February 16, 2025

Chinese Developer Delivers Liqing-2 Rocket Engine (Source: Space Daily)
China's CAS Space has successfully completed the delivery of its Liqing-2 liquid oxygen kerosene engine, the company announced. The Liqing-2, a first-stage engine for the Lijian series rockets, features a 110-tonne thrust capacity utilizing pin injection technology in both its gas generator and thrust chamber. CAS Space noted that the engine's thrust ratio can be adjusted between 50 to 100 percent, with a maximum ground thrust of 110 tons. (2/12)

COMSAT Backs Astranis From-One-Many Mission with TT&C Services (Source: Space Daily)
COMSAT, a leading satellite ground station service provider, has announced its instrumental role in supporting the Astranis: From One Many mission, which aims to enhance global broadband connectivity. The mission, spearheaded by San Francisco-based satellite company Astranis, is designed to deliver broadband services to key customers such as inflight connectivity provider Anuvu and Philippine internet provider HTechCorp. (2/6)

NASA Awards SpaceX Launch Contract for Pandora Mission (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has awarded a launch service contract to SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, for the upcoming Pandora mission. Pandora is set to investigate at least 20 known exoplanets and their respective host stars, focusing on how stellar variations impact the analysis of exoplanetary atmospheres. The selection falls under NASA's Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This agreement allows the agency to issue fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task orders over a five-year period, with an overall contract ceiling of $300 million. (2/6)

Probationary Employee Firings Across NASA (Source: NASA Watch)
Multiple NASA centers will be announcing probationary employee “terminations” on Tuesday. A quick look at the news will show that this is happening across the entire Federal government. And this is just the pre-game show, folks. There is still a RIF to look forward to. As for the contractor community – things will probably suck even more. (2/15)

Scientists Just Found a Hidden Planet That’s Absolutely Massive (Source: SciTech Daily)
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of exoplanet Gaia-4b, one of the most massive planets known to orbit a low-mass star. This discovery was made in part using the NEID spectrograph, which is mounted on the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Kitt Peak National Observatory. (2/15)

VIPER Moon Rover’s Commercial Revival Signals a New Era (Source: The Hill)
Last year, NASA canceled the VIPER (“Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover”) in a move that scandalized proponents of a return to the moon. The agency is now requesting comprehensive plans from industry to fly VIPER to the moon. NASA will make a final decision in the summer. The selected company would be required to accept VIPER as is and not dismantle the rover and incorporate its instruments into another vehicle. It would bear the cost of transporting it to the lunar surface and operating it. (2/16)

Evolving Intelligent Life Took Billions of Years − But it May Not Have Been as Unlikely as Many Scientists Think (Source: The Conversation)
A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial intelligence is vanishingly rare. But as experts on the entangled history of life and our planet, we propose that the coevolution of life and Earth’s surface environment may have unfolded in a way that makes the evolutionary origin of humanlike intelligence a more foreseeable or expected outcome than generally thought. Click here. (2/14)