Plus: SpinLaunch's new turn and Voyager Technologies' acquisition
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| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 04/04/2025 | | | | | China's rapidly advancing space program presents a significant challenge to American dominance in orbit, the Space Force's top general says. Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Thursday that Beijing's space ambitions constitute a "powerful destabilizing force" in the increasingly contested domain. He cited China's growing arsenal of counterspace weapons, including ground-based anti-satellite missiles, laser systems and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as Chinese experimental satellites that have demonstrated the ability to manipulate other satellites. Saltzman argued for policy adjustments as well as increased budgets to counter those threats. [SpaceNews]
A new report also highlighted China's growing counterspace capabilities. The Secure World Foundation's Global Counterspace Capabilities report, released Thursday, discussed China's sustained effort to develop a broad range of offensive counterspace capabilities, detailing a number of activities involving anti-satellite weapons, electronic warfare and rendezvous and proximity operations. The report notably suggests that China has deployed an experimental satellite in geostationary orbit to practice space-based jamming. The report added there is little information on how much China spends on counterspace activities. [SpaceNews]
SpinLaunch, a company best known for work on an unconventional launch system, is now planning a broadband satellite constellation. The company announced plans Thursday for Meridian Space, which would initially feature 280 satellites in low Earth orbit providing broadband services. SpinLaunch signed a contract worth 122.5 million euros ($136 million) with smallsat manufacturer Kongsberg NanoAvionics to manufacture the satellites. The deal that includes a $12 million investment by Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace into SpinLaunch. SpinLaunch plans to launch the first demo satellites in 2026, with operational satellites to follow as soon as the second half of 2027. SpinLaunch is continuing work on an orbital launch system that would use a large centrifuge as a first stage, signing a lease agreement for land on Adak Island in Alaska to host that facility. Development of that system, though, will take at least several years. [SpaceNews]
Voyager Technologies will acquire LEOcloud, a startup focused on space-based cloud computing. LEOCloud is preparing to install its Space Edge micro datacenter on the International Space Station as a test of a future system that would provide cloud computing infrastructure in low Earth orbit. Voyager said it plans to integrate the technology into its overall portfolio of space systems. The companies did not disclose terms of the acquisition. [SpaceNews]
A small spacecraft earlier this year successfully demonstrated the ability to analyze data and make decisions independent of controllers on the ground. The demonstration was conducted by Arlington, Virginia-based startups NOVI and Sedaro, with NOVI providing the spacecraft that had been built for an unnamed government customer and Sedaro offering the software that enabled autonomous operations. In this demonstration, the Sedaro software allowed the satellite to be "self aware," or to autonomously execute tasks based on its environment and status, the companies said. The satellite was launched on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission in January and completed its tests in February. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | SpaceX launched another set of Starlink satellites Thursday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:02 p.m. Eastern and placed 27 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was scheduled for Tuesday but postponed by weather. The launch marked the third flight in 23 days of the same Falcon 9 booster, which conducted launches for NASA and the NRO last month. [Noozhawk]
The next flight of SpaceX's Starship will feature the first reuse of the Super Heavy booster. The company performed a static-fire test of the Super Heavy booster, designated Booster 14, Thursday morning at its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas. That booster launched Starship's seventh test flight in January, returning to be caught by the launch tower. After the test, SpaceX said Booster 14 will be used for the next Starship launch, which has not been scheduled. [Ars Technica]
The Fram2 private astronaut mission is scheduled to return to Earth today. SpaceX says it is planning for the Crew Dragon spacecraft to splash down off the California coast at 12:19 p.m. Eastern. Fram2 launched Monday night on the first crewed mission to go into polar orbit. The four-person crew has been performing nearly two dozen experiments while observing the polar regions. This will be the first Crew Dragon mission to splash down off the California coast rather than near Florida, a change SpaceX made to better control the reentry of the spacecraft's trunk section. [Space.com]
Wildlife experts have concerns about plans by the U.S. Air Force to conduct "rocket cargo" tests on a Pacific island. The Air Force announced last month a proposal to create landing pads on Johnston Atoll, an uninhabited island that previously hosted military facilities, for the Air Force Research Lab's Rocket Cargo program. Those pads would support landings of vehicles, such as SpaceX's Starship, to demonstrate the ability to quickly transport cargo. Biologists, though, are worried that the project could disrupt the tropical birds that use the island for nesting. The island hosts about 1 million birds a year, compared to a few thousand a year in the 1980s. [Reuters]
NASA's Artemis 2 mission now has an official patch. NASA unveiled the patch design Thursday, featuring the moon in the foreground with a crescent Earth rising behind it, recalling the famous "Earthrise" photo from the Apollo 8 mission. The patch also includes an "A II" intended to both represent Artemis 2 but also be read as "all", which NASA says is intended to emphasize that the overall Artemis campaign "seeks to explore for all and by all." [NASA]
| Disturbingly Intelligent
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"I read your bios and I'm disturbed at how intelligent you are all, and a little intimidated as well. Congress is not notorious for bringing Ph.D. professor types to our service."
โ Rep. Mike Kennedy (R-Utah), addressing witnesses at a hearing this week by the House Science Committee's space subcommittee on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
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