Astronomy Prints 🌌: SpaceX eyes Nov. 18 Starship launch

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SpaceX plans to perform the next Starship test flight as soon as mid-November. The company announced Wednesday that the sixth integrated test flight of Starship/Super Heavy is scheduled for the afternoon of Nov. 18 from the Starbase launch site at Boca Chica, Texas. The upcoming flight will feature incremental changes from the previous flight in October, including doing an in-flight relight of a Raptor engine on Starship and testing changes to the vehicle's thermal protection system. The afternoon launch, rather than a morning liftoff of previous flights, will enable a splashdown in the Indian Ocean during daylight hours. SpaceX also plans to catch the Super Heavy booster back at the launch tower on this flight. [SpaceNews]

U.S. Space Command has added five companies to its commercial intelligence-sharing initiative. The Commercial Integration Cell (CIC), established in 2015, will now include Earth observation company BlackSky, space intelligence contractor Kratos, space tracking firm LeoLabs, radar satellite operator Iceye and satellite communications provider Telesat, Space Command announced Wednesday. Radio-frequency satellite data provider HawkEye 360 and space tracking specialist ExoAnalytic Solutions are also expected to join in the coming weeks. The CIC helps coordinate responses to space threats and satellite anomalies, ensuring that military and private sector partners are aware of threats as they unfold. [SpaceNews]

Lynk Global, the company developing a satellite constellation for direct-to-device services, has hired a former Intelsat executive as its new CEO. Lynk announced Thursday that Ramu Potarazu had joined the company as CEO, succeeding Dan Dooley, who will return to his earlier post as chief commercial officer. Potarazu held various positions at Intelsat between 1991 and 2006, including president and chief operating officer, and was most recently CEO of media management software company EditShare. Lynk also hired Steven Fay as chief financial officer as the company prepares to go public through a SPAC merger with Slam Corp. Lynk said the appointments coincide with new capital investments from shareholders but declined to disclose details. [SpaceNews]

Virgin Galactic is proposing to raise $300 million to accelerate the expansion of its suborbital spaceplane fleet. The company, which says it has enough cash on hand to complete development of its Delta-class vehicles and produce the first two, said in an earnings call Wednesday that the $300 million would allow it to more quickly build a second pair of spaceplanes as well as a second mothership aircraft that takes the spaceplanes aloft. Virgin says raising the growth capital would allow those additional vehicles to enter service in 2028, at least two years earlier than if the company relied on cash from operations of the first two vehicles to finance the new ones. The company said it still expects to begin commercial service with the first Delta-class spaceplane, using the existing VMS Eve aircraft, in 2026. [SpaceNews]

Other News

SpaceX went 0-for-2 in Falcon 9 launches of Starlink satellites late Wednesday. The company called off one Falcon 9 launch from Florida Wednesday evening because of poor weather conditions, rescheduling it for Thursday afternoon. SpaceX later postponed a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base that had been scheduled for late Wednesday night, pushing it back to late Friday. SpaceX did not disclose the reason for the two-day delay. [Space.com]

NASA says it still expects to get a recommendation on a new plan for its Mars Sample Return (MSR) program by the end of the year despite a change in the committee reviewing various concepts. NASA established the MSR Strategy Review Team in mid-October, led by former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, to review a dozen industry and NASA studies on alternatives and recommend a "go-forward" architecture. At a meeting of a Mars exploration committee Wednesday, though, NASA said that Bridenstine was no longer on the committee, which is now chaired by planetary scientist Maria Zuber. NASA said that Bridenstine had informed the agency that he was unable to devote the time needed to serve on the committee. NASA still expects that review team to make a recommendation in December to NASA leadership on a new MSR architecture. [SpaceNews]

SpaceX has asked suppliers who manufacture components in Taiwan to move that work off the island. Companies that provide components, principally for Starlink terminals and related products, said SpaceX had asked them to move that production outside of Taiwan, with one company relocating the work to Vietnam. One company said it was told to move manufacturing "mostly due to geopolitical considerations," but did not elaborate, and SpaceX also declined to comment. [Reuters]

The top Democrat on the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA has lost his bid for another term. Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Penn.) formally conceded Wednesday after losing a close race to political newcomer Rob Bresnahan Jr. to represent a district in northeastern Pennsylvania. Cartwright had been the ranking member of the commerce, justice and science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, which funds NASA, NOAA and NSF, among other agencies. [Allentown (Penn.) Morning Call]

They Don't Like This

"A comment 'I don't like this' is not very helpful to the government."

– Timothy Mooney, senior export policy analyst at the Commerce Department's BIS Regulatory Policy Division, asking for industry to provide specific comments to a proposed rule for export control reforms during a public meeting Wednesday.

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