Plus: Developing resilience for GPS
| By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: the FCC approves another large satellite constellation, the House advances a NASA authorization bill, the struggles of developing resilience for GPS and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
Logos Space Services has secured FCC approval to deploy as many as 4,178 low Earth orbit broadband satellites to serve enterprise and government users. The FCC partially granted the application by Logos, clearing operations in K-, Q- and V-band spectrum under certain conditions while deferring and denying parts of its higher-frequency requests. The satellites would operate across seven orbital shells ranging from 870 kilometers to 925 kilometers above Earth, with inclinations spanning 28 to 90 degrees. Logos raised $50 million last year and plans to deploy its first operational satellite in 2027. The company has, under the FCC approval, seven years to deploy half the constellation with the rest in orbit by 2035. [SpaceNews]
The House Science Committee advanced a NASA authorization bill Wednesday. The committee unanimously approved the bill after approving more than 40 amendments to it. The amendments cover a range of topics, from exploration and commercial space activities to science and workforce development. One amendment would direct NASA to study raising the orbit of the International Space Station upon retirement rather than deorbiting it. Another amendment, introduced and then withdrawn, would have directed NASA to study the cost and risks of moving the shuttle Discovery from Virginia to Houston. The committee rejected only one amendment, which would have given NASA authorities to operate counter-drone systems at its facilities, after Republican members argued that was an issue better handled by the House Armed Services Committee. The bill now goes to the full House. [SpaceNews]
Commercial Earth imaging company Vantor won a contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The $5.3 million contract announced Thursday funds work to detect and deliver automated insights on real-time changes to the Earth's landscape. Under the contract, Vantor, formerly Maxar Intelligence, will combine data from its own satellites with third-party electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar systems to identify changes to physical terrain on the ground, including shifts in infrastructure and land use. The award was made under NGA's Luno program, an effort by the agency to draw on unclassified commercial geospatial intelligence, machine learning and artificial intelligence to support U.S. government analysis. [SpaceNews]
Satellite propulsion company Morpheus has raised $15 million. The Series A+ round was led by Alpine Space Ventures, which led Morpheus' $28 million Series A round in 2022, with participation from several other investors. The additional funding will help Morpheus increase production in a German factory that is currently turning out 100 GO-2 electric propulsion systems annually. The GO-2 thruster provides propulsion for smallsats weighing between 10 and 250 kilograms, and can also be used to provide precise maneuvering for larger spacecraft. [SpaceNews]
The developer of a constellation of wildfire-monitoring satellites will offer tools to help firefighters plan their operations around satellite passes. The nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance, which is funding the FireSat constellation, last month awarded a contract of undisclosed value to ExoAnalytic Solutions to build software that visualizes satellite orbits and sensor coverage. The goal is to help fire response managers and scientists understand when space-based sensors will collect data over specific regions, and how that timing should shape operational decisions. ExoAnalytic will build software that depicts satellite orbits and FireSat's wide, roughly 1,500-kilometer sensor swaths, allowing users to see real-time and upcoming satellite tracks, observation footprints and areas of interest. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
The Resilient GPS (R-GPS) program illustrates the struggles the Pentagon has had developing alternatives to GPS. The program started two years ago as what the Department of the Air Force called an urgent priority to develop lower-cost satellites that could broadcast civil GPS signals, providing redundancy to existing GPS satellites. R-GPS faced resistance from Congress, though, unconvinced the satellites would improve resilience and noting they would not broadcast M-Code signals. Now, however, the dynamic has reversed, with the Space Force electing not to seek funding to continue the program but Congress adding $15 million for it in the final 2026 spending bill. Space Force officials said they would work with Congress to determine how to best spend the funding provided for R-GPS. [SpaceNews]
Viridian, a startup developing propulsion systems for very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites, signed an agreement with the Air Force Research Lab. The five-year cooperative research and development agreement will give Viridian access to testing facilities and satellite-operations expertise at AFRL's Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The startup is working on an air-breathing electric propulsion system that ingests the atmosphere at an altitude between 200 and 300 kilometers to feed a plasma thruster. [SpaceNews]
Japan hopes to resume launches of the Epsilon rocket in the next year. The Japanese space agency JAXA said it is looking to start launches of the Epsilon S in the 2026 fiscal year, which starts April 1. The Epsilon S is an improved version of the Epsilon rocket, which failed in its final flight in 2022. The upgraded Epsilon S has been delayed by failures of its solid rocket motors in ground tests in 2023 and 2024. The problems with the Epsilon S forced JAXA last year to purchase two Electron launches from Rocket Lab for technology demonstration smallsats originally planned to launch on Epsilon. [Jiji Press]
The Russian space agency Roscosmos is putting out another call for cosmonauts. Roscosmos said this week it will seek applications for a new cosmonaut class, but did not disclose how many cosmonauts it plans to select. While NASA, ESA and KAXA have seen strong interest in their latest astronaut recruiting efforts, with thousands of applications, the previous Roscosmos effort in 2023 attracted only 296 applicants, with Roscosmos selecting four. [TASS]
NASA used an artificial intelligence tool for the first time to plot the drive of a Mars rover. The agency collaborated with Anthropic to use that company's Claude generative AI models to plan drives by the Perseverance rover. Claude used images and data to plot waypoints for rover traverses in much the same was as the mission's human planners have done. The technology, NASA said, could allow autonomous planning of much longer drives by the rover and allow the system to detect interesting surface features for later analysis. [NASA/JPL]
Ukrainian officials say SpaceX has succeeded in blocking Russian use of Starlink. Concerns about unauthorized Russian use of Starlink had grown recently, including cases of Russian drones communicating through the system. The Ukrainian government asked SpaceX for ways to stop Russian use of Starlink, and on Thursday reported the Russian military appeared to be completely blocked from using the network, disrupting operations. SpaceX and the Ukrainian government are implementing a "whitelist" where only Starlink terminals registered with the government will be allowed to operate in the country. [Bloomberg]
| | | | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | Lower costs and increase access with a group subscription: Get unlimited access to SpaceNews reporting and analysis for your whole team so they can stay up to speed on developments across the industry. With volume discounts, simplified billing and easy user management, setting up your entire organization to follow SpaceNews' journalism is the easiest decision you can make to guarantee that everyone has the intelligence they need for your mission to succeed. Set up access now for as few as two users. | | | | | | Virginia Versus Texas
| "We don't want to stand in the way of Texas getting that kind of treasure. It shouldn't be a Virginia-against-Texas debate, even though Texas was founded by Virginians."
| | – Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) discussing at a House Science Committee markup Wednesday an amendment he offered and then withdrew regarding the potential move of the space shuttle Discovery from a Smithsonian museum in northern Virginia to Space Center Houston.
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