Plus: California's satellite data purchase and the White House nominates Greg Autry for a NASA position
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| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 03/26/2025 | | | | | The Space Force is getting $40 million to purchase commercial surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking services. The money was included as an add-on to the fiscal year 2025 continuing resolution funding the federal government approved earlier this month. The director of the Space Force's Commercial Space Office (COMSO) said the money represents a vote of confidence in the service's efforts to tap the commercial space market, providing a dedicated budget line as well as additional funding spread among other budget lines for purchasing commercial services. [SpaceNews]
The service, meanwhile, plans to keep confidential the companies participating in a new space reserve program. COMSO will not disclose the identities of the companies selected for the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) program, an effort to create a reserve of commercial satellites and services to augment government-owned systems in times of crisis. COMSO says that confidentiality is intended to protect participating companies from potential adversary threats, although those companies can disclose their participation if they choose. The first four companies signed CASR agreements March 1 for an initial three-month pilot program, supplying space domain awareness data to help track and analyze objects in orbit. [SpaceNews]
The California state government plans to buy $95 million in satellite data to track methane emissions. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced the three-year, $95 million contract award by the California Air Resources Board to nonprofit Carbon Mapper to process and disseminate data gathered by Planet's Tanager hyperspectral imaging satellites. California will use the data to identify sources of methane emissions as part of an effort to reduce such emissions by 40% from 2013 levels. The state government is also providing $5 million to help communities apply the data to reduce emissions. [SpaceNews]
The Spanish government is investing $15 million into satellite startup Sateliot. The funding, part of a Series B round of up to 70 million euros ($75 million) the company is raising, will go toward expansion of a constellation of satellites using 5G protocols to relay data from tracking and monitoring devices. The company, with six satellites in orbit now, wants to scale up its constellation to at least 100 satellites as it begins commercial services later this year. [SpaceNews]
The White House has nominated Greg Autry to be NASA's chief financial officer (CFO). Autry is assistant provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida and was the White House liaison at NASA in part of the first Trump administration. He was nominated to be NASA CFO in 2020 but the full Senate did not take up the nomination. This new nomination is classified as "privileged," which allows the full Senate to consider it without a hearing or vote by the Senate Commerce Committee. That committee has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman, the White House's nominee to lead the agency. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | Intuitive Machines is emphasizing diversification beyond lunar landers. In an earnings call this week, the company promoted projects such as a satellite network at the moon to provide communications and navigation services, as well as an orbital transfer vehicle based on its Nova-C lander. Intuitive Machines reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $41.7 million in 2024 on $228 million in revenue, and the company said it is on track for positive adjusted EBITDA in 2026. The company is among those scheduled to testify at a hearing next week by the House Science Committee's space subcommittee on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. [SpaceNews]
Maxar Intelligence has developed a visual-based navigation technology that enables aerial drones to operate without relying on GPS. The software, called Raptor, provides a terrain-based positioning system for drones in GPS-denied environments by leveraging detailed 3D models created from Maxar's satellite imagery. Maxar says Raptor represents a shift in Maxar's business strategy from solely providing satellite imagery and data to developing specialized software solutions that leverage that data to address specific market needs. [SpaceNews]
The government of Vietnam has approved Starlink services on a trial basis. The government said Wednesday that Starlink can provide services in the country, with no foreign ownership restrictions, through the end of 2030, but limits the number of subscribers to 600,000. SpaceX had worked for several years to win approvals to operate in Vietnam but encountered roadblocks in government limits on foreign ownership of such services. [Reuters]
Isar Aerospace has rescheduled the first launch of its Spectrum rocket for Thursday. The company scrubbed an initial launch attempt of the vehicle from Andรธya Spaceport in northern Norway on Monday, citing high winds. Thursday's launch is scheduled for a three-hour window that opens at 7:30 a.m. Eastern. [Isar Aerospace]
NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission has won a major aeronautics trophy. The National Aeronautic Association awarded the 2024 Collier Trophy to the Parker Solar Probe mission for its achievement of flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, coming within 6.1 million kilometers in December. The mission team will receive the award at a ceremony in June. Parker is the fourth consecutive NASA mission to receive the Collier Trophy, awarded for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in the U.S. It follows the Ingenuity Mars helicopter in 2021, James Webb Space Telescope in 2022 and OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission in 2023. [NAA]
| A Crazy Idea
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"It's kind of a crazy idea. You take a perfectly good spacecraft that's operating nominally, and you crash it on purpose. That gives me the creeps just talking about it."
โ Bobby Braun, head of the space exploration sector at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, discussing at a Space Transportation Association luncheon Tuesday the successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission that deliberately crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid.
| | | | | | | What's New With SpaceNews? |  | | Check out the replay of our latest webinar, where SpaceNews Senior Staff Writer Sandra Erwin and Mark Lewis discussed the progress and challenges in bringing the American hypersonics industry up to par with international pacing challengers. | | | | | | |
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