📅Project Kuiper has a launch date - SpaceNews This Week

Top Stories of the Week From SpaceNews

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View in Browser 04/04/2025 Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, Project Kuiper has an operational launch date, SpaceX launched a new private crew mission, the first Spectrum launch fails, and more. Our Top Story Project Kuiper readies long-awaited operational satellite launch By Jason Rainbow, April 2, 2025 United Launch Alliance is set to loft the first 27 satellites of the more than 3,200 planned for Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband constellation April 9, roughly a year behind schedule as the company races to meet deployment deadlines. Amazon said April 2 it is preparing to launch its first batch of satellites to low Earth orbit on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, as part of a mission dubbed KA-01 (Kuiper Atlas 1). The satellites feature significant upgrades over two prototypes ULA launched on an Atlas V in 2023, according to Amazon, including improved phased array antennas, processors, solar arrays, propulsion and optical inter-satellite links. Read More Other News From the Week MILITARY U.S. Space Force chief: China's capabilities in orbit a 'destabilizing force' Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that Beijing's space ambitions constitute a "powerful destabilizing force" to American dominance in the increasingly contested domain. Read More China expands counterspace capabilities, new report finds The Secure World Foundation's Global Counterspace Capabilities report 2025 states that China has implemented a sustained effort to develop a broad range of offensive counterspace capabilities, and details a number of activities in the areas of direct-ascent and co-orbital anti-satellite systems, rendezvous and proximity operations, directed energy weapons and electronic warfare. 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 SpinLaunch announces plans for broadband satellite constellation The company announced April 3 that it signed a contract worth 122.5 million euros ($136 million) with smallsat manufacturer Kongsberg NanoAvionics to produce 280 satellites for a constellation called Meridian Space. The deal includes a $12 million investment in SpinLaunch by NanoAvionics' parent company, Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace. Read More MDA Space buys SatixFy to boost constellation production Canada's MDA Space announced plans April 1 to buy Israeli satellite chipmaker SatixFy in a $269 million deal to further vertically integrate its constellation manufacturing capabilities. Mike Greenley, MDA's CEO, 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. Read More LAUNCH SpaceX launches Fram2 private astronaut mission SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon spacecraft March 31 on a private astronaut mission that is the first crewed spaceflight to pass over the poles. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 9:47 p.m. Eastern from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft Resilience. The spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9's upper stage about 10 minutes later. Read More Investigation into failed New Glenn landing completed The Federal Aviation Administration announced March 31 it accepted the findings of an investigation led by Blue Origin into the inaugural flight of New Glenn on Jan. 16. While the vehicle's upper stage reached orbit as planned, the first stage was unable to land on a Blue Origin landing ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Read More Isar Aerospace's first Spectrum launch fails The first launch of Isar Aerospace' Spectrum rocket failed March 30 when the vehicle lost attitude control seconds after liftoff and plummeted back to Earth, but the company still considered the launch a successful test flight. Read More OPINION Golden Dome: who and what should it defend? By Henry Sokolski, April 4, 2025 On January 27, President Trump ordered the Pentagon to develop "a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield," which, inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, came to be known as the Golden Dome. On March 28, the Pentagon blew past the White House-imposed deadline.  This shouldn't be surprising. "At a minimum" the report must include plans to defend "the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries." The White House then ordered that this report serve as the basis of a follow-on report on how best to provide theater defenses for U.S. bases and allies overseas from missile attacks. Read More Biotech is the launchpad for human survival in space By Natasha Nicholson SpaceNews is committed to publishing our community's diverse perspectives. Whether you're an academic, executive, engineer or even just a concerned citizen of the cosmos, send your arguments and viewpoints to opinion@spacenews.com to be considered for publication online or in our next magazine. The perspectives shared in these op-eds are solely those of the authors. Publish your press release with SpaceNews' premier press release service and start seeing results today. Latest Press Releases Exail unveils Spacelink-PCE, a new propagation channel emulator for satellite communication enhanced Frontgrade Gaisler and wolfSSL Collaborate to Enhance Cybersecurity in Space Applications CSF President Dave Cavossa Testifies Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Sponsored Post 'Standardization, automation, and industrialization are no longer optional' By Beyond Gravity Interview with Beyond Gravity CEO André Wall about how the international space supplier is ramping up serial production. Beyond Gravity opened two new facilities for the booming space market. Read More 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.

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