| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: EchoStar's $5 billion bet on LEO, Crew-11 arrives at the space station, the data challenges of Golden Dome and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
EchoStar has ordered an initial tranche of satellites for a proposed $5 billion LEO constellation. EchoStar said Friday it placed a $1.3 billion order with MDA Space for 100 satellites, with a $1.2 billion option for an additional 100 satellites. The first 100 satellites will be delivered by 2028 with services beginning in 2029. EchoStar plans to use the constellation to provide direct-to-device services, and company executives said on an earnings call Friday they would disclose more details in September. The company, which operates GEO satellites, is facing scrutiny from the FCC over both its buildout of a 5G terrestrial network and use of S-band spectrum for that proposed satellite constellation. EchoStar warned it may seek relief under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to safeguard its spectrum licenses. [SpaceNews]
A new crew is at the International Space Station after a launch Friday, but how long they will stay there is uncertain. A Falcon 9 lifted off Friday at 11:43 a.m. Eastern from the Kennedy Space Center, putting a Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit on the Crew-11 mission. That spacecraft docked with the ISS early Saturday. Crew-11 features two NASA astronauts, one JAXA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut. Typically, such missions spend about six months on the ISS, but NASA officials said last week they are evaluating extending that mission to eight months. Doing so would help reduce ISS costs as the station faces a budget shortfall. NASA and SpaceX must first certify that Crew Dragon can spend that long in space, an effort expected to take a few more months. [SpaceNews]
The first face-to-face meeting between the heads of Roscosmos and NASA in nearly seven years was celebrated by one agency but largely ignored by the other. Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Bakanov met with NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of the first Crew-11 launch attempt Thursday. After the meeting, Bakanov met with Russian reporters, telling them that the two supported continued ISS operations and an extension of a "cross-flight" agreement to swap seats between Soyuz and commercial crew vehicles. He added that he invited Duffy to come to Moscow late this year for another meeting that could include discussions of additional cooperation between the agencies. NASA, though, said little about the meeting beyond acknowledging that it took place, and Duffy did not speak to media at KSC while there for the launch. [SpaceNews]
The biggest challenge for the Golden Dome missile defense system might not be hardware but instead data. At a SpaceNews webinar last week, executives from L3Harris Technologies, Booz Allen Hamilton and Arcfield stressed the need for clear scope and requirements definition so the program can leverage existing technologies but also allow industry to inject innovations in areas such as AI and machine learning. They noted that command and control of the overall system, including space-based components, will be the most challenging part of the architecture. Industry hopes to learn more about plans for Golden Dome at a conference later this week in Huntsville, Alabama. [SpaceNews]
Three European companies are continuing to study a merger of their space businesses, having missed a deadline for a "go/no-go" decision. Roberto Cingolani, CEO of Leonardo, said at the Paris Air Show in June that he expected to make a decision in July on whether to proceed with a combination of his company's space business with those of Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence and Space. But in an earnings call last week, he said the companies were still studying the proposed combination. The CEOs of Airbus and Thales offered similar views in their own companies' recent earnings calls, saying they were making progress on how to stand up the joint venture but not disclosing a schedule for doing so. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
Blue Origin took six people on a suborbital spaceflight Sunday, including a controversial crypto entrepreneur. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle lifted off from the company's West Texas launch site at 8:43 a.m. Eastern, flying a 10-minute mission to an altitude of about 106 kilometers before safely landing. The six people on board the NS-34 mission included Justin Sun, the then-anonymous winner of a 2021 auction for a seat on the first flight, who bid $28 million. He bowed out of the flight because of scheduling conflicts, then announced in December 2021 he would fly a dedicated New Shepard mission in 2022. That flight did not take place, and only last month did Blue Origin announce Sun would go on this flight. Sun is involved in cryptocurrency ventures that, for a time, were scrutinized by federal regulators. The flight was the third in a little more than two months for New Shepard. [SpaceNews]
A Falcon 9 launched a set of Starlink satellites early this morning. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 3:57 a.m. Eastern, putting 28 satellites into orbit. The launch featured the 450th flight of a reused Falcon booster, with this particular booster making its 21st flight. [Spaceflight Now]
An appropriations bill for NASA and NOAA was not included in spending packages passed by the Senate Friday. Senators passed one bill covering the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture and a separate bill for funding Congress. Senators had planned to include the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) bill, which included NASA and NOAA, in that package, but dropped the CJS bill because of opposition from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) about funding for the new FBI headquarters. The plan for that building to be built in Maryland but the Trump administration now plans to relocate. The Senate has now joined the House in August recess, and will return after Labor Day with limited time to either pass spending bills or a stopgap continuing resolution to fund the government after the 2026 fiscal year begins Oct. 1. [Politico]
SpaceX's plans to perform booster landings in Bahamian waters created a political controversy. SpaceX, in its negotiations with the Bahamas for permission to conduct booster landings on droneships in the island nation's waters, reportedly offered to donate Starlink terminals for the nation's navy. That agreement was reached with the country's deputy prime minister without consulting other government ministers, creating tensions among those ministers. The government said it pays full cost for the Starlink terminals and no single minister was responsible for the agreement. Those booster landings are on hold because of an unrelated investigation regarding a Starship launch failure in March that showered debris in the region. [Reuters]
A lunar rover developer has partnered with LEGO on a new rover model. The Lunar Outpost Moon Rover Space Vehicle set was released by LEGO last week in cooperation with Lunar Outpost, a company that develops small lunar rovers and has a NASA award to design a larger rover for use by Artemis astronauts. While LEGO has worked with NASA on past sets, this is the first time it has collaborated with a commercial space venture on a model. [collectSPACE]
| | | | | | The Week Ahead
Monday: -
Online: Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, chief operations officer of the United States Space Force, speaks at a Mitchell Institute Schriever Spacepower Series webinar at 10 a.m. Eastern. -
Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand: Scheduled launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket carrying an iQPS radar imaging satellite at 11:45 p.m. Eastern. Tuesday: Tuesday-Thursday: Wednesday: Thursday: Thursday-Friday: Friday: Saturday: Sunday: -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 8:16 a.m. Eastern. -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a United Launch Alliance Vulcan on its first national security space mission, USSF-106, at 8:07 p.m. Eastern.
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