February 9, 2025

All Points Partners With Leidos for Space Cargo Mission Support for NASA (Source: All Points)
All Points Logistics has been awarded a new Cargo Mission Contract (CMC4) subcontract to provide services to Leidos supporting NASA projects, including the International Space Station (ISS) and the Artemis Exploration Program.  All Points will perform processing activities for cargo delivery to space and related engineering support for flight hardware. The CMC4 effort will focus on Pressurized Cargo Integration and Systems Engineering and Integration Support, beginning October 2025. (1/29)

ULA Begins De-Stacking Vulcan Rocket, Pivots to Atlas 5 Launch of Amazon’s Kuiper Satellites for First 2025 Mission (Source; Spaceflight Now)
United Launch Alliance is shifting its launch plans to begin 2025. On Friday, the company began de-stacking its Vulcan booster at its Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) in order to make room for an Atlas 5 rocket. Gary Wentz, vice president of Government and Commercial Programs at ULA, confirmed they de-stacked the Centaur upper stage and the interstage adapter last week.

The shift comes as ULA continues to wait for the U.S. Space Force’s Assured Access to Space (AATS) to certify its Vulcan rocket to begin launching payloads as part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. The change in launch manifest means that ULA’s first launch of the year will be a batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet satellites. Amazon has eight remaining launches using ULA’s Atlas 5 rockets in addition to the 38 Vulcan flights it purchased in 2022. It flew two prototype Kuiper satellites on an Atlas 5 launch in October 2023. (2/7)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Mission at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX kicked off the weekend with the launch from Florida of a Falcon 9 rocket with its latest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites Saturday afternoon. It’s the first of two planned weekend flights for the company with the Starlink 11-10 mission on tap for Sunday afternoon in California. The mission, dubbed Starlink 12-9, was the 10th dedicated Starlink mission of the year and the 11th with Starlink satellites on board. (2/7)

Space Coast Sees Its 13th Launch of the Year (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX sent up the Space Coast’s 13th launch in 39 days so far this year, an average of one launch every three days. A Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 12-9 mission carrying 21 of the company’s internet satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Spaceport’s Space Launch Complex 40. The first-stage booster flew for the 17th time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. (2/8)

Trump Administration Orders 'Catastrophic' Funding Cuts For Science Research (Source: HuffPost)
President Donald Trump’s administration announced late Friday it is drastically reducing payments the National Institutes of Health makes to universities, hospitals, and institutes that help cover administrative costs, a move critics said will result in a “catastrophic” hit to science research across the country.

Federal NIH grants pay for a portion of the overhead costs required for institutions to conduct research, including construction, utility costs, and lab operation, known generally as “indirect costs,” in addition to the costs of the research itself. Typically, about 30% of an average NIH grant to an institution is earmarked for indirect costs, but some universities get much higher rates. NIH said that starting Monday, a 15% indirect cost rate will now apply to all new and existing grants, saving taxpayers more than $4 billion a year. (2/8)