By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: NGA seeks greater use of commercial capabilities and AI tools, Artemis 3 launch plans may be slipping, an orbital data center skeptic changes his mind and more.
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Top Stories
Vantor won a $70 million contract to operate and enhance a web-based imagery system for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Under the one-year contract option announced Monday, Vantor will continue to upgrade the latest version of the platform, Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery (GEGD) Pro, which provides secure access to commercial and government-furnished imagery and data for U.S. national security and civilian agency users. GEGD Pro provides access to Vantor's extensive archive of high-resolution electro-optical imagery along with imagery and data from other electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar satellite operators. While GEGD Pro was built for NGA, the underlying software platform could serve international customers seeking sovereign capabilities. [SpaceNews]
NGA is opening more of its programs to commercial vendors to gain faster access to satellite data and analysis. Speaking at the GEOINT Symposium on Sunday, NGA's deputy director, Brett Markham, said NGA is looking to expand programs such as Luno, in which companies deliver AI-enabled geospatial intelligence products derived from satellite imagery and other sources. Unlike traditional procurement of raw imagery, Luno is designed to buy finished intelligence products such as change detection, facility monitoring and activity analysis produced using AI and other analytics tools. Markham said NGA established a Rapid Capabilities Office to to streamline acquisition and move emerging technologies from companies into operational use more quickly. [SpaceNews]
NGA is also pushing to make greater use of AI tools. Markham said at the conference that NGA is using AI to reduce latency and narrow uncertainty for intelligence analysts. Those tools are needed to deal with a growing amount of geospatial data from satellites and other sensors. The rapid adoption of AI-driven analytics has raised expectations that geospatial intelligence can deliver near-constant awareness, but he cautioned that perception is outpacing reality. [SpaceNews]
The schedule for the Artemis 3 mission may be slipping. NASA announced in late February that the mission, once planned to be the first crewed landing attempt of the Artemis program, would instead be a test flight in low Earth orbit where Orion would rendezvous with lunar landers being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX. At the time, NASA said the mission would take place by mid-2027. Since then, though, NASA has provided few details about the mission's development, even as hardware for the mission comes together at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said last week that the flight might not take place until late 2027, a slip that would appear to rule our earlier plans for two landing attempts in 2028. [SpaceNews]
As the next Starship test flight approaches, a lawsuit claims previous launches have damaged homes near SpaceX's launch site. Aviation advisories posted last week listed launch opportunities for the mission from May 12 through 18, although SpaceX has not announced a launch date. This will be the first flight of version 3 of Starship, with performance and other upgrades, and the first Starship launch since last October. Last week, dozens of local residents filed a lawsuit against SpaceX in district court, arguing that those earlier launches created extreme noise and sonic booms that damaged their homes. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified compensation for that damage. [SpaceNews]
A skeptic of orbital data centers is now more bullish about their prospects. In an interview during a SpaceNews event last week, Delian Asparouhov, a partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund and co-founder of Varda Space Industries, said he was initially skeptical of orbital data centers because of the scale of the infrastructure and costs involved. However, lower launch costs and technology maturity projected over the next decade have made the business case more compelling to him, along with growing challenges facing terrestrial data centers. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
SpaceX launched a South Korean imaging satellite and dozens of secondary payloads Sunday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3 a.m. Eastern. The rocket's primary payload was CAS500-2, a South Korean high-resolution imaging satellites. Also on board were 45 secondary payloads, including imaging satellites from Planet, Argotec, EarthDaily and Indian startup GalaxEye. The launch illustrates the continued strong demand for SpaceX rideshare launches. [SpaceNews]
That launch also included four OroraTech satellites that are part of the Hellenic Fire System. Developed for the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence and the Hellenic Space Center together with the European Space Agency, the system will provide continuous, near real-time wildfire intelligence across 100% of Greek territory. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites on Friday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:06 p.m. Eastern, placing 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. This was the 43rd launch by SpaceX so far this year devoted to Starlink. [Spaceflight Now]
NASA is proposing to increase the value of a contract used for robotic lunar landings. In a procurement filing last week, NASA said it is planning to raise the ceiling on its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion. CLPS is used to award task orders for robotic lunar lander missions and runs through 2028. At a conference last week, an agency official said the increase would accommodate a proposed surge in lander missions in the near term while NASA prepares a new contract, CLPS 2.0, for later missions. Companies that are a part of CLPS say they are ready to support an increased cadence of missions. [SpaceNews]
Taylor Geospatial has released the first global dataset showing the boundaries of agricultural fields. The nonprofit organization worked with the Microsoft AI for Good Lab to develop the open and publicly available dataset with applications for food security, carbon accounting, precision agriculture and water-quality analysis. The Fields of the World project also revealed the challenges of applying machine learning and computer vision to satellite data. [SpaceNews]
IonQ said it will begin offering a satellite data product based on radar imagery from its subsidiary, Capella Space. The service detects subtle changes in the Earth's surface using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, or InSAR, with millimeter-level precision. The company says the service has applications from civil engineering to disaster preparedness and response. IonQ acquired Capella in May 2025 and operates eight Capella Acadia radar imaging spacecraft in mid-inclination and sun-synchronous orbits. [SpaceNews]
The director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center is retiring. NASA announced Friday that Janet Petro, director of KSC since 2021, was stepping down, and would be replaced on an acting basis by the center's deputy director, Kelvin Manning. Petro joined NASA in 2007 and served as acting administrator of the agency from the start of the current Trump administration in January 2025 until July, when the White House replaced her with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. [NASA]
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Missile defense at machine speed: On May 13, join SpaceNews and Wind River for a discussion that explores the mission assurance challenges behind missile defense initiatives, examining what military organizations must consider to ensure the software backbone connecting these systems remains resilient, interoperable and trusted in high-consequence environments. Register now. |
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The Week Ahead
Monday:
Monday-Wednesday:
Monday-Thursday:
Monday-Friday:
Forte Village, Sardinia, Italy: The 4S Symposium explores smallsat topics with the theme of "Swarming the Skies, Soaring Beyond: from VLEO to Deep Space." Tuesday:
Tuesday-Wednesday:
Wednesday-Thursday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 10 a.m. Eastern. Wenchang, China: Scheduled launch of a Long March 7 carrying the Tianzhou 10 cargo spacecraft at 6 p.m. Eastern.
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