By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: NASA describes how it is keeping a 2028 lunar landing on track, the Space Force shows more interest in cislunar missions, one space telescope shuts down as another near operations and more.
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Top Stories
NASA said Friday it is keeping open options to preserve a human lunar landing in 2028 as it faces near-term delays. Agency leaders said Friday they are working with both Blue Origin and SpaceX on revised lunar landers approaches, either of which could be selected for the Artemis 4 mission in 2028. Blue Origin's approach would use multiple transfer stages based on its uncrewed Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to send a Mark 2 lander to the moon to meet up with Orion, while SpaceX's plan uses Starship to dock with Orion in Earth orbit, sending both to the moon. NASA said it is also maintaining options to use either the existing ICPS upper stage for SLS or a new Centaur upper stage for that mission. Agency officials said that Artemis 3, a test flight in low Earth orbit planned for mid-2027, is about 90 days behind schedule but added the agency is working with suppliers to reduce those delays. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Space Force shifted a next-generation missile warning satellite and an experimental cislunar surveillance mission from Vulcan to Falcon Heavy. The two higher-energy missions are among six trades the Space Force has made between ULA and SpaceX over the past two years, according to new details provided by Space Systems Command. That list also includes three GPS satellites and a set of SDA missile-tracking satellites. The Space Force said the changes are trades rather than cancellations of ULA missions, with ULA getting later missions previously assigned to SpaceX. The changes illustrate how the Space Force is trying to keep priority spacecraft on schedule as ULA deals with issues with Vulcan, which has not flown since February. [SpaceNews]
ESA says that engine issues that delayed Ariane 6 launches have been resolved. Ariane 6 has not launched since late August and its next launch is not until late November. ESA officials said last week that an engine turbopump issue that sidelined the rocket has been resolved. ESA expects two more Ariane 6 launches this year, for a total of six, ramping up to nine or 10 in 2027. ESA is also continuing to look at options to further increase Ariane 6 launches, focusing on enhanced production of its solid-fuel boosters. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force wants to acquire systems for operations in cislunar space. The service is preparing to ask industry what spacecraft, software and ground systems could be delivered quickly for operations beyond geosynchronous orbit, with a goal of having systems in place in 2029. The effort marks a shift for the Space Force, which until recently has treated cislunar operations largely as a research problem. It wants eventually to extend missions it already performs closer to Earth, including communications, navigation and timing, and tracking spacecraft and other objects, into the region between the Earth and moon. The plans come after top officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, have talked about the importance of cislunar space to warfighting. [SpaceNews]
A Space Force general says the service needs to acquire more electronic warfare equipment. Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, commander of Space Force Combat Forces Command, said recent military operations have exposed shortcomings in a force built around relatively small numbers of equipment and fixed operating sites. He said additional equipment would allow units to absorb losses in a conflict and continue operations. The service is considering buying as many as 24 additional Meadowlands satellite jammers and separately preparing to support a worldwide fleet that could eventually number as many as 56 systems. [SpaceNews]
ESA says the loss of a Space Rider test article in a drop test should not significantly delay the program. A prototype of the uncrewed spaceplane was dropped from a helicopter in a test earlier this month, but ESA said last week that the vehicle's parafoil detached, causing the mockup to crash. The cause of the incident remains under investigation, but the agency said remaining qualification tests for the vehicle are not on the critical path for a planned launch on a Vega C in early 2028. Space Rider is a small spaceplane designed to host experiments in orbit for up to two months before gliding back to a runway landing for reuse. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
Two Chinese launches Friday placed reconnaissance satellites into orbit. A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 6:15 a.m. Eastern from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center and placed into orbit the Yaogan-50 (03) satellite. This is the third in a series of classified reconnaissance spacecraft sent into an unusual highly retrograde orbit. A Long March 4B rocket lifted off at 3:25 p.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. It placed into orbit six satellites, Yaogan-53 (07-09) and Yaogan-56 (19-21). China provided no details about the mission for those satellites. A similar set of Yaogan-53 and -56 satellites launched last month. [SpaceNews]
China also launched a set of Guowang satellites Saturday. A Long March 8A rocket lifted off at 10:03 p.m. Eastern from the Wenchang spaceport, placing nine Guowang satellites into orbit. There are now 231 Guowang satellites in orbit, part of a constellation intended to ultimately reach 13,000 satellites. [China in Space]
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Friday after several days of delays. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 6:48 p.m. Eastern, putting 27 satellites into orbit. The launch was planned for Tuesday but scrubbed by a technical issue, and weather called off launch attempts the next two days before finally lifting off. [Spaceflight Now]
Starlink service is back to normal for the Ukrainian military after Elon Musk said he was the one responsible for recent disruptions. Ukrainian officials said Saturday that the service was operating normally for its military after more than a week of disruptions that affected the military's ability to use it for operating drones. Musk claimed that Ukraine had violated the terms of service for Starlink by using it for offensive strikes and that SpaceX had closed an unspecified "loophole" that enabled those operations. Ukrainian officials denied they had violated Starlink's terms of use. [New York Times]
NASA has ended operations of its Swift gamma-ray telescope as the spacecraft nears reentry. NASA said Friday it halted science operations of Swift as the spacecraft's altitude fell to 275 kilometers because increasing atmospheric drag was affecting control of the spacecraft. NASA had hoped to reboost Swift's orbit with a commercial servicing mission this summer, but that servicing spacecraft suffered technical problems that kept it from carrying out its mission. Swift launched in 2004 on a two-year prime mission to detect gamma-ray bursts, and is expected to reenter in the next few weeks. [SpaceNews]
NASA's newest space telescope is in the final phase of commissioning. NASA said last week that engineers have completed tests of the Roman Space Telescope, launched nearly two months ago, confirming the telescope and its instruments are fully functional. Controllers are now putting the spacecraft through a series of test observations to calibrate those instruments and refine the telescope's image quality. The overall commissioning process is expected to take about three months as the spacecraft travels to the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point. [NASA]
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The Week Ahead
Monday:
Monday-Tuesday:
Monday-Wednesday:
Monday-Friday:
Tuesday:
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 12:45 a.m. Eastern. Online: Boeing releases its third quarter financial results and holds an earnings call at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. Tuesday-Wednesday:
Tuesday-Thursday:
Wednesday-Thursday:
Thursday:
Thursday-Friday:
Thursday-Sunday:
Friday:
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 12:02 a.m. Eastern. Sriharikota, India: Scheduled launch of a GSLV Mark 2 rocket carrying the NVS-03 navigation satellite at 1 p.m. Eastern.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Thursday: Artificial intelligence is changing how intelligence organizations collect, process and exploit satellite imagery. As the volume of Earth observation data grows, AI is becoming essential for identifying patterns, detecting anomalies and delivering intelligence at operational speed. Join SpaceNews and Vantor on Thursday, Oct. 29 for a conversation that will explore how machine learning is transforming the GEOINT mission across defense, intelligence and commercial markets. Register now. |
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