Plus: Blue Origin's mystery astronaut and the next lunar lander to launch
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 02/26/2025 | | | | | Intuitive Machines' second lunar lander is ready to launch as soon as tonight. Company and NASA officials said Tuesday that the lander was on track for a launch Wednesday evening on a SpaceX Falcon 9, although they did not disclose a specific launch time. An on-time launch would set up a landing attempt March 6. The lander is carrying a NASA payload to drill into the surface at its landing site near the lunar south pole to look for water ice and other volatiles. It also has several commercial payloads, such as rovers and a 4G/LTE communications system. Three other spacecraft are flying as rideshare payloads on IM-2, including NASA's Lunar Trailblazer orbiter. [SpaceNews]
Eutelsat says it has successfully tested using its OneWeb constellation on a 5G network. This was the first test leveraging a commercial Ku-band LEO constellation and a test chipset using standards set to be deployed in 5G smartphones in the coming years. The test is part of efforts to bridge satellite and mobile networks. Eutelsat noted that non-terrestrial 5G protocols will also be a key feature of IRIS², Europe's multi-orbit sovereign broadband constellation. [SpaceNews]
Xona Space Systems won an Air Force Research Lab contract to demonstrate an alternative to GPS. Xona is developing a commercial positioning, navigation, and timing service through a constellation of LEO satellites, named Pulsar, which aims to serve as both a complement and a backup to GPS. The $4.6 million contract announced Tuesday covers demonstrations of key technologies for Pulsar. The company is working on a constellation of 258 satellites for Pulsar, with initial services beginning as soon as 2027. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force is grappling with how to conduct space wargaming. The lack of historical precedent for battles in space is a unique challenge for the service as it works to build a wargaming and experimentation infrastructure capable of modeling a domain where the rules of warfare remain largely untested. A proposed Space Futures Command in the Space Force would include a warfare analysis center using wargaming and artificial intelligence to guide investments in next-generation technologies. Proponents of the command argue that it would help model how systems are integrated and operated in a conflict, which could provide a key advantage separate from space technologies. [SpaceNews]
Blue Origin launched six private astronauts on its tenth crewed suborbital spaceflight Tuesday. The company's New Shepard vehicle lifted off from its West Texas launch site at 10:49 a.m. Eastern, reaching a peak altitude of 107 kilometers before landing about 10 minutes later. The NS-30 mission included a returning customer, Lane Bess, who first flew on New Shepard in 2021. It also included a customer who Blue Origin declined to name, but in footage from the flight wore a suit with an "R. Wilson" nametag. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said earlier this month that New Shepard remains a "very good business" for the company even as it moves into orbital launches and lunar landers. [SpaceNews]
Shares in Rocket Lab tumbled Tuesday after a report suggested its Neutron rocket could be significantly delayed. The report by Bleecker Street Research, linked to investment fund Bleecker Street Capital, argued that Rocket Lab's Neutron rocket may not make its first launch until as late as mid-2027, two years behind the company's public schedule for the reusable vehicle. It also said Rocket Lab may have to sell many initial Neutron launches at steep discounts of its list price of $50-55 million. Rocket Lab shares closed down nearly 10% Tuesday on the news. The company is scheduled to release its 2024 financial results and hold an earnings call Thursday. [interest.co.nz]
| | | | | British electric propulsion startup Magdrive has raised $10.5 million and is expanding to the United States. Magdrive will use the seed round funding to build a U.K. manufacturing facility and conduct on-orbit tests of high-power electric plasma thrusters, one of which will be on a D-Orbit transfer vehicle launching in June. The company is opening a U.S. subsidiary based in Los Angeles focused on business development. [SpaceNews]
China is developing a mission to study the poles of the sun. The Solar Polar Orbit Observatory mission is scheduled to launch in 2029 and will use a gravity assist flyby of Jupiter to move into a high-inclination orbit around the sun, an approach similar to that used by the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission. An orbit over the Sun's poles would provide a vantage point that would offer unique data on solar magnetic activity cycles and high-speed solar winds, including their effect on space weather. [SpaceNews]
The first chief of the FCC's Space Bureau is joining a major law firm. DLA Piper announced Tuesday that Julie Kearney had joined the firm as co-chair of its Space Exploration and Innovation Practice. Kearney was named chief of the Space Bureau in April 2023 shortly after the FCC created it as part of a reorganization intended to devote more resources to space activities. Kearney said the space industry is in a "hyper-growth mode" and wants to find a balance between that growth and legal and regulatory frameworks. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr named Jay Schwarz as the new chief of the Space Bureau earlier this month. [SpaceNews]
The FAA is using Starlink to improve its air traffic network, a deal that is raising new conflict-of-interest concerns. The FAA confirmed this week it is testing Starlink terminals at locations in New Jersey and Alaska, which it said is part of efforts to improve communications networks managing U.S. airspace. The FAA's contract with SpaceX, the size of which has not been reported, could include 4,000 Starlink terminals. The FAA had been working with Verizon to upgrade those networks. The contract prompted complaints about conflicts of interest given Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration. The FAA said it had been considering Starlink since the Biden administration. [CNN]
A Progress cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station Tuesday ahead of the launch of a new Progress. The Progress MS-28 spacecraft, designated Progress 89 by NASA, undocked from the station at 3:17 p.m. Eastern after spending six months at the station. Its departure frees up a docking port for the Progress MS-30 spacecraft, scheduled to launch Thursday and arrive at the station two days later. [NASA]
Scientists have offered a new reason why the Red Planet is red. The reddish tint of Mars comes from iron oxide, but research this week offered an explanation of how that iron oxide formed. Lab tests showed that the best match for spacecraft measurements is a dust that includes ferrihydrite, a water-rich form of iron oxide. That suggests that the iron oxide formed early in the planet's history, when it had liquid water on its surface. "Mars rusted earlier than we previously thought," said one scientist involved in the research. [Space.com]
| | | | | | | | | "Finding a planet of this size so close to its host star is like finding a snowball that hasn't melted in a fire."
– Louis-Philippe Coulombe of the University of Montreal on the discovery of an "ultra-hot Neptune" exoplanet that orbits its star in less than a day.
| | | | What's New With SpaceNews? |  | | Announcing the SpaceNews Job Exchange: A launchpad to career success in the space industry. Designed for job seekers, employers, and industry leaders alike.
| | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment