| Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, Blue Origin announced its Starlink competitor called TeraWave, a House appropriator called for NASA to get stable funding in 2027, Rocket Lab's Neutron was damaged during testing and more.
If someone forwarded you this edition, sign up to receive it directly in your inbox every Friday.
| | | | | OUR TOP STORY
| | By Jason Rainbow Blue Origin is seeking approval to start deploying more than 5,400 satellites from late next year for its own Starlink broadband competitor, targeting up to 6 terabits per second capacity for enterprise, data center and government customers.
Comprising 5,280 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and 128 in medium Earth orbit (MEO), the TeraWave network would use a mix of radio frequency and optical links to support point-to-point connectivity and data-intensive global routing.
TeraWave is separate from the 3,232-satellite LEO constellation being rolled out by Amazon, which was also founded by Jeff Bezos but, unlike Blue Origin, is not fully owned by the billionaire.
| | | | | | | CIVIL
| | With the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process effectively complete, a key House appropriator, Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations subcommittee, said the next spending bill for NASA should build on that outcome with stable or increased funding.
A key antenna in NASA's Deep Space Network, DSS-14, that was damaged last fall is expected to remain offline until May, before being taken out of service again later this year for major upgrades.
In a Jan. 16 letter, Louise Prockter, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, informed the leaders of eight organizations known as assessment or analysis groups — collectively called AGs — that the agency will end funding for them by the end of April.
| | MILITARY
| | Congressional appropriators on Jan. 20 released a fiscal 2026 defense spending bill that funds the U.S. Space Force at $26 billion, matching the administration's request, while faulting the Pentagon for failing to provide detail on its plans for the Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
The United States remains "unacceptably vulnerable" to nuclear, debris-generating and counter-commercial attacks in space by Russia in space, including the possibility of a nuclear detonation that could cripple satellites and disrupt daily life on Earth, according to a new report published Jan. 21 by the Atlantic Council.
Space Systems Command, the primary acquisition and space development arm of the U.S. Space Force, is moving to hire contracting and procurement specialists as it tries to recover from the loss of hundreds of civilian professionals last year following broader federal staffing reductions under the Trump administration. | | | | | | | SPONSORED |  | | Innovate Space: Finance Forum brings together top executives, investors, and public-sector leaders to accelerate the space economy through innovative financing models beyond traditional aerospace capital. Over two days, private equity firms, institutional investors, family offices, venture capital, and space industry leaders will explore emerging financial mechanisms, forge partnerships, and drive deal-making to build a sustainable and diversified space ecosystem that scales public-private collaboration and unlocks the next wave of commercial growth and technological breakthroughs. Join Us. | | | | | | | LAUNCH
| | In a Jan. 21 statement, Rocket Lab said a tank built for Neutron's first stage ruptured during a hydrostatic pressure test. In such tests, a tank is filled with water and pressurized, typically above its rated performance, to check for leaks and verify structural integrity.
China suffered a pair of launch failures Jan. 16, seeing the loss of a classified Shijian satellite when a Long March 3B failed for the first time in over five years, and the failed first launch of the Ceres-2 rocket.
Blue Origin announced Jan. 22 that its next New Glenn mission, designated NG-3, is scheduled for no earlier than late February from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It will be the rocket's third flight and the first since the launch of NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission on Nov. 13. Blue Origin will attempt to reuse a New Glenn booster for the first time on the launch.
| | | | | | | 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. | | | | | |  | Latest Press Releases
| | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment