Congress pushes for Chandra funding, and a NASA panel calls on SpaceX to prioritize safety
| A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | | | | The European Commission has approved a long-delayed plan to develop a satellite broadband constellation. The commission announced Thursday it accepted a best-and-final offer submitted by the SpaceRISE consortium, led by satellite operators SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat, for the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) constellation. A contract for designing and operating more than 290 satellites by 2030 to support government communications remains subject to final negotiations, which are slated to conclude before the end of this year. The total cost of IRIS² remains uncertain, but may significantly exceed original projections of six billion euros ($6.5 billion). [SpaceNews]
A NASA safety panel called on the agency and SpaceX to "maintain focus" on safety after a series of recent anomalies. At a meeting Thursday, members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel noted recent anomalies involving the Falcon 9 rocket, including one that led to the loss of a set of Starlink satellites in July. Those incidents, while unrelated to one another, demonstrate that NASA and SpaceX "need to maintain focus on safe Crew Dragon operations and not take any 'normal' operations for granted," one panel member stated, particularly as SpaceX increases its flight rate. The panel also praised NASA for its handling of the problems with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on its crewed test flight this summer, saying the agency's processes demonstrated "a healthy safety culture." [SpaceNews]
Several members of Congress are continuing their push to save the Chandra X-ray Observatory from proposed budget cuts. In a letter this week to the Chandra X-ray Center, which operates the space telescope, six members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation sought details on the operations of Chandra, its scientific productivity and implications to the astronomical community if the mission was prematurely ended. NASA proposed a 40% cut in Chandra's budget for fiscal year 2025, but had since stated it will maintain the telescope's budget for 2025 and defer decisions on any reductions in its operations until after a final 2025 appropriations bill is passed. Astronomers had warned the proposed cut could effectively end Chandra. [SpaceNews]
Voyager Space has hired a longtime industry executive to lead its national security work. The company said Thursday it hired Matt Magaña as executive vice president of national security for the company, which has steadily acquired subsidiaries to build a vertically integrated operation focused on advancing space exploration. Magaña was previously a senior leader at Raytheon Intelligence & Space. He said Voyager's strategy is to leverage its specialized technologies and multinational partnerships in support of defense programs that face growing demands for advanced subsystems. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | Russia launched a military satellite Thursday. A Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 3:51 a.m. Eastern and placed the unidentified satellite into orbit successfully, Russia's Defense Ministry stated. The government did not disclose details about the satellite but its orbit is the same as those used by Bars-M imaging satellites. [TASS]
A Chinese startup has raised money to develop a launch vehicle whose recovery system emulates the one that SpaceX uses for Starship. Cosmoleap announced more than 100 million yuan ($14 million) in funding on Friday to advance development of a reusable rocket called "Yueqian" or "Leap". The medium-class rocket features a reusable first stage that will fly back to the launch site and be caught by "chopsticks" on the launch tower, the same approach SpaceX uses for the Super Heavy booster on its much larger Starship vehicle. Cosmoleap is projecting an initial test launch of its rocket in 2025 or 2026. [SpaceNews]
Chinese commercial launch provider CAS Space is looking to enter international markets. The company operates the Kinetica-1 or Lijian-1 solid-fuel rocket, which has launched four times since 2022, and is developing the larger Kinetica-2 rocket. A company executive said at the recent International Astronautical Congress that it is looking to attract customers outside of China given the strong competition within China for launch services. One challenge, the company acknowledges, is export control restrictions that make it nearly impossible for CAS Space to work with American or European customers. [SpaceNews]
Lunar lander developer Astrobotic is working with Bridgestone to develop a tire for use on the moon. The companies announced the partnership Thursday to work on a tire that would be used on CubeRover, a lunar rover the size of a kitchen stove that Astrobotic is developing. The metallic tire has an elastic structure to provide better handling and shock absorption when traversing the lunar terrain. The companies didn't disclose when they expected the CubeRover equipped with those tires to be driving on the moon. [Astrobotic]
| | | | | | From the Supermarket to the Universe
"A few years before, a supermarket display of brightly colored boxes of a laundry detergent named Axion had caught my eye. It occurred to me that 'axion' sounded like the name of a particle and really ought to be one."
– Physicist Frank Wilczek on how he coined the name "axion" for a theoretical particle that could explain the presence of dark matter. [New York Times]
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