Astronomy Prints 🌌: A launch date for Amazon's Project Kuiper

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04/03/2025

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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.