Plus: An Indian navigation satellite is stranded and a renewed appetite for deals
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 02/03/2025 | | | | | An Indian navigation satellite launched last week is stranded in a transfer orbit after the failure of its thrusters. The Indian space agency ISRO said Sunday that the propulsion system on its NVS-02 satellite, launched last Tuesday into a geostationary transfer orbit, failed when oxidizer valves failed to open. ISRO stated that other systems on the satellite are working well and that it would try to find a way to use the satellite in the elliptical orbit. However, that elliptical orbit has a very low perigee of 165 kilometers, which will lead to the satellite reentering in the not-too-distant future if ISRO does not find a way to raise it. [SpaceNews]
NASA has ordered a set of science committees to stop their work, citing Trump administration executive orders. In memos Friday, NASA instructed "analysis groups" and "assessment groups" supporting its astrophysics and planetary science programs to halt their work while NASA "continues to review and ensure compliance with presidential actions" such as executive orders related to DEI and climate change. That directive resulted in the cancellation of a meeting scheduled for this week by the Mercury Exploration Assessment Group while other groups have put planning for upcoming meetings or other activities on hold. [SpaceNews]
Satellite servicing companies are struggling to gain traction in both commercial and government markets. The Pentagon, long viewed as a potential anchor customer, wants to see more mature technology before committing significant funding, while commercial satellite operators remain skeptical about the cost-effectiveness of extending their satellites' lives, executives of satellite servicing companies said at the SpaceCom conference last week. That is particularly true in low Earth orbit where satellites are designed to be disposable. Servicing companies instead see opportunities there for debris removal. [SpaceNews]
Space industry executives see a new wave of investment and deals that will be "more thoughtful" than the previous one. At last week's SpaceCom conference, a panel cited recent developments such as Stoke Space's large funding round, Redwire's acquisition of drone developer Edge Autonomy and Voyager Technologies' plans to go public as signs that the market has a renewed appetite for deals in the sector. They said it should be more focused than the previous wave five years ago with large investments in companies, some of which went public through SPAC deals, but which dropped precipitously after 2021. [SpaceNews]
A NASA safety panel wants the agency to reassess objectives for upcoming Artemis missions. At a meeting last week of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, members said they were concerned about the large number of firsts on Artemis 3 and later missions, which they said can cause delays and increase the risk of those missions. The panel said they met with NASA officials to encourage a more balanced set of objectives across missions, but didn't offer specific recommendations on how those objectives should be altered. [SpaceNews]
The success of a Chinese AI model shows that the technology could enable more autonomous space missions. The DeepSeek model achieved high performance despite using far less computational power than alternative models. That innovation, a panel said at SpaceCom, could result in applications in space, where spacecraft have traditionally had far less computational power available. That could include more autonomous operations of spacecraft that could use the AI model to make decisions that would otherwise require actions by ground controllers. While models like DeepSeek may have potential space applications, NASA is banning the use of DeepSeek within the agency. NASA's chief AI officer in a memo Friday said that DeepSeek was not authorized for use on government hardware and networks, citing "national security and privacy concerns." [SpaceNews | CNBC]
| | | | | Japan launched a navigation satellite Sunday. An H3 rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 3:30 a.m. Eastern and placed the Michibiki 6 into orbit. The satellite is part of Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System program that provides navigation signals to augment GPS signals. The launch was the fifth for the H3 rocket and the fourth successful one after the failure of the inaugural launch. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites Saturday from California. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 6:02 p.m. Eastern from Vandenberg Space Force Base and placed 22 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the 200th from Pad 4E, which was previously used by Atlas and Titan rockets before hosting Falcon 9 missions. [Spaceflight Now]
Spanish defense company Indra is buying satellite operator Hispasat from Redeia. Indra announced Friday it was buying 89.7% of Hispsat for 725 million euros ($745 million), a deal that requires approval from Spanish regulators. Indra previously signaled its interest in Hispasat, which operates several GEO communications satellites and is part of the SpaceRISE consortium developing the IRIS² constellation. [Reuters]
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing a loan to SES to finance its O3b mPower constellation. EIB announced last week it will provide 125 million euros in loans to SES to partially cover the costs of completing the mPower fleet of medium Earth orbit broadband satellites. Neither EIB nor SES disclosed terms of the loan. [EIB]
Astranis has lined up another Falcon 9 launch for its small GEO satellites. The company said it procured a Falcon 9 for a launch later this year of five MicroGEO satellites, including satellites for Thaicom and Mexican internet service provider APCO. Astranis launched four MicroGEO satellites on another Falcon 9 in late December, and the company says those satellites are working well and raising their orbits to allow them to enter service this summer. [Astranis]
Debris from last month's Starship accident caused minor damage in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The FAA confirmed last week that it was aware of "minor damage" to a car from falling debris from the explosion on the Jan. 16 test flight. Residents of the Turks and Caicos said that debris has also washed up on shorelines and that they were disappointed in SpaceX's response to the incident. [CNN]
| | | | | | | | | Monday: Monday-Friday Feb. 14: Tuesday: -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 3:37 a.m. Eastern. -
West Texas: Rescheduled launch of New Shepard on the NS-29 suborbital research flight at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. -
Washington: The Washington Space Business Roundtable holds a luncheon on "New Year, New Look at Space Cyber Security Issues" at 12 p.m. Eastern. -
Mahia Peninsula, N.Z.: Scheduled launch of an Electron rocket carrying five Internet-of-Things satellite for Kinéis at 3:43 p.m. Eastern. -
Plesetsk, Russia: Anticipated launch of a Soyuz-2.1v rocket carrying an unidentified payload at 10 p.m. Eastern. Tuesday-Thursday: Wednesday-Thursday: Thursday: Friday:
| | | | What's New With SpaceNews? |  | | Check out the latest episode of our new podcast, Space Minds. Join David Ariosto, Mike Gruss and journalists from the SpaceNews team for compelling interviews with scientists, founders and experts who love to talk about space, and their takes on the week's biggest news.
New episodes come out every Thursday on SpaceNews.com, YouTube and wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
| | | | | | |
