By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Duffy pushes back on Bridenstine's Artemis comments, satellites test "Dynamic Targeting" technologies, Space Force officers complete new training program and more.
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Top Stories
Amazon has secured the first airline customer for its Project Kuiper broadband constellation. JetBlue said it will install Kuiper terminals on about one-quarter of its fleet of more than 300 airliners that currently use Viasat for in-flight connectivity, starting in 2027. According to Amazon, its aviation‑specific Ka‑band customer terminal can deliver download speeds of up to one gigabit per second on a single device. JetBlue is the first airline to partner with Kuiper after several airlines selected SpaceX's Starlink for their aircraft. The moves are a blow to legacy GEO satellite operators currently providing services for commercial aircraft. [SpaceNews]
NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said he was "angry" after hearing testimony that China would get astronauts to the moon before the United States. In a town hall meeting Thursday, Duffy referenced testimony at a Senate hearing Wednesday when a former NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said it was "highly unlikely" that NASA would beat China to the moon. "That was shade thrown on all of NASA," Duffy said of the comments, without mentioning Bridenstine by name. He added that "I'll be damned if that is the story that we write." He offered few specifics, though, about what NASA would do to ensure Artemis remains on schedule. Duffy also used the town hall to defend NASA's budget proposal that would cut overall agency spending by nearly 25%, noting that the budget increases spending on exploration programs. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force has graduated a first class of officers trained with a new emphasis on space operations, cyber warfare and intelligence. The 80 officers, which included graduates from the Air Force Academy and ROTC programs, completed a year-long program that immerses them in space operations, intelligence analysis, cyber warfare and acquisitions. Space Force leadership says those are the interconnected disciplines essential for modern space warfare. The program represents a shift for the Space Force as it moves from a focus primarily on operating satellites in what was once considered a peaceful domain to a force prepared for combat against sophisticated adversaries. [SpaceNews]
A Spanish startup has announced plans for its first reentry capsule mission. Orbital Paradigm said Thursday it had three customers for its first mission, called Kestrel Initial Demonstrator (KID), which will launch later this year on an undisclosed rocket. KID is a small capsule primarily intended to test technologies for larger capsules. Orbital Paradigm hopes to start launching its full-sized Kestrel capsule as soon as 2027, with long-term plans for monthly flights of the spacecraft to carry payloads seeking to operate in the microgravity environment before returning. The company built KID in less than one year for less than one million euros. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
NASA and companies are testing technologies to enable Earth observation satellites to determine where they should take images. The "Dynamic Targeting" technology is being tested on an Open Cosmos cubesat using an AI processor from Ubotica and machine-learning algorithms from JPL. The camera on the spacecraft looks ahead for interesting features that should be photographed, or if regions should not be images because they are cloud-covered. That analysis is done onboard the spacecraft in a matter of seconds without human intervention. Tests confirmed that the system was able to collect cloud-free imagery. [SpaceNews]
ESA has turned to history to rename an experimental navigation satellite program. ESA said this week that its LEO-PNT mission would now be named Celeste, after the daughter of Galileo. Celeste will include 10 satellites in low Earth orbit intended to augment the Galileo navigation satellite system in medium Earth orbit, providing greater resilience from jamming and interference. The mission could be a precursor to a larger operational constellation of navigation satellites in low Earth orbit. [ESA]
Satellite operator Eutelsat, meanwhile, is rebranding itself as… Eutelsat. The company announced Thursday that it was changing its formal name from Eutelsat Group to simply Eutelsat, although most had always called the company Eutelsat. The company started using the Eutelsat Group name after acquiring OneWeb, the LEO constellation operator that became known as Eutelsat OneWeb. The company is retaining the OneWeb name for the constellation. It also unveiled a new visual identity using colors called "Space Blue" and "OneWeb Red." [Eutelsat]
Data from a NASA Mars lander is helping scientists better understand the interior of the red planet. One study published this week, using seismic data collected by the InSight lander, found that Mars has a solid inner core, like Earth, with a liquid outer core. Mars, though, lacks the magnetic field the Earth has, perhaps because the planet's mantle is less effective at pulling heat away from the core and causing circulation there. Another study last week found evidence that there are chunks of material embedded in the mantle of Mars. That may be debris from ancient asteroid impacts, scientists argue. [New York Times]
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Don't Do the Dew
| "Mr. Bridenstine, is that a Bill Nye-approved beverage you have there? Diet Mountain Dew?"
"I'm guessing not."
"He's shaking his head. I grew up on Bill Nye. I'm a child of the '90s, so I grew up on Bill Nye."
| – An exchange between Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) and former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine during a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Commerce Committee, also attended by Bill Nye.
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