By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: SpaceX's launch tripleheader includes an express flight to the ISS, the Space Force retires a Cold War-era satellite program, two Finnish companies start a broadband satellite program and more.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Top Stories
A new crew is on the International Space Station after an express flight there Thursday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:10 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, placing a Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit on the Crew-13 mission for NASA. The Dragon docked with the ISS less than eight hours later, at 7:05 p.m. Eastern. That is the shortest transit time to the ISS for an American spacecraft. The mission was scheduled to launch in mid-September but was delayed by an oxidizer leak on the Crew Dragon that required surgical-like repairs to replace a valve. Crew-13 delivered to the ISS two NASA astronauts, one Roscosmos cosmonaut, and a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, the first from that agency to go there since 2019. [SpaceNews]
Iceye and Nokia are teaming up to develop sovereign broadband constellations. The two Finnish companies said Thursday they would work together to offer government customers a complete low Earth orbit system that would also include the ruggedized user terminals needed to support missions such as defense, border security, emergency services and disaster response. Iceye brings satellite expertise from its work on radar-imaging spacecraft while Nokia aims to leverage the terrestrial tactical networking technologies it has doubled down on after exiting the consumer handset market. The companies plan to launch the first broadband satellites in 2028 but did not comment on potential customers and spectrum arrangements. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force has retired a Cold War-era missile-warning satellite program after a final exercise. The service said Thursday that the final two Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites took part in U.S. Space Command's Apollo Maneuvers exercise in September, where crews repositioned the aging spacecraft before sending them to supersynchronous disposal orbits. During the exercise, crews from the 2nd Space Warning Squadron demonstrated what the service described as "dynamic on-orbit maneuvers" with two DSP satellites before their retirement. The timing offered Space Command a chance to use satellites that were already headed for disposal. The Pentagon launched 23 DSP satellites between 1970 and 2007, with the final two spacecraft launched in 2004 and 2007. [SpaceNews]
European governments are preparing to invest up to 24 billion euros ($27 billion) on a joint military satellite project called SPACE. The Council of the European Union formally approved the SPACE project Monday as one of the first five European Defence Projects of Common Interest under the European Defence Industry Programme. SPACE will involve participation from 20 countries, including 18 EU member states, Norway and Ukraine. The project covers space-based early warning; satellite communications; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; positioning, navigation and timing; navigation warfare and responsive space systems. Separately, 15 EU nations agreed this week on an initiative to jointly access and share data used to track and characterize objects in orbit. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force has finalized a contract with L3Harris to provide commercial satellite communications aboard executive aircraft used by senior U.S. government and military leaders. The $461.9 million contract, announced Wednesday, is substantially larger than a preliminary $77.1 million agreement awarded to L3Harris in March. It covers satellite connectivity for the executive airlift fleet through October 2028. L3Harris will manage connectivity across commercial satellite networks operating in different orbits and frequency bands, giving the aircraft access to multiple sources of satellite communications. [SpaceNews]
Both SpaceX and outside analysts appear largely satisfied with the latest Starship test flight. The Flight 14 mission on Monday was the first Starship to reach orbit, although the vehicle suffered some engine failures and returned to Earth after about three hours, rather than the 10-hour mission originally planned. SpaceX executives said this week the flight went "extremely well" but did not provide specifics about the schedule and plans for the next flight, which could include the first attempt to recover the Starship upper stage back at Starbase. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said earlier this week that he expects Starship to be flying once or twice a week next year, although in an earnings call in August he promised daily Starship missions. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
SpaceX's second launch of the day Thursday was a Falcon 9 rideshare mission. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:32 p.m. Eastern on the Transporter-18 mission. There were 130 payloads on the flight, SpaceX said, a total that includes hosted payloads and satellites that will be deployed later from orbital transfer vehicles. The payload manifest included many regular customers of such missions as well as the first satellites by companies such as Cowboy Space and CesiumAstro. Demand for rideshare missions like the Transporter series remains high even as SpaceX moves to end such flights, as well as commercial Falcon 9 missions in general, in the next few years. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX completed its launch tripleheader Thursday with a classified Falcon Heavy launch. The Falcon Heavy lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:54 p.m. Eastern. The rocket was flying its first mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, designated NROL-97, but the NRO did not disclose details about the payload. The launch used the same side boosters as the previous Falcon Heavy launch, of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a little more than a month ago. [Spaceflight Now]
China has plans for a busy fourth quarter of launches. With a goal of more than 100 launches in 2026, China would need to conduct at least 31 in the final three months of the year to achieve that milestone. Among the major missions planned in the fourth quarter is the next crewed mission to the Tiangong station, Shenzhou-24, in November. Possible debut launches include Orienspace's Gravity-2, iSpace's Hyperbola-3 with a first stage recovery attempt, and Zhihang-1 from Zenk Space, which earlier aimed for a launch in June. Numerous launches for the Guowang and Qianfan constellations are expected as well. [SpaceNews]
Two recent contracts signal a resurgence of interest in space-based solar power. Overview Energy, a company that plans to collect solar energy and beam it to Earth using near-infrared lasers, said it won a contract from the Pentagon's Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund to develop a beacon for ground stations to guide those laser transmissions. Another startup, Virtus Solis, said it signed an agreement with a data-center startup to sell it 100 megawatts of power from its future space solar power systems. At a conference this week, officials from both the space and energy industries said the growing demand for power from data centers, along with technological advances in space solar power, makes the concept more feasible. [SpaceNews]
A British startup has plans to commercialize a decades-old technology for tracking satellites. Foundational emerged from stealth Thursday with $11 million in funding to develop satellite laser ranging (SLR) technologies for commercial applications. SLR, which uses lasers from the ground to precisely measure satellite positions in orbit, has been used since the 1960s but has largely been limited to government programs given its high cost. Foundational is planning a network of autonomous, low-cost SLR stations to make the service commercially viable. [SpaceNews]
An electric thruster on Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft has malfunctioned. The thruster, the only one of four on the spacecraft that was still working, broke down in August, and attempts to restore it have failed. The Japanese space agency JAXA plans to use subsystems from the other three thrusters, which were used earlier in the mission and have since degraded, for the thruster that has malfunctioned in the hopes of restoring it. Hayabusa2 is in an extended mission since returning asteroid samples to Earth in 2020, and needs to get the thruster restored so it can continue to maneuver towards another asteroid, 1998 KY26, in 2031. [Jiji Press]
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Cool Space Dad
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"Across Canada, we really see a renewed enthusiasm for human space exploration. I've been in the business for about three decades and, for the first time, my kids think I'm cool."
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– Mathieu Caron, director of astronauts, life sciences and space medicine at the Canadian Space Agency, speaking at a press conference Thursday after the Crew-13 launch.
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