| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 05/13/2025 | | | | | Solid rocket motor manufacturer X-Bow Systems has raised money from, and signed an agreement with, Lockheed Martin. X-Bow said Monday it raised $35 million from Lockheed to complete a $105 million Series B round. The company, which specializes in solid rocket propulsion and small launch vehicles, plans to use the capital to expand production and complete construction of a new "energetics campus" outside Austin, Texas, for producing motors and propellants using additive manufacturing. In addition to the funding, the companies signed a strategic agreement that could lead to X-Bow becoming a supplier of motors to Lockheed. The agreement marks a deepening interest by Lockheed in securing alternative sources for solid rocket motors after a bid to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne was blocked by regulators in 2022. [SpaceNews]
The Defense Innovation Unit has added more than a dozen companies to a project to develop a commercial-military satellite network. The project, Hybrid Space Architecture (HSA), brings together Earth-imaging satellite operators, broadband providers and companies specializing in cybersecurity, cloud computing, and quantum encryption with the goal of creating a secure infrastructure for delivering satellite data to military users. Vendors are being asked to build and demonstrate ways to gather, transmit and process data securely across the globe and deliver it to military units. HSA started in 2022 with eight companies. [SpaceNews]
Two companies won Space Force contracts to develop prototype cloud-based marketplaces for ground station services. Auria Space and Sphinx Defense, both based in Colorado Springs, will develop competing versions of what the Space Force calls a "joint antenna marketplace" under contracts with a combined value of $17.6 million. The joint antenna marketplace would function as a digital clearinghouse where satellite operations centers could dynamically schedule communication sessions with antennas based on availability, bandwidth and mission needs. That system would take advantage of underutilized commercial ground systems while reducing demand on overloaded military systems. [SpaceNews]
Foreign companies planning to launch on SpaceX rockets are facing new challenges from tariffs. One Canadian company, Galaxia, said it had to pay a 25% duty on a satellite it planned to launch on SpaceX's Transport-14 mission later this year, which led the company to consider alternative launch options before deciding to stick with its current plan. Exolaunch, which is providing launch services for Galaxia and others on Transporter-14, said it is working with its customers to take advantage of a "duty drawback" program that allows the companies to reclaim up to 99% of the duty for items that are re-exported, such as through a launch. Before the Trump administration's latest tariffs, satellites had been exempted from duties. [SpaceNews]
Redwire said it is seeing new opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic despite geopolitical challenges. Company executives in an earnings call Monday highlighted recent contract awards in Europe, including one with Thales Alenia Space to provide docking mechanisms for a lunar Gateway module Thales is building for ESA. Redwire downplayed the proposal by NASA to cancel Gateway, going as far to suggest that Europe might find alternative ways to pursue a program like Gateway if the current program is canceled. In the U.S., Redwire said it is pursuing various opportunities to work on the Golden Dome missile defense system. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | China launched the latest in a series of classified geostationary orbit satellites Monday. A Long March 3C lifted off at 2:09 p.m. Eastern from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center and placed into a geosynchronous transfer orbit the Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-19 (TJS-19) satellite. The satellite appears related to the TJS-15, 16 and 17 satellites launched in March and April, but Chinese officials said only that the satellite will be used for "multi-band, high-speed satellite communication technology verification." [SpaceNews]
SpaceX performed another Starlink launch doubleheader overnight. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:15 p.m. Eastern Monday, placing 26 Starlink satellites into orbit. Another Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:02 a.m. Eastern Tuesday, putting 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. The Florida launch featured the 28th flight of the B1067 booster, a new reuse record for the company. [Space.com]
Earth observation satellites are working with each other to coordinate imaging. In spite of daunting technical challenges, such coordination, known as tipping and cueing, is now becoming more common and more seamless. That is due in part to the proliferation of satellite sensors as well as artificial intelligence that helps automate the task of sharing the geographic location of an interesting site or the trajectory of a moving vehicle or vessel. In one example, optical imagery revealed an object near a dry dock covered in netting; followup observations using synthetic aperture radar revealed that that object to be a submarine. Companies have also used radio-frequency data to identify a vessel that has turned off its tracking system, turning that location over to other satellites to image it. [SpaceNews]
The FCC says it plans to investigate if EchoStar is using its terrestrial and satellite spectrum. A letter from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to Charlie Ergen, EchoStar's chairman, questioned if the company was fulfilling obligations for building out a terrestrial 5G network under the Boost brand. The letter also said it would seek public comment on use of mobile satellite services spectrum currently held by EchoStar. SpaceX, in a recent letter to the commission, claimed it analyzed that spectrum using one of its satellites and concluded EchoStar's utilization of it was "de minimis at best," a claim EchoStar has rejected. [Wall Street Journal]
U.S. Space Command has been gradually getting more authority to perform counterspace operations. Current and former military officials said that Space Command has been getting more control over the use of anti-satellite capabilities, which traditionally had been under the control of the president or secretary of defense. That has focused on temporary, reversible actions like jamming and lazing, rather than an attack to destroy a satellite. However, there is widespread agreement that counterspace operations will eventually move more into the mainstream of military activities. [Breaking Defense]
| The End Is Nearer
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"So the ultimate end of the universe comes much sooner than expected, but fortunately it still takes a very long time."
– Heino Falcke, a professor of astrophysics at Radboud University in the Netherlands, on research he led that found that all the stars in the universe will "evaporate" through a process called Hawking radiation in "just" 1078 years (1 followed by 78 zeroes), versus the 101100 years previously calculated. [Radboud Univ.]
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