Plus: OMB's plan for weather satellites and an accurate count of tortillas in space
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 04/22/2025 | | | | | DARPA is requesting proposals for a lunar orbiter to test maneuverability and look for water ice on the moon. The agency released a program solicitation last week for Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter (LASSO), a proposed smallsat mission that would operate in lunar orbit at altitudes as low as 10 kilometers. DARPA wants to use LASSO to test navigation and propulsion technologies needed for operating in such low orbits, which could be applicable elsewhere in cislunar space. LASSO would also carry instrumentation to map the moon for concentrations of water ice high enough to justify efforts to extract them. DARPA expects to choose several proposals for concept studies to mature designs, then select one for development. DARPA anticipates working with NASA to launch LASSO, perhaps as a secondary payload. [SpaceNews]
New details have emerged about the White House's plans to revamp a NOAA weather satellite program. A draft "passback" budget sent by the Office of Management and Budget to NOAA earlier this month called for NOAA to "immediately cancel all major instrument and spacecraft contracts on the GeoXO program" of next-generation GEO weather satellites, arguing that the nearly $20 billion multi-decade program has "unsustainable" costs. The White House memo calls on NOAA to "immediately institute a major overhaul to lower lifecycle costs by 50 percent" with annual costs below $500 million, while remaining on schedule to launch the first satellite in 2032. OMB also directed NOAA to end collaboration with NASA on GeoXO, claiming that NASA is reluctant to accept risk and use fixed-price contracts. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched a rideshare mission Monday night with very few rideshare payloads on board. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 8:48 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral on the Bandwagon-3 mission, the third in a series of missions going to mid-inclination orbits. This mission, though, included just three payloads, led by a reconnaissance satellite for the South Korean military. It also carried a smallsat for Tomorrow.io and a reentry vehicle demonstrator for Atmos Space Cargo. [SpaceNews]
The United States is urging allies not to use Chinese satellite services. In an undated memo providing talking points to diplomats, the U.S. State Department argued that countries should not allow Chinese satellite services to operate in other countries, calling such services "untrusted providers." The memo also stated that U.S. companies offered more reliable services, but acknowledged those companies, like SpaceX, have the right to restrict or withhold services. [Defense One]
| | | | | A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station this morning. The Dragon docked with the station at 8:40 a.m. Eastern, a little more than a day after its launch from Florida. The spacecraft, on a mission designated SpX-32, is carrying about 3,000 kilograms of cargo, with an emphasis on crew supplies given the cancellation of the NG-22 Cygnus cargo mission that was to launch in June. [NASA]
The African Space Agency formally opened its headquarters in Cairo. The agency, established by the African Union, seeks to coordinate space activities among African nations and unify positions of those countries in international settings like the United Nations. The opening of the agency's headquarters was attended by representatives from Europe, Japan and the United States, among other nations. [Egypt Today]
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has returned images from an asteroid flyby. Lucy passed within about 1,000 kilometers of the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson on Sunday. Initial images transmitted by Lucy show the asteroid is elongated, with two lobes that suggest it is a contact binary. The asteroid is also larger than expected, extending about 8 kilometers on its longest axis. Lucy will be returning more data from the flyby in the coming days as it heads towards the Trojan asteroids that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit around the sun. [Sky & Telescope]
The stock market is so desperate for good news it's forced to go into space to find it. Members of the team that built and launched NASA's SPHEREx astronomy mission last month will ring the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange this afternoon. That team includes people from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as BAE Systems, which built the small space telescope. [NASA]
| Chipotle's Newest Location
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"We do always want to tailor the food packaged items based on some of the crew preferences and, in this case, with that we're sending up — an interesting fact for those who like trivia — 1,262 individual tortillas."
– Zebulon Scoville, deputy manager of the Transportation Integration Office for NASA's International Space Station program, discussing at a briefing Friday the food on the Dragon mission to the ISS.
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