| A Falcon 9 launched a Spanish military communications satellite Wednesday. The rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 8:34 p.m. Eastern and deployed the SpainSat NG-1 satellite for Hidesat into a geostationary transfer orbit. The spacecraft will provide X- and Ka-band military communications services. The first stage, making its 21st flight, was expended to provide additional performance needed for the Airbus-built satellite. [Florida Today]
The Space Force says the biggest constraint for increasing launch activity is a lack of payload processing facilities. Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, commander of the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, said at the Space Mobility conference that she could not set a maximum launch rate for the range after it hosted 93 launches last year. She said the bottleneck for increasing launch rates is limited room in payload processing facilities at the Cape. Rideshare launches, like SpaceX's Transporter and Bandwagon missions, are particular problems since the dozens of individual payloads require large amounts of processing space. Panzenhagen said the Space Force is searching for solutions beyond traditional infrastructure expansions and is considering novel approaches to payload processing. [SpaceNews]
York Space Systems rolled out a new satellite platform for payloads as large as 1,000 kilograms. York, which has focused on small satellites, said it developed the M-Class satellite bus in response to customer demands for more power and performance. The platform is designed for payloads with a peak power consumption of 8 kilowatts. The first M-Class satellite will be used for an Earth observation mission for an undisclosed customer. [SpaceNews]
AscendArc has unveiled its plans to produce small GEO satellites. The company, founded by a former SpaceX engineer, emerged from stealth Wednesday after raising $4 million and securing a $1.8 million Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract from AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force innovation arm. The company is working on small GEO satellites but has disclosed few details about its technology. Its first satellite, weighing less than 1,000 kilograms, is projected to launch in 2027. [SpaceNews]
Asteroid mining company AstroForge has disclosed the target of its next mission. The company said its Odin spacecraft will fly by the asteroid 2022 OB5, a small near Earth asteroid that could be metallic. AstroForge plans to collect data during the flyby to better characterize the asteroid to determine if its metallic and thus a candidate for future mining missions. AstroForge had previously declined to identify the asteroid, but said it is doing so now to build interest in the mission and to encourage astronomers to observe it. Odin is scheduled to launch in late February as a rideshare payload on the Falcon 9 carrying the IM-2 lunar lander. [SpaceNews]
Virgin Galactic is partnering with Redwire to develop research lockers for its Delta-class suborbital spaceplane. The lockers will be able to accommodate payloads that are flown on future Delta-class flights, continuing research Virgin Galactic supported on VSS Unity suborbital missions. The lockers are designed to make it easier for researchers to host their experiments and gain experience for future flights in orbit on the ISS or other platforms. [SpaceNews]
Asteroid samples returned by a NASA mission show it had the building blocks of life. Scientists announced at a NASA briefing Wednesday that material from the asteroid Bennu, returned by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, show it had organic molecules such as amino acids. Those chemicals were once mixed in a brine that could have enabled chemistry needed for life to form, although scientists noted there was no evidence the asteroid hosted life. Researchers said the findings show that fundamental materials needed for life to form may have been much more widespread than once thought. [Washington Post]
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