| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: The Pentagon invests in L3Harris, Firefly upgrades its Alpha rocket, China performs its first launches of the year and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
The Pentagon plans to invest $1 billion into L3Harris to support production of solid rocket motors. Under the agreement announced Tuesday, the Defense Department will invest $1 billion in a convertible security tied to L3Harris' Missile Solutions business, which includes solid rocket motors. The investment would convert into equity only if L3Harris carries out a planned initial public offering of the missile unit, which the company said it intends to pursue in the second half of 2026. L3Harris CEO Christopher Kubasik said his company worked with Pentagon officials for several months to structure the agreement, concluding that the company would need at least $1 billion to modernize and scale solid rocket motor production to levels sought by the Defense Department. The arrangement marks one of the most interventionist steps the U.S. government has taken in the defense industrial sector. [SpaceNews]
NASA says it is "very unlikely" it will be able to recover a Mars orbiter that stopped communicating with the Earth last month. Speaking at a planetary science meeting Tuesday, Louise Prockter, director of NASA's planetary science division, said efforts to restore contact with the MAVEN spacecraft will resume as soon as Friday. That's when a solar conjunction that interferes with communications with Mars ends, but prospects for recovery are slim. NASA lost contact with MAVEN in early December and a fragment of telemetry recovered from the spacecraft indicates it is spinning and not in its nominal orbit. MAVEN has been at Mars since September 2014 studying the Martian upper atmosphere and also serving as a communications relay for rovers on the surface. [SpaceNews]
Geospatial data company SkyFi has raised $12.7 million. The company announced what it called an oversubscribed Series A round Wednesday co-led by Buoyant Ventures and IronGate Capital Advisors. SkyFi operates a geospatial marketplace that brings together imagery and analytics from more than 50 providers, including optical, hyperspectral and radar satellite imagery. The company plans to pursue new partnerships with satellite operators to expand its on-demand data offerings, adding depth to the marketplace as more commercial constellations come online. SkyFi positions itself as a distribution and procurement layer, simplifying access to imagery that has traditionally been sold through bespoke contracts. [SpaceNews]
Firefly Aerospace will upgrade its Alpha launch vehicle to improve quality and reliability. The company unveiled plans Tuesday for a Block 2 version of Alpha with stretched first and second stages and other improvements. The design features "a focus on enhanced safety, quality and reliability," CEO Jason Kim said in a statement. Alpha has launched six times to date, but only two have placed their payloads into their planned orbits. The most recent launch, last April, failed to reach orbit, and the stage that was to be used on the next launch was destroyed in a static-fire test mishap in September. The last launch of the current Block 1 version of Alpha is scheduled for the "coming weeks" from Vandenberg Space Force Base, after which the company will start using Alpha Block 2. [SpaceNews]
A House Science Committee hearing Tuesday examined the role NOAA weather satellites play in national security. At the hearing, U.S. Air Force and Navy witnesses discussed their heavy reliance on datasets and weather models provided by NOAA and said their agencies are working closely to ensure NOAA's next-generation constellations satisfy military requirements. The White House proposed steep cuts to NOAA for 2026, including canceling instruments planned for the next-generation GeoXO weather satellite program. A minibus appropriations bill released last week would restore NOAA funding to 2025 levels, but it's not yet clear how that funding would impact GeoXO or other NOAA programs. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
China conducted its first two launches of the year on Tuesday. A Long March 6A lifted off at 9:16 a.m. Eastern from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center and placed into an unusual retrograde orbit the Yaogan-50 (01) satellite. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the satellite will be used for civil applications, but Yaogan is thought to be a series of remote sensing satellites with military applications, including spacecraft with synthetic aperture radar, optical and signals intelligence payloads. A Long March 8A lifted off at 10:25 a.m. Eastern from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, putting another set of Guowang megaconstellation satellites into orbit. There are now 145 operational Guowang satellites in orbit, with its operator planning to have 400 satellites in orbit by 2027. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force is switching rockets for an upcoming GPS satellite launch. Space Systems Command said that the GPS 3 SV09 spacecraft, which was to launch on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan, will instead go on a SpaceX Falcon 9. The switch will allow the satellite to get to orbit "as soon as possible," the command said. In exchange, the GPS 3F SV13 spacecraft that was to launch on a Falcon Heavy in a "future calendar year" will instead go on Vulcan. The Space Force performed a similar swap last year, moving the GPS 3 SV08 from Vulcan to Falcon 9 to allow it to launch last May, while GPS 3F SV11 was moved from Falcon Heavy to Vulcan. [Spaceflight Now]
ESA and space servicing startup ClearSpace are partnering on a mission to test key technologies. The PRELUDE mission, announced Monday, involves two small spacecraft designed to test close-proximity operations and could eventually enable satellite life extension, repair and removal in orbit. PRELUDE aims to validate autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations in real flight conditions. The mission is projected to launch in 2027 and operate for 7 to 12 months. [SpaceNews]
One of the payloads on a failed Indian launch did manage to provide some data. The Kestrel Initial Demonstration, or KID, spacecraft was a reentry capsule developed by a European company, Orbital Paradigm, as a first flight test of their technologies. KID was one of several secondary payloads on the PSLV launch of an Indian imaging satellite late Sunday that failed to reach orbit because of a malfunction in the rocket's third stage. Orbital Paradigm said that the capsule was able to separate from the upper stage and transmit data for a few minutes. The company said it is still analyzing the data but considers the flight met a minimum threshold of success. [ThePrint]
Intuitive Machines has completed its acquisition of satellite manufacturer Lanteris Space Systems. The company said Tuesday it completed the transaction announced in November to acquire Lanteris, formerly known as Maxar Space Systems, for $800 million in cash and stock. Intuitive Machines, best known as a developer of lunar landers, said that buying Lanteris is part of its efforts to become "a multi-domain, end-to-end solutions provider" that can compete for future Space Development Agency and Golden Dome contracts. Chris Johnson, president of Lanteris, will remain in that position now that the sale is complete. [Intuitive Machines]
| | | | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | Join us in DC on Wednesday, Jan. 21: The U.S. Space Force of 2040 will operate in a far more contested, congested, and fast-moving domain than the Guardians of today — one where space control, speed and resiliency will define U.S. military advantage. The next installment in our series with Johns Hopkins University will examine what the Space Force must become to succeed against growing threats. SpaceNews' Sandra Erwin will sit down with Space Force Gen. Shawn Bratton following a panel discussion with leaders from Vantor, K2 Space and JHU APL. Register now. | | | | | | Bring Your Own Cream and Sugar
| "I'm basically doing lots of impromptu town halls. I'm buying them coffee and donuts, because NASA accomplished a lot of extraordinary things in the '60s on black coffee. So I'm reintroducing that."
| | – NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in an interview about his ongoing series of visits to NASA field centers. [Florida Today]
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