Plus: Katalyst Space Technologies has acquired Atomos Space
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| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 04/24/2025 | | | | | China launched a new crew to its space station this morning. A Long March 2F lifted off at 5:17 a.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and placed the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the Tiangong space station roughly six and a half hours after liftoff. The spacecraft is carrying veteran Chinese astronaut Chen Dong, making his third flight, and first-time astronauts Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie. The three will spend about six months on the station. [AP]
Boeing's CEO says the company has made progress on containing the costs of its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle. In an earnings call Wednesday, Kelly Ortberg cited Starliner among the fixed-price programs in which the company has made "real good progress" on addressing cost growth. Boeing took $523 million in charges against earnings on Starliner in 2024 but did not report any additional charges in the first quarter of this year. Boeing officials did not go into details on how they are resolving problems the spacecraft encountered on its crewed test flight last year. [SpaceNews]
Amazon is reportedly struggling to manufacture Project Kuiper broadband satellites. The company has built only a "few dozen" of the satellites so far, a tiny fraction of the planned constellation of more than 3,200 spacecraft. That work has been hampered by faulty components from suppliers as well as the challenge of making a sophisticated satellite. Amazon plans to ultimately produce five satellites a day, but issues ramping up production as well as launch delays likely mean the company will need to seek an extension from the FCC on a July 2026 deadline to have half the constellation in orbit. [Bloomberg]
Katalyst Space Technologies has acquired Atomos Space, a deal that combines two startups in the in-space operations field. Arizona-based Katalyst purchased Colorado-based Atomos for an undisclosed sum in a deal that closed in March but was only now disclosed. Katalyst has been working on satellite servicing technologies while Atomos developed an orbital transfer vehicle, flying a prototype of it last year. The deal will allow the combined company to offer "full-stack mission solutions" that include satellite servicing. [SpaceNews]
German space traffic management startup Okapi:Orbits raised 13 million euros ($14.75 million) in a new funding round. The round, announced Thursday, was led by VenTech, a European early-stage venture capital firm, with several other firms participating. Okapi plans to use the funding to expand its team and enhance its products, which include tools for space situational awareness and collision avoidance. The company, spun out of the Technical University of Braunschweig, has customers in Asia, Europe and the United States. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | The Senate Commerce Committee will take up Jared Isaacman's nomination to be NASA administrator next week. The committee announced Wednesday it will hold an executive session on April 30 when members will vote to send the nomination to the full Senate. The session will include several bills as well, such as one on delivery of NASA reports to Congress and another that would formally authorize NASA's commercial earth observation satellite data purchase program. [Senate Commerce Committee]
Rocket Lab won a contract for a launch of the suborbital version of its Electron rocket. Rocket Lab said Wednesday that Kratos awarded it a contract for a launch of its HASTE vehicle carrying a hypersonic test payload. That launch is scheduled for no earlier than the first quarter of next year from Wallops Island, Virginia. Rocket Lab says it has several HASTE launches on its manifest for this year and next for the Defense Innovation Unit, Leidos and a confidential customer. [Rocket Lab]
Firefly Aerospace won a contract from the Air Force Research Lab to build a ceramic nozzle extension for rocket engines. The nozzle extension would be used on upper-stage engines to increase their performance without requiring the use of expensive, heavy metals. Firefly says its ceramic matrix composite nozzle extension could cut the mass of such components by more than 50%. Firefly plans to eventually use the nozzle extension on the Lightning engine on the upper stage of its Alpha rocket and the Vira engine to be used on the upper stage of its Medium Launch Vehicle. [Firefly Aerospace]
The last H-2A rocket is scheduled to launch this summer. The Japanese space agency JAXA announced Wednesday a June 24 launch date for the 50th and final H-2A, carrying the GOSAT-GW earth science satellite. Japan is shifting to the H3 rocket, which has made four successful launches after a failure on its inaugural flight in 2023. [Jiji Press]
The head of India's space program claims the country will launch as many as 150 satellites in the next few years for border security. V Narayanan, chairman of the Indian space agency ISRO, said the country was planning to launch 100 to 150 satellites in the next three years devoted to border security and coastal surveillance. That is far more than the 55 satellites India currently operates for all applications. He provided few details on how the satellites would be built and launched, and what role ISRO would play in a national security program like this. The comments come after a terrorist attack in Kashmir that killed 26 people. [India Today]
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is criticizing proposed cuts to NASA science programs. In a commentary, Gingrich, described cuts of up to 50% in NASA's science programs expected to be included in the White House's 2026 budget proposal as "reckless." The piece was co-authored with former House Science Committee chairman Robert Walker and Charles Miller, a former senior adviser at NASA. The cuts, they argued, could "let China become the world leader in science." They advocated instead for reforming how NASA does science missions to reduce their costs and timelines, calling for more commercial approaches like an expansion of NASA's CLPS commercial lunar lander program, and more investment in space weather and planetary defense. [RealClearScience]
| Paperwork Makes the Team Work
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"I remember this January and February, I think I was working 18 hours a day just doing paperwork. Space missions are made of paperwork."
โ Maximillian Bhatti, CEO of startup Basalt Space, when asked during a panel at the MIT SpaceTech conference Wednesday the biggest challenge his company has faced.
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