Top Stories

Sierra Space no longer plans to send its Dream Chaser vehicle to the International Space station on a test flight as it pivots to defense applications. NASA and Sierra Space said Thursday they modified the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) contract NASA awarded the company in 2016. That pact had included seven Dream Chaser cargo missions to the ISS. Instead, Dream Chaser will fly a single test flight that does not go to the ISS in late 2026, although NASA will have the option of ordering cargo missions. Sierra Space said it is now focused on potential national security missions for the uncrewed spaceplane. Sierra Space did not disclose any particular technical issues that have delayed Dream Chaser, previously set to fly to the station last year. [SpaceNews]

The Artemis 2 mission could launch as soon as early February. At briefings this week, NASA officials said they continue to plan a launch of the mission, which will send an Orion with four astronauts on board around the moon, no later than April, but is working to move up the launch. The earliest Artemis 2 could launch is Feb. 5. NASA officials said prelaunch preparations of Orion and the Space Launch System rocket were going smoothly. The astronauts who will be on Artemis 2 also say they feel ready to go. The crew announced they have named the Orion spacecraft they will be flying "Integrity". [SpaceNews]

L3Harris said it has successfully demonstrated a satellite-based radio system that allows military aircraft to use commercial satellite broadband services. The system, known as Rapidly Adaptable Standards-compliant Open Radio (RASOR), integrates multiple commercial satellite internet providers and military-owned networks into a single modular terminal. RASOR was tested earlier this year on a military aircraft and was able to communicate with the Starlink constellation. L3Harris is also working with Amazon's Project Kuiper on the system. [SpaceNews]

NASA selected stratup Katalyst Space to attempt a mission to reboost an astronomy satellite. NASA awarded a $30 million SBIR Phase 3 contract to Katalyst to carry out a mission to dock with the Swift spacecraft and raise its orbit. Swift's orbit is decaying from atmospheric drag and the spacecraft may reenter by the end of next year. Katalyst says the contract will fully fund the mission, scheduled to launch next June. The company received one of two study contracts from NASA last month to examine the feasibility of such a reboost mission. [SpaceNews]

The German government plans to make a major investment in military space systems. In a speech Thursday, Germany's defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said the government would spend 35 billion euros ($41 billion) on military space through 2030. The funding would support communications, space situational awareness and launch, among other capabilities. He cited growing threats to German and other Western space assets from China and Russia as the key reason for the investment. [Breaking Defense]

Other News

SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites from California overnight. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 12:26 a.m. Eastern. It placed 24 Starlink satellites into orbit a little more than an hour later. The launch was the third by SpaceX in about 41 hours, after a NASA launch Wednesday morning and another Starlink launch early Thursday. [Spaceflight Now]

The head of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is stepping down. In a memo Thursday, Joseph Pelfrey announced he would no longer serve as director of the Alabama center, but would remain with the agency in some capacity to be determined. Pelfrey had been director of Marshall since early last year. Rae Ann Meyer, deputy director of Marshall, will serve as acting director while NASA conducts an open search for a permanent successor. Pelfrey is the third NASA center director to step down in recent months, after the leaders of JPL and Goddard. [Huntsville (Ala.) Times]

NASA released Thursday the first images from a radar satellite jointly developed with ISRO. The L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images taken by the NISAR spacecraft last month of Maine and North Dakota show the instrument is working as expected. NISAR was jointly developed with the Indian space agency ISRO and included an L-band SAR from NASA and an S-band SAR from ISRO. It is the first spacecraft with dual-band radar imaging systems. Commissioning of the spacecraft, launched at the end of July, continues ahead of the start of science operations in November. [NASA]

Fuel problems have delayed a suborbital launch by a Canadian company. NordSpace said Thursday it called off a launch attempt planned for this week from a launch pad in Newfoundland after a "minor pad fire" during a launch attempt. The fire did not damage the vehicle, but the company said it would not attempt a launch for the coming weeks. NordSpace said it linked the fire to differences in propellant quality between its Ontario test site and the Newfoundland launch site. [SpaceQ]

Record Breaker

"When I met Fred Haise at a recent event here at JSC, he said, 'Hi,' and then he said, 'I heard you're going to break our record.' It made me realize maybe he's paying attention to it more than we are."

– Artemis 2 astronaut Christina Koch, when asked at a press conference Wednesday about the possibility that the mission may break the record for the furthest distance from Earth by a crewed spacecraft, set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

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