| By Jeff Foust
In this today's edition: ULA loses another GPS launch to SpaceX, satellite contract wins for OHB Sweden and Swissto12, SpaceX offers more details on its orbital data center constellation and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
The U.S. Space Force has reassigned another GPS satellite launch from United Launch Alliance to SpaceX. The Space Force announced Friday that the GPS 3 SV10 spacecraft, previously assigned to ULA's Vulcan, will instead be launched on a Falcon 9 as soon as late April. Space Systems Command said the swap ensured the satellite would be launched on a timely basis while an investigation into a Vulcan Centaur anomaly on a February launch continues. ULA will instead launch the USSF-70 mission in mid-2028, a launch previously assigned to SpaceX. This is the fourth time a GPS satellite launch assigned to ULA has been moved to SpaceX given issues with Vulcan. [SpaceNews]
OHB Sweden has won a 248 million euro ($287 million) contract to build a constellation of European weather satellites. The contract, awarded by ESA on behalf of European weather satellite agency Eumetsat, covers 20 small satellites for the Eumetsat Polar System - Sterna, or EPS-Sterna, constellation. EPS-Sterna will consist of three generations of six satellites, with two additional spares. The first set of six will launch into sun-synchronous orbits in 2029 carrying microwave sounding radiometer payloads. The constellation is designed to address limitations in global weather observations by providing high-quality data from over the polar regions. The contract is the biggest awarded to date of Sweden's space sector. [SpaceNews]
Small GEO satellite manufacturer Swissto12 said Monday it won a contract to build a satellite for a Japanese company. Space Compass selected Swissto12 for an optical relay spacecraft using the HummingSat platform. Space Compass plans to use the spacecraft, SC-A, to support near-real-time Earth observation services. The SC-A contract marks the sixth HummingSat order Swissto12 has announced, following deals with SES, Viasat and Astrum Mobile. The platform is scheduled to make its debut in 2027 with the SES Intelsat 45 mission. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX plans to work with Tesla on a chip manufacturing project to serve its planned orbital data center constellation. Elon Musk announced Saturday a new initiative called Terafab, which seeks to produce one terawatt of advanced AI chips a year, 50 times current worldwide production. Most of those chips would go into satellites SpaceX plans to launch for an orbital data center constellation. The initial satellite design for that system, called AI Sat Mini, would generate 100 kilowatts of power per satellite using solar arrays spanning about 170 meters. Musk reiterated past claims that data centers in space will be more cost-effective than terrestrial data centers in as little as two to three years. However, he did not provide cost or schedule projections for Terafab or the constellation. [SpaceNews]
Nearly 140 million euros ($162 million) originally allocated to the European Launcher Challenge program remains in limbo. ESA member states provided more than 900 million euros for the program at the ESA ministerial conference in November, but about 118 million euros of that was not assigned to any of the five companies. At a briefing last week, ESA officials said they are still working to get that funding assigned, but almost 105 million euros remains unassigned, almost all of which is from the United Kingdom. One of the five participating launch companies, Orbex, went bankrupt in February, and the 35 million euros assigned to it also needs to be reallocated. ESA officials said member states could elect to instead take back the funding. [SpaceNews]
Two lunar lander companies have endorsed NASA's plans for a much higher cadence of missions but said little about how they would ramp up production. In earnings calls last week, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines said they supported comments by NASA officials that called for a monthly series of robotic lunar lander missions as soon as 2027. The two companies account for three of the four NASA CLPS lunar lander missions to date, but are developing landers at a rate of no more than one per year. The companies said they can ramp up lander production but provided few details about how many additional missions they can handle. [SpaceNews]
Artemis 2 is back on the pad for a launch next month. The SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived back at Launch Complex 39B about 11 hours after leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building shortly after midnight Friday. NASA is planning a launch as soon as April 1, the opening of a launch period that offers daily opportunities through April 6. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
Russia launched a Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station on Sunday. A Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off at 7:59 a.m. Eastern from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, putting the Progress Ms-33 spacecraft into orbit. One of the two antennas on the spacecraft used by an automated docking system failed to deploy after launch, and Roscosmos said it will instead have cosmonauts on the ISS operate the spacecraft for a manual docking on Tuesday morning. The launch was the first from a Baikonur pad since a November Soyuz mission to the ISS that damaged part of the pad's infrastructure. That pad is the only one that can host Progress and Soyuz flights to the ISS. [Space.com]
Rocket Lab launched a radar imaging satellite for a Japanese company Friday. An Electron lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 2:10 p.m. Eastern, putting into orbit the eighth StriX satellite for Synspective. That Japanese company has relied exclusively on Electron for deploying its satellites, with another 19 Electron launches on order. Synspective, which also plans to launch several spacecraft with SpaceX, expects to complete a 30-satellite constellation as soon as 2028. [SpaceNews]
A Chinese rocket launched 10 small navigation satellites Sunday. The Jielong-3, or Smart Dragon-3, rocket lifted off from a ship off the coast of Shandong Province at 11:49 a.m. Eastern, placing 10 CentiSpace satellites into orbit. The satellites are part of a constellation being developed by Beijing-based Future Navigation to provide augmented navigation services. [Xinhua]
SpaceX performed two Starlink launches over the weekend. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 5:51 p.m. Eastern Friday, putting 25 Starlink satellites into orbit. It was followed by another Falcon 9 launch at 10:47 a.m. Eastern Sunday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, putting 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. [Spaceflight Now]
The Canadian Space Agency is canceling a planned lunar rover. The agency said in 2022 it would develop a small rover to go to the moon on a future NASA CLPS lander mission to study potential water ice, but funding for it was cut from the agency's 2026-2027 budget. Canadian officials did not give a reason for the cancellation, but said that researchers currently funded to support the mission can continue their work until their grants run out, and technologies developed could be used for a larger utility rover the agency is studying. [CBC]
Italian company Officina Stellare won a 1.84 million euro ($2.0 million) contract to help develop an optical ground station. The contract with Barcelona-based Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) covers the design and construction of an optical ground station for future laser and quantum-encrypted space-to-Earth communications. Founded in 2009 as a telescope manufacturer for Earth observation from space, Officina Stellare went public in 2019 and has since expanded beyond optics into laser communications, surveillance, ground systems and cybersecurity. [SpaceNews]
A small meteor startled people in Houston Saturday. The meteor Saturday afternoon created a sonic boom heard by many in and around the city. NASA said the meteor was caused by an asteroid about one meter across and weighing one ton. Meteorites may have reached the ground in an area of Houston's northern suburbs, including one report that a small meteorite fell through the roof of a home. [Houston Chronicle]
| | | | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | March 31 at 1 p.m. ET: Join SpaceNews and Star Catcher, in partnership with the Commercial Space Federation, for a conversation on the energy and computing needs driving the push toward orbital data centers, where there are gaps and where there are opportunities and what comes next in this fast-moving field. Register now. | | | | | | The Week Ahead
Monday: Monday-Thursday: Monday-Friday: -
Munich: The Munich Space Summit combines conferences on entrepreneurial space and navigation. -
Washington: The National Academies host Space Science Week 2026, combining meetings of several space science committees along with a plenary session Tuesday and public event Wednesday. Tuesday: -
International Space Station: Scheduled docking of the Progress MS-33 cargo spacecraft at 9:34 a.m. Eastern. -
Washington/Online: The Atlantic Council hosts a panel discussion on "Shaping the new space age" at 2 p.m. Eastern. -
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 7:03 p.m. Eastern. Tuesday-Thursday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: -
Jiuquan, China: Anticipated launch of a Kinetica-1 rocket carrying an undisclosed payloads at 12:10 a.m. Eastern. -
Baikonur, Kazakhstan: Projected inaugural launch of a Soyuz-5 rocket at 7 a.m. Eastern. Sunday: -
Cape Canaveral, Fla: Scheduled launch of an Atlas 5 carrying Amazon Leo satellites at 3:53 a.m. Eastern. -
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 on the Transporter-16 rideshare mission at 6:10 a.m. Eastern.
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