Plus: Hubble raises $200M for Bluetooth network satellites
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Hubble raises $200 million for Bluetooth network satellites, NASA selects a billion-dollar space telescope for development, how NASA "dodged a bullet" when a Chinese mission was delayed and more.
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Top Stories
Hubble Network has raised $200 million to develop a satellite network for connecting Bluetooth devices. Early-stage investor Smith Point led the Series C round announced Wednesday, which Hubble said valued the company at $1.6 billion. The company says more than 500,000 devices are now active on the Hubble Terrestrial Network, up more than tenfold over the past year despite being limited to a handful of pilot customers. It also has six Spire Global cubesats in low Earth orbit that it says can receive transmissions directly from Bluetooth devices at least once a day in North America without relying on terrestrial gateways. The funding will help Hubble Network deploy a constellation of as many as 60 larger spacecraft by 2030, enabling detection of weaker Bluetooth signals and improving revisit time. [SpaceNews]
NASA announced Wednesday it will pursue development of a billion-dollar far-infrared space telescope. NASA said it selected the Probe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics, or PRIMA, as its first Probe Explorer mission for launch in 2033. PRIMA will fly a 1.8-meter telescope with instruments sensitive to far-infrared light, enabling studies of black holes and exoplanets. The mission has a cost cap of $1.2 billion, excluding launch. PRIMA was one of two finalists to be the first probe-class mission, although NASA earlier this year said it had disqualified the other finalist, an X-ray telescope called AXIS, for not meeting cost and schedule requirements. A NASA official said earlier this week that current budget profiles could mean delaying calls for future smaller astrophysics missions in order to fund a probe-class mission. [SpaceNews]
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency "dodged a bullet" when a Chinese lunar mission was unexpectedly postponed. Speaking at the Off World conference Wednesday, Isaacman said that both NASA and China are interested in south polar regions of the moon thought to have water ice, including Shackleton Crater. That crater is the destination of China's Chang'e-7 robotic mission, which was supposed to launch last month but was abruptly postponed until sometime next year. Isaacman said that a Chang'e-7 landing there "would have potentially denied access to some of the most interesting spots" at the lunar south pole. Isaacman has increasingly emphasized the national security implications of Artemis, warning that a Chinese crewed landing before NASA's return could call into question American leadership more generally. He said NASA will provide an update on efforts to accelerate Artemis in early October. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Space Force is preparing two commercial satellite servicing missions for 2027 to test how to give military satellites more ability to maneuver after launch. Col. Scott Carstetter, director of servicing, mobility and logistics at Space Systems Command, said during a SpaceNews webinar Wednesday that one mission, led by Astroscale U.S., will attempt to refuel a military satellite in geosynchronous orbit and then replenish the servicing spacecraft from an orbiting fuel depot. The second, by Starfish Space, will use a commercial space tug to dock with and move multiple national security satellites. Space Systems Command also wants to learn how the military can buy servicing from commercial operators, how much infrastructure would be needed to make those services routinely available and whether refueling or life extension could in some cases be more economical than replacing satellites. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
China launched a set of broadband constellation satellites Wednesday. A Long March 8A lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport at 9:32 a.m. Eastern and placed into orbit the 26th group of SatNet LEO, or Guowang, satellites. Reports did not disclose how many satellites were on board but similar launches previously carried nine satellites each. [Xinhua]
The British military has revealed it has a unit that has been jamming adversary's satellites. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting disclosed at a conference Wednesday that the Royal Air Force has a Space Effects Squadron that uses ground-based systems to jam communications of satellites. That system has been in service for a year. It joins two other squadrons focused on space operations and space warning. [BBC]
Croatia has signed the Artemis Accords. Croatia's science minister signed the accords Wednesday in Zagreb with NASA and State Department officials in attendance. Croatia is the 74th country to sign the accords and the second to do so this week, after Albania did so on Monday at NASA Headquarters. The Artemis Accords outline best practices for space exploration, and NASA plans to use them to coordinate cooperation on the Artemis program. [NASA]
SpaceX has obtained access to a classified database of space objects. The Defense Department started sharing its High Accuracy Catalog with the company in exchange for data from Stargaze, SpaceX's space situational awareness network that tracks objects using sensors on its Starlink satellites. The High Accuracy Catalog provides greater precision on the location of space objects than what is publicly available through the Space-Track.org database. SpaceX's access to the catalog, which is normally not provided to companies, has raised concerns among other companies that provide space tracking services that it could allow SpaceX to undercut their offerings. [Breaking Defense]
Polish officials are investigating a fire at a Starlink gateway in the country. The fire at the gateway station near Warsaw damaged power units at the facility, which supports communications for the Starlink constellation in the region. Polish government officials said they cannot rule out arson as the cause for the fire, suggesting it may have been part of "hybrid warfare" intended to impede Ukraine's use of Starlink during its war with Russia. [TVP World]
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Industry Versus Luxury
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"The idea of making a space station that is both for tourism and industrial applications seems really off to me. Nobody's going to go to a Four Seasons in El Segundo."
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– Jason Dunn, CEO of reentry vehicle company Outpost, referencing the Southern California industrial city during a panel discussion at the Off World conference Wednesday.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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What Comes Next for On-Orbit Servicing? Join us on Wednesday, Sept. 23 for conversations about the tech, policies and business models required to build a functioning in-orbit logistics ecosystem. Col. Scott Carstetter, director of servicing, mobility, and logistics at Space Systems Command, and other experts will explore what comes next for the technologies, policies and business models required to build a functioning in-orbit logistics ecosystem. Register now. |
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