By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: another big Space Force contract for SpaceX, more details on the New Glenn pad explosion, China's surprise Long March 12B debut and more.
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Top Stories
SpaceX won a Space Force contract worth more than $4 billion to develop a satellite constellation for tracking airborne targets. The $4.16 billion award announced Friday covers the first increment of a space-based Air Moving Target Indicator, or AMTI, network. The program is intended to detect, track and maintain custody of airborne targets including fighter aircraft, bombers, cruise missiles and potentially hypersonic weapons. The contract represents a significant step in a broader Pentagon effort to move military sensing functions traditionally performed by aircraft into proliferated satellite constellations, providing broader coverage without putting aircraft at risk. The Space Force has not disclosed how many satellites SpaceX will build, but said an initial constellation will be ready by 2028. The Space Force said it plans to award contracts to other companies to expand the AMTI system. [SpaceNews]
The explosion of a New Glenn rocket Thursday night will impact both government and commercial customers. Inspections of Launch Complex 36 Friday showed significant damage to the pad after the explosion during a static-fire test. Blue Origin said it has a rebuild plan for the pad but has not disclosed details or a timeline for doing so. The extent of the damage leads many in the industry to fear the pad could be out of service for perhaps a year or more, with no other launch facilities able to accommodate New Glenn. That could slow down NASA's Artemis program as well as efforts by Amazon and AST SpaceMobile to deploy satellite constellations, with little other launch capacity available. Shares in AST SpaceMobile fell nearly 15% Friday. [SpaceNews]
Blue Origin won a Space Force task order for a New Glenn launch just hours before the pad explosion. Space Systems Command announced the task order Friday, noting the award was made Thursday afternoon. The mission, known as NRO Task Order-4, is for a single launch for the National Reconnaissance Office between the fourth quarter of 2027 and the first quarter of 2028 and was made using Blue Origin's National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 contract. The Space Force said it remained committed to Blue Origin after the accident and pledged to support the company through its investigation. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force is trying to attract more commercial space companies into national security work. At the State of the Space Industrial Base conference last week, Col. Tim Trimailo, head of the Space Force's commercial office, advised companies to develop technologies that solve real problems and to better understand how government contracting works. The advice reflects a broader tension playing out across the defense space sector as startups win venture funding aiming for government work, but converting technical promise into government contracts remains one of the industry's biggest challenges. [SpaceNews]
FAA documents reveal new details about a SpaceX project to develop reentry vehicles. The FAA completed an environmental assessment in May for two test flights of Starfall, an uncrewed reentry vehicle. SpaceX has not publicly discussed Starfall, but the company is developing the vehicle to provide point-to-point cargo delivery and return microgravity research and manufacturing projects from orbit. On the test flights, a Falcon 9 or Starship would launch the capsules into space, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of California and Mexico. Starfall would provide competition for several companies developing their own reentry vehicles, many of whom rely on SpaceX for launches. [SpaceNews]
Indian and South Korean companies will collaborate on a demonstration of very low Earth orbit (VLEO) spacecraft technology in 2028. South Korea's TelePIX will provide an optical sensor for a spacecraft bus built by India's Bellatrix. The spacecraft will feature an "air-breathing" propulsion system using the tenuous atmosphere in VLEO as propellant for an electric thruster. Spacecraft operating in VLEO can provide higher resolution images than those in higher orbits without requiring larger optics. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
China conducted the first flight of its Long March 12B in a surprise liftoff Monday. The first Long March 12B lifted off at 4:40 a.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The launch came as a surprise because no airspace notices were issued ahead of time, as is usually the case, though previous reporting stated the rocket had recently been sighted vertical on its pad. The rocket carried a set of Qianfan broadband megaconstellation satellites. The Long March 12B is designed to recover and reuse its first stage, but the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said it did not attempt a landing on this launch. [SpaceNews]
The three-person Shenzhou-21 crew returned to Earth Friday. The Shenzhou-22 capsule landed at the Dongfeng landing site in Inner Mongolia at 8:11 a.m. Eastern. The crew of Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang spent 210 days in orbit on the Tiangong space station, a record for China's space program. They launched the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft at the end of October, but damage to the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft meant that spacecraft's crew returned on Shenzhou-21, with China launching an uncrewed Shenzhou-22 in its place. The Shenzhou-21 crew departed days after their replacements arrived on Shenzhou-23. [Space.com]
China has launched a series of satellites to test direct-to-device technologies. A Long March 2D lifted off Saturday at 2:07 p.m. Eastern from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, placing four satellites into orbit. CASC and its affiliates stated that the satellites will primarily be used for experimental verification of technologies such as direct broadband connection to mobile phones via satellite and the integration of space and ground networks. The launch is the latest in a line of diverse and opaque test satellite internet satellites launched in recent years, with the previous such launch in April using a Jielong-3 solid-fuel rocket. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched two more sets of Starlink satellites in as many days. One Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 8:57 a.m. Eastern Friday, putting 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. A second Falcon 9 launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:25 a.m. Eastern Saturday , placing 24 satellites into orbit. SpaceX has performed 50 Starlink launches so far this year out of 63 total Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. [Spaceflight Now]
An Atlas 5 launched a set of Amazon Leo satellites Friday. The Atlas 5 551 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 7:53 p.m. Eastern, carrying 29 Amazon Leo satellites. With the launch Amazon now has deployed 331 satellites, about one-tenth the overall constellation, with ULA launching 197 of the spacecraft. [Florida Today]
Jupiter's icy moon Europa may not have plumes erupting from its surface after all. A 2013 study found evidence for plumes coming from Europa's surface in ultraviolet images from the Hubble Space Telescope, supporting the hypothesis that the moon has a subsurface ocean of liquid water. In a new study, however, the same team said years of followup observations by Hubble failed to detect additional evidence of plumes using improved analysis techniques. Europa may still have smaller plumes, or less frequent larger plumes, and NASA's Europa Clipper mission will be able to better detect plumes once it arrives at Jupiter in 2030. [Science News]
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The Week Ahead
Monday:
Monday-Tuesday:
Monday-Saturday:
Tuesday:
Tuesday-Friday:
Washington/Online: The Space Studies Board, Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, and Board on Physics and Astronomy hold a joint spring meeting to discuss space science, exploration and engineering topics. Wednesday:
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 4:02 a.m. Eastern. Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 10 a.m. Eastern. Wednesday-Thursday:
Wednesday-Friday:
Thursday:
Thursday-Friday:
Thursday-Sunday:
Friday:
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