Plus: Multi-orbit satellite operators say don't overlook their wins
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 03/13/2025 | | | | | United Launch Alliance has found and corrected a manufacturing defect that caused a solid rocket motor nozzle to fall off on a Vulcan launch last year. ULA CEO Tory Bruno said Wednesday that an investigation into the incident on the Cert-2 launch last October identified the defect in one of the internal parts of the nozzle, and that they had made corrective actions verified in a static-fire test of the motor last month. Bruno said the company is still awaiting certification of Vulcan by the Space Force for national security missions but has provided the service with all the information it requested to complete that work. ULA is planning a dozen launches this year, split roughly evenly between Atlas and Vulcan and between national security and commercial missions. [SpaceNews]
The Space Development Agency (SDA) is recalibrating its procurement strategy for its next-generation constellation of military satellites. Following the deployment of its first batch of 27 military satellites last year, the agency is now acknowledging it needs to slow down and conduct more thorough testing before launching approximately 150 more satellites planned for this summer. SDA also will hire a dedicated contractor to serve as an integrator, ensuring all vendors' satellites work together from the beginning. The shift comes in the wake of a recent Government Accountability Office report criticizing the agency for pushing ahead with deployments before fully testing laser communications technologies in its initial demonstration satellites, known as Tranche 0. [SpaceNews]
China is seeking international cooperation in its planned Mars sample return mission. The China National Space Administration published an announcement of opportunities Tuesday, officially opening the Tianwen-3 Mars mission to international cooperation. Teams can propose piggyback payloads requiring support from the Tianwen-3 spacecraft or independent scientific instruments. China is planing to launch Tianwen-3 as soon as late 2028, returning samples to Earth by 2031. NASA's own Mars Sample Return program has suffered cost overruns and delays and may not be able to return the samples being cached by the Perseverance rover until later in the 2030s. [SpaceNews]
China's growing presence in geostationary orbit is raising concerns because of those satellites' unpredictable actions. China has been adding to its fleet of satellites in GEO in recent years with communications and remote sensing satellites, as well as classified spacecraft whose missions may include satellite inspection. At an event at Chatham House last week, experts said the movements of some of those satellites is "uncharacteristic" of conventional communications satellites. They also noted that China is "very good at hiding what they're doing until after the fact" in GEO. [SpaceNews]
Companies operating multi-orbit satellite networks made the case that they can compete against Starlink in some markets. During a panel at the Satellite 2025 conference Tuesday, those operators said they are winning their "fair share" of deals for services, particularly for enterprise and government customers, but that those are often overlooked while Starlink's wins are amplified. Intelsat said its hybrid LEO and geostationary orbit service is gaining traction, hinting that the company is close to announcing deals with two additional international airlines, while SES noted the service its O3b system is providing for Luxembourg and NATO allies. [SpaceNews]
Intelsat announced its first customer for a satellite communications service focused on public safety. The Cochise County Sheriff's Office in Arizona will deploy Intelsat's Multi-Layer Communication System along the U.S.-Mexico border to support operations in previously unconnected areas, the company announced Wednesday. The Intelsat service will use capacity from Starlink along with terrestrial 5G networks and a police radio gateway, providing voice and broadband connectivity in previously inaccessible border regions. [SpaceNews]
RBC Signals is expanding its global network of ground stations by acquiring 10 satellite-tracking antennas from Microsoft. With the new antennas, RBC Signals aims to satisfy rapidly growing demand from government and commercial customers who often rely on S- and X-band to communicate with small satellites in low Earth orbit. The 10 antennas, distributed globally, will enhance communications with satellites in medium-Earth and geostationary orbit as well as spacecraft performing rendezvous-and-proximity operations in equatorial orbits. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | SpaceX scrubbed Wednesday night's scheduled launch of a new space station crew because of a problem with ground equipment. SpaceX called off the Crew-10 launch less than 45 minutes before the scheduled 7:48 p.m. liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center because of a hydraulics issue with the "strongback" that supports the Falcon 9 rocket on the pad. The rocket itself and the Crew Dragon spacecraft were healthy. NASA and SpaceX agreed to reschedule the launch for Friday at 7:03 p.m. Eastern, skipping a Thursday night launch opportunity because of forecasted weather conditions. Crew-10 will deliver astronauts from NASA, JAXA and Roscosmos to the ISS, relieving a crew that includes Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on the ISS since June. [CNN]
Another Falcon 9, though, did launch a set of Starlink satellites late Wednesday. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 10:35 p.m. Eastern, placing 21 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch took place after a scrub Monday night because of high winds and unspecified issues on Tuesday. [Spaceflight Now]
Isar Aerospace won a launch contract from Norway's space agency. The Norwegian Space Agency said Wednesday it selected Isar's Spectrum rocket to launch a pair of satellites for the country's Arctic Ocean Surveillance in 2028. That launch will take place from Andøya Spaceport in northern Norway. Isar's first Spectrum rocket is currently on the pad at Andøya, and the company said it is ready to launch pending a license from Norwegian regulators. [SpaceNews]
Cognitive Space will work with the Space Development Agency to optimize missile tracking and mesh-network routing. The company recently announced awards with a combined value of about $5 million to provide enhanced automated sensor management for missile-tracking satellites for SDA and to apply automated mesh network management for the SDA's communications network. The company said it will leverage its expertise in artificial intelligence technologies for both projects. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX announced partnerships with two Indian companies to provide Starlink services there. SpaceX announced separate deals with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, two of India's biggest telecom companies, to offer Starlink to their customers. SpaceX is still awaiting a license from Indian regulators to operate Starlink in the country. [New York Times]
Two Indian technology demonstration satellites have undocked in orbit. The two Space Docking Experiment spacecraft undocked from each other, the Indian space agency ISRO announced Thursday, nearly two months after docking. ISRO launched SpaDEx at the end of last year to test docking technology, and the two spacecraft are expected to perform more docking and undocking tests. [The Times of India]
Ohio is the latest state seeking to host NASA's headquarters. Members of Ohio's congressional delegation sent a letter to Vice President Vance and Jared Isaacman, the nominee to be NASA administrator, arguing that the Glenn Research Center offered a cheaper alternative to Washington for the headquarters and would allow the agency to escape the "bureaucratic stagnation" of D.C. Both Florida and Texas officials have pitched their states to host the headquarters. NASA's lease on its current headquarters expires in 2028 and the agency has started to look for new locations, but that search is currently focused on buildings in the Washington area. [Cleveland Plain Dealer]
| Dynamite
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"As we're digging our casting pits, we found a layer of granite that was not supposed to be present, and we had to blast our way through it. It was way deeper than we thought. We didn't think it'd be there at all, and then we found it and it just kept going and going. I'm not kidding you, we depleted the country's supply of TNT getting through that, and thank God we did get through it, and then we were able to finish the casting pits."
– ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno, discussing at a briefing Wednesday one challenge the company faced in increasing production of solid rocket motors needed for its Vulcan rocket.
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