Plus: Telesat's plan for Golden Dome
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: a warning about the race to the moon, small GEO satellites win commercial and government customers, a lunar rover race nears the finish line and more.
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Top Stories
A former NASA administrator warned that it was "highly unlikely" NASA would return astronauts to the moon before China landed astronauts there. Testifying at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday, former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said his doubts stemmed from the complex Artemis architecture, particularly the Starship lunar lander. "This is an architecture that no NASA administrator that I'm aware of would have selected if they had a choice," said Bridenstine, who left NASA a few months before the agency awarded SpaceX the Human Landing System contract. He and other witnesses emphasized the importance of Artemis landing astronauts before a Chinese mission anticipated by 2030, while also maintaining a human presence in low Earth orbit. [SpaceNews]
Telesat says it will offer bulk capacity on its communications satellites for the planned Golden Dome missile defense system. The company said it is proposing a "capacity pool model" designed to give the military access to significant bandwidth without the cost of procuring or leasing satellites, while providing more flexible surge communications capabilities. That capacity, offered through the company's Lightspeed constellation in development, could be ready before the completion of Space Development Agency communications constellations, Telesat argued. [SpaceNews]
Startup satellite manufacturer AscendArc has sold its first small geostationary communications satellite to South Korea's KT Sat. AscendArc announced Thursday it would deliver the sub-1,000-kilogram spacecraft in the second half of 2027, after raising $4 million early this year to join the nascent market for compact, lower-cost alternatives to the massive multi-ton satellites that dominate geostationary orbit (GEO). The satellite will be able to provide 500 gigabits per second of capacity, similar to EchoStar's Jupiter-3 despite being a fraction of the size. KT Sat said the AscendArc satellite will target underserved communities across the Asia-Pacific region. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. military is also planning to use small GEO communications satellites. The Protected Tactical Satcom-Global (PTS-G) program, officially launched this summer, marks the military's first significant attempt to deploy constellations of small satellites in the geostationary belt. A shift from a few large GEO satellites to "swarms" of smaller satellites distributes risk across multiple smaller platforms, making it more difficult for opponents to neutralize communications capabilities while also lowering costs. PTS-G is also about rewriting the procurement playbook by selecting five companies to compete for satellite production awards rather than picking a single supplier for the life of the program. [SpaceNews]
NASA has named the head of an exploration planning office as its new associate administrator. NASA announced Wednesday that Amit Kshatriya, formerly head of the Moon to Mars Program Office, will serve as associate administrator, the top-ranking civil service post at the agency. That position had been filled on an acting basis since early this year by Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche after the former associate administrator, Jim Free, left the agency in February. NASA said the move is intended to emphasize that it is putting exploration "at the very core" of the agency. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
Space technology startup Spacedock plans a 2026 in-space demonstration of a universal connector for space systems. The company, previously known as Orbital Outpost X, said it will work with launch integrator Oligo Space and radiation-shielding specialist Melagen Labs to fly its berthing and docking connector in the second quarter of next year. That connector, also called Spacedock, is a modular interface designed for satellite servicing and space-station docking. [SpaceNews]
Three companies are heading into the final turn in a race to win a lunar rover contract from NASA. Astrolab, Intuitive Machines and Lunar Outpost all recently submitted proposals to NASA for the next phase of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) Services program. The three companies won initial LTV awards last year to refine the designs of their proposed rovers to be used by NASA astronauts on later Artemis missions, taking those designs through preliminary design reviews. NASA is expected to select one company later this year for an award to build the rover, selling services to NASA and other customers. Companies hope the agency follows the lead of other services programs and makes two awards. [SpaceNews]
Amazon says it has demonstrated gigabit download speeds using its Project Kuiper broadband satellites. In social media posts, Kuiper executives said they used the project's initial satellites and an enterprise-grade consumer terminal to get download speeds of around 1.2 gigabits per second. That is several times faster than what SpaceX's Starlink currently provides, although the Kuiper test was done with no commercial users on the system. [GeekWire]
A Dragon cargo spacecraft performed the first reboost of the International Space Station on Wednesday. The CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft, launched to the station last month, fired thrusters for just over five minutes Wednesday to raise the station's orbit by about 1.6 kilometers. The Dragon is equipped with a special "reboost kit" in the spacecraft's trunk to enable it to maintain the station's orbit, a task usually performed by Russian Progress spacecraft or thrusters on the station itself. [NASA]
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Aboard the U.S.S. Commerce Committee
| Gold: "I would be remiss if I didn't thank Senator Cruz in particular for your leadership. Senator Cruz and I both share a strong affinity for Star Trek, and the highest compliment I can pay the chairman is that he is the Captain Kirk of the Senate."
Cruz: "Your time is extended to 10 minutes."
| – An exchange between Mike Gold, president of civil and international space at Redwire, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during Gold's five-minute opening statement at a hearing Wednesday.
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