Plus: How long can the ISS last?
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 04/29/2025 | | | | | The first operational satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband constellation are in orbit after a launch Monday night. An Atlas 5 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 7:01 p.m. Eastern and placed 27 Kuiper satellites into orbit. Amazon confirmed several hours later that the satellites were functioning. The satellites are the first in a constellation of 3,236 spacecraft Amazon plans to deploy to provide global broadband services. That deployment is running behind schedule, making it likely that Amazon will request an extension of an FCC deadline to have half the constellation in orbit by July 2026. Amazon is relying primarily on new rockets — Ariane 6, New Glenn and Vulcan — to launch most of those satellites, and those vehicles have suffered delays entering commercial service. [SpaceNews]
Satellite manufacturer Apex has raised $200 million. The company announced Tuesday a Series C round led by Point72 Ventures and co-led by 8VC, with several existing and new investors also participating. Apex, which raised $95 million in a Series B round last year, said it will use the new funding to increase vertical integration and other measures to accelerate production of its satellite buses. The company says it is seeing strong demand, particularly for national security applications, but has not disclosed how many satellites it has sold. [SpaceNews]
Satellite operator Spire Global has closed the $241 million sale of its commercial maritime tracking business after a legal dispute. Spire announced last November it would sell the unit to Belgian analytics provider Kpler, but filed suit in February to compel Kpler to complete the deal. Spire said it used proceeds from the sale to pay off its roughly $100 million in outstanding debt, reserving the rest for growth initiatives across other lines of business. [SpaceNews]
A veteran NASA astronaut said the International Space Station can operate well past 2030. At a press conference Monday, Don Pettit, who just completed his third long-duration mission to the station, described the ISS as "a well-oiled machine" operating at peak efficiency. He said he thought the station could operate well past 2030 provided NASA continued to invest in refurbishment, comparing the station to B-52 bombers that continue to fly more than 60 years after they were built. Pettit, who turned 70 years old as he returned to Earth earlier this month, said he would like to go to space again. [SpaceNews]
China is exploring the development of its first overseas launch site with a proposed equatorial spaceport in Malaysia. The China Great Wall Industry Corporation signed a letter of intent with two Malaysian entities earlier this month to perform a one-year feasibility study for a proposed spaceport in the Malaysian state of Pahang, just north of the Equator. If the project goes forward, it could ease bottlenecks in existing Chinese launch sites and enhance relations between China and Malaysia. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | China launched a third set of satellites for its Guowang constellation Monday. A Long March 5B heavy lift rocket with a Yuanzheng-2 upper stage lifted off at 4:10 p.m. Eastern from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology said the launch of the Guowang satellites was a success but did not disclose any additional details. A mission patch with 10 stars on it suggests the rocket carried 10 satellites. An estimated 29 Guowang satellites are now in orbit for a constellation intended to have as many as 13,000 satellites. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched two sets of Starlink satellites on opposite coasts Monday. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:42 p.m. Eastern and put 27 Starlink satellites into orbit. A second Falcon 9 lifted off at 10:34 p.m. Eastern from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, putting 23 Starlink satellites in orbit. The Florida launch involved the rare flight of a new Falcon 9 booster, while the California launch used a booster on its 25th flight. [Spaceflight Now]
Chinese astronauts are getting an extra day in space. Chinese officials said they postponed the scheduled return Tuesday of the Shenzhou-19 spacecraft from the Tiangong space station, citing poor weather conditions at the Inner Mongolia landing site. The landing will instead take place no earlier than Wednesday. The spacecraft will return three Chinese astronauts who spent the last six months on Tiangong. [Xinhua]
The Texas legislature has blocked a bill that would have given SpaceX more authority over beach closing at its Starbase site. A committee of the Texas House of Representatives voted against the bill Monday, keeping it from going to the full House. The bill would have given SpaceX, and not Cameron County, more authority to close the single road leading to both the Starbase test site and Boca Chica Beach for launches and other test activities. Some local residents opposed the bill, arguing it gave SpaceX too much control over beach access. [San Antonio Express-News]
A wayward Soviet-era spacecraft, intended to go to Venus, will instead soon reenter the Earth's atmosphere. Cosmos 482 was launched in 1972 on a mission to Venus, but a failure of its rocket's upper stage instead stranded the spacecraft in low Earth orbit. That orbit has been gradually decaying and the spacecraft is now expected to reenter around May 9 or 10. The spacecraft includes a descent probe designed to enter the atmosphere of Venus, and thus would likely survive an Earth reentry. [Space.com]
| Gravity Weighs on You
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"A week ago, I was on station. I was doing really heavy squats. I was doing deadlifts. I could float around with the greatest of ease even though I had no trapeze. I was right at the peak of my game. And then you come back to Earth and it's like, 'God, I can't even get up from the floor anymore.'"
– NASA astronaut Don Pettit, describing at a press conference Monday his readjustment to gravity after seven months on the International Space Station.
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