Pluse: ArianeGroup has a new CEO
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Resilient GPS is not resilient enough, Australia's first space unicorn, ArianeGroup hires a new CEO and more.
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Top Stories
The Space Force has canceled a program to augment the Global Positioning System with smaller, low-cost satellites. The effort, known as Resilient GPS, or R-GPS, began in 2024 and funded three industry teams — Astranis, L3Harris Technologies and Sierra Space — to develop designs and early prototypes for alternative navigation satellites. However, funding for what would have been Phase 1 of R-GPS was not included in the fiscal year 2026 budget "due to higher Department of the Air Force priorities," a Space Force spokesperson said. The Space Force has not said whether it plans to pursue alternative positioning, navigation and timing efforts in place of R-GPS amid concerns about the vulnerability of GPS to jamming and spoofing. [SpaceNews]
Australian launch and satellite manufacturer Gilmour Space Technologies has raised $146 million. The company announced the Series E round Tuesday, co-led by the Australian federal government's National Reconstruction Fund Corp. and Hostplus, a retirement savings fund. Gilmour said the funding will be used to continue development of its Eris rocket, which made its first, but unsuccessful, test flight last July. It will also support scaling up production of the rocket as well as its ElaraSat satellite bus, the first of which was launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission last June. Gilmour said the funding round made it Australia's first space "unicorn," a term used for private companies valued at more than $1 billion. [SpaceNews]
A key antenna in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) will be out of service until May. The 70-meter antenna at the DSN site in Goldstone, California, was damaged last September when the antenna over-rotated, damaging cables and piping. At a planetary science meeting last week, a JPL scientist said the antenna is expected to return to service on May 1, adding that the date could change. The antenna is scheduled to go offline again in August for more than two years for major upgrades. The DSN is already struggling to keep up with demand for communications services from various missions and will also be used to support the upcoming Artemis 2 mission. [SpaceNews]
French company Sodern will start producing star trackers in the United States. The company, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, announced last week the establishment of Sodern America, its new U.S. entity. Sodern America will set up a production facility near Denver for the Auriga star tracker, currently built at Sodern's plant near Paris. Creating a U.S. production line is intended to help serve American customers, which account for about one-third of Sodern's space-related revenue. The Colorado facility is expected to start producing star trackers in the fall. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
A Safran executive is the new CEO of ArianeGroup. The company announced Monday it is hiring Christophe Bruneau as CEO, effective April 1. Bruneau is currently executive vice president and general manager for military engines at Safran Aircraft Engines, and has previously worked in the space industry at Safran and MAN Technologie AG. He succeeds Martin Sion, who announced in October he was leaving ArianeGroup, prime contractor for the Ariane 6, to take a job outside the aerospace industry. [ArianeGroup]
The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has announced plans for a spaceport. The state's chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, said recently the state government would establish a launch site on Hope Island, just off the east coast. The site would be used to host private Indian rockets, rather than those operated by the space agency ISRO that launch from Sriharikota, south of Hope Island. The announcement did not include details about the spaceport infrastructure the state government will develop or a schedule. [CNBC-TV18]
A powerful solar storm hit the Earth Monday. The shock wave from the coronal mass ejection hit the Earth Monday afternoon, triggering a strong geomagnetic storm and brilliant auroras. Solar radiation levels from the storm reached the highest levels measured since a powerful storm in 2003. [Space.com]
Chris Scolese, director of the National Reconnaissance Office, is the winner of the 2026 Goddard Trophy. The National Space Club announced last week it selected Scolese for the award, given to the person deemed to have made the most significant contribution to space activity in the previous year. Scolese has been director of the NRO since 2019 and previously was at NASA, where he served as associate administrator and director of the Goddard Space Flight Center. [X @SpaceClubNews]
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FROM SPACENEWS |  | Managing an orbital economy as space grows more congested: In this episode of Space Minds, host David Ariosto talks with Chiara Manfletti, the CEO of Neuraspace and a professor of space mobility and propulsion at the Technical University of Munich. They discuss space debris, orbital logistics and managing a new orbital economy through new initiatives in Europe and around the world. Watch or listen now.
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| On Your Own
| "I really have to make sure he knows that it's not like the International Space Station where we can just make a phone call. So, he's not going to be able to call me and ask where something is in the house. He's going to have to find it. That's been a big one for us."
| – NASA astronaut Christina Koch, discussing at a briefing Saturday talks with her husband about the upcoming Artemis 2 mission.
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