By Jeff Foust

In this today's edition: another delay for a private astronaut mission, a key Democratic congressman criticizes NASA budget cuts, Voyager Technologies goes public, and more.

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Top Stories

A private astronaut mission to the International Space Station is on hold because of a problem with its Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Axiom Space's Ax-4 mission was scheduled to launch this morning from Florida on a Falcon 9, but SpaceX announced Tuesday evening it was postponing the launch to fix a liquid oxygen leak detected in the Falcon 9's first stage. That leak was mentioned at a pre-launch briefing Monday, but at the time SpaceX believed it would be fixed in time. SpaceX did not disclose a new launch date for the mission. Ax-4, Axiom Space's fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS, is carrying astronauts from Hungary, India and Poland, and is led by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. [SpaceNews]

The acquisition of satellite operator Intelsat by rival SES has won regulatory approval in Europe. The European Commission said this week that it was providing unconditional approval for the deal, concluding the merged group faces sufficient competition from terrestrial alternatives such as fiber for media services, and from low Earth orbit operators like SpaceX's Starlink in the connectivity market. The acquisition won approval from United Kingdom regulators last month, leaving the FCC and Justice Department in the United States as the last significant regulatory steps. [SpaceNews]

A key Democratic member of the House Science Committee says the cuts proposed to NASA's budget are signs that the administration does not appreciate the value of science. In an interview with SpaceNews Tuesday, Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.), vice ranking member of the House Science Committee, criticized the proposed cuts to NASA's budget overall, and to science programs in particular, calling them "catastrophic." He also said he supported continuing the SLS and Orion programs beyond Artemis 3 while working on a bipartisan approach to a sustainable long-term exploration strategy. He called on the White House to select, and the Senate to confirm, a new NASA administrator nominee as soon as possible. [SpaceNews]

Members on both sides of the aisle support increased funding on the Space Force, but differ on Golden Dome. At a Hudson Institute event Tuesday, Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said the administration's budget proposal for the Pentagon underinvested in space, and endorsed efforts by House appropriators to add $2.7 billion to the Space Force. Whitesides, in the SpaceNews interview, said there's "bipartisan consensus that cutting the Space Force is a bad idea." Crank said he supported the Golden Dome missile defense system and planned to help form a House Golden Dome Caucus. Whitesides said Congress must know more technical details about the initiative before it can act on it. [SpaceNews]

Other News

SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Tuesday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 9:05 a.m. Eastern and deployed 23 Starlink satellites, 13 with direct-to-cell payloads, on the Starlink 12-24 mission. SpaceX has now launched more than 270 Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities so far this year. [Spaceflight Now]

Voyager Technologies is going public today. Trading of the company's stock, under the ticker symbol VOYG, will start this morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The company announced Tuesday it set an initial public offering price of $31 per share, above its earlier projected range of $26 to $29 per share, for gross proceeds of nearly $383 million. The company plans to use that funding to support strategic initiatives and for potential acquisitions. [Business Wire]

A sounding rocket range in Alaska is seeking to become a full-fledged spaceport. The University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute, which operates the Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks, announced Tuesday a partnership with Alaska Aerospace Corporation. That agreement includes applying for an FAA spaceport license for Poker Flats, which today is used for launches of sounding rockets for research. That would allow the facility to launch larger rockets and host commercial missions. Alaska Aerospace operates launch facilities on Kodiak Island that have been used by several small launch vehicles. [Alaska Beacon]

A new NASA space science mission has witnessed its first solar eruptions. NASA released Tuesday images of a coronal mass ejection observed by the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, mission. The images show that the four PUNCH spacecraft, launched in March, are working well as they drift in their orbits into their final formation. Once in those final orbits, the PUNCH spacecraft are designed to monitor space weather conditions in three dimensions in the inner solar system. [NASA]

Let Sleeping Astronomers Lie

"Astronomers look at that and go, 'Why did you even wake us up?'"

– David Reitze, a physicist at Caltech and director of the LIGO gravitational wave observatory, on proposed cuts to the observatory in NSF's 2026 budget request that would make it impossible for LIGO to narrow down the source of gravitational wave events and alert other astronomers for follow-up observations. [Science]

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