Plus: A launcher competition in Europe and the NRO expands its satellite network
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| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 03/25/2025 | | | | | NASA said it is terminating $420 million in contracts as a 'streamlining effort' but with few details about what is being cut. In a statement late Monday, NASA confirmed a post from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that NASA had terminated $420 million of contracts. Those contracts, NASA states, "were determined to be redundant or misaligned with our core mission priorities," but the agency did not give specifics on which contracts ended. DOGE posted that the contracts included several $15 million awards to consulting firms for "Change Management Support Services." According to federal procurement databases, NASA had not used any of the blanket purchase agreements it awarded to those firms before electing to terminate them for convenience this month. There are also concerns that research grants may be part of the terminations. [SpaceNews]
A former Defense Department official and hypersonics expert said the U.S. needs to invest more in hypersonics programs. Mark Lewis, president and CEO of the nonprofit Purdue Applied Research Institute, said in a SpaceNews webinar Monday that the U.S. needs to increase funding and support for advanced hypersonic weapons development to counter similar programs in China and Russia. He said there is strong support within the Pentagon for investments in hypersonic weapons technology, partly because of opportunities to leverage private investments in commercial test vehicles that could accelerate next-generation missile development. Defending against hypersonic missiles, a key goal of the proposed Golden Dome system, is "technically challenging, but not impossible," he said. [SpaceNews]
Back-to-back Falcon 9 launches have allowed the National Reconnaissance Office to expand a satellite network. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:48 p.m. Eastern Monday on the NROL-69 mission, placing an unspecified number of satellites into orbit. It came three days after another Falcon 9 launch for the NRO from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The NRO said in a statement after Monday's launch that the agency has launched more than 150 satellites in the last two years, "creating the largest and most capable government constellation on orbit in our nation's history." [SpaceNews]
The European Space Agency has officially kicked off a launcher competition. ESA released Monday a call for proposals for the European Launcher Challenge, seeking bids from emerging launch companies to provide launch services as well as to develop larger vehicles. ESA will provide up to 169 million euros ($183 million) to each winner, with funding to be allocated at ESA's ministerial conference in November. The release came the same day as one European launch startup, Isar Aerospace, scrubbed its first attempt to launch its Spectrum rocket from northern Norway, citing poor weather. Isar has not announced a date for the next attempt. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | Firefly Aerospace has selected a subsidiary of Blue Origin to provide a rover for a future lunar lander mission. Firefly announced Monday that it awarded a contract to Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, to build a small rover that will go on the Blue Ghost 3 lander mission in 2028. The rover will carry instruments provided by NASA to study the Gruithuisen Domes region of the moon. [Firefly Aerospace]
Japanese synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging company Synspective has selected SpaceX to launch some of its satellites. Synspective said Monday it signed a contract with SpaceX to fly two SAR satellites on a SpaceX rideshare mission in 2027. Synspective, which has plans for a constellation of 30 SAR spacecraft, has been using Rocket Lab's Electron for launching its satellites, including a contract last June for 10 launches. [Synspective]
A NASA Mars rover has discovered complex organic molecules. In a paper published Monday, scientists reported the detection of long-chain organic molecules by an instrument on the Curiosity rover. Those molecules, scientists said, may be "breakdown products" of fatty acids that could have existed on Mars early in the planet's history. The finding is not itself evidence of past Martian life, since such acids could have formed by other means, but scientists said it is another sign that Mars might have supported life when it was warmer and wetter. [Science]
Barbie says space history is hard. Mattel has released a replica of "Barbie Miss Astronaut," a doll first issued in 1965 that features Barbie in a spacesuit. The packaging for the replica notes that "Miss Astronaut first went galactic in 1965, before any human in space." Humans, of course, first went to space in 1961. Mattel didn't comment on the historical error, but its website now notes that the doll was first released "well before men had landed on the moon." [collectSPACE]
| Disco and Dinosaurs
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"When I was in class, back in the disco era, no one had a good hypothesis as to what happened to the ancient dinosaurs. I mean, if you watch episode four of Cosmos, the original Cosmos, Carl Sagan gets to, 'Well, the ancient dinosaurs disappeared. We don't know why. Ha ha. Moving on.'"
โ Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society, during a taping of the organization's "Planetary Radio" podcast in Washington on Monday.
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