Top Stories

The countdown is underway for Wednesday's scheduled Artemis 2 launch. NASA started the countdown Monday afternoon for a launch scheduled for 6:24 p.m. Eastern Wednesday, at the start of a two-hour launch window. Officials said late Monday they were not dealing with any major issues with the vehicle, and forecasts predict an 80% chance of acceptable weather for Wednesday's launch. Artemis 2 will be a nearly 10-day mission around the moon, the first flight of humans beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. [SpaceNews]

Rocket Lab has finally secured approval from the German government to acquire laser communications company Mynaric. Rocket Lab announced Monday that Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy approved the transaction under foreign investment rules, paving the way for the acquisition to close in April. Rocket Lab announced a deal a year ago to acquire Mynaric for $150 million, but the sale raised concerns among German officials and lawmakers who were wary of allowing a supplier of sensitive space technology to fall under foreign ownership. Rocket Lab has positioned the acquisition as a way to secure a critical component in the satellite supply chain while expanding its presence in Europe. Mynaric produces optical communications terminals that enable satellites to transmit data via laser links, a technology increasingly central to next-generation constellations. [SpaceNews]

The Pentagon may terminate or sharply scale back a contract with Raytheon to develop software for the ground segment of the GPS constellation. The Next Generation Operational Control System, known as OCX, was intended to modernize command and control of the U.S. military's GPS satellites. Raytheon won the contract for OCX in 2010, originally valued at $1.5 billion, but the cost has grown to at least $6 billion with an initial version of OCX delivered only last year. The current OCX contract option expires Tuesday and the Pentagon is not expected to renew it in full. Instead, the Space Force may seek to transition elements of the already delivered OCX software into a legacy GPS ground system. [SpaceNews]

For the second time in a little more than three months, a Starlink satellite has malfunctioned in orbit, generating debris. SpaceX said Monday that Starlink-34343 "experienced an anomaly" Sunday. Space situational awareness company LeoLabs said it was tracking tens of debris objects in the vicinity of the satellite, launched less than a year ago. The debris does not pose a risk to other spacecraft, including the International Space Station and upcoming Artemis 2 launch, and should decay within weeks. The incident is similar to one in mid-December involving another Starlink satellite. SpaceX said it is working to determine what happened to Starlink-34343 and implement any corrective actions. [SpaceNews]

A shift in priorities may help turn the European Union into a major space power. A report Tuesday by The Aerospace Corp. concluded that increased emphasis on military and security space applications, with increased funding, will create a shift in the balance of power in Europe's space sector, making the EU the lead player over national governments and the European Space Agency. The report projects that the EU, which currently provides about a quarter of ESA's budget, could become the majority funder of ESA in a few years, shifting that agency more towards military programs. [SpaceNews]

Icarus Robotics will work with Voyager Technologies to test a free-flying platform on the ISS. Under an agreement announced Monday, Voyager will handle payload integration, safety certification, coordination of a 2027 launch, and on-orbit operations planning and execution for Joyride-1, a technology demonstration. Joyride-1 is intended to test systems Icarus, a startup founded in 2024, has developed for dexterous mobile robots to handle routine, time-consuming and hazardous tasks in orbit. The test will validate that the robot can do tasks while working alongside humans on the station. [SpaceNews]

Other News

The first launch of China's Kinetica-2 rocket successfully placed into orbit payloads that include a prototype cargo spacecraft. The Kinetica-2 (Lijian-2) lifted off at 7 a.m. Eastern Monday from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. CAS Space, which developed the rocket, declared the launch a success. Kinetica-2 uses three core stages and can place up to 12,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit. Aboard the debut flight were the New Journey-01 and 02 (Xinzhengcheng-01 and 02) spacecraft and the TS-01, described in state media as an educational satellite. New Journey-02 is a 4,200-kilogram prototype of the Qingzhou-1 spacecraft, which is one of two low-cost space station resupply spacecraft being developed to deliver cargo to Tiangong. New Journey-01 is described as a mini space lab. [SpaceNews]

China is planning a sharp increase in launches this year. Yang Yiqiang, founder and chairperson of CAS Space, told a Chinese publication that China's launches are expected to reach around 140 in 2026. That would be a significant increase from the 92 launches by China last year, which itself shattered the record of 68 launches in 2024. The rapid acceleration in China's launch cadence is being facilitated by the growth of its space launch infrastructure as well as the rise of several launch companies, many of whom are pursuing reusable rockets. [SpaceNews]

SpaceX launched more than 100 satellites on a Transporter rideshare mission Monday. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:02 a.m. Eastern on the Transporter-16 mission. SpaceX said there 119 payloads on the launch, a total that includes both satellites deployed directly from the rocket as well as orbital transfer vehicles carrying hosted payloads and spacecraft for later deployment. Several companies used the launch to replenish their constellations. Also on board was Varda Space Industries' W-6 reentry vehicle . The W-6 capsule carries government-backed payloads, including an autonomous navigation system developed by Rhea Space Activity with funding from the Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory. [SpaceNews]

ESA turned to Rocket Lab to launch a pair of navigation test satellites because of a lack of alternative options. An Electron launch Saturday placed into orbit two Celeste spacecraft built by separate European industrial teams to test technologies for low Earth orbit navigation satellites systems. ESA said in a prelaunch briefing that the satellites needed to be in orbit by May to put their frequencies into use, and European launch options like Vega-C were fully booked. A second set of nine larger, more capable Celeste satellites is planned to be launched by the end of 2027. [SpaceNews]

A Falcon 9 set another reuse record on a launch Monday. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 5:15 p.m. Eastern, placing 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was a record 34th flight of this booster, which first flew nearly five years ago. SpaceX is seeking to reuse Falcon 9 boosters up to 40 times. [Orlando Sentinel]

Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa is retiring. The JAXA astronaut is leaving the agency effective Tuesday after being selected as an astronaut by JAXA's predecessor, NASDA, in 1999. He flew two long-duration ISS missions, in 2011 and 2023-24, spending a year in space. Furukawa, a medical doctor, said he will become a professor at Japan's Kyorin University School of Medicine. [Yomiuri Shimbun]

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No Taunting

"I'm just going to make an appeal to the space gods. We don't taunt the machine. We don't taunt weather."

- NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya when asked at a briefing Monday how confident he was Artemis 2 would launch on Wednesday given the lack of problems so far in launch preparations.

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