By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: canceled Artemis projects suffered billions of dollars in overruns, MDA Space wins a contract for a radar-imaging satellite, startups join forces for space defense and more.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Top Stories
The U.S. Space Force is launching a new competition for mobile satellite-control antennas after canceling an earlier contract. The Space Force's Rapid Capabilities Office earlier this month issued a pre-solicitation under the Satellite Communication Augmentation Resource program, known as SCAR, seeking industry proposals for electronically steered phased-array antennas that can supplement the military's aging Satellite Control Network. The Space Force had awarded a $1.7 billion contract to BlueHalo, later acquired by AeroVironment, in 2022 for SCAR, but canceled the contract as part of a shift from a single-vendor arrangement toward an open competition built around commercially developed systems rather than a customized design. The new competition is expected to draw established defense contractors as well as newer commercial entrants, with AeroVironment among those expected to bid. [SpaceNews]
House appropriators approved a spending bill that includes $55.5 billion for the Space Force. The bill, passed by the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday, provides $1.07 trillion for the Pentagon overall, $234 billion more than last year. The funding level tracks the recommendation approved earlier by the House Appropriations defense subcommittee and excludes roughly $12 billion the Trump administration proposed to provide the Space Force through a separate budget reconciliation package. Appropriators made clear it broadly backs the Space Force’s trajectory, including internal acquisition reform, while highlighting concerns about cost and schedule overruns on some key programs. [SpaceNews]
Four projects canceled earlier this year as part of changes to NASA's Artemis architecture had seen their costs more than double. NASA's Office of Inspector General issued a memo Wednesday evaluating the projects, linked to the Space Launch System Block 1B and lunar Gateway, programs NASA announced earlier this year it would halt. The combined cost of the four contracts had grown from nearly $2.8 billion to $5.9 billion, with more than $1 billion in additional cost increases projected. Some of the projects were as much as seven years behind schedule. NASA noted in its response to the memo that it was changing how it was running contracts as it revises its Artemis lunar exploration plans, including more use of fixed-price contracts. [SpaceNews]
MDA Space won a Canadian Space Agency contract to build a new radar imaging satellite. MDA Space said Wednesday it received a contract from the Canadian Space Agency worth 688 million Canadian dollars ($483 million) to build a replenishment spacecraft for the Radarsat Constellation Mission, a set of three synthetic-aperture radar imaging satellites launched in 2019. The new satellite will be based on the design of the spacecraft MDA is building for its MDA Chorus commercial radar-imaging system. The Canadian government is studying a next-generation radar satellite system, with MDA Space among several companies with study contracts. [SpaceNews]
A York Space Systems satellite successfully tested two-way tactical communications using ultra-high-frequency (UHF) links. The spacecraft, known as Dragoon, was launched a year ago under a contract with the Space Development Agency. York said Dragoon completed five successful demonstrations over a three-month period, demonstrating it could transmit to and receive from ground terminals. The Dragoon experiment is designed to test whether UHF communications services, currently handled by large satellites in GEO, can be provided from smaller satellites operating in LEO. [SpaceNews]
Two startups are partnering on efforts to protect satellites from orbital threats. Shield Space and ClearSpace signed a memorandum of understanding this week to develop sovereign space defense capabilities for the United Kingdom and its allies. Shield Space is developing software designed to keep satellites operating autonomously even when communications with the ground are disrupted, while ClearSpace is developing spacecraft for in-orbit inspection, life extension and debris removal applications. The companies said their agreement establishes a framework for integrating complementary capabilities, while providing a foundation for a broader industrial alliance focused on sovereign space defense. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites last night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:30 p.m. Eastern, putting 24 Starlink satellites in orbit. The launch is part of a gradual shift of Falcon 9 launches, particularly for Starlink, from Florida to California. The company is on track to conduct 40 Vandenberg launches in the first half of this year, compared to 37 from Florida. [Spaceflight Now]
China will attempt to recover a Long March 10B booster on a launch next month. Recently issued airspace and maritime warning notices indicate that the first Long March 10B reusable rocket will launch from Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site as soon as July 10. The Long March 10B is a cargo version of the Long March 10A, a rocket developed for China's next-generation crewed spacecraft, and its booster is designed to land at sea on a recovery vessel equipped with a net. [SpaceNews]
Commercial space station developer Vast has signed up more partners for microgravity research. The company said Wednesday it signed agreements with the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California San Diego, Auxilium Biotechnologies, LambdaVision and BioOrbit for potential use of its future commercial space stations. The new partners have all conducted work on the International Space Station in biomedical and related fields. [SpaceNews]
A NASA Mars rover has found more potential evidence of past life on the Red Planet. Scientists said this week that rocks analyzed by the Perseverance rover show signs of large complex carbon-containing molecules. On Earth, such molecules in rocks are linked to ancient microbial life. While the molecules can have non-biologic sources, scientists said that their presence alongside minerals formed in water-rich environments suggests conditions were at least hospitable for life there. Researchers added that better understanding of those molecules would require returning samples to Earth, but it's unclear if and when samples cached by Perseverance will be returned. [New Scientist]
The first Afghan to go to space has died. Abdul Ahad Momand flew to the Mir space station in 1988, spending nearly nine days in space. A pilot in Afghanistan's air force, he later served as deputy minister of civil aviation before leaving the country when its civil war broke out. He moved to Germany, where he died June 21 at the age of 67 after being diagnosed with cancer. [collectSPACE]
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