By Jeff Foust

In this edition: NOAA budget proposal derails TraCSS, Space Force pushes for maneuverable satellites, a reprieve for Lunar Trailblazer and more.

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Top Stories

NOAA's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal would cancel the space traffic coordination system it is developing. The detailed NOAA budget proposal, released Monday, confirms speculation that NOAA would seek to end funding for the Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS. That program would take space situational awareness data from government and commercial sources to provide conjunction warnings and related services. The Office of Space Commerce, within NOAA, has been developing TraCSS and is beta testing it with some satellite operators. NOAA argued in the budget that private entities could provide such services. A former head of the office, though, said that argument is a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the value of TraCSS to promote real-time data sharing and be an authoritative benchmark among other systems. Some industry groups have also called on NOAA to continue TraCSS. [SpaceNews]

French startup Skynopy has raised nearly $18 million from venture funds and the space agency CNES for a ground station network. Skynopy is developing hardware it likens to a mobile phone SIM card: onboard radio pre-configuration and integration technology that enables satellite operators to quickly access proprietary and partner ground stations operating in S-, X- and Ka-band spectrum. Skynopy says it can quickly enable customers to access the ground stations even if they are already in orbit. The funding would also support work on a unified, high-speed ground station network called Akar slated for completion by 2028, which would heavily rely on Ka-band. [SpaceNews]

The U.S. Space Force is working to develop a new generation of military satellites designed to maneuver unpredictably through space. Kelly Hammett, director of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Space RCO), an organization within the Space Force, outlined at a recent event a roadmap for what the military calls "dynamic space operations," a catchall for orbital maneuvers considered too fuel-intensive or technically impractical for traditional satellites. The office plans to develop geostationary satellites that would serve as testbeds for the dynamic operations concept. They would demonstrate not only maneuverability but the software and ground systems needed to make such operations routine. Hammett did not provide an estimated timeline for the launch of these maneuverable spacecraft, which would be the office's first "full-up" satellites. [SpaceNews]

Two Chinese spacecraft in GEO are conducting proximity operations for a second time. The Shijian-21 and Shijian-25 spacecraft appeared to come together June 30, according to optical ground tracking from Swiss company S2a systems. The two spacecraft came within a kilometer of each other on June 13 and may have docked. The spacecraft appear to be testing rendezvous and proximity operations technologies for an on-orbit refueling demonstration. [SpaceNews]

Singapore startup Liberatech Space is developing Earth observation analysis tools for the mining industry. The company, founded last year, is working to use satellite data to address challenges in the commodity, energy and environmental industries. It announced a partnership in June with Kongsberg Satellite Services of Norway to combine its extensive Earth observation and communications infrastructure with Liberatech's artificial intelligence-enhanced analytics. [SpaceNews]

Other News

The release of a draft European Union space law marks the start of discussions about space regulations in Europe. The European Commission released last week the long-awaited draft of the EU Space Act, which sets rules on topics such as space sustainability and cybersecurity of space systems. The act is designed to harmonize regulations across the EU, where 12 of 27 member states have national space laws. However, specific details, like post-mission disposal timelines for satellites, are not included in the law itself but will be established later by a separate implementing act. Passing the EU Space Act by the European Council and European Parliament could take as long as two years, and the law would only apply to satellites launched starting in 2030. [SpaceNews]

NASA is trying a little longer to reestablish contact with a lunar smallsat. Contact with the Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft was lost shortly after its launch in February. NASA previously said it would try through mid-June to restore communications, but said Monday it will continue those efforts through early July, based on favorable lighting conditions. NASA hopes that enough sunlight can reach the spacecraft's solar panels to power up its radio, but will consider closing out the mission if it does not hear from the spacecraft. NASA says that if contact can be restored with Trailblazer, it may still be possible to put it into a lunar orbit and carry out its mission to map lunar water ice. [NASA]

The Italian space agency ASI is funding the next phase of a lunar mission. ASI said last week it signed a contract with OHB Italia for the next phase of the Oxygen Retrieval Asset by Carbothermal-reduction in Lunar Environment (ORACLE) mission. ORACLE would fly a payload to the surface of the moon to test the ability to extract oxygen from lunar regolith. The new phase of the mission will allow work on ORACLE to proceed to the flight model stage. [European Spaceflight]

The Defense Department will continue to provide weather satellite data to forecasters, but only for a month. NOAA said Monday that microwave sounder data the DOD had provided from its weather satellites, which was due to be cut off at the end of June, would continue through July. NOAA said the original decision to stop providing the data was due to a "significant cybersecurity risk" but didn't elaborate. Meteorologists had warned that the loss of the DOD weather satellite data could degrade the accuracy of forecasts of tropical weather systems. [New York Times]

NASA programming will soon be available on Netflix. The streaming service said Monday it will add NASA+ to its lineup later this summer, allowing subscribers access to live coverage of launches and related events. NASA unveiled NASA+ as a free streaming service last year, replacing NASA TV, and Netflix said adding NASA+ is part of its effort to add more live programming. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Dramatic License

"In the movie, the way they got to the solution is the guy that played Ed walked in with this bag of stuff and dumps it on the table and says, 'Okay, this is what they've got'. Ron told me, 'Gerry, this is not a documentary. We're gonna get to the same solution.' And we were laughing about this and it was fine."

– Gerry Griffin, former Apollo flight director who served as a technical adviser for the movie Apollo 13, discussing working with director Ron Howard on a scene from the movie, which was released 30 years ago this month. [Space.com]

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