By Jeff Foust

In this today's edition: NGA makes more commercial imagery awards, Open Cosmos acquires a Portuguese startup, DARPA explains why it's not so hot on nuclear thermal propulsion and more.

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Top Stories

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded more than $70 million in contracts to commercial satellite imagery and analytics firms. NGA said Wednesday the awards were part of its Luno program, a new initiative aimed at expanding the integration of artificial intelligence and commercial data into national security operations. Among the largest awards, BlackSky secured a $24.4 million Luno A contract for facility and object monitoring. Other companies receiving awards included Maxar Intelligence, Ursa Space Systems and Geospatial. [SpaceNews]

Boeing has completed more O3b mPower satellites with fixes to their power systems that may no longer be needed. The ninth and tenth satellites for the SES next-generation medium Earth orbit constellation recently left manufacturing facilities in California and will launch later this summer on a Falcon 9 from Florida. Like the seventh and eighth satellites launched in December, the latest duo carries redesigned power modules to address electrical issues that hampered the first six O3b mPower spacecraft already in MEO. However, SES said earlier this year that severe solar storms last year helped clear a buildup of protons that had been triggering sporadic power module failures on the satellites. According to industry sources, the electric anomalies have not returned since the storms, although there is no guarantee the issue won't recur. [SpaceNews]

DARPA said it canceled a nuclear thermal propulsion program because of changing technologies and requirements. DARPA had been working with NASA on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) since early 2023, but NASA revealed in its budget request in May that DARPA had canceled the program. DARPA Deputy Director Rob McHenry said on a recent webinar that the agency concluded that decreasing launch costs reduced the efficiency gains that DRACO would have provided, while a recent study found that an alternative approach, nuclear electric propulsion, might be more effective. DARPA added that "infrastructure barriers" for testing DRACO also played a role in the cancellation decison. [SpaceNews]

British smallsat maker Open Cosmos has acquired Connected, a Portuguese startup developing satellite connectivity technologies. Connected raised $2 million in pre-seed funding soon after being founded in 2023 with plans to use spare space on third-party satellites for a network connecting remote, off-the-grid Internet of Things (IoT) devices using 5G technologies. Connected was working on a new round when Open Cosmos approached them about an acquisition. Connected will now be Open Cosmos' dedicated IoT connectivity unit, strengthening the British manufacturer's capabilities alongside its Earth observation and data services. [SpaceNews]

Composite materials startup Atomic-6 won a Space Force agreement to advance its solar power array technology. The company said Wednesday it won a $2 million Tactical Funding Increase agreement to allow it to test and qualify its "Light Wing" solar array designed for energy-intensive operations in orbit. Of interest to the military is the solar array's "stow and redeploy" design which would allow satellites conducting close-proximity operations near other spacecraft to stow its arrays to reduce collision risk, then redeploy them once in a safer orbit. [SpaceNews]

Other News

Latitude is expanding its ability to produce a small launch vehicle. The French startup said Wednesday it reached a deal to convert a former AstaZeneca facility in the city of Reims into a factory for building its Zephyr rocket. Once fully built out, the new facility will be able to produce up to 50 rockets a year. Latitude is planning a first launch of Zephyr from French Guiana as soon as the third quarter of 2026 and recently announced several contracts and agreements with European customers. [SpaceNews]

The first launch of an Australian rocket has slipped again. Gilmour Space said Wednesday that the first launch of its Eris rocket from a site in Queensland, previously planned for this week, has been pushed back to no earlier than July 16. The company didn't give a reason for the delay but said earlier this week it was watching weather conditions. The launch of Eris, a small launch vehicle, has suffered months of delays, including from an incident in May when a power surge triggered the rocket's payload fairing separation system while on the launch pad. [X @GilmourSpace]

Exolaunch has signed an agreement with Orbex to use that company's small launch vehicle. Exolaunch, which arranges for launches of small satellites on a variety of vehicles, said this week it signed a five-year agreement with Orbex to use that company's Prime launch vehicle and its future Proxima medium-class launcher. Prime has also suffered a series of delays and Orbex said its first launch is now expected no earlier than next year. [Orbex]

Astronomers have discovered an interstellar object passing through our solar system. The object, designated 3I/ATLAS, was discovered this week by the NASA-funded ATLAS telescope system in Hawaii. The object is on a hyperbolic trajectory passing through the solar system, and may be a comet from another solar system. The object is only the third from outside our solar system found to date, and first since 2019. [New York Times]

The Colorado Rockies hope to get a boost from York Space Systems. The Denver-based satellite manufacturer has signed a deal with the Major League Baseball team, becoming the "jersey patch" sponsor. A patch with the York logo will be on the sleeves of Rockies' jerseys under the deal, which runs through 2030. York will be the "exclusive aerospace partner" of the Rockies with other sponsorship opportunities. York is the first space company to enter into a jersey sponsorship deal with any major professional sports team. The Rockies can use any help they can get: the team is currently on a pace for about 125 losses this season, a league record. [MLB.com]

Where There's Smoke There's Rocket Fire

"We thought we were listening to airplanes. We were like, 'Where are the airplanes?' but we saw smoke in the sky too. Didn't correlate it (to a launch) at all."

– Athena Padilla, a beachgoer at Florida's New Smyrna Beach, about being unaware of a Falcon 9 launch at nearby Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. [Daytona Beach News-Journal]

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