Plus: House Armed Services Chair predicts Space Command HQ move to Alabama, and Firefly raises $175 million
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | | | | Firefly Aerospace raised $175 million in a new funding round to scale up its launch vehicle and spacecraft programs. The company announced the Series D round Tuesday led by RPM Ventures, a new investor, along with other existing and new investors. The company said the funding will support increased production of its Alpha rocket and "expand market reach" of its Elytra spacecraft. The company has increasingly positioned itself as a provider of responsive space capabilities, demonstrated last year on the Victus Nox mission for the Space Force. [SpaceNews]
The Jet Propulsion Lab is laying off 5% of its workforce this week, the second major layoff there this year. JPL Director Laurie Leshin said in a memo Tuesday that the center, operated by Caltech for NASA, would lay off about 325 people this week, citing lower projected budgets for 2025. JPL laid off more than 500 employees in February when the center was grappling with uncertainty about the future of Mars Sample Return. Leshin said the latest layoff would bring JPL's workforce down to about 5,500 employees, a "stable, supportable staffing level moving forward." [SpaceNews]
Sierra Space has cleared an early design review for its missile-warning satellites. The company said Tuesday it received approval from the Space Development Agency (SDA) to proceed with further development following a successful preliminary design review of its proposed missile-warning satellites. Sierra Space won a $740 million contract earlier this year for 18 missile warning satellites for SDA's Tranche 2 Tracking Layer. One change is that Sierra Space no longer plans to use an infrared sensor payload from Geost after failing to finalize negotiations on a contract, and is instead working with a different, undisclosed supplier. [SpaceNews]
Sony has ordered two satellites from Astro Digital to test laser communications. The pair of spacecraft will be based on Astro Digital's Corvus satellite platform and should be ready to launch in 2026, the companies announced Tuesday. Each satellite will carry a Lasercom optical terminal from Sony Space Communications Corporation. Sony plans to test high-data-rate optical links between the satellites and the ground as well as between each other. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab won an Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) contract to support work on its Archimedes rocket engine. The $8 million contract, announced Tuesday, advances development of digital engineering processes for Archimedes, the engine Rocket Lab is developing for its Neutron rocket. Rocket Lab said the contract signals the military's interest in Neutron as a prospective vehicle for government missions in the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. [SpaceNews]
Advances in artificial intelligence could enable spacecraft to become truly autonomous. Industry officials see work on developing "software-defined" satellites, which can be reprogrammed after launch to incorporate changes like different beam patterns, as opening the door for bigger changes, including making changes in coverage areas autonomously to meet demand. AI could also allow satellites to operate with smaller ground control centers as the spacecraft manage their own systems. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | The upcoming presidential transition could be particularly disruptive at NASA. During a panel discussion at the Beyond Earth Symposium Tuesday, veterans of previous transitions said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is likely to have significant influence on the incoming Trump administration at NASA, scrutinizing policies and programs. That could influence international cooperation and also affect existing programs, such as SLS and Orion. Late Tuesday, Trump announced that Musk will co-chair with Vivek Ramaswamy a "Department of Government Efficiency," an outside commission that will seek ways to cut government spending and bureaucracy. [SpaceNews]
The aerospace and defense industry is monitoring other likely changes with the incoming Trump administration. That includes potential increases in defense spending and rising tensions with China that could boost Space Force programs, as well as the creation of a Space National Guard. Other issues include strains on international cooperation and uncertainty about future support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. [SpaceNews]
The head of the House Armed Services Committee says he expects the Trump administration to swiftly move to relocate Space Command headquarters to Alabama. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said in an interview with an Alabama radio station this week that he expects Trump to sign an executive order "in the first week that he's in office" to formally relocate the headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville. Trump selected Huntsville at the end of his first term, but the Biden administration reversed that decision, electing to keep the command at its initial interim headquarters in Colorado Springs. [1819 News]
India is planning to open up its regional satellite navigation system to the public. The Indian space agency ISRO said that it expects to open NavIC, currently used primarily by government agencies, to the general public "in the near future." NavIC currently uses seven satellites to provide navigation services in India and the surrounding region. Part of the plans to open up NavIC to public use include launching additional satellites that will broadcast signals in the L1 navigation band. [The Week]
Space Florida has identified a wish list of projects to improve space-related infrastructure in the state. At a recent Space Florida Board of Governors, officials discussed six projects that include a new bridge at Cape Canaveral, upgrades to the electrical grid at the Cape and expansion of wharf space at Port Canaveral. Space Florida estimated that the projects will require annual investment of $100 million over an unspecified period, using a combination of state, federal and private funding. [News Service of Florida]
A novel set on the International Space Station won one of Britain's top literary prizes Tuesday. Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for best novel for Orbital, which follows a day in the life of a crew on the ISS. Harvey described the book as a "space pastoral - a kind of nature writing about the beauty of space." The prize includes a £50,000 award, which Harvey said she will use in part to buy a bike, "and it's going to be a good bike." [BBC]
| | | | | | Brother, Can You Spare a Billion?
"It was a $4.8 billion overrun that was disclosed to me, so at 11 o'clock at night I go over to the OMB team and say, 'Hi, I'm Scott. I'm from the NASA team. Got a spare $4.8 bil? We're a little short.' They're throwing paper at me as I slowly back out of the room."
– Scott Pace, discussing at the Beyond Earth Symposium Tuesday discovering an overrun on the ISS program while working on President George W. Bush's NASA transition team after the 2000 election.
| | | | | | What's New With SpaceNews? |  | | Check out the latest episode of Commercial Space Transformers, our new video series featuring conversations between SpaceNews Senior Staff Writer Jason Rainbow and the people driving the space industry's commercial transformation. This week, Advent International Managing Partner Shonnel Malani dives into how private equity investment is shaping the commercial space sector, particularly with technological innovations that have lowered costs and increased private participation.
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