| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: a Japanese navigation satellite launch fails, four companies split $3.5 billion in SDA contracts, a Hungarian company plans to invest in Axiom Space and more.
If someone forwarded you this edition, sign up to receive it in your inbox every weekday. Have thoughts or feedback? You can hit reply to let me know.
| | | | | | Top Stories
An H3 launch of a Japanese navigation satellite failed Sunday night when the rocket's upper stage malfunctioned. The H3 lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 8:51 p.m. Eastern. The rocket's first stage performed normally, but the first burn of the second stage lasted nearly 30 seconds longer than planned. The upper stage engine shut down almost immediately after startup for a second burn, stranding the stage and its payload, the Michibiki 5 navigation satellite, in a very low orbit that will cause them to reenter soon. Telemetry showed that hydrogen tank pressure in the second stage began falling during the first-stage burn, a behavior now under investigation. The failure was the second in seven launches for the H3, and could have significant effects on upcoming Japanese missions, including a Mars spacecraft scheduled for launch late next year. [SpaceNews]
The Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded $3.5 billion in contracts to four companies for a set of missile-tracking satellites. The contracts, announced Friday, are for the Tracking Layer Tranche 3 segment of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a growing network of military satellites intended to provide faster, more resilient missile warning and tracking than legacy space systems. L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rocket Lab will each build 18 satellites. Contract values range from $764 million for Northrop Grumman to $1.1 billion for Lockheed Martin. The satellites are projected to launch in fiscal year 2029. [SpaceNews]
New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told employees he wants the agency to move faster, but said he still needs to get up to speed on all the agency's activities. At an agency town hall Friday, Isaacman said NASA needs to work differently and find ways to "minimize the bureaucratic drag that can slow us down," citing China's rapidly advancing space capabilities. He deferred answers on questions about specific agency issues, saying there is "an awful lot to learn" about the agency. He promised to visit all NASA centers in the coming weeks and also tell commercial and international partners to move faster on their efforts. [SpaceNews]
NASA safety advisers urged the agency to reconsider the overall architecture for the Artemis lunar exploration campaign. In a public meeting Friday to discuss recommendations for their upcoming annual report, members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel called on the agency to "reexamine the mission objectives and potentially the architecture" for Artemis 3 and later missions, citing the large number of first-time events on Artemis 3 that present safety risks. In addition, the panel recommended NASA scrutinize its various contracting mechanisms, including use of commercial contracts, to ensure they are suitable for developmental programs. It also wants NASA to review its criteria for declaring an in-flight mishap or close call, noting the agency did not make such a formal declaration during the Starliner crew test flight last year. [SpaceNews]
Hungarian communications provider 4iG has agreed to invest $100 million in commercial space station developer Axiom Space. The company said Friday it has committed to invest $30 million in Axiom by the end of 2025, followed by an additional $70 million by the end of March. 4iG said that the Axiom investment would provide Hungary with an opportunity to secure a long-term role in orbital data center programs and space-based data processing and storage. 4iG has far-reaching plans for sovereign satellites and domestic manufacturing capabilities and also owns a 20% stake in Israeli satellite operator Spacecom. [SpaceNews]
ESA expects to know by February how it will address a shortfall in exploration funding. While the agency secured record funding overall at its ministerial conference last month, member states provided only about 80% of requested funding for its human and robotic exploration program, which includes low Earth orbit, Artemis and Mars missions. At a briefing last week, officials said they are assessing how to deal with the shortfall, about 800 million euros over three years, and expect to have a plan ready by February. ESA previously said member states funded some aspects of the exploration program, including work on a commercial LEO cargo system and the Argonaut lunar lander. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
Blue Origin took six people on a suborbital spaceflight Saturday, including the first wheelchair user. The New Shepard vehicle lifted off at 9:15 a.m. Eastern from its West Texas test site, reaching a peak altitude of about 106 kilometers before landing 10 minutes later. The six people on the NS-37 mission included Michaela "Michi" Benthaus, a German engineer who suffered a spinal cord injury in a mountain biking accident and now uses a wheelchair. Her flight was arranged by another person on the flight, Hans Koenigsmann, one of the first employees of SpaceX who spent two decades at the company. Blue Origin said it did not need to modify New Shepard itself to accommodate Benthaus, but did create some ground equipment so she could get in and out of the capsule. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab wrapped up a record year for the company with an Electron launch Sunday. The Electron launched from the company's Launch Site One in New Zealand at 1:36 a.m. Eastern and put into orbit the QPS-SAR-15 radar imaging satellite for Japanese company iQPS. The launch was the 21st and final Electron launch of the year for Rocket Lab, a new record for the company. That included three Electron launches in a little more than a week earlier this month from New Zealand and Virginia. [SpaceNews]
China launched a classified satellite on a Long March 5 Saturday. The rocket lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport on the island of Hainan at 7:30 a.m. Eastern. It put into orbit TJSW-23, a satellite Chinese media described only as a communication technology test satellite. Western observers suspect the spacecraft may be a signals intelligence satellite. [Xinhua]
NASA conducted a practice countdown test for the Artemis 2 mission even though the rocket and spacecraft are still in the Vehicle Assembly Building. The four astronauts on the Artemis 2 mission boarded the Orion spacecraft atop the Space Launch System rocket Saturday in what NASA calls a countdown demonstration test, designed to rehearse procedures for the launch. The SLS is scheduled to be rolled out to the pad next month for final preparations, including a wet dress rehearsal, ahead of a launch scheduled for as soon as early February but which could slip to March or April. [CBS]
Intelligence officials in NATO countries claim Russia is developing a weapon to take out SpaceX's Starlink constellation, and many other satellites. The so-called "zone effect" weapon would place hundreds of thousands of high-density pellets into the orbits used by Starlink, causing collisions to disable spacecraft. The report did not indicate how far along Russia is in developing such a system. Some space security experts are skeptical about the claims, noting that such a weapon would also disable other satellites in similar orbits, including Russian and Chinese spacecraft. [AP]
| | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | Speed, risk, and the future of national security space: In this episode of Space Minds, host Mike Gruss moderates a panel discussion at the Spacepower conference on how commercial space capabilities are reshaping national security, civil space and military decision-making with Luke Fischer, CEO and co-founder of SkyFi, Bob Pavelko, executive director of national security space programs for Intuitive Machines, and Bradley Cheetham, CEO and co-founder of Advanced Space. Watch or listen now. | | | | | | The Week Ahead
Monday:
-
Alcântara, Brazil: Rescheduled inaugural launch of Innospace's Hanbit-Nano rocket at 1:45 p.m. Eastern.
-
Jiuquan, China: Projected inaugural launch of the Long March 12A rocket at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
| | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment