Plus: The Army wants more space soldiers
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: ClearSpace wins $80 million U.K. debris removal mission, Rocket Lab delays Neutron debut again, the Army wants more space soldiers and more.
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Top Stories
ClearSpace won a contract from the British government for a mission to deorbit two smallsats. Luxembourg-based ClearSpace beat out Japan-headquartered Astroscale and U.S.-based Starfish Space for the contract announced Thursday, worth around 61 million British pounds ($80 million). It covers the final phase of an Active Debris Removal (ADR) program that is more than five years in the making. The mission, scheduled for launch in 2029, will approach two undisclosed U.K.-licensed satellites and grapple them, then maneuver to a lower orbit and release them. The servicer is similar to the one ClearSpace's Swiss unit is helping develop to remove the Proba-1 imaging satellite from LEO for the European Space Agency, an OHB-led mission slated to launch in 2029 after the U.K. ADR mission. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab has pushed back the first launch of its Neutron rocket to sometime in 2027. The company said in an update posted after the markets closed Wednesday that it encountered a problem producing a large carbon composite structure called the forward dome for the rocket's first stage propellant tanks. Rocket Lab said it has identified and corrected the problem but that effort means the company won't be able to launch Neutron this year. The company will wait until after it has completed and tested the fully assembled first stage, a milestone planned for the first quarter of 2027, before setting a new launch date. This is the latest in a series of schedule slips for Neutron, Rocket Lab's medium-class reusable rocket, which was originally scheduled to start launching in 2024. [SpaceNews]
Two companies are planning lunar lander missions that will attempt to touch down near other spacecraft. At a conference Wednesday, Firefly Aerospace said a Blue Ghost lander mission scheduled for 2028 will attempt to land near the site of its first lander, which successfully landed in March 2025. Voyager Technologies said two Peregrine landers scheduled for launch months apart in 2028 will attempt to land a few kilometers apart from each other. Those missions will test precision landing capabilities needed for NASA's lunar base plans but also will gather data on how the clouds of regolith kicked up by the landers' engine plumes could damage nearby spacecraft, a key concern for a lunar base. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Army plans to expand the number of soldiers working on space systems as it builds capabilities to counter threats. The Army established its Space Operations Branch in June and formally launched the enlisted 40D Tactical Space Operations Specialist career field on Oct. 1, reclassifying more than 600 soldiers. That group could reach 1,000 enlisted personnel, said Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, commander of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. He said the service's role in space is expanding beyond using satellites to support ground combat operations into areas like navigation warfare and stratospheric warfare, the latter involving the use of high-altitude balloons. [SpaceNews]
Satellite navigation startup TrustPoint said it has successfully tested a C-band antenna developed by Canadian technology company Calian. That antenna, the company said Wednesday, received and maintained reception of navigation signals transmitted by a TrustPoint satellite in orbit during multiple tests. The demonstration addresses one of the challenges facing TrustPoint as it develops its navigation network, ensuring that commercial equipment can receive signals transmitted at frequencies different from those used by conventional GPS receivers. [SpaceNews]
Space-based instruments accurately detected methane plumes in large-scale tests led by researchers at Stanford University. A paper published Wednesday found that instruments designed for methane monitoring from GHGSat and Planet correctly identified 92% to 100% of plumes released during testing. Other hyperspectral satellites and instruments repurposed to detect methane were successful 62% to 68% of the time. The results, scientists said, should give regulators and other government officials confidence in the capabilities of methane-monitoring satellites. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
A Zhuque-2E launched 10 satellites on Wednesday. The rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan spaceport at 7:40 a.m. Eastern and placed the satellites into their planned orbits. Eight of the satellites are orbital data center spacecraft developed by Adaspace Technology Co., designed to test technologies needed for a future constellation of such spacecraft. [Xinhua]
Arianespace will resume launches of Amazon Leo satellites next month. Arianespace said its next Ariane 6 launch is scheduled for no earlier than November 23, carrying 36 Amazon Leo satellites. This will be the fifth Ariane 6 launch of the year, four of which have been for Amazon Leo. The launch had been expected in early October but was reportedly postponed by issues with the rocket's engines. [Arianespace]
NASA will conduct two spacewalks in the coming weeks to install new solar arrays on the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk will perform one spacewalk Oct. 29 to install an IROSA array, with the two performing a second spacewalk a week later to install a second array. The arrays, being delivered to the station this week on a Dragon cargo spacecraft, will be the final two of eight IROSA arrays added to the station to increase its power output by 30%. [NASA]
Virgin Galactic is working with the Air Force Research Lab to collect space weather data on future suborbital flights. Virgin announced Wednesday a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with AFRL to evaluate installing sensors on Virgin's new suborbital spaceplanes that can collect space weather data. Virgin Galactic has a similar CRADA with Lawrence Livermore National Lab regarding the use of the company's next-generation carrier aircraft as high-altitude imaging platforms. [Virgin Galactic]
Prospects are improving for a pair of NASA missions to Venus that have faced years of budget uncertainty. NASA selected the DAVINCI and VERITAS missions in 2021 as part of its Discovery program, but both encountered delays and threats of cancellation in recent budget proposals. At a meeting last week, officials with both missions said they are now moving ahead, with DAVINCI working to move up its launch by a year to December 2030 while VERITAS is targeting a late 2032 launch. The progress on the two missions, though, comes at the expense of a planned NASA contribution to Europe's Envision Venus orbiter, with NASA canceling a radar it had planned to provide for that mission. [Ars Technica]
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Green Star
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"Imagine standing on a planet and looking up at a green star. It feels like something out of science fiction."
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- Mark Hollands, a University of Warwick astronomer who led a study that found that about one in 30 white dwarf stars have unusual colors because of the presence of certain elements in their atmospheres, including one with a greenish hue. [Eurekalert]
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Tickets on sale now: Join us on Tuesday, Dec. 1 in Washington, D.C., when we announce the 2026 Icon Award winners, recognizing leaders and accomplishments that exemplified excellence across the industry during the last 12 months. See the list of finalists and secure your spot before early bird ticket rates end Oct. 31. |
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