March 19, 2025

ISS Astronauts Return to Earth with Florida Splashdown (Source: Space News)
A Crew Dragon returned four people from the International Space Station Tuesday, including two who were on the station far longer than originally planned. The Crew-9 mission ended with a splashdown of the Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom at 5:57 p.m. Eastern off the Florida coast near Tallahassee. They arrived nearly 17 hours after departing the ISS. The Crew Dragon returned NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who launched to the station on that spacecraft in September, and NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who arrived on the ISS in June on the Boeing CST-100 Starliner test flight.

The return of Wilmore and Williams, often mischaracterized as being "stranded" on the ISS, became a political story as President Trump said he worked to bring the two home earlier. NASA officials said they followed a plan announced last August to bring the two back at the end of the Crew-9 mission but that Trump's interest "gave us some energy" as they carried out those plans. (3/19)

Ukraine Gains Access Again to US Satellite Imagery (Source: Space News)
The U.S. government has restored Ukrainian access to commercial satellite imagery. A spokesperson for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency confirmed Tuesday that Ukraine has regained access to a commercial satellite imagery platform that has been a crucial component of its intelligence-gathering capabilities since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. That access was cut off earlier in the month amid tensions between the two countries about terms of a potential ceasefire in Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia. The Ukrainian military had relied on that optical and radar imagery to track Russian troop movements and plan counteroffensives. (3/19)

Europe Testing Drag Sail for Satellite De-Orbiting (Source: Space News)
A European consortium has secured government funds to test an inflatable drag sail in space that could help deorbit satellites. Two-year-old Portuguese startup Spaceo is leading the consortium, which announced a 3 million euro ($3.3 million) contract from ESA Tuesday for the demonstration in low Earth orbit. The sail, to be tested as soon as 2028, would expand from 20 square centimeters to 1.5 square meters, increasing atmospheric drag on the spacecraft it is attached to and thus speeding up its reentry. The sail will be tested with a 12U cubesat but could be used on spacecraft as large as 200 kilograms. (3/19)

Exlabs and Antares Collaborate on Nuclear Power for Spacecraft (Source: Space News)
Two startups are joining forces to work on nuclear-powered spacecraft. Exlabs, which is developing a line of spacecraft for deep space missions, will work with Antares to incorporate that company's nuclear microreactor on future spacecraft. Exlabs plans to send a spacecraft equipped with an Antares nuclear microreactor to geostationary orbit in late 2028 or 2029. The companies argue that nuclear power is essential for "extended, long-duration" missions, providing power for larger payloads and missions where solar power is less effective. (3/19)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Mission From Florida (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX launched a batch of Starlink satellites Tuesday afternoon. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 3:57 p.m. Eastern and placed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. SpaceX now has more than 7,100 Starlink satellites in orbit. (3/19)

Samara Raises Funds for Satellite Attitude Control (Source: Space News)
Samara Aerospace has raised funding for spaceflight testing of its satellite-pointing technology. The startup has raised a pre-seed round of undisclosed size from several investors. The funding will go toward testing of a technology called Multifunctional Structures for Attitude Control that can provide attitude control for a flat satellite concept called Hummingbird. The initial flight test of the technology will be as a hosted payload on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission in October. (3/19)

India's SkyServe Working with JPL to Test Space AI (Source: Space News)
Indian edge computing startup SkyServe is working with JPL to test artificial intelligence models in space. SkyServe completed testing of the models this month on an edge computing system installed on a D-Orbit ION transfer vehicle in orbit. The models, developed as part of NASA's New Observations Strategies Sensorweb, are designed for near-real-time monitoring of wildfires, floods, urban heat islands and other phenomena for scientific research and disaster monitoring, and can be used for onboard preprocessing of data. (3/19)

Russia to Discuss Mars Exploration with Musk (Source: Moscow Times)
A Russian government official says he will soon meet with Elon Musk to discuss Mars exploration. Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia's Direct Investment Fund, said he planned to talk with Musk about cooperation on Mars missions, offering "strong expertise" from Roscosmos and Russian nuclear agency Rosatom. It was unclear if Musk would be participating in the meeting in his role as SpaceX CEO or as a senior adviser to President Trump. (3/19)

Atacama Images Represent Baby Universe (Source: Science)
A telescope has provided astronomers with the best 'baby pictures' yet of the early universe. Astronomers released data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, a radio telescope in Chile that has mapped the cosmic microwave background created shortly after the Big Bang. The data shows how gases moved in the early universe, and astronomers said the results fit well with standard models of cosmology. The data release is the last from the telescope, which is being replaced by the more powerful Simons Observatory, that will start observations in the coming months. (3/19)

Cosmonaut Who Spent 14 Months in Space Left Scientists Shocked After Health was Assessed (Source: LadBible)
Born in the city of Tula in Soviet Russia, Valeri Polyakov is one of Russia's most glorified cosmonauts having taken to the void of space as part of the Soviet space program and later, the Russian Federal Space Agency. Roughly, he spent a total of 14 months and 17 days in space uninterrupted; a record to this day. It had meant to be 16 months in total but was cut short due to scheduling issues and a NASA visit to Mir.

During his time in space, Polyakov went around the Earth more than 7,000 times. He became somewhat of a guinea pig for those studying the impact weightlessness in space would have on a human's body as well as their mental state. Studies showed that Polyakov experienced no measurable decline in his cognitive ability. One 1998 study found him to have 'impressive stability' after initial stress and low mood in the first few weeks in space and then back on Earth.

Polyakov's time in space proved to space agencies around the world that the human body could withstand prolonged periods of time in space and opened up the possibility of deep space exploration. He died at the age of 80 in 2022. (3/17)

Trump Repeals America’s First-Ever Tax on Greenhouse Gases Before it Goes Into Effect (Source: Grist)
In late February, Republicans in the House and Senate voted along party lines to repeal a Biden-era rule implementing a federal tax on methane pollution. President Donald Trump signed the measure into law on Friday — putting the country’s climate goals further out of reach. (3/17)

Mars Could Have an Ocean's Worth of Water Beneath its Surface, Seismic Data Suggest (Source: Space.com)
Persuasive new evidence supporting the possibility of liquid water deep underground on Mars has come to light in a new analysis of seismic data from NASA's InSight lander. In 2024, researchers proposed that the deep subsurface of the Red Planet, particularly between 7.1 and 12.4 miles (11.5 and 20 kilometers) down, is soaked in liquid water, a conclusion they base on the velocities of seismic waves detected during marsquakes.

Now, researchers Ikuo Katayama of Hiroshima University and Yuya Akamatsu of the Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics in Japan have found supporting evidence for this claim of liquid water deep inside Mars. "Many studies suggest the presence of water on ancient Mars billions of years ago," said Katayama in a statement. "But our model indicates the presence of liquid water on present-day Mars." (3/17)

A Google-Backed Weapon to Battle Wildfires Made it Into Orbit (Source: Tech Crunch)
The first satellite of the Google-backed FireSat constellation successfully made it to orbit over the weekend, kicking off what promises to be a new era in wildfire detection and monitoring. The constellation will keep a close eye on wildfires. When fully operational, the constellation’s more than 50 satellites will be able to image nearly all of Earth’s surface once every 20 minutes. (3/17)

Webb Telescope Just Snapped Direct Image of Worlds Many Light-Years Away (Source: Mashable)
It's rare for any observatory to directly image a planet beyond our solar system, called an exoplanet, but the powerful James Webb Space Telescope has captured four of them in the stellar system HR 8799. These large, gaseous worlds are located 130 light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy (a light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles). Importantly, viewing these worlds also revealed major parts of their composition, and how they likely formed. (3/18)

Is Space About to Become Too Crowded? The Future of Satellites Is at Risk! (Source: Daily Galaxy)
This shift in atmospheric dynamics is threatening the sustainability of satellite operations in low-Earth orbit. According to the MIT study, if current greenhouse gas emission trends continue, the capacity of space to safely accommodate satellites could shrink by as much as 66% by 2100.

There are already over 10,000 satellites in orbit, and the number continues to grow rapidly. In the past five years alone, more satellites have been launched than in the previous 60 years combined. With this unprecedented growth, satellite operators are already performing frequent collision-avoidance maneuvers to ensure the safety of their spacecraft. (3/18)

Universe's First Light Has Just Been Revealed in Stunning Detail (Source: Science Alert)
We just got the clearest snapshot yet of the first light that streamed through the Universe. After five years of staring unblinking at the sky, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) has compiled the most detailed map we've ever seen of the cosmic microwave background – the faint light that permeates the Universe from just 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

The results? We now have a clearer window into the infancy of the Universe, revealing with greater precision than ever how much mass exists in it, how large it is, and that the biggest crisis of cosmology – the Hubble constant – remains unresolved. "We are seeing the first steps towards making the earliest stars and galaxies," says physicist Suzanne Staggs. "And we're not just seeing light and dark, we're seeing the polarization of light in high resolution. That is a defining factor distinguishing ACT from Planck and other, earlier telescopes." (3/19)

Samara Aerospace Poised for Spaceflight Testing of Hummingbird Technology (Source: Space News)
Samara Aerospace is preparing for spaceflight testing of its Hummingbird satellite-pointing technology with funds raised in a pre-seed investment round. "We will launch our technology-demonstration payload and we plan to send an engineering unit of our full satellite on a Zero-G flight,” said Patrick Haddox. (3/18)

Blue Origin Rocket Engine Arrives at Seattle's Museum of Flight (Source: KIRO)
Blue Origin has donated one of its groundbreaking rocket engines to the Museum of Flight for a new display that’s set up at the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery. The donation marks a new partnership with the museum. The prototype BE-3U engine was designed to power the upper stage of Blue Origin’s giant reusable New Glenn rocket that launched for the first time only a couple of months ago. It stands about 15 feet tall and weighs over a ton. (3/17)

Space Force To Award 2 Satcom Programs No Earlier Than Mid-2025 (Source: Aviation Week)
The U.S. Space Force now expects to award two new major satellite communications (satcom) programs by midyear at the earliest. The two programs—Evolved Strategic Satcom (ESS) and Protected Tactical Satcom (PTS)-Resilient—will support a major overhaul of the U.S. military-grade architecture for space communications. (3/17)

Starship Explosions Impacted Nearly 500 Flights, Cost Carriers Millions (Source: San Antonio Express-News)
When fiery debris from exploding SpaceX Starships rained down across the Atlantic and some Caribbean islands recently, air traffic controllers delayed and diverted nearly 500 flights to keep aircraft out of the danger zone. All told, the rocket breakups in January and earlier this month caused 414 departure delays for aircraft at airports across Florida and the Caribbean and 80 diversions or holds for planes already aloft, according to data from the FAA. The costs for airlines and other aircraft operators were in the millions. (3/17)

Space Force Prepared to Divest Legacy Systems in Favor of Market-Ready Solutions (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force is preparing for a significant pivot in its technology acquisition strategy, signaling a willingness to abandon traditional procurement models in favor of commercially available solutions and allied technologies, according to Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein. “We are looking at offloading some of our legacy capabilities to commercial, or to our allies,” Guetlein said. (3/18)

What Happens to the Human Body in Deep Space? (Source: Space Daily)
Bone and muscle deterioration, radiation exposure, vision impairment -- these are just a few of the challenges space travelers face on long-duration missions, even before considering the psychological toll of isolation. As US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams prepare to return home after nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), some of the health risks they've faced are well-documented and managed, while others remain a mystery. Click here. (3/18)

These Space Companies Compete for Lucrative NASA Contracts—They Also Support Each Other (Source: Observer)
Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines belong to a group of more than a dozen private companies vying to land lucrative NASA contracts sending small spacecraft to the Moon. But according to Trina Patterson, Firefly’s vice president of marketing and communications, the two have managed to remain friendly within the competitive space ecosystem. “We’re very, very much ‘competimates,'” said Patterson. Click here. (3/17)

SKY Perfect JSAT Contracts Thales Alenia Space for JSAT 32 Satellite Project (Source: Space Daily)
Asia's top satellite operator, SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, has awarded Thales Alenia Space a contract to construct its latest geostationary satellite, JSAT-32. Set to operate on Ku and Ka bands, JSAT-32 will deliver enhanced communication services across Japan and nearby maritime regions. Notably, the satellite will introduce new spot beams specifically designed for mobility-related applications. JSAT-32 is intended to replace current satellites in SKY Perfect JSAT's fleet, ensuring continuity of service for broadcasting and connectivity solutions. (3/18)

ispace and Kurita Partner to Test Lunar Water Purification System (Source: Space Daily)
ispace has entered into a formal agreement with Kurita Water Industries, Ltd., a Japanese specialist in water treatment and chemical manufacturing, to support the delivery of a water purification demonstration system to the Moon. The memorandum of understanding sets the stage for transporting this experimental payload to the lunar surface on a future ispace mission scheduled for post-2027.

Kurita Water Industries has been affiliated with the HAKUTO-R program since November 2024. This new agreement solidifies their intention to collaborate on integrating water purification technologies into lunar landers for use in extraterrestrial environments. The primary objective is to demonstrate Kurita's advanced water treatment system in situ, leveraging ispace's transport services. (3/18)

Chinese Nuclear Scientists Identify Flaw in NASA’s Lunar Reactor Design (Source: South China Morning Post)
Chinese nuclear engineers have discovered a critical inefficiency issue in NASA’s lunar nuclear reactor design – but, they claim, minor structural adjustments could slash fuel consumption by 75 percent while boosting power output and longevity. The findings, from a study led by Zhao Shouzhi, chief reactor designer at the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), have already been integrated into China’s lunar base reactor program – a development that could tilt the ongoing moon race in Beijing’s favor.

China’s lunar reactor, as outlined in the team’s peer-reviewed paper published in the Chinese journal Atomic Energy Science and Technology, can generate 40 kilowatts of electric power for more than a decade. It leverages ring-shaped fuel rods and yttrium hydride moderators to overcome the limitations that plague traditional designs. Click here. (3/18)

Kulasekarapattinam Spaceport Will See First SSLV Launch in 2027 (Source: Business Standard)
The Kulasekarapattinam spaceport in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi district, the second launch complex for Isro outside Andhra Pradesh, will see the maiden launch with the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) in 24 months, chairman of the space agency V Narayanan said on Monday. The ISRO SSLV will primarily support polar launches of up to 500 kg, with Indian industry involved in its production. (3/18)

Space Supply Chain Gaps: Propulsion, Hardened Electronics and Laser Links (Source: Breaking Defense)
Despite ongoing efforts by the Defense Department to bolster the space supply chain, government and commercial satellite programs continue to struggle with shortfalls in several critical areas, including on-orbit propulsion, optical communications terminals and hardened electronics, according to industry and Pentagon officials.

The sluggish flow of key capabilities is a drag on Space Force efforts to rapidly transform its space architecture from handfuls of large satellites to so-called proliferated constellations made up of many small satellites, according to David Gauthier, the former head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s commercial space office. (3/17)

Avio to Begin Testing Next-Gen Reusable Rocket Demonstrator in 2025 (Source: European Spaceflight)
Avio has announced plans to begin testing its IFD1 single-stage reusable rocket demonstrator in Q3 2025. IFD1 is one of two demonstrators being developed under Avio’s Space Transportation Systems initiative, which is backed by funding from the Italian government.

In March 2023, Avio announced that it had been awarded a €181.6 million contract from the Italian government under its National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The funding was allocated to Avio for the development of a two-stage demonstrator to advance key technologies for a successor to the Vega E rocket, which is currently under development. (3/17)

Apollo Left Footprints — Mars Must Leave a Legacy (Source: Space News)
But before we dust off the old “giant leap for mankind” rhetoric and head to Mars, let’s take a moment to reflect on Apollo — not to diminish its legacy, but to ensure we’re not repeating its “plant a flag and go home” approach while overlooking opportunities for something far greater. The President’s declaration of planting “the American flag on the planet Mars,” raises questions about whether we are charting a new course or retracing old steps. If not addressed, these could reduce Mars exploration to another fleeting historic moment. (3/17)

Former NASA Astronaut: ‘We’re a Good 15 Years Away From Going to Mars’ (Source: The Hill)
Former NASA astronaut José Hernández said Monday that travel to Mars is “a good 15 years away.” ... “As I’ve always said … space travel is not trivial, and so what we need to do next is, we’re going to retire the International Space Station, invest that — that operational money in developing a lunar base where technologies that are needed to go to Mars need to be developed and tested and proved, because right now, there’s too many technical hurdles,” Hernández said. (3/17)

World’s Largest Telescopes at Risk From Chilean Energy Project (Source: Science.org)
A planned energy project in northern Chile will have a devastating impact on the world’s most powerful telescopes sited there if it moves forward, according to a new analysis by the European Southern Observatory. ESO operates several telescopes in Chile’s high-altitude Atacama Desert, whose clear skies and still, dry air make it one of the best places on Earth for observing faint and distant cosmic objects from the ground.

But ESO’s operational Very Large Telescope (VLT) and under-construction Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), as well as the southern site of the proposed Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO-South) in which ESO is a partner, stand just a few kilometers from the proposed INNA project, a 3000-hectare array of wind turbines and solar arrays that would power the production of ammonia and “green” hydrogen. (3/17)