Plus: With rumors swirling, Boeing says it is committed to space
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 03/12/2025 | | | | | Rocket Lab is buying German optical communications terminal supplier Mynaric after that company went into restructuring. Rocket Lab said it will buy a majority stake in Mynaric for $75 million in either cash or stock, with an additional $75 million tied to revenue targets. The deal is contingent on Mynaric, which entered restructuring last month following production delays and supply chain issues, completing that restructuring process. The agreement would give Rocket Lab a foothold in Europe to chase growth opportunities in the region while further vertically integrating the company. Mynaric is already a supplier to Rocket Lab, providing optical terminals for the satellites Rocket Lab is building for the Space Development Agency. [SpaceNews]
A Boeing executive said the company remains committed to its space business. Michelle Parker, Boeing Space Mission Systems' vice president, said in an interview that "satellite and associated ground work" remained core to the company. Boeing is reportedly considering shedding some of its business lines outside of commercial aviation and defense, but Parker said there was strong demand for Boeing Space Mission Systems' products including commercial and government satellites and the X-37B military spaceplane. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force will consider commercial alternatives to military satellites used to monitor geostationary orbit. Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the acting acquisition executive for the Space Force, said Tuesday he has directed program offices to assess how commercially developed satellites and sensors could either replace or augment the military's existing fleet of Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites. Those satellites, built by Northrop Grumman, operate near GEO where they conduct rendezvous and proximity operations to inspect and monitor satellites. Purdy said there is now an opportunity to see if commercial space firms, buoyed by private investment, can deliver viable alternatives, and the Space Force will analyze the potential trade-offs. [SpaceNews]
Arianespace expects to see stronger government launch demand thanks to shifts in geopolitics. During a Satellite 2025 conference panel this week, Arianespace CEO David Cavaillolès said that while the need for Europe to have autonomous access to space is not new, recent changes have made people "really understand" its value. He expected an increase in so-called "institutional" demand, which had accounted for about a third of Ariane launches, with the other two-thirds coming from commercial customers. Arianespace is working to ramp up to its target launch rate of 10 Ariane 6 missions a year, but Cavaillolès said he would consider investments to increase that launch rate beyond 10 a year. [SpaceNews]
Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is urging the Senate to quickly confirm Jared Isaacman to lead the agency. Bridenstine, speaking at the Satellite 2025 conference Tuesday, said Isaacman has "all the tools to be what could be the most consequential NASA administrator" in the agency's history, focusing on how to make greater use of commercial capabilities. The Senate Commerce Committee has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for Isaacman. [SpaceNews]
Viasat and Space42 are exploring shared multi-orbit infrastructure to enhance and expand their direct-to-device connectivity services worldwide. The companies announced an agreement Tuesday to collaborate on satellites that would pool their L- and S-band spectrum, enabling global roaming among regional mobile network operators for subscribers outside cellular coverage. Karim Sabbagh, CEO of Space42, said the companies are co-funding initial prototyping of future satellites and will decide in the next three months whether they will develop their own satellites or outside the work to a prime contractor. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | A Falcon 9 launched two NASA science missions Tuesday night. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:10 p.m. Eastern and placed the SPHEREx infrared space telescope and the four PUNCH smallsats into sun-synchronous orbit. SPHEREx will perform all-sky infrared spectroscopy. Its areas of scientific interest range from studying the early universe to mapping water in the Milky Way. The PUNCH smallsats will make 3-D maps of the solar corona as it transitions into the solar wind to see how it can affect space weather. The mission was delayed by nearly two weeks because of a variety of issues, primarily with the Falcon 9. The launch was the first for the rocket since a Starlink mission more than a week ago where a booster was lost in a fire after landing. [SpaceNews]
China launched a set of megaconstellation satellites Tuesday. A Long March 8 rocket lifted off at 12:38 p.m. Eastern from the Hainan Commercial Launch Site near Wenchang on the island of Hainan, placing 18 of the Qianfan or "Thousand Sails" satellites into orbit for Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology, also known as Spacesail. The launch was the first for Spacesail using the Long March 8. All four previous Thousand Sails missions, totaling 72 satellites, used the Long March 6A rocket. The Long March 8 launch was the inaugural use of the spaceport's launch pad 1, a facility designed specifically for the rocket. [SpaceNews]
Difficulties acquiring propulsion systems, radiation-hardened components and laser communications systems continue to vex satellite manufacturers. Space companies this week said that they have had to maintain a stockpile of components to mitigate supply chain issues, which requires capital and introduces the risk of acquiring components that won't be used after satellite design changes. Supply chain bottlenecks affect the launch market because companies cannot commit to flying on low-cost SpaceX rideshares unless they are confident their satellites will be completed in time. [SpaceNews]
Momentus announced an agreement Tuesday to provide Vigoride space tug customers with on-demand connectivity through a partnership with Solstar Space. Momentus plans to perform the first on-orbit demonstration in early 2026 of Solstar's Deke Space Communicator, a narrowband data-relay transceiver designed to offer persistent communication links between satellites and payload operators on the ground as well as between spacecraft. DARPA is the anchor customer for the Vigoride flight scheduled to launch in February 2026. [SpaceNews]
Poland has fired the head of the country's space agency. Grzegorz Wrochna was dismissed as head of the agency, POLSA, after the government concluded he botched the response to Falcon 9 debris that fell in the country last month. While POLSA claimed to have informed other government agencies about the potential reentry, those agencies said they did not receive adequate notice, which resulted in several pieces of debris reaching the ground in western Poland, but without causing damage or injury. POLSA also suffered a cyberattack in early March that caused its computer systems to go offline for several days. [European Spaceflight]
Astronomers have discovered more than 100 moons orbiting Saturn. Astronomers used a telescope in Hawaii to monitor the space around Saturn, finding 128 moons not previously known to orbit the planet. Most are very small objects no more than a few kilometers across. With this discovery, Saturn has 274 known moons, far ahead of Jupiter with 95 moons. [New York Times]
| Make Pluto a Planet Again
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"We need to be truthful. Pluto is a planet. By the way, I'm going to ask President Trump to sign an executive order on exactly that. As long as we're doing them, we might as well bring back Pluto."
– Jim Bridenstine, former NASA administrator, discussing his belief that Pluto should be reinstated as a planet during a session of the SGx track at the Satellite 2025 conference Tuesday.
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