| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: nearly 4,000 employees are leaving NASA, NOAA's satellite leader placed on leave, ULA cuts its launch forecast in half and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
More than 20% of NASA's workforce is leaving the agency through buyouts. NASA said Friday that about 3,000 civil servants elected to participate in a second round of a deferred resignation program along with other voluntary departure initiatives. They join 870 who departed in a first round earlier this year. NASA said its workforce, which was more than 18,000 at the start of the year, will fall to 14,000 with the buyouts and "natural attrition." The sharp reduction in the workforce has alarmed many, both inside and outside NASA, because of the loss of expertise. NASA, though, sought even larger staff reductions in its fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, less than 12,000, opening the door to potential layoffs in the future. [SpaceNews]
The head of NOAA's satellite division has been placed on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons. NOAA confirmed Friday that Stephen Volz, associate administrator for satellite and information services, was placed on administrative leave, but did not disclose the reason for doing so. Volz has led NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), which acquires and operates weather satellites, since 2014, after previously working for NASA and Ball Aerospace. Sources inside and outside NOAA say they are unaware of any investigations into or allegations against Volz. NOAA's deputy general counsel was also placed on leave. [SpaceNews]
United Launch Alliance has cut in half its launch projections for the year. ULA CEO Tory Bruno said on a recent CNBC podcast that the company is projecting to complete only half of the 20 launches it said earlier this year it planned to carry out in 2025. He did not disclose a reason for the reduced number, but the company has yet to launch a Vulcan rocket so far this year, which was to account for about half of the launches originally planned for 2025. Bruno said the first national security launch of Vulcan will take place "very soon" but did not give a specific date. [SpaceNews]
Blue Origin said it will fly its first Blue Ring spacecraft next year. The company announced last week the first Blue Ring will fly to GEO next spring, carrying a space domain awareness sensor from Scout Space. Blue Origin did not say if other payloads will be on the vehicle. Blue Ring is design to carry up to 4,000 kilograms of payload and is highly maneuverable. A Blue Origin official said last week that the company has about dozen Blue Rings on the production line at an Alabama factory. [SpaceNews]
A Starlink outage last week also affected SpaceX's Starshield service for the military. Space Systems Command said that Thursday's global outage included Starshield Global Access services, used by military organizations for secure communications. The outage lasted two and a half hours, with a partial restoration of services about midway through, the command said. [Fedscoop]
Elon Musk ordered a shutdown of Starlink services during a Ukrainian military counteroffensive in 2022. Musk instructed SpaceX engineers to shut off Starlink as Ukraine's military was working in September 2022 to reclaim Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces. That disrupted military communications and, one official said, caused the counteroffensive to stall. It wasn't clear why Musk ordered the shutdown, although he previously expressed concern that Ukrainian advances could lead Russia to use nuclear weapons. SpaceX called the report "inaccurate" but did not identify what specifically was inaccurate. [Reuters]
| | | | | | Other News
A Vega C rocket successfully launched five imaging and Earth science spacecraft Friday night. The Vega C lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 10:03 p.m. Eastern, deploying the CO3D and MicroCarb missions into separate sun-synchronous orbits. CO3D features four spacecraft that will provide stereo imagery for creating digital terrain models for French government agencies. MicroCarb will provide precise measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This was the second Vega C launch of the year, with two more remaining to be conducted by Arianespace before it hands over operations to Avio. [SpaceNews]
China launched a new set of Guowang broadband satellites Sunday. The Long March 6A rocket carrying the satellites lifted off at 6:03 a.m. Eastern from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The satellites are described simply as the satellite Internet low-orbit group 05, corresponding to China's Guowang national proliferated low Earth orbit broadband project. The announcement of the launch did not disclose how many were on board, although a Long March 6A launch in June carried five Guowang satellites. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX carried out two Starlink launches less than 24 hours apart. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 5:01 a.m. Eastern Saturday, placing 28 satellites into orbit for Starlink Group 10-26. A second Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 12:31 a.m. Eastern Sunday, putting 24 Starlink satellites into orbit for Group 17-2. SpaceX has now carried out 92 Falcon 9 launches so far this year. [Space.com | Spaceflight Now]
The head of Roscosmos says his agency will meet with NASA's new acting administrator this week. Dmitry Bakanov said in a Russian TV interview that a delegation from Roscosmos will attend Thursday's scheduled launch of the Crew-11 mission from the Kennedy Space Center, which includes cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. He said the visit will include a meeting with Sean Duffy, the acting NASA administrator, but it was not clear if Bakanov himself would attend. NASA has not confirmed the meeting or disclosed that Duffy will attend the launch. [TASS]
NASA is troubleshooting an issue with one of two space science spacecraft launched last week. NASA said late Friday that one of the TRACERS satellites requires "further investigation" after making routine adjustments to its power subsystem after launch. NASA did not disclose additional details about the issue but said that work commissioning the spacecraft was on hold for now. The twin TRACERS spacecraft, built by Boeing-owned Millennium Space Systems, are designed to fly in closely spaced orbits to measure variations in the Earth's magnetic field caused by interaction with the solar wind. [NASA]
Iridium shares fell last week after the satellite communications company cut revenue guidance. The company said it now projects revenue in 2025 to grow by 3-5% rather than 5-7% previous forecast. Shares in Iridium fell 22% in trading Thursday. [Seeking Alpha]
| | | | | | The Week Ahead
Monday: Monday-Tuesday: Monday-Thursday: Tuesday: -
Jiuquan, China: Anticipated launch of a Hyperbola-1 rocket with an undisclosed payload at 12:10 a.m. Eastern. -
Online: Boeing releases its second quarter financial results and holds an earnings call at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 11:30 p.m. Eastern. Wednesday: -
Wenchang, China: Scheduled launch of a Long March 8A rocket carrying a set of broadband constellation satellites at 3:50 a.m. Eastern. -
Sriharikota, India: Scheduled launch of a GSLV Mark 2 rocket carrying the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite at 8:10 a.m. Eastern. -
Washington: The Senate Commerce Committee holds an executive session at 10 a.m. Eastern to consider several bills and nominations, including Neil Jacobs to be NOAA administrator. -
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 11:39 a.m. Eastern. -
Online: The Beyond Earth Institute hosts the webinar "Eat, Love, Play in Space: Exploring the Fascinating Realities of Human Life Beyond Earth" at 1 p.m. Eastern. -
Xichang, China: Anticipated launch of a Kuaizhou 1A rocket carrying an undisclosed payload at 10 p.m. Eastern. Wednesday-Friday: Thursday: Saturday:
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