Plus: NASA reconsiders its reliance on contractors
| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: NASA seeks to change its workforce after a year of upheavals, Viasat looks for opportunities with orbital data centers, China launches a reusable spaceplane 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
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is seeking to bolster the agency's civil servant workforce and reduce reliance on contractors. In a directive issued Friday, he ordered field centers and mission directorates to identify in 30 days which technical and operational roles should be brought in-house. That assessment will be followed within 60 days by what he described as "rapid onboarding" of new civil servants. The directive calls on agency officials to develop a strategy for moving work from contractors to civil servants. Isaacman said in a social media post that he was concerned that NASA had become too reliant on contractors, which constitute 75% of the overall agency workforce, and had lost many core competencies. He said in an earlier interview that one of the bigger surprises from his tour of field centers was the degree to which NASA relied on contractors. [SpaceNews]
The move by NASA to add to its civil servant workforce comes after a year of dramatic declines in the federal space workforce. At least 5,000 federal workers left their positions in the U.S. space workforce last year through deferred retirements, resignations and layoffs. Senior executives with decades of experience retired alongside younger staffers whose posts were eliminated or who sought opportunities in the private sector or academia. SpaceNews talked to eight of them. [SpaceNews]
Starfish Space won a Space Force contract to build and operate a spacecraft to support military satellites in GEO. The $54.5 million contract awarded last week covers the manufacture and operation of an Otter servicing vehicle built by Starfish for at least five years. The Space Force says the Otter will provide "mobility solutions" such as relocating spacecraft in GEO and moving them to disposal orbits, as well as life-extension capabilities. This is the second Otter ordered by the Space Force, following a demonstration mission announced in 2024 and scheduled for launch this year. [SpaceNews]
Satellite operator Viasat sees opportunities to work with companies developing orbital data centers. In an earnings call last week, Viasat said the company is interested in collaborating with companies developing computing systems in space to provide communications for those systems. Viasat declined to elaborate on how it could support an emerging orbital data center market. Viasat's near-term focus is on its ViaSat-3 satellites, with the second satellite, launched in November, now set to enter service over the Americas in May. A third satellite, serving Asia, is expected to enter service in late summer. [SpaceNews]
An investor in two space companies that went public in the last year believes a planned SpaceX IPO could help other companies in the sector. Kirk Konert, managing partner at AE Industrial Partners, said last week that the size of the upcoming SpaceX IPO means investors will need to evaluate the space sector, which could include what other companies are worth investing in or taking public. AE Industrial Partners invested in Firefly Aerospace, which went public last summer, and York Space Systems, which had its IPO in late January. He said both IPOs were heavily oversubscribed, showing strong interest by institutional investors in space companies. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
A Chinese military spaceplane launched on its fourth mission Friday. A Long March 2F lifted off around 11 p.m. Eastern Friday, placing the spaceplane into orbit. This is the fourth flight of the spaceplane, analogous to the Space Force's X-37B, and comes a year and a half after the end of the previous mission. Chinese officials have not released any details about the mission other than to perform "technological verification for reusable spacecraft." [SpaceNews]
SpaceX's Falcon 9 returned to flight Saturday, five days after an incident on the previous launch. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:58 p.m. Eastern, deploying 25 Starlink satellites. The launch was the first since Feb. 2, when another Falcon 9 deployed a set of Starlink satellites then suffered an anomaly that prevented the upper stage from deorbiting. The FAA said Friday it authorized the rocket's return to flight after overseeing a SpaceX investigation. That investigation concluded a gas bubble in a propellant line prevented the upper stage's engine from reigniting for the deorbit burn. NASA has also cleared the rocket to launch this week's Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station, noting the mission uses a different deorbit profile. [SpaceNews]
NASA says it is making progress on repairs needed for the Space Launch System ahead of a second countdown rehearsal. NASA said late Sunday that technicians had replaced two seals in a hydrogen fueling system for the SLS after leaks were detected there in last week's wet dress rehearsal (WDR). NASA has not set a date for a second WDR and plans to do additional tests in the coming days. The next launch opportunity for the Artemis 2 mission is early March. [NASA]
OneWeb founder Greg Wyler is included in the Epstein files. Emails recently released by the Justice Department include some between Wyler and Jeffrey Epstein, who was advising Wyler as he started OneWeb more than a decade ago and was looking for financing. In response to the emails, Wyler said he did discuss OneWeb financing with Epstein but did not accept any funding from him. Wyler left OneWeb when it went through bankruptcy reorganization and is now founder of E-Space, another satellite startup. [Bloomberg]
The British astronomy community is warning about the effects of a proposed major budget cut. The U.K. government has proposed a 30% cut to physics and astronomy research, the head of the U.K. Science and Technology Facilities Council said in a recent letter. Astronomers warned the proposed cuts will affect their ability to use new facilities the government has helped fund, like the Extremely Large Telescope and Square Kilometer Array. Students and early-career researchers could be disproportionately affected by the cuts, groups like the Royal Astronomical Society said. The move comes after the U.K. government reduced its contribution to the European Space Agency as last November's ministerial even as other member countries significantly increased their spending. [Space.com]
| | | | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | Exodus: The shrinking federal space workforce: At least 5,000 federal workers left their positions in the U.S. space workforce last year. Senior executives with decades of experience retired alongside younger staffers whose posts were eliminated or who sought opportunities in the private sector or academia. Read SpaceNews correspondent Debra Werner's conversations with former officials from NASA, NOAA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NGA and Space Systems Command. | | | | | | The Week Ahead
Monday-Wednesday: Tuesday: Tuesday-Thursday: Tuesday-Friday: Wednesday: -
Chinese Coastal Waters: Anticipated launch of a Jielong 3 rocket with an undisclosed payload at 1:30 a.m. Eastern. -
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Scheduled launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station on a Falcon 9 at 6:01 a.m. Eastern. -
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 9:07 a.m. Eastern. -
Greenbelt, Md.: Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable luncheon. Thursday: -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Vulcan Centaur on the USSF-87 mission carrying two GSSAP satellites at 3 a.m. Eastern. -
Baikonur, Kazakhstan: Scheduled launch of a Proton carrying the Elektro-L No. 5 satellite at 3:52 a.m. Eastern. -
Kourou, French Guiana: Scheduled launch of an Araiane 64 carrying Amazon Leo satellites at 11:45 a.m. Eastern. Thursday-Saturday: Friday: Saturday: -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 12 a.m. Eastern. -
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 5 p.m. Eastern.
| | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment