Plus: The first Falcon 9 launch of the year
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 01/06/2025 | | | | | SpaceX plans to test new technologies and perform the first payload deployment on the next Starship test flight. The company described Friday its plans for the mission, the seventh test flight of the vehicle but the first of an upgraded version of the Starship upper stage. Those improvements include changes in the forward flap design, expanded propellant tanks and new avionics. While on its suborbital flight, Starship will deploy 10 mass simulators of next-generation Starlink satellites, the first payloads to be released from Starship. The launch is scheduled for as soon as this Friday afternoon from Boca Chica, Texas. [SpaceNews]
A Falcon 9 launched a Thuraya communications satellite Friday. The first Falcon 9 mission of 2025 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 8:27 p.m. Eastern and placed the Thuraya-4 voice and data connectivity satellite in a geostationary transfer orbit. Based on the Airbus Eurostar Neo Platform, the all-electric Thuraya-4 is equipped with a 12-meter L-band antenna to provide narrowband connectivity for mobile devices across Europe, Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Thuraya-4 is owned by Space42, the company created last year by the merger of satellite operator Yahsat with AI company Bayanat. Space42 said the satellite will help the company "unlock innovative AI-powered services for our global client base," but did not elaborate. [SpaceNews]
ESA will use an upcoming launch competition as one test of reforms to its georeturn policies. The agency said last month that it is studying "simplifying" its implementation of georeturn, where countries are guaranteed contracts for projects based on the size of their contributions to them. Some companies have criticized that approach as inefficient, and a European Commission report last fall recommended that ESA do away with it. ESA said it plans to keep georeturn but will look at different approaches to it, like "fair contribution," where ESA holds industrial competition and then ask countries to contribute based on who won. ESA is planning to use fair contribution for the upcoming European Launcher Challenge to support development of new launch vehicles. [SpaceNews]
NASA said it has seen "nearly unanimous" support for a strategy that calls for a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit. NASA released last month its LEO Microgravity Strategy that endorsed "continuous heartbeat," or keeping people in orbit continuously, rather than a "continuous capability" alternative that would have allowed gaps in human presence in orbit. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said in a recent interview that comments she made in October suggesting that NASA was weighing the two options were intended to stimulate feedback, with international partners and other government agencies backing continuous heartbeat, along with most companies. The finalized strategy will support the next phase of NASA's effort to stimulate development of commercial space stations that will succeed the International Space Station. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | Italy is in talks with SpaceX for government communications services using Starlink. The government is reported to be in "advanced talks" with SpaceX for a five-year, $1.5 billion contract for secure communications services for the Italian military and other government agencies using Starlink. It was unclear if the Italian government considered the deal a stopgap until the European Union deploys its own IRIS² secure connectivity constellation or as a rebuke of it. Separately, United Airlines said it was accelerating deployment of Starlink on its fleet starting with regional jets this spring. The airline now plans to have its complete fleet of regional jets equipped with Starlink by the end of year, with the first mainline jets getting the service at the end of the year. United will require passengers to be MileagePlus members to use Starlink for free. [Bloomberg | CNN]
The Indian space agency ISRO said it is postponing a docking technology demonstration by two days. ISRO said early Monday it needed more time to complete simulations of abort scenarios for the Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDeX, mission, delaying docking of the two SpaDeX spacecraft from Tuesday to Thursdays. ISRO launched SpaDeX last week to conduct the country's first tests of docking technology needed for future crewed and robotic exploration missions. A set of secondary payloads placed into orbit on the same launch are working well, including a test of a robotic arm and sprouting of chickpea seeds. The payloads, collectively known as POEM-4, are on the upper stage of the PSLV rocket that launched SpaDeX. [The Hindu | The Times of India]
The FBI said it is investigating bomb threats made at SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas, test site. An FBI field office said Friday it is looking into "possible bomb threats" at the Starbase facility. One person said a group drove to the site on Christmas Eve and told a person they were from the Middle East and planned to "blow up" Starship. SpaceX did not comment on the report. [San Antonio Express-News]
The head of The Planetary Society is among the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Biden awarded the medal Saturday to 19 people, including Bill Nye, best known as "The Science Guy" from the public television series. Nye has been a member of The Planetary Society, a space science advocacy organization, since its founding in 1980 and has been its CEO since 2010. [Washington Post]
| | | | | | The Week Ahead
Monday: -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 12:21 p.m. Eastern. -
Xichang, China: Anticipated launch of a Long March 3B rocket carrying an unidentified payload at 3 p.m. Eastern. Monday-Friday: Tuesday-Thursday:
Wednesday: Thursday:
Friday: -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Rescheduled inaugural launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn carrying the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload at 1 a.m. Eastern.
-
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 10:27 a.m. Eastern.
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Boca Chica, Texas: Scheduled launch of Starship/Super Heavy on its seventh suborbital test flight at 5 p.m. Eastern.
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