A closeup of a Chinese spaceplane in orbit, and Blue Origin's return-to-flight plans
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: FCC approves Amazon's purchase of Globalstar, a closeup of Chinese spaceplane, a NASA astrophysics mission is approved, and more.
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Top Stories
The FCC has approved Amazon's planned acquisition of Globalstar. The FCC gave its OK Tuesday to the $11.5 billion acquisition announced in April, saying the deal would improve competition in the direct-to-device (D2D) market where SpaceX is already entrenched through Starlink Mobile. It comes weeks after the FCC granted Globalstar permission to provide services in the United States from 54 planned C-3 D2D satellites, including six in-orbit spares, which Canada's MDA is building for launches starting in 2027. Amazon expects the deal to close in 2027 after other regulatory reviews are completed. [SpaceNews]
A U.S. intelligence report features the best image yet of China's Shenlong spaceplane in orbit. The image appears in a report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released Monday on space security challenges. The image was taken by Maxar Technologies (now Vantor) using one of its imaging satellites in 2024 during the spaceplane's third mission, from December 2023 to September 2024. The spacecraft appears to have open cargo bay doors in the image, which also shows the vehicle attached to a service module with deployed solar arrays. Shenlong has been in orbit since February on its fourth mission, releasing a satellite and conducting rendezvous and proximity operation tests. [SpaceNews]
A Ukrainian startup has started testing a communications satellite as part of a proposed constellation. Himera announced Tuesday its Obria Nano satellite, built by Danish company GomSpace, is undergoing tests after a launch on a SpaceX rideshare mission earlier this month. The companies plan to design a constellation that would provide communications coverage across Ukraine. It is one of at least two European-backed initiatives aimed at giving Ukraine greater control over satellite communications following disruptions this month to SpaceX's Starlink and Starshield services that affected Ukrainian military operations. Finnish companies Iceye and Nokia announced an agreement with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense earlier this month to study a broadband satellite constellation. [SpaceNews]
A NASA astrophysics mission has cleared a key review. NASA announced Tuesday that the Ultraviolet Explorer (UVEX) mission passed its Key Decision Point C review, allowing the mission to go into full-scale development. UVEX is scheduled to launch no later than January 2031 with a total cost of $590 million. UVEX will perform an all-sky survey at ultraviolet wavelengths and will also be able to rapidly observe events like supernova explosions. NASA is proceeding with UVEX despite omitting funding for the mission in its fiscal year 2026 and 2027 budget proposals. The project's principal investigator said recently the mission is working through challenges such as communications for the spacecraft, which will be in a highly elliptical orbit, and how it will be launched given the projected retirement of Falcon 9. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
Blue Origin expects to complete repairs to its New Glenn launch pad in Florida by December. A company executive said at a conference this week that the rebuilt pad at Launch Complex 36 should be activated by early to mid-December. That would clear the way for a return-to-flight of the rocket by the end of the year. FAA planning documents show a notional Dec. 28 date for that launch. The company has nearly 1,200 people working on the pad around the clock. NASA officials recently said they were impressed with Blue Origin's speed while noting that launch could slip to January. [SpaceNews]
An Indian navigation satellite launching this week will fly with a problematic valve left open. The NVS-03 satellite is scheduled to launch as soon as Friday on a GSLV Mark 2. Its predecessor, NVS-02, was stranded in a transfer orbit last year when a pyro valve in an oxidizer line failed to open. Indian space agency officials said NVS-03 will launch with that valve open, relying instead on a different valve elsewhere in the line to keep oxidizer from leaking. Some officials said that while this prevents a repeat of the previous failure, it creates new risks for the spacecraft because of the increased reliance on the other valve. [The Federal]
German satellite manufacturer OHB is investing in a provider of satellite communications solutions. OHB announced this week it is taking a 25% stake in MediaMobil, a Germany company that develops technologies for satellite communications in remote locations. The companies have been working together since 2020 on concepts for an offshore launch platform in the North Sea. OHB said the investment will help it expand across more of the satellite value chain. [OHB]
A new telescope has spotted what may be a dwarf planet in the outer solar system. The object, 2026 ED138, was detected in images from the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile taken earlier this year. The object is about 6.9 billion kilometers from Earth in an orbit inclined by 25 degrees. It could be nearly 1,000 kilometers across, astronomers estimate, depending on how reflective its surface is. It is likely large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, a designation created 20 years ago for objects large enough for gravity to make them round but not large enough to clear out their orbits. 2026 ED138 would be the sixth dwarf planet, joining Ceres, Pluto and three other objects in the outer solar system. [New York Times]
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NASA Initiation
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"Jumping out of a plane was not on my bucket list. Peer pressure is a very real thing. In fact, Steve, somebody asked me if you were going to do a makeup skydive since you weren't there, so we'll probably push you out a plane here soon."
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– Casey Swails, NASA's deputy associate administrator, talking to Stephen Cash, the new director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, during a session of the Von Braun Space Exploration Symposium on Tuesday where she discussed a NASA leadership retreat earlier this year that included team-building activities such as skydiving.
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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 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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