January 30, 2025

Sierra Space Dream Chaser Spaceplane Passes Key NASA Test in Preparation for ISS Resupply Mission (Source: Space Daily)
Sierra Space, a leading innovator in commercial space exploration and defense technology, has announced a significant achievement in its partnership with NASA. The company successfully completed and passed its Joint Test 10B milestone for the Dream Chaser spaceplane. This test is a crucial step in Dream Chaser's mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).

The test focused on demonstrating Dream Chaser's capabilities to power up, air-cool, and manage data exchange with multiple powered payloads inside the spacecraft's pressurized cabin. These advancements bring Sierra Space closer to achieving its goal of supporting long-duration missions to the ISS. (1/30)

White House Issues Baffling Order for US Iron Dome Development (Sources: Via Satellite, Slate, Union of Concerned Scientists)
President Trump has issued an executive order for the development of an "Iron Dome for America," a missile defense project with space-based interceptors. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must submit a plan within 60 days. The project, likely costing billions, aims to protect against various missile threats and will be included in the FY-2026 budget request.

It is one of Trump's more baffling executive orders. Israel's Iron Dome defends small areas from short-range nonnuclear missiles. It’s a vastly easier task than defending the whole country against missiles that travel 100 times further and seven times faster than those Iron Dome is built for. The U.S. military already has plenty of weapons that can shoot down short- to medium-range rockets at least as effectively as Iron Dome. When it comes to protecting U.S. territory from missiles fired by such nuclear-powered countries as Russia, China, and North Korea, something like Iron Dome would have no capability whatsoever.

The notion of shooting down large-scale attacks—which Trump’s executive order states as its goal—is widely viewed as utter fantasy. First, the process of detecting, tracking, and intercepting dozens, much less hundreds or thousands, of missiles or warheads—as they’re ascending from launchpads, arcing through outer space, or plunging down to their targets—is beyond even our most advanced technology. Even if we did somehow manage a system that could do all that, enemies could overwhelm it in multiple ways. (1/29)

NASA, Partners to Ready for Fourth Axiom Space Mission to Space Station (Source: NASA)
NASA and its international partners have approved the crew for Axiom Space’s fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, launching from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than spring 2025.

Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. (1/29)

Musk Confesses to Cheating on Video Games (Source: Washington Post)
Elon Musk — head of six companies, father of 11 children, a friend of the president and the richest man on the planet — often brags to the world about one of his great passions: his skill at video games. He boasted to Joe Rogan that he ranked among the world’s best at “Diablo IV,” a feat for which Rogan said he had “to be exceptional — period — as a human being.” He bragged about how quickly he had conquered the global leaderboards of “Path of Exile 2,” blasting “through the ‘toughest’ content, popping monsters like balloons.”

Online sleuths recently made a shocking accusation: Musk had cheated. They suspected that he had pursued a widely mocked tactic known as “boosting,” paying strangers to play his character and rake in loot so that, when he logged in, he could face challenges with the most powerful gear. “Elon lost the trust of all gamers overnight,” programmer Dan Nelson said in an X post liked more than 100,000 times. “Boosting your account and lying about it is the worst offense. incredibly cringe, fragile ego on full display.”

Musk fought the allegations before ultimately confessing in messages this month. “It’s impossible to beat players in Asia if you don’t,” he wrote. A few days later, his character could be seen chasing treasure through the game’s sulfuric caverns while Musk was in the Capitol Rotunda, attending President Donald Trump’s inauguration. (1/29)

Thales Alenia Wins ESA Contract for Lunar Cargo Lander (Source: Space News)
Thales Alenia Space has won an ESA contract to develop a key element of a European cargo lunar lander. Thales said Thursday the contract, worth nearly $900 million, includes work to develop and deliver the Lunar Descent Element (LDE) for the Argonaut lander. The contract includes mission design and integration of the LDE, which would be responsible for transporting and landing the spacecraft on the Moon.

Thales said Argonaut's first mission in the 2030s is expected to deliver navigation and telecommunication payloads, along with an energy generation and storage system, supporting commercial European exploration of the lunar south pole. ESA is also positioning Argonaut, which has a capacity of approximately two metric tons of cargo, as a potential asset for future NASA Artemis lunar missions. (1/30)

Planet Gains $230 Million Asia-Pacific Contract for Earth Observation Satellites (Source: Space News)
Planet announced Wednesday a $230 million contract from an unnamed Asia-Pacific customer, the company's biggest deal to date. Planet will build, launch and operate Pelican high-resolution Earth-observation satellites, reserving a portion of the capacity for the Asia-Pacific customer that works closely with a government agency. Planet also will obtain imagery for other government and commercial customers with those satellites. The company said it will recognize that $230 million over six years. (1/30)

Castelion Secures $100 Million for Hypersonic Weapons (Source: Space News)
A hypersonic weapons startup founded by former SpaceX employees raised $100 million. Castelion secured $70 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and $30 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank. Castelion aims to disrupt the hypersonic weapons market by applying commercial space industry practices to missile manufacturing. Hypersonic missiles have become a key priority for the Pentagon as China and Russia advance their own capabilities. The company's co-founders previously were executives at SpaceX, and its advisers include Mike Griffin and Lisa Porter. (1/30)

Artemis Contractors Doubt There's a Faster Way to the Moon (Source: Space News)
Companies working on NASA's Artemis lunar exploration effort say the current architecture remains the fastest way to return to the moon. During a panel about the upcoming Artemis 2 mission, executives said they were encouraging their employees to remain focused on their programs amid rumors the Trump administration may seek to revamp or even cancel Artemis. Those officials said dumping the current architecture would not allow NASA to return humans to the moon faster. The Artemis 2 mission has slipped from late 2024 to April 2026, although the NASA manager for the mission said they are looking at ways to move up that launch date. (1/30)

NASA: Astronaut 'Rescue' Already On-Track (Source: Space NewS)
NASA effectively ruled out any major changes in plans to return the Crew-9 astronauts from the International Space Station despite comments by President Trump and Elon Musk. NASA said Wednesday that it was working with SpaceX to "expeditiously" return astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore "as soon as practical" on the Crew-9 Crew Dragon that is docked to the station. NASA added that return would take place after a handover to astronauts arriving on the new Crew-10 mission. That is effectively the same plan NASA had before comments by Musk and Trump Tuesday calling for the return of Williams and Wilmore from the station immediately, although the NASA statement does not rule out moving up the Crew-10 launch, currently planned for late March. (1/30)

Space Force Rapid Capabilities Office Picks 10 Companies for Accelerator (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force's Space Rapid Capabilities Office has picked 10 companies for its first accelerator. The Prime Fusion Pilot Accelerator Program is an initiative aimed at fast-tracking technologies to protect military satellites from orbital threats. The accelerator's first cohort consists of five two-company teams, each bringing specialized expertise in satellite technology and situational awareness, who will present their solutions at an event in March. (1/30)

Apple Direct-to-Device News Pushes Competing Shares Down (Source: Space News)
An emerging partnership between Apple and SpaceX on direct-to-device services caused share prices of others in that market to fall Wednesday. Shares in Globalstar closed down 18% Wednesday, while MDA Space, which is building a new constellation of satellites for Globalstar, fell 9%. Apple is currently using Globalstar satellites for direct-to-device messaging, but a report this week said that an upcoming version of iPhone software will support Starlink services. AST SpaceMobile, developing its own constellation for direct-to-device services, fell 12% in trading Wednesday. (1/30)

SpaceX Launches Spanish Satellite at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
A Falcon 9 launched a Spanish military communications satellite Wednesday. The rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 8:34 p.m. Eastern and deployed the SpainSat NG-1 satellite for Hidesat into a geostationary transfer orbit. The spacecraft will provide X- and Ka-band military communications services. The first stage, making its 21st flight, was expended to provide additional performance needed for the Airbus-built satellite. (1/30)

Space Force: Lack of Payload Processing Facilities Creates Bottleneck at Spaceports (Source: Space News)
The Space Force says the biggest constraint for increasing launch activity is a lack of payload processing facilities. Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, commander of the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, said at the Space Mobility conference that she could not set a maximum launch rate for the range after it hosted 93 launches last year.

She said the bottleneck for increasing launch rates is limited room in payload processing facilities at the Cape. Rideshare launches, like SpaceX's Transporter and Bandwagon missions, are particular problems since the dozens of individual payloads require large amounts of processing space. Panzenhagen said the Space Force is searching for solutions beyond traditional infrastructure expansions and is considering novel approaches to payload processing. (1/30)

York Space Systems Unveils Large Satellite Platform (Source: Space News)
York Space Systems rolled out a new satellite platform for payloads as large as 1,000 kilograms. York, which has focused on small satellites, said it developed the M-Class satellite bus in response to customer demands for more power and performance. The platform is designed for payloads with a peak power consumption of 8 kilowatts. The first M-Class satellite will be used for an Earth observation mission for an undisclosed customer. (1/30)

AscendArc to Produce Small GEO Satellites (Source: Space News)
AscendArc has unveiled its plans to produce small GEO satellites. The company, founded by a former SpaceX engineer, emerged from stealth Wednesday after raising $4 million and securing a $1.8 million Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract from AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force innovation arm. The company is working on small GEO satellites but has disclosed few details about its technology. Its first satellite, weighing less than 1,000 kilograms, is projected to launch in 2027. (1/30)

Virgin Galactic Partners with Redwire to Develop Spaceplane Research Lockers (Source: Space News)
Virgin Galactic is partnering with Redwire to develop research lockers for its Delta-class suborbital spaceplane. The lockers will be able to accommodate payloads that are flown on future Delta-class flights, continuing research Virgin Galactic supported on VSS Unity suborbital missions. The lockers are designed to make it easier for researchers to host their experiments and gain experience for future flights in orbit on the ISS or other platforms. (1/30)

NASA Employees Affected by Trump Workforce Reduction, Back-to-Office Efforts (Sources: FNN, NPR, Economic Times)
The White House has mandated that federal employees return to in-person work by 6 February 2025. Employees who do not comply must resign under a "deferred resignation program," which allows them to leave with full pay and benefits until 30 September 2025. NASA employees are among those affected by the initiative. Federal employee unions and attorneys are urging government workers not to accept the offer from the Trump administration to resign from their jobs by Feb. 6 and be paid through the end of September.

A significant majority of federal employees who took a Federal News Network survey say they don’t plan on accepting the offer to resign and go on paid administrative leave. Among those who expect to accept the offer, 54% said they already had plans to retire from federal service soon, or leave for a job outside the federal workforce. (1/29)

Arianespace Secures Three Ariane 6 Launch Deals in Two Days (Source: European Spaceflight)
During the 17th European Space Conference in January, Arianespace was awarded contracts to launch PLATO, Sentinel-1D, and a pair of second-generation Galileo satellites. Arianespace currently has a backlog of 30 Ariane 6 launches, 18 of which are for Amazon’s Kuiper constellation. The company is expected to complete five flights of the rocket in 2025, including the inaugural launch of the more powerful Ariane 64 variant, which features four solid-fuel boosters instead of two. The first operational flight of the rocket is scheduled for 26 February. (1/30)

Vast and SpaceX Call for Research Proposals to Advance Space Habitation (Source: Space Daily)
Vast and SpaceX have issued a joint request for research proposals from the global space science community to drive progress in long-term human space habitation and exploration. The two companies, building upon their partnership, aim to support high-impact scientific research that benefits both life on Earth and humanity's expansion into space. Proposals will be reviewed based on scientific and technical merit, feasibility, and alignment with mission objectives.

Approved projects will have access to the capabilities of the Haven-1 Lab, Dragon spacecraft, and private astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Haven-1 is set to become the first commercial space station, serving as a microgravity research, development, and manufacturing hub. This facility will enable groundbreaking scientific advancements and technological innovation in space research. (1/30)

NASA IG Spared in Trump Firing of Government Watchdogs (Source: SPACErePORT)
President Trump dismissed at least 17 inspectors general (IGs) from various federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, State, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Energy, and Transportation. These officials serve as independent watchdogs, ensuring transparency and accountability within government operations. The firings were executed without the legally mandated 30-day notice to Congress, prompting concerns about potential violations of the Inspector General Act of 1978. NASA's IG was among those spared. (1/29)

Ready for 156 Space Coast Launches This Year, Space Force Targets Bottlenecks (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Space Force is prepped to support an average of 13 launches per month from the Space Coast in 2025, but it’s a juggling act that has the world’s No. 1 spaceport running up against infrastructure roadblocks. The pace has been demanding, Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen said.

“It’s forcing us to innovate, right? We’ve implemented automation, we relooked at processes and streamlined a lot of things, but it does continue to be a stress on ops tempo when it comes to manpower,” Panzenhagen said. But it also has brought infrastructure shortcomings to the forefront causing backups for national security launches. “The bottleneck itself is that really we just don’t have enough payload processing space,” she said. “With the launch cadence increasing, we, with our government payloads, are using the same payload processing space that the commercial payloads use.” (1/29)

A Second Earth? Scientists Confirm a Nearby Exoplanet That Could Host Life (Source: Daily Galaxy)
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of HD 20794 d, a super-Earth just 20 light-years away, making it one of the most promising candidates for habitability beyond our solar system. This exoplanet orbits in the habitable zone of its star, where liquid water might exist—one of the key conditions for life. (1/29)

A Suspension of DoD Observance of Diversity-Related Events (Source: Ken Klippenstein)
To implement Trump executive orders relating to diversity and inclusion, a DoD agency has been advised to suspend observances of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Juneteenth, Black History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hispanic Heritage Month, and others. (1/29)

AstroForge Announces Asteroid Target for Upcoming Mission (Source: Space News)
Space mining company AstroForge has revealed the destination of its next asteroid prospecting mission and has signed a contract with Stoke Space for several future launches. AstroForge announced Jan. 29 that its Mission 2 spacecraft launching next month will travel to the asteroid 2022 OB5, a small near Earth asteroid that could be metallic. The spacecraft, called Odin, will fly by the asteroid about 300 days after launch. (1/29)

Armed Services Chair Supports $200B Defense Increase (Source: Breaking Defense)
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-MS, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, aims to increase defense funding by $200 billion and push major acquisition reforms this year. Wicker's funding plan, part of a Republican reconciliation package, could support projects like an Iron Dome-like missile shield and the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance fighter. "As the voice of the American aerospace and defense industry, we welcome Senator Wicker's continued focus on strengthening the defense industrial base and reforming defense acquisition," said AIA President and CEO Eric Fanning in December. (1/27)

Artemis Marks Milestone with SLS Core Stage Rollout (Source: American Society of Mechanical Engineers)
NASA marked a significant milestone in the Artemis program by rolling out a 212-foot core stage for the Space Launch System from the Michoud Assembly Facility on the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. The core stage, the largest NASA has built, will be integral to missions aiming to establish a permanent presence on the lunar south pole and eventually send humans to Mars. (1/21)

Funding Available for ISS Research Projects (Source: CASIS)
The ISS National Laboratory is soliciting flight concepts for technology advancement that utilizes the space-based environment of the orbiting laboratory. This solicitation, “Technology Advancement and Applied Research Leveraging the ISS National Lab,” is open to a broad range of technology areas, including chemical and material synthesis in space, translational medicine, in-space edge computing, and in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing. It also encompasses the application of space station remote sensing data to improve geospatial analytics for commercial use. (1/29)

Trump White House Rescinds Order Freezing Federal Grants After Widespread Confusion (Source: FNN)
President Donald Trump's budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing spending on federal grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Monday evening order from the White House Office of Management and Budget sparked uncertainty over a crucial financial lifeline for states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington and left the White House scrambling to explain what would and wouldn't be subject to a pause in funding. (1/29)

Planet Announces $230 Million Contract From Asia-Pacific Customer (Source: Breaking Defense)
Planet announced its largest contract to date, a $230 million multiyear deal with an unnamed commercial customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Under the agreement announced Jan. 29, Planet will build, launch and operate Pelican high-resolution Earth-observation satellites, reserving a portion of the capacity for the Asia-Pacific customer that works closely with a government agency. With the satellites, Planet also will obtain imagery for other government and commercial customers. (1/29)

Can Miami Executive Airport Become a Spaceport? (Source: Miami Today)
Florida legislators will be asked to designate land at and near Miami Executive Airport in West Kendall as a spaceport territory, which could create economic benefits including tax incentives for aerospace-related businesses in the area. County commissioners voted 10-2 to seek the designation two days after President Donald Trump promised to send spacecraft and astronauts to Mars. The commission was assured that no space launches were contemplated in or near the airport.

If the legislature were to approve a spaceport designation in West Kendall, it would become the eighth in the state and second in the county. Homestead Air Force Base was designated a state spaceport last March. (1/29)

Moon is Not as 'Geologically Dead' as Previously Thought (Source: Phys.org)
Evidence from the lunar maria (dark, flat areas on the moon filled with solidified lava) suggested that the moon experienced significant compression in its distant past. Researchers suspected that large, arching ridges on the moon's near side were formed by contractions that occurred billions of years ago—concluding that the moon's maria has remained dormant ever since. However, a new study reveals that what lies beneath the lunar surface may be more dynamic than previously believed. It discovered that small ridges located on the moon's far side were notably younger than previously studied ridges on the near side. (1/28)

Mars' Hot Again, Cold Again History: Explaining Persistent Hydrogen in Mars' Atmosphere (Source: Phys.org)
The fact that the cold, dry Mars of today had flowing rivers and lakes several billion years ago has puzzled scientists for decades. Now, researchers think they have a good explanation for a warmer, wetter ancient Mars. Building on prior theories, a team determined the chemical mechanisms by which ancient Mars was able to sustain enough warmth in its early days to host water, and possibly life.

Hydrogen was previously theorized as the magic ingredient, mixed with carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere to trigger episodes of greenhouse warming. But the lifetime of atmospheric hydrogen is short, so a more detailed analysis was required. Now, Adams, Robin Wordsworth, the Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at SEAS, and team have performed photochemical modeling—similar to methods used today to track air pollutants—to fill in details of the early Martian atmosphere's relationship to hydrogen, and how that relationship changed over time. (1/28)

Asteroid Contains Building Blocks of Life, Say Scientists (Source: BBC)
The chemical building blocks of life have been found in the grainy dust of an asteroid called Bennu, an analysis reveals. Samples of the space rock, which were scooped up by a NASA spacecraft and brought to Earth, contain a rich array of minerals and thousands of organic compounds. These include amino acids, which are the molecules that make up proteins, as well as nucleobases - the fundamental components of DNA. This doesn't mean there was ever life on Bennu, but it supports the theory that asteroids delivered these vital ingredients to Earth when they crashed into our planet billions of years ago. (1/29)