A launch date for Amazon's Project Kuiper

Plus: A new report shows Russia and China are targeting Starlink

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View in Browser A SpaceNews daily newsletter 04/03/2025 Top Stories The first operational satellites of Amazon's Project Kuiper constellation will launch next week. Amazon and United Launch Alliance announced Wednesday that the first Atlas 5 launch of 27 Kuiper satellites is scheduled for April 9 from Cape Canaveral. This will be the first batch of operational satellites after another Atlas 5 launched two prototypes in 2023. These satellites feature significant upgrades over the prototypes, including improved phased array antennas, processors, solar arrays, propulsion and optical inter-satellite links. This first launch is roughly a year behind schedule, and Amazon has a July 2026 deadline set by the FCC to deploy half of the roughly 3,200 satellites in the constellation. An Amazon spokesperson said the company is already shipping satellites for a second launch, also on an Atlas 5. [SpaceNews] The long-awaited confirmation hearing of Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator is on the calendar. The Senate Commerce Committee announced late Wednesday that it will hold a confirmation hearing for Isaacman, along with FCC commissioner nominee Olivia Trusty, on April 9. Isaacman's nomination has won broad support in the space industry, which has been anxiously awaiting the confirmation hearing. On Tuesday, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a member of the Commerce Committee, said he met with Isaacman and wanted the committee "to quickly conduct a confirmation hearing" on the nomination. [SpaceNews] Russia and China have been taking aim at SpaceX's Starlink system through electronic warfare. In a report published Thursday, the Secure World Foundation said that both countries have been stepping up efforts to disrupt Starlink services, driven by the value that system has provided in Ukraine. Two Russian systems have been used to disrupt Starlink communications, including one called Kalinka that also appears able to detect terminals using Starshield, the military version of Starlink. China has also been working on counterspace capabilities to target commercial satellite constellations like Starlink in the event of armed conflict with the United States. [SpaceNews] Portal Space Systems has raised $17.5 million to work on a highly maneuverable spacecraft. Portal announced the seed round Thursday led by AlleyCorp, an early-stage investor, along with several other funds. Portal says the funds will allow it to complete development of Supernova, a spacecraft with a solar thermal propulsion system that enables it to rapidly move between orbits. Portal said it is seeing strong commercial and military interest in the technology. Portal plans to launch its first Supernova vehicle on a demonstration mission in mid-2026. [SpaceNews] Turion Space, a startup developing space situational awareness and satellite servicing systems, has a new investor. Washington Harbour Partners, which invests in technology companies focused on government and national security markets, said it made an investment of undisclosed size into Turion, joining other investors such as Y Combinator and Forward Deployed VC. The funding aims to expand Turion's capabilities in space domain awareness, missile warning and tracking, orbital debris management and collision avoidance. Turion launched its latest spacecraft, Droid.002, last month to provide space situational awareness and debris monitoring services. [SpaceNews] Other News China launched a radar calibration payload Wednesday night. A Long March 6 lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 10:12 p.m. Eastern and placed into orbit Tianping-3A (02), which Chinese media described as supporting the calibration of ground-based radars. China launched three similar Tianping satellites last October. [Xinhua]  Commercial space station developer Vast has signed an agreement to perform tests at a NASA facility. Vast said Thursday it reached an agreement with NASA to use the Armstrong Flight Test Facility in Ohio for environmental tests of its Haven-1 spacecraft early next year. Haven-1 is a single-module station that will launch as soon as May 2026 to support up to four short-duration flights. Vast is also using Haven-1 to gain experience for the larger Haven-2 station it plans to offer to NASA for the agency's Commercial LEO Destinations program, which supports development of commercial space stations to succeed the ISS. [SpaceNews] The government of Turkey is planning to create a spaceport outside the country. The Spaceport Türkiye project would create a launch facility in a country closer to the Equator, such as Somalia. The spaceport would host launches by future Turkish rockets carrying domestic satellites, reducing reliance on foreign platforms. The announcement did not provide a schedule for building the spaceport. [Türkiye Today] NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has observed an asteroid that, for a time, appeared to be on a collision course. The observations of 2024 YR4 have allowed scientists to better estimate the sizeof the asteroid, now thought to be about 60 meters across. For a time earlier this year, observations of the asteroid by ground-based telescopes showed it had a chance of a few percent of colliding with the Earth in December 2032, but subsequent observations have ruled out an Earth impact. However, 2024 YR4 still has a 3.8% chance of hitting the moon in December 2032. [NASA] Miso in space tastes different from its terrestrial counterpart. Researchers flew a sample of miso, a fermented soybean paste, on the ISS for a month, and later compared it to part of the same batch that remained on the ground. The space-flown miso had a nuttier taste, which may be linked to a larger amount of compounds called pyrazines in it. Researchers said they are interested in the viability of fermented foods like miso that could provide greater taste and variety of foods on long-duration spaceflights. [Science News] Don't Give DOGE Any Ideas "In the very middle — you can barely see it — of that image is Shackleton Crater. It's a 20-kilometer-diameter crater at the south pole of the moon. You can fit Washington, DC, inside that crater. As much as we'd love to send Washington to a dark place in the south pole, we're not doing that, not until Artemis 7 or 8, at least." – Noah Petro, project scientist for Artemis 3, discussing science plans for that lunar mission during a meeting of two National Academies committees Wednesday. What's New With SpaceNews? Don't forget to sign up for our next webinar! Join us April 16 for an exclusive panel discussion on those challenging Starlink and the push for multi-orbit and multi-operator solutions. Manage Preferences

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CLPS and chips

Plus: Why jackets are needed in Mission Control

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View in Browser A SpaceNews daily newsletter 04/02/2025 Top Stories Canadian satellite manufacturer MDA Space announced Tuesday it will buy Israeli satellite chipmaker SatixFy in a $269 million deal. MDA would pay $2.10 per SatixFy share, a 75% premium over its stock price Monday, and pay off SatixFy's debt in a deal expected to close in the third quarter. MDA said SatixFy would strengthen the company's supply chain as it works to ramp up to producing two satellites a day with software-defined payloads that can be reprogrammed in orbit. SatixFy, already a major supplier of chips to MDA after selling its U.K.-based satellite payload systems and subsystems to the Canadian company in 2023, would also support the development of next-generation satellites. [SpaceNews] Companies offering commercial lunar lander services to NASA want the agency to expand the scope of the program. At a House space subcommittee hearing Tuesday, companies involved with NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program advocated for block buys of landers as well as opening up the program to other agencies that might be interested in delivering payloads to the moon. NASA is beginning planning for a "CLPS 2.0" when the current CLPS contracts expire in 2028. Some members of the committee criticized NASA for its decision not to fly the VIPER lunar rover on a CLPS lander as originally planned, which the agency blamed on budget problems. [SpaceNews] Slingshot Aerospace won a U.S. Air Force contract on technology to 'fingerprint' satellites. The project, funded by the AFWERX program, focuses on photometric fingerprinting, a method that uses measurements of a satellite's brightness over time to create a unique signature for each space object. By collecting and analyzing this data, Slingshot said, it can classify satellites, detect anomalies, and maintain custody of objects in low Earth orbit. This technology could help military operators to detect unexpected maneuvers by adversaries' satellites, identify newly launched foreign satellites and reacquire lost objects. [SpaceNews] The Japanese space agency JAXA is studying a new concept for landing small payloads on Mars. The director general of JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences said Tuesday that the agency is working with a Japanese company on an inflatable aeroshell concept that could handle most phases of a spacecraft's entry and descent through the Martian atmosphere. That approach could allow it to deliver payloads such as rovers weighing up to 100 to 200 kilograms to the Martian surface. Work on the aeroshell is funded by Japan's Space Strategic Fund, but JAXA did not give a schedule for potentially flying such a mission. [SpaceNews] Other News Starliner's mission to the International Space Station last June was more difficult than widely known. In interviews after a press conference Monday, Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said thruster failures as Starliner approached the station meant they lost the ability to operate in all six degrees of freedom while other operating thrusters appeared to be sluggish. That raised questions about whether Starliner could dock with the station or return to Earth. Resetting the thrusters allowed two to start working again, restoring full control and allowing Starliner to eventually dock. Wilmore said after docking he realized that he and Williams likely would not return on Starliner; they came back instead last month on a Crew Dragon spacecraft. [Ars Technica] ESA will not apply georeturn constraints on the next phase of an effort to develop commercial cargo spacecraft. ESA did not include georeturn in the first phase of its LEO Cargo Return Service project last year when it awarded study contracts to Thales Alenia Space and The Exploration Company, which The Exploration Company recently said gave it the freedom to choose their preferred suppliers rather than those based on nationality. Most ESA programs apply georeturn, where contracts are awarded based on funding levels each participating nation provides. ESA stated in a recent request for information it does not expect to use georeturn on the second phase of the program, which will support development of vehicles though a flight demonstration. [European Spaceflight] A small British company won a competition to develop technology that could extract drinkable water ice from lunar regolith. Naicker Scientific won the top prize of £150,000 ($194,000) in the Aqualunar Challenge, run by the U.K. Space Agency, for a system it calls SonoChem. That system would first microwave lunar regolith to extract water, which would then be subjected to ultrasound to remove contaminants. Two runners-up won prizes of £100,000 and £50,000 for alternative approaches for producing drinking water on the moon. [The Guardian] NASA's flight directors now have their own jacket. Some of the agency's flight directors decided to design a jacket, similar to those worn by Apollo-era astronauts, to help bring recognition to their work. The dark blue jackets include a label inside reading "Tough & Competent Since 1961." While the jackets are intended to help enhance the profile of flight directors, they also have a practical purpose: Mission Control has very strong air conditioning. [collectSPACE] Lost, Probably "Where would we all be without GPS? We certainly wouldn't know." – Margaret Kivelson, chair of the Space Studies Board, discussing the value of space technology during remarks Tuesday at the National Academies' Space Science Week. What's New With SpaceNews? Announcing the SpaceNews Job Exchange: A launchpad to career success in the space industry. Designed for job seekers, employers, and industry leaders alike. Manage Preferences

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