Plus: Blue Origin rolls out New Glenn's first stage, Lockheed completes Terran Orbital acquisition
| A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | | | | The U.S. Space Force is reopening a launch contract for new providers. The service announced Wednesday the first "on-ramp" for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program to allow new entrants to offer their vehicles. Lane 1 currently includes Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA, with the first awards made earlier this month to SpaceX. For the current on-ramp, prospective providers must demonstrate readiness for a first launch by December 2025. Among the potential new entrants, Rocket Lab stands out with its Neutron launch vehicle, anticipated to be ready for its first flight by mid-2025. [SpaceNews]
The NRO has selected three companies for technology agreements regarding new in-space capabilities. As part of the Agile Launch Innovation and Strategic Technology Advancement program, the NRO signed agreements with Cognitive Space, Impulse Space and Starfish Space to assess the companies' capabilities. Cognitive Space is developing AI-driven satellite operations while Impulse Space is working on orbital transfer vehicles and Starfish Space on satellite servicing and logistics technologies. [SpaceNews]
Matter Intelligence has emerged from stealth with $12 million to develop a unique Earth observation sensor suite. The company says it has developed a combination of a high-resolution camera, thermal sensor and spectrometer that can be used on satellites as well as aircraft and drones. The company says the seed round will allow it to demonstrate that sensor system and line up customers, although it has provided few details about the sensor suite's capabilities or when it will be first flown in space. Lowercarbon Capital led Matter's seed round with participation from several other funds as well as billionaire Mark Cuban. [SpaceNews]
Lockheed Martin has completed its acquisition of smallsat manufacturer Terran Orbital. Lockheed said Wednesday it closed the deal, announced in mid-August and valued at about $450 million. Terran Orbital, now formally known as "Terran Orbital, a Lockheed Martin Company," will continue to serve as a merchant supplier of smallsats for customers beyond Lockheed, which had been a key customer and partner. Terran Orbital was among the space companies that went public through SPAC mergers but which then struggled in the public market. [SpaceNews]
Early-stage investor Tamarack Global is hunting for more space opportunities after announcing the close of a $72 million fund. About a third of that fund has been allocated so far, including an investment in Impulse Space's $150 million Series B round. The fund is looking for investments from seed to Series B rounds. Support for the fund came from a broad mix of investors, including high-profile venture capitalists such as Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz. [SpaceNews]
NASA has refined the list of potential lunar landing sites for Artemis 3. The agency released this week a new list of nine areas near the south pole of the moon it is considering for that mission, the first crewed landing of the Artemis effort. Officials said they took into account a wide range of factors, from the capabilities of the Starship lander that will be used on Artemis 3 to lighting conditions and the ability to communicate directly with Earth. NASA will consider other sites for future Artemis missions, but expects to stay in the vicinity of the south pole of the moon. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | SpaceX launched another set of Starlink satellites Wednesday afternoon. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:10 p.m. Eastern and deployed 23 Starlink satellites. The launch took place about nine hours after another Falcon 9 launched 20 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. [Florida Today]
Blue Origin rolled out the first stage of its first New Glenn rocket. The company transported the first stage from its Cape Canaveral factory to Launch Complex 36 early Wednesday for tests there that will likely include a static fire of the stage, equipped with seven BE-4 engines. Those tests will be among the final milestones before a first launch of the rocket, which Blue Origin hopes to carry out before the end of the year. [NASASpaceFlight.com]
United Launch Alliance is investigating potential issues with payload fairings. On an Atlas 5 launch last year, debris came off the fairings as they separated from the upper stage. That debris may be insulation from the interior of the fairings. That loss of debris apparently did not affect the satellites inside but is being investigated by ULA and the Space Force. That could impact plans to certify ULA's Vulcan rocket for national security missions because the Vulcan fairing is made by the same company, Beyond Gravity, using similar processes. [Ars Technica]
A startup is developing an electric propulsion system for spacecraft in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) that scoops up air for plasma thrusters. The thrusters, being developed by Viridian Space Corp., would use the tenuous atmosphere in very low orbits as propellant for electric thrusters. That could significantly increase the lifetime of spacecraft in VLEO, which require propulsion to maintain their orbits against atmospheric drag. Viridian plans to test its technology in space in the next three years. [SpaceNews]
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has endorsed Donald Trump for president. In a statement Wednesday, Aldrin said he was "impressed" by the support Trump gave space during his first term, but didn't cite any specific space policy plans he would expect Trump to pursue in a second term. Aldrin has previously supported Republican candidates for office and served on the National Space Council's Users' Advisory Group in the Trump administration. [Politico]
The distant Voyager 1 spacecraft has switched to a backup radio transmitter. NASA said this week that the spacecraft is back in contact with Earth after a brief outage apparently triggered by the spacecraft's fault protection system. Voyager 1 resumed communications using a backup S-band transmitter that had not been used since 1981. NASA said it is investigating the issue and studying ways to resume normal operations. [Space.com]
| | | | | | But Not Extra, Extra Hard
"A colleague of mine said recently that nuclear is hard, we all know space is hard in this audience, and when you put them together it's extra hard. It may have been said more eloquently than that."
– Kate Kelly, director of space and emerging programs at BWX Advanced Technologies, discussing space nuclear propulsion during a panel Wednesday at the American Astronautical Society's von Braun Space Exploration Symposium.
| | | | | | What's New With SpaceNews? |  | | Check out the replay of our latest webinar, a one-on-one conversation between SpaceNews Host David Ariosto and Steve Altemus, Co-founder, President, and CEO of Intuitive Machines, the company that launched the first-ever commercial spacecraft to land on the moon. | | | | |
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