Plus: China prepares to land a rocket for the first time
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: York delivers the first SDA Tranche 1 satellites, China makes progress on reusability, Starship launch scrubbed by weather and more.
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Top Stories
The first satellites for the Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture are set to launch next month. York Space Systems said Monday it delivered 21 satellites to Vandenberg Space Force Base for a Falcon 9 launch scheduled for Sept. 10. The satellites are the first for Tranche 1 Transport Layer B of the overall architecture, and the first operational satellites for the overall constellation after the deployment of experimental Tranche 0 satellites in 2023. Tranche 1 is designed to deliver usable services to military operators, with Ka-band payloads and Link 16 tactical data links as well as optical intersatellite links. The September mission is the first of six launches planned to build out the Tranche 1 Transport Layer, with 126 satellites spread across six near-polar orbital planes. [SpaceNews]
China is preparing for its first attempt to land a rocket stage after an orbital launch, following years of development and testing. Both the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and commercial company Landspace recently made progress with testing of their respective Long March 12A and Zhuque-3 rockets, which make debut test flights possible before the end of the year. Achieving reusable launch capabilities has long been a goal for China's space ambitions to enable deployment of the Guowang and Qianfan/Thousand Sails constellations. [SpaceNews]
China continues to accelerate the deployment of its Guowang constellation with a launch Monday. A Long March 8A rocket lifted off at 3:08 p.m. Eastern from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Center carrying the 10th group of Guowang satellites. This was the sixth Guowang satellite launch within 30 days as the project's cadence ramps up. Little is known about the satellites themselves, with no images published and only terse descriptions of the spacecraft. Some suggest that the satellites, in addition to broadband payloads, may carry additional payloads or functions, potentially mimicking elements of SpaceX's Starshield service. Monday's launch was the third flight of the Long March 8A, a variant of the standard Long March 8 with upgraded engines and a larger payload fairing that appears designed to support Guowang. [SpaceNews]
Satellite constellations like Guowang are falling short of brightness limits set to mitigate their effect on astronomy. A recent study found that constellations - with the exception of OneWeb - were missing goals to keep their satellites no brighter than magnitude 7, with some constellations having an average brightness as high as magnitude 3.3. At a conference last month, industry officials said that while that goal was worthwhile, it was "really, really difficult" to achieve because of the complexities of satellite designs and the need to ensure those satellites can still carry out their primary missions. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
Weather scrubbed a second attempt to launch SpaceX's Starship on its latest test flight Monday. SpaceX called off the launch at about 8 p.m. Eastern, halfway into a one-hour window, because of anvil clouds in the area that violated weather constraints for launch. The company said it will try again Tuesday in a window that opens at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. [Space.com]
Satellite startup DeepSat won a U.S. Air Force contract to support work on very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites. DeepSat received a $1.25 million "Direct to Phase 2" contract from AFWERX to develop technologies for Orion's Belt, a proposed constellation of about 20 VLEO satellites for maritime monitoring in the Indo-Pacific region. The satellites will gather visual and shortwave infrared imagery in addition to tracking vessels and aircraft with Automatic Identification System and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast receivers. DeepSat plans to use satellite buses and other services from Redwire. [SpaceNews]
The head of the Pentagon office that has worked with commercial space and other companies has stepped down. Doug Beck, director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), resigned on Monday, according to an email he sent to the unit's staff. The reason for his departure, and whether it was voluntary, was not clear, but sources said Defense Department leadership noted his past donations to Democratic political candidates. Several other DOD officials have also been removed from their posts in recent days. DIU supports companies developing technologies with military applications, including in the space sector. [Reuters]
A software glitch caused a loss of communications with an ESA spacecraft as it prepared for a Venus flyby. ESA said that the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, spacecraft, stopped communicating with controllers on July 16. Engineers spent the next day sending commands into the blind, hoping they would be received by the spacecraft. One of those commands did reach Juice, confirming that the spacecraft was in good condition with no major malfunctions of systems. An investigation uncovered a software bug that could cause a signal amplifier on the spacecraft to turn off when a timer resets, something that takes place only once every 16 months. The spacecraft has since resumed normal operations and will make a flyby of Venus on Sunday, part of a series of gravity-assist maneuvers to send it to Jupiter. [ESA]
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Astronauts, They're Just Like Us
| "And then, of course, 18 coffee and tea preference bags. Very important. On the ground, we like our caffeine. On orbit, the crew does as well."
| – Bill Spetch, operations integration manager for the ISS program at NASA, discussing at a briefing Friday the cargo on the CRS-33 Dragon mission that launched to the space station over the weekend.
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Sign up for our other newsletters Military Space: Veteran defense journalist Sandra Erwin delivers news and insights for the military space professional. Delivered Tuesday. China Report: Analysis of China's space activities and what it means as one of the United States' top competitors from correspondent Andrew Jones. Delivered every other Wednesday. SpaceNext AI: Exploring the intersection of space and artificial intelligence. Delivered Thursday.
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