 | Top Stories
The U.S. military is providing funding to two startups developing reentry vehicles as part of its work on point-to-point transportation concepts. Inversion Space and Outpost Space recently secured more than $100 million in defense and private investments under the Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) initiative, which combines up to $15 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) investment with matching funds from government agencies and private sources. Inversion Space's agreement is valued at $71 million to support its work on autonomous reentry vehicles and demonstration missions tailored to military customers. Outpost Space secured a $33.2 million STRATFI contract to develop reusable reentry vehicles designed for the return of payloads, scientific samples, and small satellites from orbit. [SpaceNews]
Industry and Congress are criticizing the FAA for new launch licensing regulations they claim slow down launch companies. At a hearing of the House space subcommittee Tuesday, industry officials said the regulations, known as Part 450, were intended to streamline the launch licensing process but instead are delaying companies as they struggle to understand how to meet performance-based requirements in the rules. Among those complaining is SpaceX, which said in a separate statement Tuesday that was told by the FAA a new launch license for its next Starship flight will not be ready until November, a two-month delay, because of a "superfluous environmental analysis." The head of the FAA's commercial space office said at the hearing that the agency is working to improve the licensing process, including a new aerospace rulemaking committee that will soon be established to recommend changes. [SpaceNews]
A new National Academies report concluded NASA will soon face hard decisions about what missions to continue if it does not receive budget increases for its infrastructure. The report, published Tuesday, said NASA had dealt with funding shortfalls by prioritizing near-term mission needs over long-term investment in infrastructure and its workforce. That strategy has "run out of gas," the committee's chairman, Norm Augustine, concluded, and the agency now must reinvest in infrastructure. If NASA does not get an overall budget increase to support that, the report concluded the agency will instead have to consider cutting missions to free up funding. [SpaceNews]
Boeing announced plans to develop a small satellite to test quantum technologies. The microwave-sized Q4S satellite, due to launch in 2026, is being designed to demonstrate quantum entanglement swapping, a communication technique that transfers information between particles without physically moving them across a distance. Testing this capability in space is key to expanding quantum networks beyond simple point-to-point communication, according to Boeing, enabling more precise measurements from sensors that could be fed directly into more powerful quantum computers. Boeing is funding the project internally but did not disclose its cost. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Space Force is seeking industry input on automating the operation of a hybrid satellite communications network. The Space Force's Commercial Satellite Communications Office issued an RFI recently seeking input on "automated satcom network orchestration." which uses technologies like AI to manage separate commercial and government systems as a unified network. Automated networks can intelligently allocate satellite resources based on demand and availability, monitor satellite health, and make real-time adjustments, enhancing overall network efficiency. [SpaceNews]
OneWeb is offering an alternative navigation service using its satellite constellation intended to serve as a backup to GPS. The service, called Astra, aims to ensure uninterrupted communications for OneWeb's satellite broadband customers, even when GPS or other global navigation satellite system signals are unavailable or compromised. The system's introduction comes amid global concerns about GPS vulnerability to jamming and interference in critical sectors such as defense, aviation and emergency services. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News
Chinese launch startup Landspace conducted a 10-kilometer vertical liftoff, vertical landing test of a reusable rocket. The vehicle took off from a company site at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at around 12 a.m. Eastern Wednesday, flying to an altitude of 10 kilometers before landing on a pad 3.2 kilometers from the launch site 200 seconds after liftoff. The test is a step forward in the development of the Zhuque-3, a medium-class rocket with a reusable first stage. Landspace said in a statement that the company aims for a first orbital flight in 2025. The first booster recovery and reuse is planned for 2026. [SpaceNews]
The Polaris Dawn private astronaut mission set a new altitude mark on its first day in orbit. The Crew Dragon spacecraft, launched early Tuesday into an orbit with an apogee of 1,200 kilometers, performed a maneuver late Tuesday to raise that apogee to 1,400 kilometers. That is the highest altitude for a crewed mission in Earth orbit and the highest people have flown since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972. The spacecraft will lower its apogee to about 700 kilometers later today ahead of a spacewalk scheduled for Thursday. [collectSPACE]
South Korea wants to develop a reusable launch vehicle that can compete with SpaceX on cost. At a recent briefing, Yoon Young-bin, administrator of the new Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA), said the agency plans to support development of a rocket by the mid-2030s that can place payloads into orbit for less than $1,000 per kilogram. That effort is one of several projects that KASA is pursuing that include a spacecraft to observe the sun from the Earth-sun L-4 point and high-resolution Earth observation satellites. [SpaceNews]
Startup Interlune says it is interested in more than helium-3 from the moon. The company earlier this year unveiled its plans to harvest helium-3, an isotope that could be used in future fusion power plants as well as quantum computers, from the moon using a series of missions. The company said Tuesday it is interested in other lunar resources as well, including metals and rare Earth elements, although its near-term focus is on helium-3. Interlune is planning missions to the moon in 2027 to prospect for helium-3 and 2029 to demonstrate the ability to return "meaningful" amounts of the isotope. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab has hired an automobile industry executive as chief operating officer. The company said Tuesday that Frank Klein has joined the launch and satellite manufacturer as COO to lead efforts to scale up production. Klein spent 27 years at Mercedes-Benz Group and most recently was COO of electric vehicle company Rivian. [Rocket Lab]
Engineers have performed some long-distance maintenance on Voyager 1. Spacecraft operators concluded that one thruster was suffering from a clogged propellant line. Engineers instructed the spacecraft to switch to a different set of thrusters, a process made difficult by the spacecraft's age and cold temperatures. That process required briefly turning off one of Voyager 1's main heaters to turn on thruster heaters so that the new set of thrusters could be brought online. That procedure worked and the spacecraft is able to use the thrusters for attitude control. [NASA/JPL]
| |  | Bipartisan Agreement
"Congratulations, by the way. You found something that united Democrats and Republicans. Unfortunately, it's our dissatisfaction with the FAA and the approval process right now."
– Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) during a House Science Committee space subcommittee hearing Tuesday about issues with new FAA launch licensing regulations.
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