March 6, 2025

First CubeSat Joins ESA's Ramses Mission to Asteroid Apophis (Source: ESA)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected the first of two CubeSats to fly onboard its proposed Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses). If approved, Ramses will rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis before it passes exceptionally close to Earth on 13 April 2029, exactly 1500 days from today. The Ramses spacecraft will deploy two smaller CubeSats at the asteroid to maximize the scientific return of this rare natural phenomenon. (3/5)

AST, Kayhan, LeoLabs Team to Demo Capability to Reduce Space Force Satellite Tracking Times (Source: Breaking Defense)
Three commercial firms have demonstrated a collective capability to help the Space Force more quickly detect and track satellites launched simultaneously into low Earth orbit (LEO) — a growing launch practice that is challenging the service’s abilities to spot potential on-orbit crashes. AST SpaceMobile, Kayhan Space and LeoLabs provided space situational awareness data for the five satellites launched by SpaceX Sep. 12. (3/5)

Public Consultation Begins for New Microlauncher Launch Site in French Guiana (Source: European Spaceflight)
The French space agency CNES has opened a public consultation period for the new multi-user microlauncher facility at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. The consultation will focus on the site’s environmental authorization and building permit request. On 17 February, the first of four public consultation sessions into the construction of the new Multi-Launcher Launch Complex (ELM1) at the Guiana Space Center was held at Kourou Town Hall. (3/5)

Bezos Brings Amazon Work Culture to Blue Origin (Source: Ars Technica)
Jeff Bezos has moved to introduce a tough Amazon-like approach to his rocket maker Blue Origin, as the world’s third-richest person seeks to revive a company that has lagged behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The space company’s founder and sole shareholder has pushed to shift its internal culture with management hires from Amazon, while implementing policies akin to the ecommerce giant, including longer working hours and more aggressive targets.

Half a dozen current and former senior Blue Origin employees told the Financial Times that the billionaire had taken a prominent role in helping reset a company that has reached orbit only once, compared with SpaceX achieving the feat more than 450 times. “The euphemism among Blue Origin alumni is that Blue Origin’s track record speaks for itself,” said one former executive.

Key to Bezos’s effort is chief executive Dave Limp. The former Amazon devices chief was appointed in late 2023 and has been followed in quick succession by several veterans from the $2.2tn tech giant, including supply chain chief Tim Collins, chief information officer Josh Koppelman, and chief financial officer Allen Parker. The changes in leadership have been accompanied by severe layoffs. In February, roughly 10 percent of Blue Origin’s more than 10,000-strong workforce was dismissed, a more aggressive round of job cuts than at any time in its 25-year history. (3/6)

Canada Releases New Policy – Supplemental Mobile Coverage by Satellite (Source: SpaceQ)
Canada is a vast country that is difficult to cover with ground-based mobile wireless services alone. But the gaps on the ground can be covered by satellites, thus providing seamless telecom services to Canadians wherever they are. The result: Such ‘supplemental mobile coverage from satellites’ (SMCS) could improve the reliability of Canada’s telecom services from coast to coast to coast. With SMCS, the days of low bars and no coverage would be over.

To make this happen, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has published a policy document called ‘Decision on a Policy, Licensing and Technical Framework for Supplemental Mobile Coverage by Satellite’. According to a February 20, 2025 ISED news release, this new spectrum policy is a “first step” to enable wireless service providers to offer expanded wireless services via satellites to their subscribers. (3/5)

'Warheads on Foreheads': Top Leaders for Air Force, Space Force Leaning into Defense Secretary's Rhetoric (Source: Military.com)
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin wanted to make it clear: The troops that he oversees will do whatever President Donald Trump wants them to, and they'll be ready for it. "We have to sustain and maintain the ability to go anytime, anywhere in the densest threat environment and put 'warheads on foreheads' anywhere the president might want."

It wasn't just the Air Force. Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force's top leader, made it clear during his keynote speech that same evening that Guardians are also "warfighters" who must be ready for conflict, and the service must go on the offensive to achieve "space superiority" against the nation's adversaries. (3/5)

Congressman Kiley Introduces Bill to “Rein in CA Coastal Commission” After SpaceX Issue (Source: South Tahoe Now)
Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA) introduced the Coastal Commission Accountability Act this week, which is meant to strip the California Coastal Commission of its powers under federal law. Kiley’s bill would amend the Coastal Zone Management Act to “expedite important coastal activities, including national security initiatives, critical infrastructure development, and disaster mitigation and recovery efforts.”

The bill came after the Commission denied Elon Musk’s SpaceX a request to expand Falcon 9 launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base in October. Kiley said the Commission’s 6-4 vote against granting the SpaceX request demonstrated the agency’s politicization, and it hinders “both defense operations and California’s leadership in aerospace innovation.” (3/5)

Amber McIntyre Joins AIA as Senior Director of Civil Space (Source: Executive Gov)
Prior to joining AIA, McIntyre served as director of international space policy at the National Space Policy Council within the Executive Office of the Vice President, where she coordinated U.S. space policy across agencies such as NASA, the State Department and the Department of Defense. (3/5)

Fleet Space to Build ‘Hyper Factory’ at Australia Airport (Source: AU Manufacturing)
Satellite manufacturer and space-based mineral detection company Fleet Space Technologies is constructing a new global headquarters and space tech ‘hyper factory’. The 5300 square meter facility, located at Adelaide Airport, is designed to accelerate production of Fleet’s space technologies. In December, the company closed a major capital raising, of $150 million, to invest in its development. (3/6)

Space Force to Establish First Guardian Recruiting Squadron (Source: Washington Examiner)
The U.S. Space Force, the youngest of the country’s eight uniformed services, is recruiting and will do so under its own Guardian title. Space Force recruitment has been managed by Air Force Recruiting Services until now. It was founded on Dec. 20, 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term. Now, after over five years in existence, the branch announced it is significantly changing its recruitment process, establishing a full Guardian squadron later in the year, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. (3/6)

Blue Origin Has Now Flown More Than 50 People Into Space (Source: Quartz)
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has hit a new milestone after sending six space tourists on a high-speed trip to the edge of space and back. The aerospace company has now launched 50 people beyond the Kármán line. (2/25)

Starliner Commander Says Politics Played No Role in Crew's Extended Stay in Space (Source: CBS News)
Starliner commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore said Tuesday he did not think politics played any role in the crew's extended mission, but he did not directly address earlier comments by President Trump and Elon Musk that the crew had been "abandoned" in space by the Biden administration. (3/5)

Boeing Starliner Astronauts are Trying to Stay Out of American Politics (Source: Quartz)
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunny” Williams headed to space on June 5 for an approximately eight-day mission. Now 273 days later, they’re still orbiting around the world on the ISS and are ready to return. But to make sure they finally get down to solid ground, it seems like they’re trying to do everything possible to stay out of politics and not to piss off President Trump and Elon Musk. (3/5)

NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Remains Out-of-Contact (Source: Space News)
NASA has yet to restore communications with a lunar science mission launched a week ago as chances for its recovery fade. Lunar Trailblazer was a secondary payload on last week's launch of the IM-2 lunar lander mission, but communications with the spacecraft were lost less than 12 hours after deployment. NASA says it is still working to restore contact with and commanding of Lunar Trailblazer, currently spinning in a "low-power state," but noted that because the spacecraft was not able to perform scheduled maneuvers after deployment, it will not be able to enter its planned orbit around the moon.

NASA is studying alternative approaches to get the spacecraft to the moon if control is restored. The low-cost mission was to map the presence of water on the moon. It is part of a NASA line of small planetary missions that have suffered failures or other problems. (3/6)

Firefly Alpha Launch Planned for March 15 at California Spaceport (Source: Firefly)
Firefly announced a mid-March date for its next Alpha launch. The company said Wednesday the sixth flight of Alpha is scheduled for no earlier than the morning of March 15. The rocket is carrying a Lockheed Martin LM 400 satellite on a technology demonstration mission. This will be the first Alpha launch since a flight last July carrying a set of NASA-sponsored cubesats. (3/6)

How Elon Musk Muscled His Way Into the FAA (Source: Bloomberg)
Two weeks ago, SpaceX engineer Ted Malaska showed up at the Federal Aviation Administration’s headquarters in Washington to deliver what he described as a directive from his boss Elon Musk: The agency will immediately start work on a program to deploy thousands of the company’s Starlink satellite terminals to support the national airspace system.

Malaska told those in attendance that the employees had up to 18 months to get the new program up and running, an unsettling timeline for aviation safety employees accustomed to a more deliberate pace. Anyone who impeded progress, Malaska said, would be reported to Musk and risked losing their jobs, according to two people familiar with the matter. (3/5)

Musk Wants SpaceX To Fix Air Traffic Control. Here’s Why It Won’t Work (Source: Forbes)
Musk's invasion of the FAA creates obvious and serious conflicts of interests, with DOGE currently burrowing into the agency that acts as SpaceX’s primary regulator. But worse, it makes no sense. Starlink may be suitable to connect remote FAA facilities, but it doesn’t currently have the bandwidth or reliability to serve as the backbone of the agency’s nationwide communications network. Plus, SpaceX has no apparent experience in serving as a prime contractor for a solution incorporating a mix of communications technologies.

“As a backup layer or alternative connectivity provider, Starlink makes sense,” Kim Burke, a government affairs analyst at the consultancy Quilty Space, told Forbes. “But SpaceX spearheading a total overhaul of the FAA’s terrestrial networks? Not a chance.”

High among the concerns: FAA will have to do substantial testing on the time it takes for Starlink signals to travel, known as latency, said Hassan Shahidi, CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation. “You don't want to have a disruption or slowness in your network with safety critical systems. We're talking about real-time information that air traffic control needs.” (3/5)

SpaceX Denies Intent to Take Over FAA Contract (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX is denying claims that the company is seeking to take over an FAA contract for air traffic communications. In a statement Wednesday, SpaceX said it is working with L3Harris and the FAA on ways to upgrade communications networks linking air traffic control centers by using its Starlink satellite system. It rejected reports that SpaceX was trying to take over a $2.4 billion contract previously awarded to Verizon to perform those upgrades, leveraging the influence SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has with the Trump administration. (3/6)

India's Second Spaceport Under Construction (Source: ETV Bharat)
Construction has started on a second Indian spaceport. A ceremony Wednesday marked the start of work on a launch site at Kulasekaranpattinam in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The launch site, expected to take two years to build, will support launches of India's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) to polar orbits. It will increase the SSLV's payload capacity to those orbits by launching directly to the south, avoiding a dogleg maneuver required for launches from the Satish Dhawan Space Center. (3/6)

NASA Shutting Off Voyager Instrument (Source: NASA)
NASA is shutting off instruments on the two Voyager spacecraft to conserve power. The cosmic ray subsystem instrument on Voyager 1 was shut off last week and the low-energy charged particle instrument on Voyager 2 will be turned off later this month, NASA announced Wednesday. The shutdowns will conserve power on the spacecraft as their aging radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) generate less power. Each spacecraft will now have three functioning instruments as they speed out of the solar system, with hopes that both can continue to operate with at least one working instrument into the 2030s. (3/6)

Golden Dome Will Require Massive Effort (Source: Space News)
A Space Force general says the Golden Dome missile-defense program will require a level of effort comparable to the Manhattan Project. Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, said Golden Dome represents a significant challenge that demands unprecedented collaboration across defense and intelligence agencies. He said Wednesday that the service is in "full planning mode" on its role in Golden Dome, and will provide its thoughts to the White House by the end of the month. The Space Force will play a crucial role due to its space-based capabilities, but Guetlein said which organization will lead Golden Dome has yet to be determined. (3/6)

U.S. Space Force Could Link Missile Sensing Satellites In Multiple Orbits (Source: Aviation Week)
The U.S. Space Force may eventually connect missile warning and tracking satellites in low and medium Earth orbits (MEO), uniting constellations being separately developed by the Space Systems Center and Space Development Agency (SDA), an acquisition official said on March 4. (3/6)

Silicon Valley Companies Disrupt Defense Industry (Source: Space News)
Silicon Valley looks to follow SpaceX's lead into upending the defense sector. Industry executives see an opportunity for Silicon Valley's biggest players, like Palantir and Anduril, to challenge traditional prime contractors across defense and space programs. Those companies have found some success with efforts like AI-powered drones, but executives noted that the defense industry is as much about bureaucratic navigation as it is about innovation.  Those executives added they did not see their companies toppling current defense primes like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman in the near future, saying that it's "a question for 10 or 20 years from now." (3/6)

AST SpaceMobile and Vodafone Plan European Collaboration for Direct-to-Smartphone Services (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile is planning to create a jointly owned European satellite operator for direct-to-smartphone services. The company announced a partnership with European telecom giant Vodafone, which was already set to provide the cellular spectrum needed to launch its services in 10 countries and ultimately aims to extend coverage across the entire continent.

The agreement lays the groundwork for a network of gateways essential to integrating satellites with more terrestrial mobile networks, paving the way to expand partnerships to three times as many countries. The move underscores a broader trend in Europe toward securing independent space-based capabilities, particularly in the face of rising geopolitical tensions and regulatory scrutiny over foreign satellite operators. (3/6)

Israel's SatixFy Wins UK Funding for Satellite Software (Source: Space News)
Israeli chipmaker SatixFy won U.K. Space Agency funding to develop software for reprogrammable satellites. The £1.8 million ($2.3 million) program aims to advance digital beamforming software over the next two years, which the company said would enable real-time control and monitoring of satellite payloads powered by its chips. It would eliminate the downtime that software-defined payloads suffer when reconfigured, and could enable AI systems to automatically reconfigure payloads based on used demand without intervention from ground controllers. (3/6)

China Says it is ‘Ready for War’ with America (Source: The Telegraph)
China has said it is “ready for war” with America as it raises defense spending and imposes retaliatory tariffs on US imports. In a direct threat to Donald Trump, China’s representatives in America said: “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight until the end.”

The US has hit China with 20 per cent tariffs in response to what the White House considers to be Chinese inaction over the flow of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, into America.  Beijing has responded by announcing plans to boost defense spending by 7.2 percent and hit the US with reciprocal tariffs of 10-15 percent on certain imports. (3/5)

Another Starlink Trump Windfall for Musk? (Source: Prospect)
Starlink could elbow its way into the $42.5 billion Biden-era program to build out broadband internet service in underserved areas. Starlink’s satellite service did not initially meet reliability standards for the program, nor did it commit to a low-cost option for low-income users. Starlink service starts at $120 a month, which is substantially more than the average broadband bill.

But the Trump administration could rewrite the rules to let Starlink participate more fully in the program, and compete with the more prominent wired fiber-optic service. Only three states—Louisiana, Delaware, and Nevada—have finalized their broadband funding. “Most of the other states can bid under different rules with this government and shift funding to Starlink,” said Alejandro Molina, a former National Economic Council official under President Biden. (3/5)