January 31, 2025

Clearer Career Pathways Needed to Sustain Space Industry Growth (Source: Space News)
The commercial space industry should establish standardized career paths to attract the talent needed for its rapid expansion, a panel of professional services specialists said. “One of the challenges right now is that space is kind of a scary place to transition to from working in another industry,” said Joseph Horvath, CEO of training provider Nova Space. Someone joining the industry often has no clear roadmap for career progression, Horvath explained, including the education and skills necessary to advance.

Horvath pointed to how IT giants like Microsoft, Cisco and Apple helped establish industry-standard certifications that became prerequisites for many cybersecurity roles. Editor's Note: Over a decade ago, the SpaceTEC consortium established the beginnings of a space industry career certifications program, specifically for technician-level workers. See more on SpaceTEC here. (1/30)

The Ecuadorian Who Designs Systems for Blue Origin (Source: Forbes)
"We are building a path to space," says Luis Alarcón, the 38-year-old Ecuadorian who is part of the Blue Origin team, Jeff Bezos' aerospace firm, which launched the New Glenn rocket into space a couple of weeks ago.His specific position at Blue Origin is Sr. Avionics, Instruments & GNC Engineerand its tasks focus on the design of a series of systems that allow New Glenn to be seen as a new step on the path of human beings in space exploration.

Alarcón, who studied Mechatronics at the Tec de Monterrey, was a key player in this historic event. He performs his duties at the firm at the company's facilities.Pot, the United States government's space agency, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Alarcón has been working there for four years, although the most important moments at Blue Origin were during the first days of January, when the final details for the launch of New Glenn were being finalized. (1/28)

Space Coast Congressman to Chair House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (Source: Space Coast Daily)
Florida’s Space Coast has gained a significant advocate in Congress as newly elected Representative Mike Haridopolos of Indian Harbor Beach has been appointed chair of the Congressional Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. This subcommittee, operating under the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, oversees agency budgets exceeding $42 billion and plays a critical role in shaping space policy and initiatives. Haridopolos’ leadership is particularly significant for Brevard County, given his deep understanding of the area’s economic dependence on the space industry. (1/31)

Space Florida Aims Finance Infrastructure Needs at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SPACErePORT)
As the new Congress assembles and space policies and funding are debated, Space Florida is looking to ease the requirement for billions in federal appropriations for badly needed spaceport infrastructure. The state agency / spaceport authority says it is able to provide municipal-style financing for projects like wastewater treatment upgrades, which are required to allow continued growth in launch rates at the spaceport.

NASA and the Space Force could back the investment through their annual facility maintenance budgets. Smaller maintenance investments are easier to budget than large facility development items. Avoiding large infrastructure appropriations would allow limited NASA and Space Force funding to go toward ongoing and planned projects. (1/31)

NASA and Boeing Making Progress on Starliner Problems (Source: Space News)
NASA and Boeing are making progress into resolving issues on Starliner's flawed test flight last year, but have yet to fix problems with its thrusters. NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel stated at a meeting Thursday that NASA and Boeing teams had made "significant progress" on closing out anomalies that took place during the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission last summer.

Starliner launched two astronauts to the International Space Station on CFT in June, but returned three months later uncrewed because of NASA concerns about the performance of its thrusters. The panel said that NASA and Boeing have yet to find the root cause of the thruster problems and did not offer a schedule for doing so. NASA and Boeing have said little about Starliner since the spacecraft's return in September and have not scheduled the vehicle's next flight to the station. (1/31)

China's Local Governments Are Supporting Space Industry Development, Including Spaceports (Source: Space News)
Local Chinese governments are playing a major role in the development of the country's space industry. Across the country, local governments are rolling out policies to cultivate commercial space industries and attempting to position their regions as key players in the burgeoning space sector. New initiatives include tax incentives, subsidies, industrial clusters and commercial spaceports. This approach allows provinces to experiment with commercial space initiatives as part of decentralized efforts for economic growth. (1/31)

Spain's AVS to Develop Astrophysics Project for ESA (Source: Space News)
Spanish company Added Value Solutions (AVS) has won an ESA study contract for a science mission. AVS said Thursday that it was one of two companies that received contracts from ESA to perform Phase A and B work on an astrophysics mission called ARRAKIHS scheduled to launch into Earth orbit in 2030. ESA will later select which company to build the spacecraft. AVS, a company best known for work in scientific instrumentation, is moving into the space sector, launching its first smallsat last year. The company wants to focus on "high performance" smallsat missions rather than mass manufacturing of standardized spacecraft. (1/31)

Astronauts Complete ISS Spacewalk to Fix Antenna, Swab for Microbes (Source: CBS)
Two astronauts completed a spacewalk outside the ISS Thursday. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spent about five and a half hours outside the station on the spacewalk, retrieving a malfunctioning antenna that two previous spacewalks had been unable to detach from the station's exterior. The astronauts also swabbed sections of the station to see if any microbial life can survive there. This was the fifth spacewalk for Wilmore and ninth for Williams, who has spent more than 62 hours in space on those spacewalks. She broke the record for cumulative spacewalking time by a female astronaut, a mark that had been held by Peggy Whitson. (1/31)

Russia: Trump's US Iron Dome is Ploy to Deploy Weapons in Orbit (Source: Reuters)
Russia says the Trump administration's plans for an "Iron Dome for America" missile defense system is a ploy to weaponize space. A spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry said Friday that the proposal, announced earlier this week, was proof of American interest "on turning space into an arena of armed confrontation." That plan, the ministry said, could prevent talks between the United States and Russia on nuclear arms control. (1/31)

Harris and Whitson Picked for Astronaut Hall of Fame (Source: CollectSpace)
Former NASA astronauts Bernard Harris and Peggy Whitson are the latest inductees to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Harris flew on two shuttle missions in the 1990s, one to the Russian space station Mir, and is the first Black astronaut to perform a spacewalk. Whitson flew on three long-duration missions to the ISS for NASA and holds the U.S. record for cumulative time in space at 675 days. After leaving NASA, she commanded the Ax-2 private astronaut mission to the station for Axiom Space and is preparing for the Ax-4 mission, which could overlap with the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in late May. (1/31)

Will the US Get to Mars Quicker if it Drops or Delays Plans to Visit the Moon? (Source: Space Daily)
The Artemis program has been Nasa's best chance to get "boots on the Moon" again. But with the new US administration taking guidance from tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is focused on Mars colonisation, will they end up abandoning or pushing back lunar missions? For example, there's been speculation that returning US president Donald Trump may cancel the Space Launch System rocket, which NASA intended to use to get from the Moon to Mars. But is this approach likely to help them get to Mars quicker?

It would likely mean abandoning the Lunar Gateway project, a space station in orbit around the Moon where astronauts could live. But as this is not planned until 2027 at the earliest, this would seem acceptable. Click here. (1/31)

Hegseth, Trump Blame DEI at FAA, Democrats for DC Plane/Helicopter Collision (Source: Axios)
Well before an substantive post-crash details were available, President Trump repeatedly cited DEI policies at the FAA as having some role in the plane collision. He also blamed Democrats who advanced inclusive workplace policies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth struck a similar note: "The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department and we need the best and brightest — whether it's in our air traffic control or whether it's in our generals, or whether it's throughout government," he said.

Trump wasted little time blaming former Presidents Obama and Biden for allegedly lowering safety standards at the FAA at a press conference Thursday. He also railed against former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, saying the former Biden administration official had run the FAA "right into the ground with his diversity" initiatives. Buttigieg hit back at Trump's accusations, calling them "despicable" and noting that one of Trump's first acts in office was to "fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe." (1/30)

SPACE ISAC Expands Member Benefits with Access to New Testbeds Network (Source: Space Daily)
The Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space ISAC) has announced a major new benefit for its members: access to the Accelerating Space Capabilities 100 (ASC-100), an international network of Testbeds and Proving Grounds. This initiative aims to accelerate the development and integration of innovative space technologies into both commercial and government systems.

ASC-100 provides Space ISAC members with streamlined entry to certified testing facilities across the United States and allied nations. These facilities offer both physical and digital environments designed to replicate space operating conditions, enabling agile development, validation, and deployment of advanced space capabilities. (1/31)

Russian Senator Held Stake in SpaceX While Sanctioned (Source: Bloomberg)
A U.S. trust linked to sanctioned Russian senator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov held a 1% stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX before authorities blocked the trust, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Delaware-based Heritage Trust reportedly acquired the SpaceX stake in 2017, a year before the Trump administration’s Treasury Department sanctioned Kerimov along with dozens of other Kremlin-linked oligarchs. (1/30)

Blue Origin to Lobby for Space Launch Funding (Source: The Hill)
Blue Origin hired S-3 Group to lobby on issues related to space launch logistics in the annual defense appropriations bill. Blue Origin has received nearly $1.5 billion in government contracts over the past five years from NASA, according to federal contracting data, including for launch services, research and procurement. One of the lobbyists on the account is John ​Scofield, former communications director for the House Appropriations Committee. (1/30)

Can Malaysia’s Space Dreams Take Off with Sabah’s Bid to Become Spaceport? (Source: South China Morning Post)
A Malaysian state’s ambition to become Southeast Asia’s hub for lucrative satellite assembly and space launches pivots on creating a talent pool of aerospace and rocket engineers to draw the likes of Elon Musk’s Space X, experts say. The Sabah state government last week announced that it had launched a one-year feasibility study into the project, which it hoped would turn the state into an industrial hub for the space industry.

Initially floated in 2023, the state government signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine’s Yuzhnoye State Design Office – which specializes in space-rocket technology – and local defense and aerospace firm Sovereign Sengalang, to explore Sabah’s potential as a regional space launch site. (1/30)

SpaceX Builds New Launch Pad, Mechanical Chopsticks Tower at Texas Spaceport (Source: Valley Central)
As SpaceX builds a new launch pad at Boca Chica, it is also building another huge mechanical chopsticks tower that has a slight difference. As the week rolled on, construction continued on tower two, the chopsticks and the tank farm down at the launch site while stacking continued on Booster 17 and Starship 35 at the build site. Back at tower two, the cranes began a tandem lift of the chopstick carriage, rotating it vertically before maneuvering it into position on the assembly stand. (1/30)

New Kind of Hidden Black Hole May Explain the Mystery of Dark Energy (Source: New Scientist)
Space-time may hide a bizarre new kind of black hole that causes Einstein’s theory of gravity to fail – and could solve the mystery of dark energy. A quantum black hole is a theoretical type of black hole that exists at microscopic scales, governed by both general relativity and quantum mechanics. These black holes are different from astrophysical black holes (formed from collapsing stars) because they would be incredibly small—potentially subatomic in size—but still have a strong gravitational pull. (1/30)

MHI’s Expanding Space Business (Source: Spectra)
There are one million parts in a modern rocket. If just one of these malfunctions, the whole rocket can fail. This is what happened in March 2023, when a problem with its second-stage engine forced Japan’s national space agency (JAXA) to cut short the first launch of Japan’s new flagship H3 rocket. It was a bitter setback for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and our customer and partner JAXA. We had spent a decade jointly developing this new launch vehicle.

But after almost a year of forensic investigation, evaluation and testing we modified some components, achieved ‘Return to Flight’ status for them, successfully launching an H3 in February 2024 – with MHI and JAXA engineers in the control center hugging each other with joy. We have since carried out two more smooth launches and the H3 is fully operational. And I would argue that by honestly and openly facing up to this failure, we have learned important new lessons and even strengthened our relationship with JAXA and our other partners. (1/30)

Feeling the Gravity: When Human Safety is At Stake (Source: Boeing)
NASA and Boeing engineers share what it means to design a rocket to safely send astronauts to deep space. If everything goes according to plan, it’s still perilous. That’s the reality NASA, Boeing and industry engineers face daily as they design and build vehicles planned — from the start — to safely send humans to deep space.

For teammates working on critical hardware in support of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the Artemis missions, that means meeting comprehensive safety requirements from design to launch. NASA's meticulous design of the SLS rocket is driven by the specific mission requirements for sending humans to deep space. The hardware undergoes intentional design and rigorous testing to ensure its suitability for human spaceflight. In short, the mission drives the design.” (1/21)

Sierra Space Dream Chaser 'Mini Shuttle' Space Plane Tests Continue Toward May Maiden Flight (Source: Florida Today)
Sierra Space's "mini shuttle" Dream Chaser space plane may make its maiden flight in May after launching atop a rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Pre-flight testing continues at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Wednesday, Sierra Space officials announced the spacecraft successfully completed and passed another round of test milestones in collaboration with NASA. The test demonstrated Dream Chaser's "ability to power-on, air-cool, and exchange data with multiple powered payloads inside its pressurized cabin."

The 30-foot-long Dream Chaser, which is named Tenacity, will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. The uncrewed space plane is slated to deliver 7,800 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, then descend to Earth and land like a space shuttle roughly 45 days later at KSC's Launch and Landing Facility. (1/29)