 | Top Stories
A Vega rocket launched a European Earth observation satellite Wednesday night in the final flight of the original version of that vehicle. The Vega rocket lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:50 p.m. Eastern and deployed the Sentinel-2C satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit nearly an hour later. Sentinel-2C will ultimately replace Sentinel-2A, providing medium-resolution visible and infrared imagery in 13 bands as part of the Copernicus Earth science program. The launch was the final one for the original version of Vega. The larger Vega C, which failed in its second launch in late 2022, is still on track to return to flight in late November, launching another Sentinel satellite. [SpaceNews]
Two SpaceX satellites exchanged data using Tesat laser communications terminals in a first for a Space Development Agency (SDA) program. The satellites, part of SDA's Tranche 0 experimental spacecraft in low Earth orbit, used laser terminals manufactured by Tesat-Spacecom to communicate. This marks the first time the agency has demonstrated laser communications in space using optical terminals compliant with military standards required for SDA satellites. The laser communications test is a crucial step in SDA's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture program that aims to create a network of hundreds of small satellites to enhance military communication and surveillance capabilities. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force is defending plans to augment GPS with smaller satellites. The proposed Resilient GPS, or R-GPS, effort would use smaller, less expensive satellites to provide additional sources of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data. R-GPS has faced opposition from Congress, where House appropriators have argued that funding for R-GPS would be better spent on alternative PNT sources or acquiring more ground equipment that can use jam-resistant M-code GPS signals. Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, said at a conference Wednesday that concept studies for R-GPS are ongoing but will depend on what funding Congress provides. [SpaceNews]
NASA is proceeding with plans for Starliner to depart the ISS on Friday. Agency officials said Wednesday that they still expect Starliner to undock without a crew on board Friday evening, landing at White Sands, New Mexico, six hours later. Starliner will make a quicker departure from the station than if astronauts were on board, but NASA does plan some brief thruster tests after that departure to collect data on their performance before reentry and landing. NASA is also starting work on changes to the spacecraft needed to correct helium leaks and thruster issues experienced on the flight, suggesting that the thruster problems could be corrected by changing how they are used rather than modifying the thrusters themselves. [SpaceNews]
Space companies that went public through SPAC mergers a few years ago have experienced wildly varying outcomes since then. A few companies have managed to do relatively well, while others have suffered setbacks and one, Virgin Orbit, went bankrupt. Nearly half the class of companies has also announced significant workforce reductions since going public as funds from investors increasingly wary of post-SPAC companies failed to materialize and companies failed to hit overly optimistic revenue projections they made as part of going public. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News
Senegal is the latest country to join the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) program. The Senegalese Space Study Agency signed an agreement on cooperation on ILRS at a Chinese space exploration conference Thursday. Senegal joins 11 other nations that have agreed to work with China on ILRS. China also signed up several companies and organizations to participate in ILRS. The new partners reflect an established trend of China attracting participants from the Global South, and engaging in subnational diplomacy, somewhat mirroring the country's wider diplomatic moves. [SpaceNews]
China is planning launches in 2028 of its Mars sample return mission. The chief designer of the mission, speaking at a space exploration conference Thursday, said two launches are projected in 2028 for the Tianwen-3 mission, which will land on Mars to collect samples for return to Earth. The report did not disclose when the samples will be returned. However, if that schedule holds, the samples would likely be returned before NASA's own Mars Sample Return program, which the agency is currently revising to reduce its cost. [Xinhua]
SpaceX is removing its employees from Brazil amid concerns the company could get entangled in a dispute between the Brazilian government and social media network X. The company is advising employees not to travel to Brazil for work or vacation and is relocating a "small group" of non-Brazilian employees in the country that support Starlink services there. Brazil's Supreme Court last week froze Starlink bank accounts in the country, arguing that Starlink should be led responsible for fines against X, a move that Starlink is fighting in court. Elon Musk owns a controlling stake in both SpaceX and X, but the companies are otherwise not connected. [Wall Street Journal]
Relativity Space is relying more on traditional assembly technologies and suppliers for its Terran R rocket. When the company unveiled plans for Terran R three years ago, the company planned to make heavy use of 3D-printing technologies for a fully reusable rocket. The company has since moved away from 3D printing of some components of the rocket and acknowledged that some elements, like the rocket's payload fairing, will come from suppliers like European company Beyond Gravity. Those changes, and a shift to reusing only the first stage, are in response to customer demand, the company argues. [Ars Technica]
Astronomers discovered a very small asteroid hours before it burned up over the Philippines. The Catalina Sky Survey detected the asteroid, named 2024 RW1, several hours before it burned up in the atmosphere Wednesday, creating a brilliant meteor seen in the northern Philippines. The asteroid, estimated to be about one meter across, was too small to survive reentry and posed no risk to people on the ground. It is one of just a handful of asteroids spotted before hitting the Earth. [New Scientist]
| |  | They Can Check Out Any Time They Like, But…
"In my view, they were never really stuck or stranded. They always had a way to depart the space station. To me, when somebody is stranded, there's a location where they cannot leave."
– Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, explaining at a briefing Wednesday why NASA did not consider astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stuck on the ISS because they could leave in an emergency.
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