Plus: DiskSats ready for launch
| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Jared Isaacman's confirmation vote is scheduled for today, another commercial space station company emerges, DiskSats ready for launch and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
The Senate is expected to vote today on the nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. A schedule released late Wednesday included a vote planned on the nomination after up to two hours of debate. Isaacman is expected to win confirmation with the chamber's Republicans and some Democrats likely to vote for him. The vote would end a year-long saga that started with then President-elect Trump announcing in December 2024 his intent to nominate Isaacman, only for Trump to withdraw the nomination at the end of May just days before a confirmation vote. Trump then renominated Isaacman last month. [U.S. Senate]
Another company is entering the commercial space station market. Max Space, a startup that has been working on expandable module technologies, announced Wednesday its plans for Thunderbird Station. The station would feature a single module that could launch on a Falcon 9 but expand to a volume of 350 cubic meters, one-third the size of the entire International Space Station, once in orbit. The company plans to launch a small prototype, called Mission Evolution, on a SpaceX rideshare mission in early 2027. The company sees its design as providing an advantage both in lower launch costs and with an internal layout that can be easily reconfigured. Former NASA astronaut Nicole Stott is working for Max Space as its lead astronaut to aid in the station's design. [SpaceNews]
Indian space situational awareness (SSA) company Digantara has raised $50 million as it expands into missile defense. The company said Tuesday it raised the Series B round from several new and existing investors. Digantara has a network of ground-based sensors for tracking space objects and launched earlier this year the first satellite in a planned constellation to provide space-based tracking. The company has opened a U.S. office and is proposing to use its technologies to develop satellites for missile-tracking applications. [SpaceNews]
OQ Technology says it has connected a commercial Internet of Things (IoT) chipset directly to one of its low Earth orbit satellites. The Luxembourg company said Wednesday it used an unmodified, low-power cellular module from Norway's Nordic Semiconductor called nRF9151, which is typically used in tracking and monitoring sensors, to communicate with one of its satellites. The company said the test shows that existing commercial IoT sensors can use its satellite network for communications without the need for hardware or software modifications. [SpaceNews]
Vantor, the former Maxar Intelligence, is partnering with Niantic Spatial to develop navigation technology for military platforms operating in GPS-denied environments. The collaboration will focus on enabling air and ground platforms to navigate and coordinate when satellite-based positioning is unavailable due to jamming or spoofing, a growing concern for military operators. The partnership combines Vantor's visual-based navigation software for aerial platforms with Niantic Spatial's ground-focused Visual Positioning System, enabling drones, vehicles and others to navigate without using GPS. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
An Ariane 6 launched two Galileo navigation satellites overnight. The Ariane 62 lifted off from French Guiana at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Wednesday and deployed the two Galileo satellites into medium Earth orbit nearly four hours later. The launch was the first time Ariane 6 launched Galileo satellites and marks a return to using European rockets for the network after Ariane 6 delays forced Europe to launch four Galileo satellites last year on Falcon 9 rockets. The satellites were the last two built for the first-generation Galileo system, although four that were manufactured earlier are in storage for launches planned in the next 12 to 16 months. Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space have contracts to build larger, more advanced second-generation Galileo satellites. [SpaceNews]
A Japanese navigation satellite is stuck on the pad after a last-second scrub Tuesday night. The Japanese space agency JAXA said it scrubbed the H3 launch of the Michibiki 5 satellite because of a problem with ground equipment found seconds before the scheduled 9:11 p.m. Eastern liftoff. A sensor detected insufficient water levels in a sound suppression system at the pad, triggering the abort. JAXA did not announce a new launch date for the mission, which will place into orbit the latest satellite for Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System that augments GPS. [Japan Times]
The Space Force and Rocket Lab have confirmed plans to launch experimental "DiskSats" on an Electron rocket this week. Four flat, disk-shaped satellites known as DiskSats are scheduled to launch no earlier than 12 a.m. Eastern Thursday from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 2 in Virginia. The mission, part of the Defense Department's Space Test Program and designated STP-S30, was accelerated from an initial target of spring 2026. DiskSat was developed by the Aerospace Corp. with NASA funding as a potential alternative to the cubesat standard. Each spacecraft is roughly three feet in diameter and shaped like a flat plate, optimized to fly in a low-drag orientation through the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere. [SpaceNews]
If satellites suddenly lost the ability to maneuver, they would start colliding with each other in orbit within three days. A Princeton University study examining growing congestion in low Earth orbit developed a metric called the Collision Realization And Significant Harm (CRASH) Clock to see how long it would take for satellites to collide if they could no longer actively maneuver. The study found that, prior to the deployment of Starlink satellites in 2019, the CRASH Clock was 121 days, but now is just 2.8 days given the much larger number of satellites. However, spacecraft engineers note the scenario is hypothetical, as there is unlikely to be any case that would cause all spacecraft to lose the ability to maneuver that wouldn't also create much more serious problems. [New Scientist]
| | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | How the Space Force trains Guardians for the future of warfare: In this episode of Space Minds, senior staff writer Sandra Erwin sits down with former NASA astronaut and Space Force leader Brig. Gen. Nick Hague for a wide-ranging conversation on how the U.S. Space Force is shaping its culture, training Guardians and preparing for future conflict in space. Hague shares insights on warfighting culture, career development, new training pipelines and the realities of building a combat-ready force with limited resources. Watch or listen now.
| | | | | | Adorable Rovers
| "For the Artemis 4 mission, the science experiments the crew will do on the surface of the moon, one of those two selections was from this community, the DUSTER mission. It's just the most adorable little rover. Great science, but it doesn't hurt to have a cool rover in the mix as well."
| | – Jamie Favors, director of NASA's space weather program, discussing during a town hall session at the Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union the recent selection of the Dust and Plasma Environment Sensor, or DUSTER, which uses a small rover from Lunar Outpost to characterize conditions around the landing site.
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