| By Jeff Foust
In this today's edition: AST SpaceMobile and Ligado strike a deal, ESA grapples with NASA budget cuts, Congress wants a new NASA administrator nominee, and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
AST SpaceMobile announced an agreement Friday to access spectrum held by bankrupt operator Ligado. Under the deal, AST SpaceMobile would provide about $550 million to Ligado, of which $535 million would go to Viasat-owned Inmarsat to settle that company's opposition to Ligado's bankruptcy restructuring plan. Ligado uses these frequencies to provide mobile satellite connectivity from geostationary orbit to government and enterprise customers, and had sought to repurpose them for terrestrial applications. That effect was stalled by concerns that it would interfere with GPS signals. AST SpaceMobile, in return, will get long-term access to Ligado's L-band spectrum to boost its planned direct-to-smartphone services. AST SpaceMobile said Inmarsat has agreed to support its efforts to obtain regulatory approval for using L-band spectrum from low Earth orbit. [SpaceNews]
NASA said that a private astronaut mission to the International Space Station could launch as soon as Thursday after delays caused by an air leak on the station. NASA postponed the Axiom Space Ax-4 mission's launch last week as the agency and Roscosmos worked to understand what they called a "new pressure signature" from a Russian module with a long-running, but small, air leak. NASA said Saturday that the change came from a lack of air loss from that module, which could be attributed to successful work to repair the leak or air flowing through a seal in a hatch, compensating for the leak. NASA said the Ax-4 mission could now launch as soon as Thursday morning. The incident caused Elon Musk to reiterate his call that the ISS be retired in two years. [SpaceNews]
Members of Congress are asking the White House to swiftly select a new nominee for NASA administrator. In briefings at the Paris Air Show Monday, House and Senate members said they were surprised that the White House withdrew the nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. They said it was important to get a new person nominated, and then confirmed by the Senate, to provide long-term leadership for NASA. They also expressed some concerns about the proposed NASA budget that would cut agency funding by about 25%. Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee, said he backed a proposal by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to add $10 billion to a budget reconciliation bill for NASA human spaceflight programs. [SpaceNews]
Ursa Major won a contract to provide engines for Stratolaunch's hypersonic vehicles. Under the $32.9 million contract announced Monday, Colorado-based Ursa Major will deliver an upgraded variant of its Hadley engine for use in Stratolaunch's reusable hypersonic vehicle called Talon-A. The contract covers 16 such engines. Hadley engines have powered multiple Talon-A missions, and the upgraded version will offer increased reusability. The engine produces 5,000 pounds-force of thrust and operates on liquid oxygen and kerosene. [SpaceNews]
ESA is evaluating the potential impacts of NASA's proposed budget on its programs. At a meeting of the ESA Council last week, agency representatives reviewed how NASA's proposed budget for 2026, a reduction of nearly 25% from current levels, would affect ESA's work in human spaceflight, space science and Earth observation. ESA said several missions would require "recovery actions" to mitigate the cuts, and the agency is also looking at how it could repurpose elements like the Orion service module for other applications. Officials said they will study steps the agency could take at its ministerial conference in November to address the cuts. The agency also emphasized efforts at cooperation with other nations, including Canada and India, but added it has no plans to step up joint projects with China. [SpaceNews]
ESA is also moving ahead with a Earth observation satellite program with security applications. The ESA Council formally approved an "enabling resolution" last week instructing the agency to prepare a proposal for the European Resilience from Space (ERS) program, which will include high-resolution optical and radar satellites with revisit times as short as 30 minutes. ESA member states will be asked to contribute about one billion euros ($1.15 billion) to ERS at the November ministerial as the first phase of the program. It will eventually be a joint effort with the European Commission envisioned as a "system of systems" that will include the IRIS² secure connectivity constellation and a low Earth orbit navigation system that will give European governments independent access to such capabilities for civil and military applications. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
China launched a scientific satellite Saturday. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off at 3:56 a.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, placing into orbit the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite-2 (CSES-2), also known as Zhangheng-2. The satellite, the successor to the CSES-1 spacecraft launched in 2018, will look for correlations between earthquakes and electron flux activity in the inner Van Allen belt, which could be used to predict seismic activity. The satellite includes contributions from Italy and Austria. [SpaceNews]
A Chinese company is proposing to develop a data relay satellite constellation. Cangyu Space Technology presented its plans at a Chinese conference earlier this month. The constellation will consist of 13 satellites in different orbits: six in medium Earth orbit, four in geostationary orbit and three in inclined geosynchronous orbits. According to the company presentation, use cases appear to include data relay for UAVs, launch vehicle telemetry, maritime and aviation assets and potentially Internet of Things and data nodes in remote or rural areas. The first satellite is in production for a launch by the end of next year. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites from Florida on Friday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:29 a.m. Eastern, putting 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. Thirteen of those satellites have direct-to-cell payloads as SpaceX completes the first generation of its system for communicating directly with cellphones. [Spaceflight Now]
The White House is reportedly "reviewing" SpaceX contracts with the U.S. government. According to sources, the White House asked NASA and the Defense Department to provide it with details about its existing contracts with the company, just after Elon Musk's acrimonious departure from the Trump administration. It's unclear what the White House was specifically reviewing and what steps it might take to cancel or revise those contracts, steps that could impair operations by the space agency and military. [Reuters]
Blue Origin has named the people flying on its next New Shepard suborbital mission. The NS-33 mission will fly six people, including attorneys, entrepreneurs and a conservationist. The crew includes a husband and wife flying together. Blue Origin did not announce a launch date, but the company typically discloses the crew a week or two before the launch. [Blue Origin]
| | | | | | The Week Ahead
Monday:
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Washington: The Washington Space Business Roundtable hosts a luncheon with Jay Schwarz, chief of the FCC Space Bureau, as the speaker.
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Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Rescheduled launch of an Atlas 5 carrying the second set of Project Kuiper satellites at 1:25 p.m. Eastern.
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Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 8:51 p.m. Eastern.
Monday-Wednesday:
Monday-Sunday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Thursday-Sunday:
Friday:
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Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 2:32 a.m. Eastern.
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Xichang, China: Projected launch of a Long March 3B carrying an undisclosed payload at 8:35 a.m. Eastern.
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Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 on the Transporter-14 rideshare mission at 5:19 p.m. Eastern.
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