 | Top Stories
Eutelsat announced Wednesday an agreement for multiple launches of Japan's H3 rocket. The contract covers an unspecified number of launches starting in 2027. The launches will be for Eutelsat geostationary orbit communications satellites, rather than for the next generation of OneWeb satellites.The two-stage H3, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, successfully launched an Earth observation satellite June 30 for Japan's space agency in its third mission, following another success in February. [SpaceNews]
GEO satellites are giving way to LEO systems for serving maritime customers. Speaking at World Space Business Week (WSBW), Despina Theodosiou, co-CEO of service provider Tototheo Global, said SpaceX's Starlink LEO constellation poses a growing challenge for legacy geostationary VSAT services and their resellers. A Starlink terminal can cost as little as $250, 1% the cost of a VSAT terminal, while providing much higher bandwidth. However, GEO networks remain an important component of maritime connectivity, particularly for resiliency and applications where latency is not important. [SpaceNews]
The Indian government has approved several new space projects. The union cabinet, chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the Chandrayaan-4 moon sample return mission Wednesday. That mission will use two launches to send a spacecraft to the lunar surface to pick up samples for return to Earth. The cabinet also approved development of the Venus Orbiter Mission, expected to launch in 2028, the first module for the Bharatiya Antariksh Station space station, and the Next Generation Launch Vehicle, a rocket with three times the performance of the existing LVM-3 and featuring reusable components. [SpaceNews]
Companies are pressing ahead with small launch vehicles despite market challenges. In sessions at WSBW Wednesday, several companies, primarily in Europe, outlined plans to develop small launch vehicles that could be ready for their first launches as soon as 2025. They come into the market despite technical and financial problems faced by other companies in the sector as well as stiff competition from SpaceX rideshare missions. [SpaceNews]
While some smallsat manufacturers are developing larger factories, others are thinking small. Several industry executives at WSBW Wednesday criticized plans for "megafactories" able to produce hundreds of smallsats a year, citing limited demand. A study this week by Novaspace found that nearly two-thirds of the satellites projected to launch in the next decade will come from four megaconstellations that are building their satellites in-house. Manufacturers instead endorsed smaller "microfactories" that cost far less to build and can be located in customers' home countries. [SpaceNews]
Boeing plans to demonstrate sensor fusion technology that combines data from air- and space-based sensors. Kay Sears, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space, Intelligence & Weapon Systems, said at the Air Space & Cyber conference this week that such sensor fusion can help improve military situational awareness. In the planned demonstration, Boeing will take data from two satellite constellations being built by subsidiary Millennium Space and combine it with data from an electronically scanned array radar on the E-7 Wedgetail aircraft. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News
China launched the last pair of backup satellites for its Beidou navigation system late Wednesday. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 9:14 p.m. Eastern. The rocket's Yuanzheng-1 upper stage deployed two Beidou satellites into medium Earth orbit (MEO). The new pair will join existing Beidou MEO orbital planes as backups. The satellites will also conduct experiments for the future Beidou-4 next-generation navigation satellite technology. They feature improvements over earlier Beidou satellites in areas including autonomous integrity monitoring and atomic clock technology. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab aborted an Electron launch Wednesday night. Liftoff of Electron was scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern from the company's New Zealand launch site, but the launch was aborted right at T-0 as the vehicle's engines ignited, causing them to shut down. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said the abort was caused by "a piece of ground support equipment not reaching its target in the allocated time." The company has not set a new date for the launch, carrying five Internet of Things satellites for French company Kinéis. [Space.com]
A successful second launch of ULA's Vulcan Centaur next month won't mean automatic certification of the rocket. Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, the U.S. Space Force's program executive officer for assured access to space, said at the Air Space & Cyber Conference Wednesday that the service will take "some time" to review data from the Cert-2 mission, scheduled for as soon as Oct. 4. ULA still expects to be certified in time to perform the first two national security launches of Vulcan by the end of the year. [SpaceNews]
Budget uncertainty could delay new Space Force launch contracts. The Space Force's Space Systems Command plans to award contracts for the next phase of the National Security Space Launch program by the end of this year. However, officials said those plans could be delayed depending on progress on a fiscal year 2025 appropriations bill. The new fiscal year will start Oct. 1, likely funding the government on a continuing resolution that keeps programs at 2024 levels and keeps new programs from starting. The Space Force plans to make up to three "Lane 2" awards to provide additional competition. [Air & Space Forces Magazine]
Satellite imaging company BlackSky has won a contract to take images of other spacecraft. BlackSky said it received a "seven-figure" contract from Australian startup HEO, which uses other companies' satellites for non-Earth imaging of spacecraft for defense, intelligence and commercial use. BlackSky will share with HEO high-resolution imagery from mid-inclination orbits. [SpaceNews]
Representatives of NASA's "Hidden Figures" received Congressional Gold Medals on Wednesday. In a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, the families of Christine Darden, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan accepted the medals, along with a fifth medal for all the women who worked as mathematicians and engineers at NASA and its predecessor NACA from the 1930s to the 1970s. Congress authorized the medals in a 2019 act. [collectSPACE]
| |  | Supply and Demand
"Every month, there's a new factory setting up to produce 10 satellites per day. That's great, but who are you going to sell to?"
– Carsten Drachmann, CEO of smallsat manufacturer GomSpace, speaking on a panel at World Space Business Week on Wednesday.
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