By Jeff Foust

In today's edition: satellite servicing's chicken-and-egg problem, Starliner's next test flight might be uncrewed, the curious orbit of a Chinese satellite and more.

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Top Stories

A Senate appropriations bill that would override proposed cuts to NASA is in limbo. The Senate Appropriations Committee met Thursday to consider its commerce, justice and science spending bill for fiscal year 2026, which includes funding for NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation. The committee recessed before completing its markup after a dispute over a proposed amendment regarding use of funding for a new FBI headquarters. While the committee has not released the draft of the bill, senators said it would provide $24.9 billion for NASA, reversing a proposed cut of nearly 25% for the agency and keeping it near 2025 spending levels. That funding included $7.3 billion for science, about the same as 2025. The bill also kept funding for NSF flat after a proposal to slash its budget by more than 50%, while also maintaining funding for a NOAA GEO weather satellite program the administration proposed to cut back. [SpaceNews]

Despite advances in satellite servicing technology, satellite operators have been slow to adopt such capabilities. A report released Thursday by the GAO concluded that NASA and the Department of Defense have hesitated to fully commit to satellite servicing even after funding various demonstrations of relevant technologies. The slow adoption reflects a coordination problem between satellite operators and service providers, the report concluded. Operators don't design spacecraft with servicing interfaces because few providers offer the capability, while providers don't develop key infrastructure because of limited demand. [SpaceNews]

NASA said there is a "strong chance" the next test flight of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle will be uncrewed. At a briefing Thursday about the upcoming SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station, agency officials said they are continuing work to correct problems Starliner suffered on its crewed test flight last year, including testing underway of thrusters and seals. NASA is planning a Starliner test flight no sooner than early next year, and the agency said that while it not decided on a plan for that event, there are "a lot of advantages" for it to carry only cargo. A successful test flight could allow Starliner to begin regular crew rotation missions later next year. [SpaceNews]

The British government has confirmed it will participate in a new funding round for satellite operator Eutelsat. The U.K. will invest $191 million into Eutelsat to maintain its 10.89% stake that was in danger of being diluted after the French government announced new funding for the company. The British investment would bring the total raised to around 1.5 billion euros ($1.76 billion) to help Eutelsat fund upgrades to its increasingly strategic OneWeb LEO constellation. The U.K. government got its current stake in Eutelsat when the operator acquired OneWeb, which the U.K. and Bharti Global had rescued from bankruptcy. [SpaceNews]

Investment in space companies increased in the second quarter despite broader economic challenges. Early-stage investor Space Capital reported Thursday that space companies raised $3.2 billion in the second quarter, the highest quarterly amount in more than a year. The activity was driven by satellite-related companies and breakout momentum in the emerging industries subset of what Space Capital classifies as infrastructure, comprising firms providing the hardware and software needed to build, launch and operate assets in orbit. That funding included nearly $1 billion that went to players in emerging areas such as space stations and orbital logistics. While the U.S. continues to dominate overall funding, the research indicates a growing surge in European space investment as geopolitical tensions drive efforts to build sovereign capabilities. [SpaceNews]

An experimental Chinese satellites has been located in an orbit not used before by the country. China launched the classified Shiyan-28B (01) satellite July 3 on a Long March 4C rocket from Xichang spaceport, but the spacecraft was not located in a 35-degree orbit expected based on the trajectory of the launch. The spacecraft has now been found in a roughly 795-kilometer orbit inclined by 11 degrees. The low inclination orbit would see the spacecraft pass over portions of the South China Sea, as well as the Indian Ocean. It is unknown if its purposes will be for uses such as regional monitoring, communications tests or signal intelligence capabilities. [SpaceNews]

Other News

China has emerged as an increasingly dominant space power, including in exploration. Over the past decade of quiet, long-term strategic planning, China has emerged as the world's second-leading space power, behind only the United States. Over the next few years China expects to achieve space firsts and forge new partnerships, and, if events go as planned, even set the agenda for space exploration. That includes progress towards a crewed lunar landing by the end of the decade and a Mars sample return mission likely to return samples by the early 2030s, ahead of a NASA-led mission currently in danger of cancellation. [SpaceNews]

Russia, meanwhile, is demonstrating its space capabilities with advanced military satellite maneuvers. The Cosmos 2588 satellite launched in May into an orbit that brings it close to an American reconnaissance satellite, USA 338, with the Russian satellite performing maneuvers to keep it close to the American one. Another spacecraft, Cosmos 2558, recently released a payload that made relatively close passes to another American spy satellite. Some Western observers believe the Russian space could be demonstrating antisatellite weapons or themselves be ASATs. [Ars Technica]

A document suggests Starlink generated less revenue than some projections. The filing by a SpaceX subsidiary, Starlink Satellite Services Corp., with a Dutch organization reported $2.7 billion in revenues from Starlink services in 2024, compared to $1.4 billion in 2023. The filing indicated that Europe was the subsidiary's biggest market in terms of revenue, with nearly $735 million generated in 2024. That figure is lower than some previous outside projections of Starlink revenue, but may not include Starlink services sold directly through SpaceX in the United States as well as government revenue. [PCMag]

The latest Axiom Space private astronaut mission is scheduled to wrap up early next week. NASA said Thursday that the Crew Dragon spacecraft flying the Ax-4 mission will undock from the station as soon as Monday. The spacecraft has been at the station since June 26 on a mission that was scheduled to last about two weeks. [NASA]

Former NASA administrator nominee Jared Isaacman says he is considering a career in politics. He said in an interview that he considering running for Congress as a Republican, saying that after he got over the "initial intimidation factor" of dealing with politicians as part of the confirmation process, he felt interested in participating. "My fork in the road is either politics or going back into space," he said. [The Free Press]

A comet passing through the solar system might be older than the solar system itself. Astronomers recently discovered the object, designated 3I/ATLAS, finding it to be a comet from outside the solar system passing through on a hyperbolic trajectory. One analysis of the object, presented at a British astronomy conference this week, suggests it could be more than seven billion years old, much older that our solar system. The object may be rich in water ice and create a long tail as that ice vaporizes during its passage through the inner solar system. [BBC]

Long-Duration Mission

"If it weren't for my wonderful family that I love very much, I'd probably stay up there longer than [NASA astronaut] Don Pettit. In other words, I wouldn't want to have to come back except that I really, really like my family a lot."

– NASA astronaut Mike Fincke discussing his upcoming trip to the International Space Station during a briefing about the Crew-11 mission Thursday.

FROM SPACENEWS

The business case for the moon: The latest episode of Space Minds features a discussion on the future of commercial lunar exploration. The panel was recorded live as part of the ispace U.S. and Commercial Space Federation lunar landing watch event for the Hakuto-R Mission 2 on June 5. Listen now

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