| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 03/07/2025 | | | | | SpaceX suffered a second consecutive loss of its Starship vehicle on a test flight Thursday. The Starship/Super Heavy vehicle lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern on the eighth suborbital test flight. The initial phases of flight went as planned, including the return of the Super Heavy booster to the launch site for a catch by the launch tower. However, several engines on the Starship upper stage failed about eight minutes after liftoff, causing the vehicle to tumble. Contact with the spacecraft was soon lost and Starship broke apart, reentering over the Caribbean. That reentry caused airspace closures, including ground stops for several Florida airports. SpaceX said that "an energetic event" in the aft section of the vehicle caused the loss of the Raptor engines. Starship was lost on its previous test flight in January when a fire broke out in that same section of the vehicle, causing engines to shut down. [SpaceNews]
Intuitive Machines said its IM-2 lander is on the moon but "somewhat on its side" after a landing Thursday. The lander, known as Athena, was scheduled to touch down at about 12:32 p.m. Eastern, and its descent to the moon appeared to follow plans until the final few minutes. The company says the lander did safely make it to the surface and is generating power and communicating, but data suggests it may be on its side for reasons not yet clear. The lander's laser altimeter was generating "noisy" data that may have contributed to the flawed landing. Engineers are working to gather data, including images, to determine its orientation, after which they will see which payloads can still operate. Shares of Intuitive Machines closed down 20% Thursday, and fell another 30% in after-hours trading. [SpaceNews]
York Space Systems plans to launch five missions in 2025 for commercial customers conducting classified experiments for the U.S. military. The satellite manufacturer said Thursday it has completed pre-launch testing for its first mission of the year, Tyndal, an experimental national security project scheduled for April launch. Under these commercial contracts, York is integrating customer-provided payloads, securing launch services, and handling mission operations from its Denver facility. York is emphasizing how its commercial platforms can serve sensitive national security needs, positioning itself as a bridge between commercial space capabilities and national security requirements. [SpaceNews]
United Launch Alliance still expects to meet ambitious launch targets for its new Vulcan Centaur vehicle despite the rocket still awaiting final certification from the U.S. Space Force. In an interview on SpaceNews' "Space Minds" podcast, ULA CEO Tory Bruno said the company has six Vulcan rockets currently in production while awaiting the Space Force's decision to clear the vehicle for national security space missions. The delay in certification stems from an anomaly on Vulcan's second launch when a solid rocket booster lost its nozzle in flight. The U.S. Space Force said it expects Vulcan to launch 11 national security missions this year, but Bruno noted such missions are frequently delayed because of issues with the spacecraft. [SpaceNews]
The program manager for the Commerce Department's space traffic coordination system is back on the job. The manager for the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), Dmitry Poisik, was among the NOAA employees laid off last week as part of firings of probationary civil servants. However, Poisik was rehired earlier this week, a move that came after some industry groups warned of adverse effects to the commercial space industry caused by the layoffs at the Office of Space Commerce. At a conference this week, industry officials said that while they were glad that Poisik was back, they remained worried about the Commerce Department's commitment to TraCSS, currently in beta testing. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | Ariane 6 launched a French reconnaissance satellite on the vehicle's second mission. The Ariane 6 lifted off from French Guiana at 11:24 a.m. Eastern Thursday and placed into orbit the CSO-3 reconnaissance satellite for the French military. The satellite is the third and final spacecraft in a program to provide France and its allies with high-resolution imagery. This was the first Ariane 6 launch since its debut last July. Arianespace previously said it was planning five Ariane 6 launches this year, mostly in the second half. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. military is turning to commercial space companies to help with hypersonics. Launch companies are using systems originally developed for satellite launches to also launch hypersonic technology development missions for the military, tapping into a market estimated to be worth $6-7 billion annually even as it becomes more difficult for companies to compete for space launch. Some companies, like Stratolaunch, pivoted completely from space launch to hypersonics, while Rocket Lab has adapted its Electron rocket for suborbital launches of hypersonic missions. Other companies are offering reentry capsules for hypersonics research as well. [SpaceNews]
AI technology startup Danti is expanding its Earth data search engine to a wider government audience. The company developed a product to search satellite imagery and other geospatial data using natural language queries, working initially with the U.S. Space Force and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The search engine incorporates satellite imagery licensed to the government through various contracts, fusing this visual data with information from diverse sources including drone footage, news reports, social media, shipping records and global event data. It is now collaborating with FEMA, NOAA and other agencies on the technology. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force revealed it has been tracking how Chinese sensors monitor American satellites. Payloads on the LDPE-3A spacecraft, built by Northrop Grumman for the Space Force and launched in 2023, have been able to monitor China's Space Observation Surveillance and Identification System network, the Chinese equivalent of the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. The payloads were developed by the Space Rapid Capabilities Office and collected "all kinds of very interesting data" on the Chinese tracking network, officials said at a briefing during the AFA Warfare Symposium. [Breaking Defense]
ESA will include a cubesat on a planned mission to a near Earth asteroid. ESA said this week that Tyvak International will build a cubesat that will accompany its Ramses spacecraft that will study the asteroid Apophis ahead of its close approach to the Earth in 2029. The cubesat, based on one that is part of the ongoing Hera asteroid mission, will examine material that may be released from the surface of Apophis as well as study the asteroid's interior. ESA plans to add a second cubesat to the Ramses mission, assuming ESA's member states elect to fund full development of Ramses at a ministerial conference later this year. [ESA]
| Mars School
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"Every time we do this, every time we learn, we're closer to living and working on the lunar surface. And, since the camera's on me, we're also closer to this: first day of school on Mars. So, when we're comfortable as a society with our children going to school on Mars, it's because we will have done things with the aerospace community."
– Clayton Turner, associate administrator for space technology at NASA, showing off his tie depicting a spacesuited child going to school on Mars during a briefing about the IM-2 landing on Thursday.
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