SpaceX to launch new Space Force weather satellite

Plus: EchoStar pulls back from its threat to file for bankruptcy … for now

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READ THIS EMAIL IN YOUR BROWSER By Jeff Foust In this today's edition: a busy weekend of launches, EchoStar's temporary bankruptcy reprieve, SpaceX wins another Space Force launch contract and more.  If someone forwarded you this edition, sign up to receive it in your inbox every weekday. Have thoughts or feedback? You can hit reply to let me know directly. Top Stories EchoStar has pulled back from its threat to file for bankruptcy as talks with the FCC continue. The company said last week it would make overdue interest payments on its debt within a 30-day grace period after withholding those funds earlier this month amid uncertainty over its standing with the FCC. The commission is reviewing EchoStar's compliance with both the buildout of a terrestrial network as well as use of 2-gigahertz satellite spectrum. EchoStar said in a regulatory filing that President Trump had recently encouraged the parties involved to reach an amicable resolution. EchoStar cautioned, though, that it would not make its next interest payment on July 1, triggering another 30-day grace period. [SpaceNews] A new solid rocket booster for the Space Launch System suffered an anomaly in a test last week. Northrop Grumman performed a static-fire test of the Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) version of the five-segment solid rocket booster for the SLS at its Utah test site. While the booster fired for its planned duration of a little more than two minutes, near the end of the test, debris scattered from the nozzle of the booster. Northrop Grumman acknowledged the booster experienced an anomaly but did not provide additional details. BOLE features carbon-fiber composite cases and other changes to increase the booster's performance. The booster is planned for SLS launches starting with Artemis 9 in the 2030s, but NASA's budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 seeks to cancel SLS after Artemis 3. [SpaceNews] SpaceX won a Space Force task order to launch a weather satellite. Space Systems Command announced Friday it awarded SpaceX an $81.6 million contract for the USSF-178 mission launching on a Falcon 9 in 2027. That launch will carry the Weather System Follow-on – Microwave Space Vehicle 2 (WSF-M2), a weather satellite designed to monitor ocean winds, along with a secondary payload of experimental small satellites called BLAZE-2. The award represents SpaceX's third consecutive win under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program. [SpaceNews] Xona Space Systems raised $92 million for development of a navigation satellite system. The company said last week it raised the Series B round from investors led by Craft Ventures. The total amount included $20 million from a Strategic Funding Increase award from SpaceWERX. Xona is developing a low Earth orbit constellation of satellites to provide navigation services that are more robust than those from medium Earth orbit systems like GPS. The company launched its first "production-class" satellite, Pulsar-0, last week on the SpaceX Transporter-14 rideshare mission. The funding will allow Xona to scale up its constellation to hundreds of satellites in the next few years. [Xona Space Systems] Blue Origin launched its third set of suborbital space tourists in less than three months Sunday. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle lifted off at 10:40 a.m. Eastern from the company's West Texas site, reaching an altitude of 105 kilometers before landing about 10 minutes later. The NS-33 mission carried six people and follows the NS-31 mission in mid-April and NS-32 at the end of May. The capsule landed under parachutes within a few hundred meters of its booster, which had made a powered landing on a pad a few minutes earlier. Blue Origin said the unusually close landing of the capsule to the booster was within safety margins. [SpaceNews] Other News Japan's H-2A rocket performed its 50th and final launch Saturday. The rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 12:33 p.m. Eastern and deployed its payload, GOSAT-GW, into a sun-synchronous orbit less than 20 minutes later. GOSAT-GW, also known as Ibuki GW, is the latest in a series of missions to study greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as well as water conditions on land, sea and air. The H-2A was successful in all but one of its 50 launches. Japan phased out the H-2A in favor of the H3 vehicle. [SpaceNews] Rocket Lab launched its second Electron in less than 48 hours on Saturday. The Electron launched from the company's New Zealand site at 3:08 a.m. Eastern, putting into orbit a satellite for an undisclosed commercial customer. That customer could be EchoStar, which is developing a LEO constellation of Internet of Things satellites called Lyra. The launch took place after another Electron launched from the same site on Thursday carrying satellites for HawkEye 360. Rocket Lab has launched 10 Electrons so far this year, including four in June. [SpaceNews] SpaceX carried out two Falcon 9 launches of Starlink satellites on Saturday. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 12:26 a.m. Eastern and put 27 Starlink satellites into orbit, while another launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 1:13 p.m. Eastern and deployed 26 Starlink satellites. The two launches, along with the Electron and H-2A missions, all took place within the span of less than 13 hours. [Space.com] Meteorologists are worried about the loss of data from military weather satellites. The Defense Department is cutting off access to microwave sounding data from its DMSP weather satellites, effective Monday. The Defense Department did not disclose a reason for ending access to the data, which will remain available for military weather forecasters, but some reports cited unspecified security concerns. Forecasters say the loss of the DMSP microwave data will hinder their ability to monitor tropical weather systems just as the Atlantic hurricane season is starting. [Scientific American] Meteorite hunters have found objects linked to a bright fireball seen in the skies of the southeastern U.S. on Thursday. The fireball was visible across parts of Georgia and South Carolina in clear midday skies and also seen by a weather satellite. Meteorite collectors swarmed an area south of Atlanta, finding several small meteorites from that fireball. One meteorite punched a hole the size of a golf ball in the roof of a house, but caused no injuries. [Sky & Telescope] The Week Ahead Tuesday: Online: Col. Robert Davis, the Program Executive Officer of the Space Sensing Directorate at Space Systems Command, speaks at a Schriever Spacepower Series webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern. Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying the MTG-S1/Sentinel-4A weather satellite at 5:03 p.m. Eastern. Wednesday: Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 1:29 a.m. Eastern. McLean, Va.: The Intelligence and National Security Alliance holds a leadership dinner with Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, as the keynote speaker. Bowen Orbital Spaceport, Australia: No earlier than rescheduled launch of the first Eris rocket by Gilmour Space Technologies at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Thursday: Baikonur, Kazakhstan: Scheduled launch of a Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Progress MS-31 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station at 3:32 p.m. Eastern. 🚀 🕑 🎧 Don't miss SpaceNews' FirstUp Audio The day's most important space headlines delivered in less than 10 minutes every Monday-Friday. Listen on our website, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. Sign up for our other newsletters Military Space: Veteran defense journalist Sandra Erwin delivers news and insights for the military space professional. Delivered Tuesday. China Report: Analysis of China's space activities and what it means as one of the United States' top competitors from correspondent Andrew Jones. Delivered every other Wednesday. SpaceNext AI: Exploring the intersection of space and artificial intelligence. Delivered Thursday. SpaceNews This Week: A round-up of the week's top stories, including our conference coverage. Delivered Friday. Video & Audio: Upcoming live programs, scheduled guests, and recent Space Minds podcast episodes, webinars and other events. Delivered Friday. Marketing Minute: Covering PR, marketing, and advertising trends, upcoming SpaceNews opportunities, and editorial insights for communications and marketing leaders. Delivered monthly.

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What Mars can teach us about life 🌎

And a replay of of GEOINT New Data to Solutions 🤖

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READ THIS EMAIL IN YOUR BROWSER Our webinar this week on Geospatial Intelligence – New Data to Solutions provided insights on the current state of the marketplace, trends and challenges. In a article on the topic, Satellite imagery firms escalate warnings over budget cuts, Sandra Irwin writes:  "U.S. satellite imagery providers are intensifying their warnings over proposed cuts to the National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) commercial imagery budget, arguing that the reductions — now moving closer to congressional review — pose growing risks to national security and the domestic space industry's viability." 👉 Read the article. Watch the replay 🎥 for more insights from our guest panelists. If you're interested in sponsoring webinars or Space Minds, including at the World Space Business Week, don't hesitate to reach out to the sales team. REPLAY Geospatial Intelligence - New Data to Solutions Watch a replay of our webinar that takes you deep into the Geospatial intelligence lifecycle—from the capture of data to the advanced analytical tools and how advances in AI and machine learning are transforming it into actionable insights. Watch SPACE MINDS PODCAST What Mars can teach us about life In this week's episode of Space Minds David Ariosto sits down Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute who explains why the Red Planet may hold answers about extraterrestrial life as well as our own origins. Our conversation explores the potential for life on Mars, the implications of exoplanet discoveries, and how AI is transforming our understanding of habitability. She challenges our assumptions about intelligence, consciousness, and the very nature of life itself—both here on Earth and beyond. A thought-provoking conversation that expands your view of the universe—and our place within it. "To this day, after several decades of searching... we do not have a definition for life. We do not have any definition for intelligence, and we don't have a definition for consciousness." And in our second segment, Space Takes, our hosts discuss space based tools used for war and the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. They then discuss Europe's launch capability and their efforts to be less reliant on SpaceX. 🚀 🕑 🎧 Don't miss SpaceNews' FirstUp Audio Our morning round-up of the day's most important space headlines, curated by veteran journalist Jeff Foust and delivered in less than 10 minutes every Monday-Friday. Listen on our website, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. Prefer to get FirstUp in your inbox? Sign up here. Check out more from our SpaceNews audio and video series: Space Minds, Commercial Space Transformers, Leading Women in Space, Monthly webinars, SpaceNews FirstUp Audio Sign up for our other newsletters First Up: The latest civil, commercial and military space news, curated by veteran journalist Jeff Foust. Delivered Monday to Friday mornings. Military Space: Veteran defense journalist Sandra Erwin delivers news and insights for the military space professional. Delivered Tuesday. China Report: Analysis of China's space activities and what it means as one of the United States' top competitors from correspondent Andrew Jones. Delivered every other Wednesday. SpaceNext AI: Exploring the intersection of space and artificial intelligence. Delivered Thursday. SpaceNews This Week: A round-up of the week's top stories, including our conference coverage. Delivered Friday. Marketing Minute: Covering PR, marketing, and advertising trends, upcoming SpaceNews opportunities, and editorial insights for communications and marketing leaders. Delivered monthly.

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