Plus: Astranis launched four small GEO satellites and will China's space agency get a new leader?
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 12/30/2024 | | | | | Blue Origin completed the final major milestones Friday ahead of the first launch of its New Glenn rocket. The company performed a 24-second static fire of the seven BE-4 engines in the first stage of the rocket Friday night at the end of a fueling test and countdown rehearsal at Cape Canaveral. That test took place hours after Blue Origin received an FAA launch license for New Glenn. With the successful static-fire test and license, the company says it is ready for the first launch of the rocket, which may take place as soon as the night of Jan. 5. [SpaceNews]
Lynk won another extension of a deal to merge with a SPAC, but at a cost. The company, which is developing a constellation of satellites for direct-to-device services, said last week it secured a three-month extension of the deadline to close a merger with Slam Corp., a SPAC founded by former baseball player Alex Rodriguez. However, shareholders in Slam redeemed $81 million in shares as part of the extension, leaving the SPAC with just $23 million in proceeds after raising $575 million in 2021. Lynk said in February it planned to raise at least $110 million from the deal to fund expansion of its fleet of five satellites providing messaging services. [SpaceNews]
Astranis successfully launched four small GEO satellites. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 12 a.m. Eastern Sunday and deployed the four satellites into geostationary transfer orbits. Two of the satellites, named NuView Alpha and NuView Bravo, will provide services for inflight connectivity provider Anuvu. A third, Agila, will be used by Orbits Corp,. part of Philippine internet service provider HTechCorp, while the fourth, UtilitySat, will initially serve Mexican customers for Apco Networks. The four Block 2 satellites feature upgrades from the first Astranis satellite, Arcturus, launched in April 2023; it suffered a solar array drive failure that kept it from providing broadband services in Alaska. [SpaceNews]
China's space agency will likely be getting a new leader. Zhang Kejian is expected to step down as head of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) after being replaced as Party Secretary of the State Administration for National Defense Science, Technology, and Industry (SASTIND) last week. The leader of SASTIND typically also heads CNSA. Zhang had been the head of CNSA since 2018, and the announcement did not explain why the 63-year-old was being replaced at SASTIND. The new leader of SASTIND is Shan Zhongde, who earlier this year was promoted to one of the vice ministers of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology after serving as president of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites Saturday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 8:58 p.m. Eastern and deployed 22 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the 46th and final launch of 2024 by SpaceX from Vandenberg. [Noozhawk]
Spacecoin has launched a satellite to test technology for a decentralized space-based network. The company said its CTC-0 satellite is in regular communication with the ground following its launch on the Bandwagon-2 rideshare mission earlier this month. Spacecoin plans to use the 8U cubesat to test space-enabled text messaging initially to a specialized handheld antenna but ultimately directly to standard smartphones. Spacecoin plans to develop a network of satellites that would provide services using blockchain protocols. [SpaceNews]
Starlink signed a deal to provide direct-to-device services in Ukraine. Kyivstar, the largest Ukrainian mobile operator, said it will work with SpaceX to provide direct-to-device services in the country starting in the fourth quarter of 2025, allowing text messaging services for smartphones out of the reach of terrestrial networks. Kyivstar is one of several mobile operators around the world partnering with SpaceX on direct-to-device services, including T-Mobile in the United States. [Bloomberg]
Roscosmos says it is preparing to sign another crew barter agreement with NASA. Roscosmos announced Saturday it will sign next year an extension of an existing agreement with NASA that allows NASA astronauts to fly on Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station in exchange for Roscosmos cosmonauts flying on commercial crew spacecraft like Crew Dragon. The agreement ensures that there will be at least one American and one Russian on the ISS should either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles be unavailable for an extended period. One change in the upcoming extension is that Roscosmos, which launches Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS every six months, plans to extend those missions to as long as nine months as a cost-cutting measure. [Tass]
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