Plus: ESA's focus on autonomy and how to produce one satellite per day
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| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 03/21/2025 | | | | | The Space Force will have less money than requested this year because of the continuing resolution (CR) funding the federal government. The service will receive $28.7 billion in fiscal year 2025, less than the $29.5 billion it requested. The reduction is linked to the CR that Congress passed last week to fund the government at 2024 levels for the rest of 2025, rather than pass appropriations bills for 2025. The CR grants the Pentagon flexibility to reprogram up to $8 billion and initiate select new programs. That includes a transfer of $30 million from the Protected Tactical Satellite program to fund a new procurement of Resilient GPS (R-GPS) satellites. [SpaceNews]
ESA released a new strategy document with a greater emphasis on autonomy. The Strategy 2040 document, published by ESA Thursday, outlines five goals for the agency for the next 15 years. One of the goals is to "strengthen European autonomy and resilience," with an emphasis on space transportation. At a briefing Thursday, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said the agency was working with member states to revise a package of programs for this fall's ministerial meeting on "what is required to strengthen Europe and make Europe more autonomous and more independent," citing the changing geopolitical landsape. He added, though, that there are no changes in ESA's cooperation with NASA, including on the Artemis lunar exploration effort. [SpaceNews]
A European startup has plans to mass-manufacture satellites. Space Industries, based in Turin, Italy, has a goal of producing one minisatellite each day by 2030. The company, founded by former Tyvak International executive Giuseppe Santangelo, is funded by the Micelli family, owners of the Comat Group, an Italian company that provides energy services, facilities management and space technology. Space Industries plans to do business with other companies and not government agencies. [SpaceNews]
French satellite broadband startup Constellation Technologies & Operations (CTO) is teaming up with a telecom company. The partnership with TDF, which operates France's largest network of carrier-neutral hosting sites, will examine how to test the feasibility of using cellular frequencies from telecom partners to deliver services from CTO's satellites in very low Earth orbit. CTO secured about $10 million from France's state-backed Expansion Ventures fund last year toward plans to deploy 1,500 small satellites 335 kilometers above Earth. Satellites at this altitude could enable faster communications and smaller user terminals compared to other constellations in LEO, but have to contend with drag. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | A Falcon 9 set a booster turnaround record with the launch of an NRO mission. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:49 a.m. Eastern Friday on the NROL-57 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. The first stage used for the launch last flew just nine days ago, deploying NASA's SPHEREx and PUNCH satellites. That is the shortest turnaround between flights of the same booster to date. The launch was the 450th overall for the Falcon 9 and the eighth for the NRO's proliferated satellite constellation. [Spaceflight Now]
A Chinese satellite set a new record for quantum communications. In a test published this week, researchers used the Jinan-1 smallsat as a relay for laser communications between China and South Africa, demonstrating the use of quantum key distribution over a distance of nearly 13,000 kilometers. That technology offers the promise of "unbreakable" encryption of messages, but terrestrially works only over short distances in fiber optics. [Nature]
Space sustainability company Astroscale is partnering with two Indian companies. Astroscale will work with Digantara, which provides space situational awareness services, and spacecraft propulsion company Bellatrix Aerospace on providing on-orbit services for the Indian government. Astroscale sees the partnership as an opportunity to grow in the Asia-Pacific region outside of its home in Japan. [Reuters]
| Not Wonderful
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"There is this storm shelter, as we call it, where you take all the waste bags and storage bags and make a little pillow fort. Then you climb in and then you cuddle up in the spoon position for as long as you guys say we have to stay in the spoon position. That's not a wonderful way to explore."
โ Rob Chambers of Lockheed Martin, describing during a panel at the Space Weather Workshop how astronauts in the Orion spacecraft would shelter from a solar storm.
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