the first version of TraCSS will open by the end of this month to a group of beta testers, who will provide feedback for changes that will be incorporated into the system in the following months. DalBello said that the transition to TraCSS from the Defense Department's existing Space-Track system should be complete by the end of 2025, although it will be up to DoD to decide when to turn off Space-Track. [SpaceNews]
The supply of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery can't keep up with demand, operators say. In a panel Friday at World Space Business Week (WSBW), executives of SAR companies say they are adding capacity with new satellites, but that their satellites are in continuous use to meet demand that primarily comes from national security and defense customers. More civil government agencies and companies are also showing interest in SAR data, such as NASA adding Iceye SAR imagery to its Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition program. [SpaceNews]
Industry officials want more collaboration with policymakers on the benefits of AI in space applications. Executives at WSBW called for private discussions between technology and policy leaders on the transformative role AI could play in addressing global challenges such as climate change, which demands real-time processing of data that can only be gained from the vantage of space. Such private discussions, they said, could avoid the misconceptions that often arise in public discussions about AI. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News
Boeing fired the head of its defense and space business unit Friday. The company said late Friday it had removed Ted Colbert as president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, replacing him on an interim basis with the unit's COO, Steve Parker. That division is responsible for a number of programs that have suffered cost overruns and delays, including the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle. Boeing didn't cite a specific reason for firing Colbert, with new CEO Kelly Ortberg stating in a memo that that "our priority is to restore the trust of our customers and meet the high standards they expect of us." [AP]
A Rocket Lab Electron launched a second set of satellites for a French company Friday. The Electron lifted off at 7:01 p.m. Eastern and deployed five Internet of Things (IoT) satellites for Kinéis about an hour later. The launch is the second of five by Rocket Lab to deploy a 25-satellite constellation. Kinéis plans to begin an initial service with 10 satellites early next year, with the full service beginning in mid-2025 after the remaining 15 satellites are launched. [SpaceNews]
China conducted two launches hours apart Friday. A Long March 2D lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 12:11 a.m. Eastern and placed six Jimin-1 Kunafu imaging satellites into orbit. A Kuaizhou-1A then lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 5:43 a.m. Eastern and deployed four satellites for the Tianqi IoT constellation. Chinese media said that both launches were successful. [Xinhua]
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites Friday from California. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 9:50 a.m. Eastern and deployed 20 Starlink satellites into orbit a little more than an hour later. The satellites included 13 with direct-to-cell payloads. [Spaceflight Now]
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has created a roadmap for future space science missions. The plan will see China's space science efforts transitioning into an accelerated development phase. The long-term plan aims to solidify the country's role in global space science. The roadmap includes five themes: extreme universe, space-time ripples, the panoramic view of the Sun and Earth, habitable planets, and biological and physical space science. Five missions already in development are highlighted to deliver major discoveries by 2030 as part of the vision. [SpaceNews]
A new lawsuit pits Cards Against Humanity against SpaceX. Cards Against Humanity, a company that sells an adult party game of the same name, filed a $15 million lawsuit against SpaceX in district court last week, alleging SpaceX trespassed against land that Cards Against Humanity owns near SpaceX's Starbase site. The suit claims that the SpaceX treated the land, which had been pristine, "as its own," clearing it of vegetation and using it to store vehicles and construction materials. Cards Against Humanity bought the property in 2017 as an effort to block construction of a proposed border wall. [Washington Post]
| |  | The Week Ahead
Monday: - Chinese Coastal Waters: Projected launch of a Jielong 3 rocket carrying an unidentified payload at 10:22 p.m. Eastern.
Monday-Wednesday: Tuesday: - Jiuquan, China: Anticipated launch of a Kinetica 1 rocket carrying an unnamed payload at 7:35 p.m. Eastern.
- Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying a set of Starlink satellites at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
Tuesday-Wednesday: Tuesday-Thursday: - Irvine, Calif./Online: The Committee on Solar and Space Physics of the Space Studies Board holds its fall meeting.
Wednesday: Wednesday-Thursday: - Abu Dhabi, UAE: The Global Aerospace Summit includes sessions on several space topics with a focus on the Middle East.
Thursday: - Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of the Crew-9 Crew Dragon mission to the ISS on a Falcon 9 at 2:05 p.m. Eastern.
Thursday-Friday: Friday: | | Copyright © 2024 Multiverse Media Inc., All rights reserved.
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