| An Electron launched a fourth set of satellites for a French company Saturday. The rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand launch site at 3:43 p.m. Eastern and deployed its payload of five satellites into low Earth orbit about an hour later. The event was the fourth of five launches Rocket Lab is performing for Kinéis, a French company developing a smallsat constellation to provide Internet of Things and tracking services. The launch was the first this year by Rocket Lab, which has previously stated it expects to exceed last year's mark of 16 Electron launches but has not disclosed a specific target. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched another set of Starlink satellites Saturday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:18 p.m. Eastern and deployed 21 Starlink satellites. The launch was scheduled for Friday but delayed a day for undisclosed reasons. [Florida Today]
United Launch Alliance is destacking a Vulcan rocket at its Florida launch site to prepare for an Atlas 5 launch. The company had been preparing for its first national security mission for the Vulcan after two certification flights, but with certification delayed to investigate an issue with one of the solid rocket boosters on the second flight, ULA is instead preparing for an Atlas 5 launch of Amazon Kuiper satellites at the same pad. That first Vulcan national security launch, a mission called USSF-106, is now expected to occur in the second quarter. [Spaceflight Now]
The Pentagon has ordered a review of the Space Development Agency. The review, requested by the office of the under secretary of defense for defense acquisition and sustainment, seeks to assess SDA's "organizational performance and acquisition approach." The independent review will look at the SDA's approach to developing a constellation of missile tracking and data relay satellites and how they are integrated into other systems. The review was announced shortly after the Pentagon placed the director of SDA, Derek Tournear, on administrative leave to investigate contracting actions. [Defense News]
The Trump administration's pick to be Secretary of the Air Force reportedly modified a satellite contract to favor SpaceX. Troy Meink, principal deputy director of the NRO, is said to have changed provisions of a contract solicitation regarding intersatellite communications that gave an edge to SpaceX through its Starlink constellation. When another bidder, L3Harris, reportedly complained, Meink warned the company its ability to win future NRO business could be hurt if it filed a formal protest. The NRO's inspector general investigated the contract but it is not clear if it found any wrongdoing. [Reuters]
NASA says it will continue using electric vans it bought to serve as astronaut transports even though the manufacturer has gone bankrupt. NASA acquired the vans from Canoo Technologies in 2022 to serve as Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicles, taking astronauts to the launch pad for Artemis missions. Canoo, though, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in January after failing to secure new investment. NASA says it plans to continue using the vans, having worked with Canoo earlier to train workers to maintain the vans. [SpaceNews]
The risk of an asteroid impact in 2032 is a little higher, for now. As of Friday, asteroid 2024 YR4 had a 2.2% chance of hitting the Earth in December 2032, up from 1.3% in late January. Additional observations are helping astronomers refine the orbit of the asteroid, discovered in December. Scientists note that the changing odds of an impact are not surprising, and that more observations in the days and weeks to come will likely result in the impact chances going to zero. [New York Times]
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment