February 13, 2025

Experts Warn of China Threatening U.S. Military Satellites in Orbit (Source: Florida Today)
Space Force officials warn Earth's orbit could become a dynamic spacefighting domain featuring satellite-vs.-satellite attacks and ground-based rockets and lasers targeting spacecraft — and China is aggressively pursuing such futuristic technology. In fact, America's military satellites that were built using decades-old architectural norms make for "fat, juicy targets in geosynchronous orbit" that lie vulnerable to attack by China and other adversaries, warned retired Space Force Lt. Gen. John Shaw. "They're these large, nonmoving, positional structures. Easy to target. Easy to see. Easy to predict where they're going to be. And not the ability to really maneuver a whole lot," Shaw said. (2/12)

Cruz: Isaacman Confirmation Awaits Paperwork (Source: Space News)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said his committee had not yet scheduled a confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman, the White House's nominee to be NASA administrator, as the committee had not yet received completed paperwork for the nomination. (2/13)

Spire Takes Belgium's Kpler to Court Over Acquisition (Source: Space News)
Spire Global is going to court to force Belgian analytics provider Kpler to complete a deal for its commercial ship-tracking business. Spire said in a regulatory filing it filed a complaint in the Delaware Court of Chancery against Kpler after that company declined to close a $233.5 million purchase announced in November. Spire had planned to use the proceeds to clear approximately $100 million in outstanding debt, strengthening its financial position for investing across its weather, aviation and radio frequency geolocation data businesses, as well as hosted payload services. Kpler did not disclose why it has failed to complete the acquisition, which was set to close in the first quarter. (2/13)

SDA Seeks Input From Industry on Iron Dome Space Segment (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency is looking for input on how to incorporate its satellite systems into a "Iron Dome for America" missile-defense program. The agency published a call to industry this week, seeking perspectives on integrating its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) of missile-tracking and communications satellites into a broader missile defense system. The agency plans to award one or more contracts for 60-day studies focused on several areas, including digital simulation modeling of the proposed architecture and the integration of the Missile Defense Agency’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor satellites into the PWSA’s tracking layer. (2/13)

Apex Wins $45.9 Million Space Force Contract for Satellites (Source: Space News)
Satellite manufacturing startup Apex has won a $45.9 million Space Force contract. The Space Systems Command contract, announced Wednesday, calls for an unspecified number of satellites to be delivered by 2032 to support missions across multiple orbits. The California-based company specializes in manufacturing standardized small satellite buses and this contract is its largest with the government to date. (2/13)

Spain's Arkadia Space to Provide Thrusters for France's MaiaSpace Reusable Launcher (Source: Space News)
Spanish propulsion startup Arkadia Space won a contract to provide thrusters for a launch vehicle being developed by French company MaiaSpace. Arkadia Space will supply 250-newton thrusters to be used on the reaction control system of MaiaSpace's planned reusable small launch vehicle. The first on-orbit testing of an Arkadia Space propulsion system is scheduled to launch in March on a D-Orbit ION vehicle flying on the SpaceX Transporter-13 rideshare mission. (2/13)

Blue Origin Targets Spring for Second New Glenn Launch (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin is targeting late spring for the second New Glenn launch. Company CEO Dave Limp said at the Commercial Space Conference Wednesday that the investigation into the failed booster landing on its first launch last month should not delay a second launch. Limp said a propulsion problem of some kind meant they weren't able "to get everything right" on the reentry burn of the booster, but he did not elaborate. Blue Origin is considering a couple of options for the payload for the second launch, and would be willing to fly a mass simulator if needed. He said the company also hopes to launch its Blue Moon Mark 1 robotic lunar lander before the end of the year, and argued that the technologies the company is developing for lunar missions can also be applied to Mars. (2/13)

China's Names Lunar Spacesuit and Rover (Source: Xinhua)
China has announced the names of a new lunar spacesuit and rover. The China Manned Space Agency said Wednesday that the spacesuit it is developing for future lunar missions will be called Wangyu, or "gazing into the cosmos," while a lunar rover intended for use by those astronauts will be called Tansuo, or "explore the unknown." The agency said it selected the names from 9,000 submissions by the public. (2/13)

Texas County Approves Holding Election to Make SpaceX's Starbase its Own City (Source: AP)
Residents near SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas will vote in May on whether to incorporate as a city. Officials in Cameron County, where Starbase is located, said Wednesday they scheduled a vote for May 3 on a petition to incorporate Starbase as a city. SpaceX argued that the incorporation would streamline processes for building in the area. Most of the people living in the area that would be incorporated are SpaceX employees. (2/13)

Researchers Confirm an Exoplanet Potentially Capable of Sustaining Life (Source: Phys.org)
An international team has confirmed the discovery of a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of a nearby sun-like star. The planet was originally detected two years ago. This result, drawing on more than two decades of observations, opens a window to future studies of Earth-like exoplanets that may have conditions suitable for life.

The new planet, named HD 20794 d, has a mass six times that of Earth and orbits a star similar to our sun, located just 20 light years away. Its orbit places it within the habitable zone of the system, meaning it is at the right distance from its star to sustain liquid water on its surface, a key ingredient for life as we know it. (2/8)

Is Trump the President Who Will Truly Set a Course for Mars? (Source: NPR)
Over the decades, as administrations have come and gone, presidents have repeatedly promised future missions to Mars, holding this up as a key goal for human space exploration. Never before, though, has a president had such a close relationship with a would-be Mars colonizer, one who has transformed the world of rocketry.

Elon Musk, President Trump's ally who is shaking up government agencies, founded the company SpaceX with the goal of making humans a multiplanetary species. In addition to ferrying astronauts to orbit for NASA, this company is currently building and test flying a new space vehicle, Starship, that's designed to transport massive amounts of cargo—including people—and land on Mars. (2/13)

Can We Deflect ‘City-Killer’ Asteroid? (Source: New York Post)
Ready or not, 2024 YR4 is coming to an orbit near you. If YR4 is indeed on a collision course with Earth, we might not be able to stop it. 2024 YR4 — which is around the size of the Leaning Tower Of Pisa — would have around a one in 48 chance of striking the Earth on December 22, 2032.

UK volcanologist Robin George Andrews noted there might not be enough time to redirect it using DART (the Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft — which was successfully used to knock the 580-foot-wide asteroid Dimorphos off course in 2022. “With only a few years down the line, we could accidentally deflect it — but not enough to make it avoid the planet,” he theorized. “Then, it still hits Earth, just somewhere else that wasn’t going to be hit.” (2/13)

Trump Climate Crackdown: NOAA Restricts Scientist Interactions (Source: Guardian)
Last week NOAA’s office of research sent a message to all staff saying that “effective immediately”, the agency’s headquarters will implement a new layer of oversight over its scientists’ email and “virtual meetings” with foreign nationals. The new restrictions also require all NOAA employees and affiliates to document “all international engagements” in an internal spreadsheet for approval by a Trump political appointee on a case-by-case basis.

People within the agency say this could hamper the quality and availability of the world’s weather forecasts, among other key services. They have created a sense of unease within the agency, according to current and former high-level NOAA scientists and officials, and alarmed partners at European agencies. “My expectation is that it’s going to be a crackdown on climate,” said a senior NOAA scientist. (2/12)

Why New Glenn Booster Landing Failed (Source: Great SpaceX)
While the launch was a triumph, the booster’s status quickly became unknown, and it was later confirmed to have been lost. Recently, a detailed analysis has provided a plausible explanation for the failure. According to the findings, the booster failed to execute a successful landing burn, which impacted both deceleration and navigation. As a result, the booster collided with the ocean at high speed. This breakdown likely involved multiple systems, including the engine, the control system, and operational procedures during landing. Click here. (1/22)

Air Force Extends Sierra Space Contract for Upper Stage Rocket Engine (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force awarded Sierra Space a $16 million contract extension to further develop and test its VR35K-A upper stage rocket engine, the Colorado-based aerospace company announced Feb. 12. The extension follows the successful completion of the engine’s integrated test campaign and builds upon a previous $22.6 million contract awarded in July 2023 to mature the engine design.

Sierra Space’s VR35K-A, a liquid-propellant engine that generates 35,000 pounds-force (LBF) of thrust, is aimed at military and commercial launch applications. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Rocket Propulsion Division at Edwards Air Force Base, California, is overseeing the project as part of ongoing efforts to advance upper stage propulsion capabilities. (2/12)

Acting NASA Chief Says DOGE Reviewing Agency Spending as Hundreds Take Buyout (Source: Reuters)
NASA's acting administrator Janet Petro said on Wednesday that Elon Musk's government efficiency panel planned to examine the space agency's spending, and noted hundreds of agency employees had accepted a government buyout proposal. "We are going to have DOGE come. They're going to look - similarly what they've done in other agencies - at our payments and what money has gone out," Petro, who was previously the head of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, told reporters.

Asked how many NASA employees accepted the Trump administration's buyout plan, Petro said it was "hundreds." Asked whether Musk's leadership of DOGE presents conflicts of interest at NASA, Petro said "we have very strict conflict of interest policies," adding the agency's legal office would vet any DOGE employee for such conflicts. (Editor's Note: How well has that worked at other agencies?)

A small group of Trump administration officials have already begun to examine NASA's various science and space mission programs that make up the agency's roughly $24 billion annual budget, while Petro has been tasked with executing Trump's flurry of executive orders aimed at eliminating government diversity programs. (1/12)

New NASA RIF Directive Is Now Online (Source: NASA Watch)
A new Reduction In Force (RIF) directive has appeared online at NASA. It "implements regulations to conduct Reduction in Force (RIF), Transfer of Functions (TOF), and Furlough of more than 30 days in a manner that minimizes adverse impact on employees and limits disruption to critical Agency missions, programs, operations, and organizations, consistent with employees’ assignment and displacement rights." Click here. (2/12) https://nasawatch.com/personnel-news/the-new-nasa-rif-directive-is-now-online/

Mars Is Rocked by Epic Quakes, And They Don't All Come From Within (Source: Science Alert)
Incredibly powerful marsquakes that violently shake the red planet don't always begin under the surface, research shows. A new study using artificial intelligence to analyze seismic data reveals just how strongly and deeply quakes rattle around the red planet's interior – a finding that has implications for our understanding of the gooey Martian core, and how worlds like Earth, Mars, and Venus form.

The research also shows that many more rocks smack into Mars than previously thought, which changes how we must think about what Mars has going on beneath its dusty surface. (2/13)

Solar Flares in May 2024 Revealed Earth’s Vulnerability to Space Weather (Source: Space News)
The May 2024 event, the largest geomagnetic event to strike Earth in two decades, has come to be known as the Gannon storm in memory of Jennifer Gannon, a NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center research scientist. For such geomagnetic storms, a complicating factor creating potentially far-reaching impact is the terrestrial economy’s increasing reliance on space-based infrastructure.

Now, researchers are examining the impact on the fields of precision agriculture, satellite operations, aviation and the electric grid. While the analysis is not yet complete, reports presented at the AMS meeting revealed a particularly striking impact on agriculture.

The Gannon storm also revealed vulnerabilities in space traffic management. During a 2003 Halloween storm, roughly 1,000 satellites were in Earth’s orbit. As the altitudes of the satellites decreased due to enhanced atmospheric drag, operators sent instructions to each satellite to fire thrusters and raise its orbit. About 10 satellites at a time were moving to higher altitudes. (2/12)

ISS STEM Education and Workforce Development Research Announcement (Source: CASIS)
Is your organization focused on preparing the next generation of scientists, researchers, and explorers? The ISS National Laboratory has opened a funding opportunity for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce development to engage and equip the space workforce of tomorrow. Click here. (2/12)

Scientists Discover Massive Underwater Crater That is 3x Larger Than the Grand Canyon (Source: Brighter Side)
About 35 million years ago, an asteroid struck the ocean off the East Coast of North America, leaving behind a massive impact crater now buried beneath the Chesapeake Bay. The collision unleashed devastating effects, including widespread fires, powerful earthquakes, molten glass droplets, an immense air blast, and a tsunami that reshaped the landscape of what is now Virginia and Maryland.

The impact created a crater approximately 25 miles in diameter, which has since been completely concealed by sediment. Though hidden, its existence was confirmed in the early 1990s through scientific drilling. (2/11)