Plus: The new secretary of the Air Force and AST SpaceMobile's plans
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 05/14/2025 | | | | | Faulty altimeters and lighting conditions caused Intuitive Machines' second lunar lander to fall on its side in March. In an earnings call Tuesday, company executives said their review of the IM-2 mission found that laser altimeters on the lander suffered "signal noise and distortion" that kept them from providing accurate altitude readings during the final phases of the lander's descent. Lighting conditions at the landing site in the south polar region of the moon, with long shadows, also affected the lander, as did differences in the appearance in craters at lower altitudes compared to reference images used by the lander's optical navigation system. The company said changes to the company's next lander to fix those problems, such as the use of dissimilar and redundant altimeters, won't delay the mission, set to launch next year, and will only slightly increase its cost. [SpaceNews]
The Senate confirmed Troy Meink as secretary of the Air Force Tuesday. The Senate voted 74-25 to confirm his nomination, winning bipartisan support despite controversies about alleged favoritism toward SpaceX and his relationship with Elon Musk. Meink, who most recently served as deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, is expected to advocate for increased Space Force resources and to help shape its expanding mission set. [SpaceNews]
AST SpaceMobile plans to launch satellites for its direct-to-smartphone broadband constellation every one to two months starting in July. The company said in an earnings call this week that it has five launches under contract with multiple providers over the next six to nine months. That includes the first launch of its larger Block 2 satellite, which will have 10 times the capacity of its existing Block 1 satellites. The company plans to start offering broader commercial services in early 2026, including video conferencing, for anchor mobile operator partners seeking to keep their subscribers connected outside cell tower coverage. [SpaceNews]
Eutelsat will incorporate software-defined technologies into its future OneWeb satellites. Ramon.Space announced a deal Wednesday to supply digital communication channelizer systems for at least 70 upcoming OneWeb satellites. Those systems will allow future OneWeb satellites to be reconfigured once in orbit. The first-generation OneWeb satellites currently in orbit use analog channelizers to sort and direct data traffic, relying on hardware that must be configured before launch and cannot be adapted once in space. Eutelsat has outlined plans to invest up to 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) to deploy the 440 satellites needed to sustain the OneWeb constellation until IRIS² comes online. [SpaceNews]
OroraTech has raised an additional $13.3 million for its wildfire-monitoring satellite constellation. The company said Wednesday it secured the addition to its Series B round from investors led by BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund, a sustainability-focused investment vehicle managed by one of Europe's largest banks, BNP Paribas. The funds will support the deployment of eight more satellites later this year after the launch of eight in March. [SpaceNews]
Members of Congress have formed a caucus to support the Golden Dome missile-defense system. The Golden Dome Caucus, announced Tuesday by Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), will address what he said was insufficient understanding of the project's complexity and potential cost. He argued that the scale of Golden Dome will require a closer relationship among members of Congress, the Defense Department and industry. While Congress is proposing to provide an initial tranche of $25 billion for Golden Dome this year, he cautioned that it "will likely cost in the trillions if and when Golden Dome is completed." [SpaceNews]
| | | | | The third mission by Varda Space Industries concluded with a reentry Wednesday. The capsule from the W-3 mission successfully landed in the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia. The spacecraft launched two months ago and carried an inertial measurement unit (IMU) developed for the U.S. Air Force by Innovative Scientific Solutions Inc. to collect data in the hypersonic phases of reentry. The W-3 mission landed two and a half months after the previous mission, W-2, also landed in Australia. [SpaceNews]
China launched a set of satellites for a space computing constellation. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:12 a.m. Eastern and placed into orbit what Chinese media said was a "space computing satellite constellation." The constellation is believed to be 12 small satellites for a Chinese company, ADA Space. [Xinhua]
A new report found modest increases in satellite industry revenue in 2024 even as the number of satellites grows much faster. The Satellite Industry Association's annual State of the Satellite Industry Report, released Tuesday, said that the satellite industry had $293 billion in revenue in 2024, a 3% increase. Bigger increases in satellite manufacturing, launch and ground equipment were offset by declines in satellite TV services, part of broader changes as consumers shift to streaming services. By contrast, the number of operational satellites has more than tripled since 2020. At an event to roll out the report, Jay Schwarz, chief of the FCC's Space Bureau, emphasized efforts to improve regulatory processes to benefit the industry, including progress in reducing the backlog of license applications. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX is gearing up for a Starship test flight as soon as next week. The company said Tuesday it completed a long-duration static-fire test of the Starship upper stage and was moving into final preparations for its launch. That launch could take place as soon as May 21 based on navigation notices. That upcoming flight, the ninth for Starship, is critical after the last two ended with the loss of the Starship upper stage. [Ars Technica]
A Saudi cubesat will hitch a ride on Artemis 2. NASA said Tuesday that a cubesat from the Saudi Space Agency, designed to collect space weather data, will be one of several flying as secondary payloads on the launch. NASA previously announced that Germany and South Korea will also fly cubesats on the launch. The Saudi deal was announced as part of President Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia. [NASA]
Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has stepped down from the board of Viasat. The satellite operator said this week that Bridenstine, who had been on the board since April 2021, had resigned for undisclosed reasons. Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg noted in a statement that the company would continue to work with Bridenstine as a consultant through his company, The Artemis Group. Viasat separately announced it had appointed Bill LaPlante, a former undersecretary of defense, and Michael Paull, a former Disney executive, to the board. [Viasat]
| Just to a Much Smaller Audience
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"I'm an economist, so getting to keynote a statistical report is kind of like a musician getting to play the Super Bowl."
– FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz, speaking at a Satellite Industry Association event Tuesday to mark the release of the organization's annual State of the Satellite Industry Report.
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