Plus: ispace's lunar lander likely crashed
| | | A SpaceNews daily newsletter | | 06/06/2025 | | | | | A lunar lander from Japanese company ispace likely crashed during its landing attempt Thursday. Resilience was scheduled to land in the Mare Frigoris region of the moon at 3:17 p.m. Eastern, but telemetry from the lander was lost about one minute and 45 seconds before the scheduled touchdown. That telemetry appeared to show the lander traveling at a far higher speed than planned. The company said several hours later that an issue with a laser rangefinder on the spacecraft kept the lander from slowing down in time, and thus Resilience "likely performed a hard landing." Company executives said they still needed to investigate the root cause of the failure, adding it appeared to be different from the software problem that caused ispace's first lander to crash in 2023. Resilience was carrying payloads from several Japanese companies and a Taiwanese university, as well as a rover built by ispace's European subsidiary. Shares in ispace fell nearly 30% in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday. [SpaceNews]
A feud between Elon Musk and President Trump Thursday included threats to cancel SpaceX contracts and decommission spacecraft. A series of heated exchanges, stemming from Musk's criticism of a Trump-backed budget reconciliation bill, included a statement by the president suggesting the government cancel contracts with Musk's companies. Musk responded by stating that SpaceX would "begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately." That spacecraft is a key means for transporting crews and cargo to the International Space Station. There was no sign, though, that the government was moving to cancel any contracts, and Musk said Thursday night that SpaceX would not decommission Dragon. Earlier in the day, Trump said he didn't think it was "appropriate" that Jared Isaacman be NASA administrator, calling him a Democrat. Trump said he has asked Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to identify a new NASA administrator nominee. [SpaceNews]
Members of the House Armed Services Committee criticized the White House for delays in a fiscal year 2026 budget proposal. At a hearing Thursday about the Air Force and Space Force, committee chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said the lack of a formal budget proposal from the administration is undermining Congress' ability to provide strategic guidance and funding for national defense. He said that, without a formal proposal, Congress could act unilaterally on defense spending. Members also questioned apparent contradictions between the Defense Department's rhetoric about space as a critical warfare domain and the administration's preliminary budget outline that keeps defense spending flat. A budget outline released last week seeks $26 billion for the Space Force in 2026, down from $28.7 billion in 2025. [SpaceNews]
Bipartisan legislation released Thursday would deepen military space cooperation between the U.S. and its Indo-Pacific allies. The "Quad Space Act" by Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) would direct the Secretary of Defense to begin talks with the other Quad governments — Australia, India and Japan — to identify shared security priorities in space, ranging from space situational awareness to industrial policy, and to report back to Congress with a roadmap for deeper coordination. Though the bill does not allocate funding or authorize new programs, its backers hope to attach it as an item of special interest in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. [SpaceNews]
The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is seeking $10 billion for NASA in a budget reconciliation bill. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released Thursday his "legislative directives" he wants to include in the reconciliation bill on topics ranging from the Coast Guard to air traffic control modernization. The proposal would seek to undo some of the cuts to human spaceflight programs in the administration's 2026 budget request, adding $4.1 billion for producing two more SLS rockets and $2.6 billion to complete the lunar Gateway. The bill would also support ISS operations and production of a deorbit vehicle. The proposal, though, does not address deep cuts to NASA's science and space technology programs in the 2026 budget request. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | China launched the fourth group of satellites for a broadband megaconstellation Thursday. A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 4:45 p.m. Eastern from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The launch carried an undisclosed number of satellites for the Guowang megaconstellation. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the launch was a success but provided no details about the payload. The secretive nature of the satellites has led to speculation that they could include dual-use or national security payloads, like SpaceX's classified Starshield program. [SpaceNews]
The Pentagon is entering a new stage in a long-running conflict: procurement reform. The Trump administration has directed an overhaul of defense acquisition by accelerating modernization and embracing commercial innovation, goals that, if realized, could provide a critical edge in space. Space Force officials say they are already making progress on reforms that include taking a more commercial approach to projects, but acknowledge they are still grappling with problems in long-running programs. These procurement struggles occur against the backdrop of what defense officials describe as an accelerating space race with China. [SpaceNews]
Hydrosat is launching a second thermal imaging satellite later this month. The company said its VanZyl-2 spacecraft is slated to launch on SpaceX's Transporter-14 rideshare mission. The spacecraft has four times the imaging capacity of VanZyl-1, Hydrosat's first spacecraft launched last August. VanZyl-2 is equipped with a thermal imager and a multispectral camera to complement Landsat data. Hydrosat has long-term plans for a constellation that will provide daily imagery for monitoring vegetation health, planning efficient irrigation and detecting droughts. [SpaceNews]
The acquisition of Intelsat by SES is expected to soon win approval from European regulators. The European Commission will provide unconditional antitrust approval for the acquisition by a June 10 deadline, said individuals familiar with the review. Regulators in the United Kingdom previously gave their approval for the deal. The acquisition still requires approvals from the Department of Justice and the FCC in the United States. [Reuters]
An astronaut who waited nearly 15 years before finally going to space is retiring from NASA. The agency said Thursday that Jeanette Epps retired from the agency at the end of last week. She was selected as part of the 2009 astronaut class and was originally assigned to a Soyuz mission to the ISS in 2018. However, months before the launch she was replaced for reasons that neither she nor NASA disclosed. Epps was later reassigned to the first operational mission of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, but as that mission suffered delays, she was reassigned to the Crew-8 mission that flew to the ISS last year, spending 235 days in space. [NASA]
| No Time to Cry
| |
"I have not cried. Honestly, there were some times that I almost cried, but I need to lead this company and I need to have a strong will to move forward. So, it's not time for me to cry. Right now we don't know the cause, so I can't get emotional and cry. I don't think that's a good idea."
– Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace, speaking through an interpreter at a press conference several hours after the failed landing of his company's Resilience spacecraft after a reporter asked if he had cried about the failure.
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