04/25/2025 | Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, DARPA seeks a low-orbiting, water ice-hunting lunar smallsat, NASA closes an earth science office in New York, China announces international partners for Chang'e-8, and more. | Our Top Story | | |
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| |  | By Jeff Foust, April 21, 2025
| DARPA is seeking proposals for a small lunar orbiter that could be used to test operations in very low orbits while prospecting for water ice.
DARPA issued a program solicitation April 14 for a mission concept called Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter (LASSO). The agency is seeking proposals for design studies that could lead to construction of a spacecraft.
In its solicitation, DARPA said its interest in LASSO is two-fold. One is to test navigation and propulsion technologies needed for operating in very low orbits around the moon, at altitudes as low as 10 kilometers. At those low altitudes, irregularities in the moon's gravitational field caused by mass concentrations make it challenging to maintain a safe orbit, requiring frequent maneuvers. Read More |  | Other News From the Week | CIVIL | NASA cancels lease for Earth science office in New York In an April 24 email to Goddard employees, Makenzie Lystrup, director of Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the lease the agency has for New York City office space in a Columbia University building will end May 31. Those offices host the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, part of Goddard's Earth science division. Read More
China selects international payloads for Chang'e-8 lunar south pole mission The China National Space Administration officially announced the selection of cooperation projects for the Chang'e-8 mission, scheduled to launch in 2028 or 2029, choosing 10 projects from 11 different countries, regions and one international organization. It follows a 2023 announcement of opportunities to collaborate in Chang'e-8, in which 200 kilograms of payload resources were made available. Read More
Isaacman calls potential NASA science cuts not "optimal"
NASA administrator nominee Jared Isaacman says he would, if necessary, prioritize the Artemis lunar exploration campaign over human missions to Mars and calls a potential halving of NASA science funding not "an optimal outcome." Read More | | | Loving SpaceNews This Week? Check out SpaceNext: AI, where we look at how artificial intelligence is becoming integral to the space industry, and how companies and agencies are using it for their missions. | | | COMMERCIAL | SAIC wins $55 million Space Development Agency contract for satellite network integration
Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has secured a $55 million contract from the Space Development Agency to serve as program integrator for SDA's low Earth orbit satellite constellation, the Defense Department announced April 22. The five-year contract positions SAIC, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, to lead system engineering and integration support for Tranche 3 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a constellation designed to enhance the U.S. military's ability to detect and counter missile threats. Read More
Astra targets cargo delivery with Rocket 4 in Pentagon-backed plan
Astra, the once high-flying rocket startup that crashed back to Earth with investors before going private last year, has unveiled new details about its $44 million contract with the Department of Defense that supports the development of Rocket 4, a two-stage, mobile launch vehicle with ambitions to deliver cargo across the globe in under an hour. Read More | | | LAUNCH | Atmos Space Cargo declares first test flight a success despite reentry uncertainty German startup Atmos Space Cargo said it considers the first flight of its reentry vehicle a success despite limited data on how it performed during reentry. Atmos Space Cargo flew its first Phoenix vehicle as one of the payloads on SpaceX's Bandwagon-3 rideshare mission April 21. Read More
NRO reaches milestone with more than 200 satellites deployed in two years Following the launch of the classified NROL-145 mission April 20, the National Reconnaissance Office has reached a new milestone, deploying more than 200 satellites into orbit in just over two years. Read More
China launches 6 classified experimental satellites with Long March 6A
China sent six experimental Shiyan series satellites into orbit, using its Long March 6A rocket launched from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The state-owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology announced launch success, revealing the payloads to be Shiyan-27 (01-06). Read More | | |
|  | OPINION |
|  | By Alain Berinstain, April 25, 2025
| The International Space Station has been a hub for human space exploration and research for over two decades, but its operational life is nearing its end, projected around 2030. As focus shifts to commercial platforms developed by companies like Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Vast, Voyager and others, the ISS implementation partner community โ the experts who have supported ISS operations for decades โ faces both challenges and opportunities. Ensuring their survival during this transition is vital for sustaining space exploration momentum, preserving expertise and driving innovation in the commercial space era.
The ISS implementation partner community, of which I'm a member, comprises diverse entities โ small and medium-sized companies, engineers, and scientists โ who design experiments, build and operate hardware, manage logistics and analyze data in the ISS's unique microgravity environment. Their specialized skills have fueled breakthroughs in fields like medicine, materials science and Earth observation, making them a cornerstone of the ISS's success. It's critical that this resource is preserved and not lost in the shuffle as commercial space stations replace the ISS. Read More
Hidden and hampered: elevating the Office of Commercial Space Transportation By Dave Cavossa
The guardian's rifle: why mission-essential space support cannot be outsourced By Charles Beames and Angel Smith
Taking 'remote care' to new heights โ how space can shape the future of healthcare
By Dorit Donoviel
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Sponsored Post |  | By Booz Allen Hamilton
The Russia-Ukraine war is arguably the first commercial space war on account of its use of private companies' imagery for tracking and targeting. The conflict has demonstrated the advantage of knowing what's happening on the ground and highlighted the role of the space domain for the critical Indo-Pacific region and hot spots around the world. Now, countries across the globe are speeding up their space programs, adding urgency as the U.S. accelerates space modernization.
The proliferation of next-generation satellites is fueling demand for next-generation infrastructure. Virtual ground systems, which use software-defined infrastructure and cloud computing to control satellites, offer a giant leap forward for space operations. These virtual systems are not tethered to a single brick-and-mortar facility. They are more secure and easier to update than hardware-dependent legacy systems. They also allow for the seamless integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into space operations. These advances allow operators to process the data that satellites collect rather than simply store it or delete it as unusable. The result is a flood of rich insights that can improve operators' real-time decision making. Read More
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