Plus: Albedo wins a contract from the National Reconnaissance Office
| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: senators have questions for Sean Duffy on NASA funding, EarthDaily secures a loan for its satellites, Crew-11 will make a second launch attempt today and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
Satellite operator SES is relying more on government business as its media revenue declines. The company reported Thursday 153 million euros ($175 million) in government sales in the quarter ending June 30, roughly one-third of total revenues for the quarter. SES said it is seeing an acceleration in government demand for its satellite services in both Europe and the United States. SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh said the company's government business will soon approach $1 billion in revenue, but did not disclose when the company expected to hit that milestone. That government growth comes as revenue in its media business fell 13.6% quarter-over-quarter as satellite TV demand continues to decline. [SpaceNews]
Several senators are seeking details from NASA on spending plans for this year and next. In a letter sent Friday to NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, six senators, all Democrats, raised concerns that NASA is withholding $100 million in funds for unspecified science programs that were appropriated for fiscal year 2025. They also worried that NASA might try to implement proposed cuts in agency programs in fiscal year 2026 before Congress passes an appropriations bill. The letter requests answers from Duffy regarding those and related issues in a week. [SpaceNews]
EarthDaily Analytics has obtained a $60 million loan to start work on an imaging constellation. The Canadian company said Thursday that Trinity Capital will loan it the funding to allow it to start work on a 10-satellite constellation. EarthDaily originally planned to launch the satellites, built by Loft Orbital, in 2023. The first satellite was launched last month on a rideshare mission with the rest now planned for launch in 2026. The satellites will provide medium-resolution multispectral imagery, and EarthDaily said it already seeing strong interest in the analytics it can generate from such imagery combined with other sources. [SpaceNews]
Albedo has won a new contract from the National Reconnaissance Office. The Stage 2 contract, announced Friday, will allow the NRO to begin purchasing imagery from Albedo's first very low Earth orbit satellite, Clarity-1, which can provide images at a resolution of 10 centimeters per pixel. The spacecraft can also produce thermal imagery at a resolution of two meters. The contract allows the NRO to conduct on-orbit assessments and demonstrations, and to begin tasking Clarity-1 and acquiring Earth-observation data. [SpaceNews]
While several space companies have gone public or are planning to do so, some caution this is not necessarily the start of a trend. Firefly Aerospace released this week more details about its initial public offering, setting a price range of $35-39 per share, which could raise more than $630 million for the company. Firefly's IPO follows that of Voyager Technologies in June and Karman Space and Defence in February. However, at a conference last week, some argued that those IPOs are outliers, citing strong private markets for raising money without the overhead of going public. Secondary markets also allow private companies and their employees to sell stock, eliminating another factor in going public. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
Weather scrubbed the launch of a new crew to the International Space Station Thursday. SpaceX called off the Crew-11 launch about a minute before its scheduled 12:09 p.m. Eastern liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center when a buildup of clouds over the pad violated launch rules. Forecasts earlier in the day had predicted a 90% chance of acceptable launch weather. NASA and SpaceX will try again today at 11:43 a.m. Eastern but are watching the weather both at the launch site and along the Eastern Seaboard in the event of an abort. [AP]
SpaceX launched some Starlink satellites, and possibly classified payloads, from the West Coast Thursday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 2:35 p.m. Eastern from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The rocket was carrying 19 Starlink satellites, fewer than the typical launch. SpaceX did not provide views of the upper stage during the launch webcast, suggesting that the rocket was carrying additional classified payloads, such as satellites for the military-oriented Starshield system. [Spaceflight Now]
Rocket Lab has scheduled an Electron launch for a Japanese customer next week. The company said Thursday that it is planning a launch at 11:45 p.m. Eastern Aug. 4 on the "The Harvest Goddess Thrives" mission from New Zealand. The rocket will place into orbit a radar imaging satellite for Japanese company iQPS. It will be the 11th orbital Electron launch this year. [Rocket Lab]
An activist investor is calling for the breakup of Viasat. In a letter Thursday, Carronade Capital Management argued that spinning off Viasat's defense business could add up to $11 billion in value to both businesses. Carronade owns about 2.6% of Viasat. The letter comes days before Viasat is scheduled to release quarterly earnings. In the previous earnings call in May, Viasat was noncommittal about spinning off its defense business. [Financial Times]
Opposition lawmakers in Italy don't want the government to use SpaceX to launch a new satellite system. The main opposition party in Italy, the Democratic Party, said it wants only Italian or European companies involved in SICRAL 3, a new geostationary satellite program that provides secure communications for the Italian military. The Italian parliament is advancing plans to develop SICRAL 3 but did not disclose how the satellites would be launched. An Italian defense official says they were assessing options for launching the satellites but said SpaceX was the "most advanced" company in the market. [Reuters]
| | | | | | Highfalutin' Lowe
| "The minute we're reminded that we are all just citizens of the Earth is the minute that we begin to recognize our similarities and our shared humanity. I don't mean to be too highfalutin about it, but I actually really believe that."
| | – Actor Rob Lowe, who says he is in discussions with Blue Origin to go on a New Shepard suborbital flight. [Entertainment Weekly]
| | | | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | Navigating the shift to commercial space stations: In this edition of Space Minds, host David Ariosto speaks with Robyn Gatens, NASA's Director for the International Space Station, live at AIAA Ascend conference last week in Las Vegas on the status of the International Space Station, its planned decommissioning by 2030 and the expected follow-on commercial space stations. Watch now.
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