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The top Democrat on the House Science Committee is demanding NASA halt efforts to close offices and labs at the Goddard Space Flight Center. In a letter Monday to NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) called for NASA to immediately stop work to close buildings at Goddard, which she argued had accelerated during the government shutdown. NASA has said the moves are consistent with a 20-year master plan to reduce Goddard's footprint by 25%, but Lofgren said the moves appeared to be "abruptly and haphazardly uprooting employees" and equipment, and could jeopardize work on missions such as the Roman Space Telescope. A union representing Goddard employees said 13 buildings containing about 100 labs were being closed. [SpaceNews]

The failure of a privately operated methane-monitoring satellite does not have a clear root cause. MethaneSAT, launched in March 2024, stopped communicating with the ground in June, and the Environmental Defense Fund, which operated the mission, declared it a failure soon thereafter. A report released last week said MethaneSAT likely failed because of a "solitary event" either with its avionics or electrical power subsystem, but could not further narrow down the cause. That report was released by a New Zealand government ministry that had funded part of the mission, including operation centers in the country. The report noted there had been a series of technical problems with the spacecraft since its launch, which at one point led the spacecraft manufacturer, Blue Canyon Technologies, to take over mission operations. [SpaceNews]

Two European companies are partnering on a microgravity research and manufacturing mission launching next year. Atmos Space Cargo and Space Cargo Unlimited said Wednesday they will fly a mission using Space Cargo Unlimited's BentoBox research platform on Atmos's Phoenix 2 spacecraft. That platform will operate in orbit for several weeks before returning to Earth using a reentry system developed by Atmos. The mission is the first of seven planned by the two companies. [SpaceNews]

India's space agency ISRO performed a test of parachutes for its Gaganyaan crewed spacecraft. In the test, announced Tuesday but which took place earlier in the month, a Gaganyaan mass simulator was dropped from an aircraft and deployed two main parachutes. This is the latest in a series of tests of Gaganyaan systems before the first uncrewed orbital test flight of the spacecraft, currently expected to take place early next year. [Hindustan Times]

Other News

South Korean launch startup Innospace has set a date for its first orbital launch. The company is planning a launch of its Hanbit-Nano vehicle on the afternoon of Nov. 22 from the Alcântara Space Center in Brazil. The small launch vehicle will carry five satellites and three hosted payloads on the test flight, called "Spaceward" by the company. [Innospace]

Roscosmos said it is on track to conduct the first launch of its Soyuz-5 rocket before the end of this year. The first flight model of the Soyuz-5 was delivered to the Baikonur Cosmodrome for launch in December, Roscosmos said Wednesday. Soyuz-5, in development for nearly a decade, offers medium-lift launch capabilities and could potentially be used for future crewed spacecraft. [Tass]

SpaceX signed an agreement with a South African telecom company to provide Starlink services in Africa. Under the agreement, Vodacom Group will integrate Starlink services into its mobile network and also be an authorized reseller for Starlink services. It was unclear if the agreement will include services in Vodacom's home country of South Africa, where SpaceX has sparred with regulators in its efforts to secure a license there. [Reuters]

A powerful solar storm created brilliant auroral displays across much of the United States last night. The storm, rated a G4 on a 1-to-5 scale by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, resulted in auroras seen as far south as Alabama and Florida. An ongoing series of solar flares raises the prospects of more auroras Wednesday night. [Washington Post]

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