Senator warns SDA satellite contracts could be canceled, Rocket Lab and Stoke added to NSSL
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| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 03/28/2025 | | | | | The Department of the Air Force is reportedly considering canceling awards for some Space Development Agency satellites. At a hearing Thursday, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) sais he was told the department was contemplating canceling SDA's Transport Layer Tranche 2 and 3 satellite constellations and instead use SpaceX's Starshield system. SDA has already awarded contracts to York Space Systems and Northrop Grumman for Tranche 2 satellites, while a third award to Terran Orbital was rescinded after a bid protest and is being recompeted; SDA has not made any awards yet for Tranche 3. Cramer suggested the potential shift could represent a significant blow to defense contractors who have invested in developing specialized capabilities for military space systems. A spokesperson for the Department of the Air Force said that "no decisions have been made" about Tranche 2 and 3 contracts. [SpaceNews]
The news about the potential SDA contract cancellations came at a confirmation hearing for Troy Meink to be Secretary of the Air Force. In his testimony, Meink made the case that the U.S. must accelerate its space capabilities to counter rapidly advancing Chinese threats, calling space a contested domain requiring urgent investment. Meink is currently deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office and, if confirmed, would oversee both the Air Force and the Space Force. Meink's testimony generally received a positive reception from the committee, with several senators lauding his space expertise and experience leading classified defense programs. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force has added Rocket Lab and Stoke Space to the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contract. The Space Force announced Thursday that it included the two companies in NSSL Phase 3's Lane 1, which is the entry-level tier for missions to low Earth orbit. Each company gets a $5 million initial task order for a capabilities assessment and to establish their tailored mission assurance process. They will then be eligible to compete for launch service orders through 2029, with at least 30 missions expected to be awarded. Rocket Lab's Neutron is scheduled for a first launch later this year, while Stoke Space's Nova medium-class rocket is in development. [SpaceNews]
Booz Allen Hamilton unveiled a concept for a satellite megaconstellation that could support the Golden Dome missile defense system. The concept, dubbed "Brilliant Swarms," would consist of up to 2,000 small satellites operating as an interconnected network powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, company executives said Thursday. The satellites would serve dual purposes as both detection systems and kill vehicles that would de-orbit, target, and physically slam into threats without requiring missiles in space. The company says the system could be developed and fielded for approximately $25 billion, significantly less than the $65 billion spent on current missile-defense systems focused on threats from North Korea and Iran. [SpaceNews]
The GAO rejected a protest filed about a contract for the Office of Space Commerce's space traffic coordination system. Kayhan Space filed the protest after the office selected Slingshot Aerospace for developing the "presentation layer," or web interface, for the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS). The GAO concluded that there was no evidence for several claims in Kayhan's protest regarding evaluation of the proposals. The GAO published its decision the same day that several Democratic members of the House Science Committee released a letter they sent to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, expressing concerns about the effect of layoffs of probationary employees at the office on its work on TraCSS. [SpaceNews]
Thales Alenia Space will develop a digital twin of agricultural systems by combining satellite data and crop modeling for the European Space Agency. The company will start offering early digital engineering tools by the end of 2026 for the European Space Agency's SaveCrops4EU project, part of ESA's Digital Twin Earth program that aims to build interactive, high-precision digital replicas of Earth systems to support policy decisions and climate adaptation. These models combine satellite data, simulation tools and artificial intelligence to help users explore, visualize and test different scenarios and their real-world outcomes. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | The Chinese government has outlined an ambitious roadmap of missions with a common theme of the search for life beyond Earth. Those missions include the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission scheduled for launch in late 2028 and the Tianwen-4 mission that would launch in 2029 to Jupiter and orbit the large moon Callisto. Other missions include a Venus atmosphere sample return mission in 2033, an uncrewed Mars "research station" in the late 2030s that would support environmental and biological research and a 2039 launch of a mission to Neptune and its icy moon Triton. Astrobiology is a common thread for those missions, although many face technical and fiscal challenges. [SpaceNews]
Propulsion startup Miles Space has demonstrated a water-fueled electric thruster in space. The company said its Poseidon M1.5 thruster was successfully tested on an unnamed European satellite last September. The thruster works at low power levels that the company says enable new applications. Miles Space developed the thruster with the assistance of artificial intelligence, which helped the company iterate the design. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX allows investment from China if it comes through an offshore banking proxy, according to a report. Testimony in a recent court case in Delaware stated that SpaceX will allow Chinese investors to buy stock in the company if they go through the British Virgin Islands or Cayman Islands, which are known for their secrecy. SpaceX has publicly avoided any Chinese ownership of the company, and the report states that the few public figures about such deals are "well under $100 million." [ProPublica]
NASA announced the crew for its next Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station, including two astronauts who had previously been assigned to other flights. The Crew-11 mission will be commanded by NASA's Zena Cardman with Mike Fincke as pilot. Kimiya Yui of JAXA and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos will be mission specialists. Cardman was originally slated to command the Crew-9 mission last year but taken off the flight when NASA opted to free up two seats on that vehicle to allow Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to return. Fincke was previously assigned to Starliner-1, the first operational Starliner flight. Crew-11 is scheduled to launch as soon as July. [NASA]
A Cygnus cargo spacecraft departed from the station this morning. The station's Canadarm2 robotic arm unberthed the Cygnus and released it at about 6:55 a.m. Eastern. The Cygnus, which had been at the ISS since last August, is carrying trash that will be burned up in the atmosphere when the spacecraft reenters on Sunday. [NASA]
ESA has formally retired the Gaia space telescope. Controllers sent commands to Gaia Thursday to move the spacecraft into a "retirement orbit" at the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point and then shut the spacecraft down permanently. Gaia launched in 2013 to perform precise mapping of billions of stars and other objects. Science operations of Gaia ended in January because its fuel was nearly depleted. [Space.com]
| No One Knows
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"No one knows what they're doing, so that's great."
โ John Platt, Google Fellow for climate and science, discussing experimentation involving artificial intelligence technologies in space and other fields during a talk at a symposium Thursday organized by USRA and George Washington University's Space Policy Institute.
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