| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 05/12/2025 | | | | | In a reversal, the White House is expected to continue the National Space Council. Sources familiar with the Trump administration's discussions said the president recently agreed to have the council operate in his second term, with efforts underway to hire an executive secretary to lead the council's day-to-day work. Trump restarted the council in his first term, which continued in the Biden administration, but it initially appeared the new Trump administration would not continue it, considering it unnecessary. Some see the council as offering a counterweight to efforts by the Office of Management and Budget to seek steep cuts in NASA's budget. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab said its deal to acquire optical communications supplier Mynaric is a key part of its efforts to eventually operate its own constellation. In an earnings call last week, Rocket Lab executives said that a deal announced in March to acquire Mynaric is "progressing well" as Mynaric goes through a restructuring process under German law. Rocket Lab plans to continue offering Mynaric's technology to other customers but will also integrate it into its own plans for a satellite constellation, arguing that optical intersatellite links are a vital technology for such a system. While Rocket Lab continues to express interest in ultimately having its own constellation, it has provided few details about when it would be deployed and what services it would offer. [SpaceNews]
Canada's MDA Space sees opportunities to repurpose technology for the Canadarm3 robotic arm if it, and the lunar Gateway, are canceled. Company executives said in a call last week that they are continuing work on Canadarm3 for the Gateway under a contract awarded last year by the Canadian Space Agency despite a White House budget proposal earlier this month that seeks to cancel Gateway. The company believes that, even if Gateway is canceled, NASA will work with other space agencies to find ways to reuse those systems in Artemis. MDA Space is also using Canadarm3 technologies for its own commercial line of robotic arms it is offering to commercial space station developers and others. [SpaceNews]
The future of geostationary orbit communications satellites may feature smaller spacecraft. A new generation of smaller, more nimble communications satellites is emerging, offering faster deployment, lower costs and greater flexibility that traditional larger GEO satellites. Just six commercial communications satellites were ordered for GEO in 2024, the lowest annual tally in two decades, and half were 1,000 kilograms or smaller. Lower cost, quicker build times and adaptability make small GEOs attractive for niche markets, rapid deployment needs and specific regional or governmental applications such as secure communications and national broadband access. [SpaceNews]
A change in engines will delay the launch of a commercial lunar lander mission. On Friday, ispace U.S. said it changed the main engine it will use on its Apex 1.0 lunar lander it is developing for a mission led by Draper as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The company said it concluded than an engine from Agile Space Industries originally baselined for the lander would not be ready in time, and is instead working with Agile on an alternative, simpler engine design. That work will push back the launch of the mission, carrying a suite of NASA payloads, from 2026 to 2027. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | China launched a trio of military satellites Sunday. A Long March 6 rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 9:27 a.m. Eastern and placed into orbit the three Yaogan-40 (02) satellites. Chinese media said the satellites will perform "electromagnetic environment detection and related technical tests," but the satellites are believed to have military applications such as signals intelligence. [Xinhua]
SpaceX performed two Falcon 9 launches of Starlink satellites hours apart over the weekend. One Falcon 9 launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 8:19 p.m. Eastern Friday, putting 26 Starlink satellites into orbit. A second Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:28 a.m. Eastern Saturday, putting 28 Starlink satellites into orbit. Another Falcon 9 Starlink launch early Monday was scrubbed because of poor weather in Florida. [Spaceflight Now]
The Indian military is asking companies to accelerate work on a series of reconnaissance satellites. Ananth Technologies, Centum Electronics and Alpha Design Technologies received contracts last year to develop 31 surveillance satellites that, at the time, were to be completed by the end of 2028. Those companies have now been asked to speed up that development, with a new goal of having the satellites done by the end of 2026. The Indian government has released few details about the capabilities of the satellites, part of a $3 billion initiative called Space-Based Surveillance-3 that also includes government-developed satellites. The request to accelerate work came shortly before the recent tensions between India and Pakistan. [Mint]
Interlune has announced its first customers for helium-3 it proposes to extract from the moon. The company said last week that the U.S. Department of Energy agreed to purchase three liters of helium-3 no later than April 2029 "at approximately today's commercial market price" of about $3,000 per liter. Maybell Quantum, a quantum computing company, also agreed to purchase "thousands" of liters of helium-3 from Interlune between 2029 and 2035. The startup separately announced a partnership with an industrial equipment manufacturer, Vermeer Corp., to develop an excavator that would collect up to 100 metric tons of lunar regolith per hour, from which helium-3 would be extracted. [GeekWire]
A Soviet-era Venus mission appears to have harmlessly reentered early Saturday. Cosmos 482 reentered at 2:24 a.m. Eastern over the Indian Ocean, according to the Russian space agency Roscosmos, although it did not explain how it obtained that specific reentry landing time. Other estimates from U.S. and European organizations gave slightly different reentry times. There were, though, no sightings of the reentry and no debris discovered afterwards, suggesting that the spacecraft did reenter without incident over the ocean. Cosmos 482 launched in 1972 and was supposed to go to Venus, entering the planet's atmosphere, but was stranded in Earth orbit. [New York Times]
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