April 2, 2025

Williams and Wilmore on Starliner's Challenges (Source: Ars Technica)
Starliner's mission to the ISS last June was more difficult than widely known. In interviews after a press conference Monday, Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said thruster failures as Starliner approached the station meant they lost the ability to operate in all six degrees of freedom while other operating thrusters appeared to be sluggish. That raised questions about whether Starliner could dock with the station or return to Earth.

Resetting the thrusters allowed two to start working again, restoring full control and allowing Starliner to eventually dock. Wilmore said after docking he realized that he and Williams likely would not return on Starliner; they came back instead last month on a Crew Dragon spacecraft. (4/2)

ESA Nixes Georeturn on Next Cargo Contracts (Source: European Spaceflight)
ESA will not apply georeturn constraints on the next phase of an effort to develop commercial cargo spacecraft. ESA did not include georeturn in the first phase of its LEO Cargo Return Service project last year when it awarded study contracts to Thales Alenia Space and The Exploration Company, which The Exploration Company recently said gave it the freedom to choose their preferred suppliers rather than those based on nationality.

Most ESA programs apply georeturn, where contracts are awarded based on funding levels each participating nation provides. ESA stated in a recent request for information it does not expect to use georeturn on the second phase of the program, which will support development of vehicles though a flight demonstration. (4/2)

UK's Naicker Scientific Wins Top Price for Extracting Potable Water From Lunar Regolith (Source: The Guardian)
A small British company won a competition to develop technology that could extract drinkable water ice from lunar regolith. Naicker Scientific won the top prize of £150,000 ($194,000) in the Aqualunar Challenge, run by the U.K. Space Agency, for a system it calls SonoChem. That system would first microwave lunar regolith to extract water, which would then be subjected to ultrasound to remove contaminants. Two runners-up won prizes of £100,000 and £50,000 for alternative approaches for producing drinking water on the moon. (4/2)

NASA Flight Directors Get New Jackets (Source: CollectSpace)
NASA's flight directors now have their own jacket. Some of the agency's flight directors decided to design a jacket, similar to those worn by Apollo-era astronauts, to help bring recognition to their work. The dark blue jackets include a label inside reading "Tough & Competent Since 1961." While the jackets are intended to help enhance the profile of flight directors, they also have a practical purpose: Mission Control has very strong air conditioning. (4/2)

Musk’s Mission to Take Over NASA—and Mars (Source: Wall Street Journal)
After spending months and more than $250 million campaigning to elect President Trump, Elon Musk made a call late last year to help roll out his plan for humanity’s path beyond Earth. He reached his friend Jared Isaacman with a request: Would Isaacman become the head of the NASA? He told Isaacman, the payments entrepreneur who has flown to orbit with SpaceX and invested in the company, that they could make NASA great again and work toward their shared ambition of getting humans to Mars, according to people briefed on the conversation.

Soon after the call, Trump announced Isaacman’s appointment. Musk now has extraordinary influence on budgets, personnel and technology systems across federal agencies, including the FAA, which regulates commercial spaceflights at SpaceX. Through DOGE, Musk has cut budgets, laid off staff and ditched programs. He also has DOGE employees reviewing the operations and personnel of agencies that have investigated Musk’s companies. It is at NASA, though, where Musk is making the biggest shift in an agency’s priorities to align them with his own—both financially and personally.

He is working to recast its programs, reallocate federal spending and install loyalists to aid his decades-long goal of sending people to Mars. He has also worked to win backing from Trump by telling the president that getting people to Mars would shine his legacy as a “president of firsts.” The ambition could have a potentially huge impact on SpaceX, which has emerged as the dominant space technology and operations company globally and is already one of NASA’s biggest contractors. (3/29)

Virginia Spaceport Could Alleviate Congestion at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Virginian-Pilot)
There are exciting developments occurring regularly in space travel, including in Virginia at NASA Langley in Hampton and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. The Wallops facility could gain an even larger role under a bill introduced by Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat. He teamed with Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico to co-sponsor the ASTRO Act, short for the Alleviating Spaceport Traffic by Rewarding Operators Act.

As the name implies, the ASTRO Act would send federal dollars to non-government spaceports to help expand their capacity to handle more space launches and reentries. At the moment, there’s a bottleneck inhibiting the growth of the space industry, and the bill would provide facilities up to $250,000 per launch or re-entry, with an annual limit of $2.5 million.

By 2030, the annual economic impact of Wallops activities is expected to top $2 billion. The creation of new, high-paying jobs at Wallops generates other jobs as well — resulting in the addition of about 2.2 jobs for every one aerospace or defense job, according to the study. The growth of the aerospace industry around Wallops is a boon to Eastern Shore counties. In the fourth quarter of 2022, annual wages in defense and aerospace professions at Wallops were over $110,000, the ODU study found. (3/31)

UCF Expert: Fram2 Mission Brings Historic Opportunities for Space Medicine Discovery (Source: UCF)
The Fram2 mission presents an unprecedented opportunity to study how space exploration impacts human health, says UCF’s Emmanuel Urquieta, a renowned space medicine expert and vice chair of space medicine at UCF’s College of Medicine.

“The radiation profile and composition could be comparable to what astronauts faced during the Apollo missions,” Urquieta says. “But 50 years ago, we lacked the technologies to understand in detail the long-term health consequences. Today, with genetic sequencing, molecular diagnostics and our understanding of gene expression, we can uncover so much more.”

To monitor and mitigate radiation risk, the Fram2 crew will wear dosimeters to track real-time exposure levels. Additionally, the astronauts will use portable X-ray equipment to take the first-ever bone images in space — a milestone that will allow researchers to assess bone density loss and study the effects of weightlessness on the skeletal system. (3/31)

NASA Deletes Graphic Novels About Female Astronauts From its Website (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Nothing is off-limits in NASA's ongoing purge of all things related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) under the direction of the Trump administration. In its latest move, the space agency has reportedly deleted two graphic novels about fictional female astronauts from its website.

The series includes the titles First Woman: NASA's Promise for Humanity and First Woman: Expanding Our Universe. The first follows female astronaut Commander Callie Rodriguez exploring space as the first woman to walk on the Moon. The second "features a diverse crew of astronauts" exploring the Moon's surface. They were written by Brad Gann and Steven List and illustrated by Brent Donoho and Kaitlin Reid. (3/31)

Sending Microbes to Space Could Improve Astronaut Health (Source: UC San Diego)
Research from UC San Diego has helped shed light on what causes health issues in astronauts and what could be done to make them healthier. The researchers collaborated with astronauts who swabbed 803 different surfaces on the ISS—around 100 times more samples than have been taken in previous surveys. Back on Earth, they identified which bacterial species and chemicals were present in each sample. Then, they created maps illustrating where each was found on the ISS and how the bacteria and chemicals might be interacting.

When they compared the ISS to different human-built environments on Earth, the researchers found that the ISS microbial communities were less diverse than most of the samples from Earth. The ISS samples were more similar to samples from industrialized, isolated environments, such as hospitals and closed habitats, and homes in urbanized areas. Compared to most of the Earth samples, the ISS surfaces were lacking in free-living environmental microbes that are usually found in soil and water. Most of the microbes they found on ISS were associated with human skin.

Because exposure to a wide variety of bacteria in various settings can help boost the immune system, the researchers hypothesize that astronauts may develop inflammatory conditions because their immune system is insufficiently challenged in space. However, this also suggests that astronauts’ health could benefit from intentionally introducing more microbial diversity to the space station. (4/1)

Sierra Space Demonstrates Resilient GPS Satellite Technology for Space Force (Source: Morningstar)
Sierra Space announced a successful demonstration of the company’s Resilient GPS (R-GPS) technology for the Space Force. This major accomplishment, generating all GPS navigation signals required for the R-GPS mission, was achieved in collaboration with General Dynamics Mission Systems. This technology targets the increased need for more resilient GPS systems that protect the United States against adversarial threats like jamming and spoofing of the current GPS infrastructure. (3/31)

Man Who Flew Drone Over Vandenberg Space Force Base Sentenced (Source: KSBY)
A man who admitted to violating national defense airspace by flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base is expected to be released from custody soon. Yinpiao Zhou was sentenced Monday morning to four months in prison with a year of supervised released. He was also ordered to pay a $200 fine and $25 special assessment.

Zhou, who is reportedly a Chinese citizen and lawful permanent resident of the United States, pleaded guilty earlier this month to the misdemeanor charge and faced up to a year behind bars. He has been held in a federal jail and prison facility in downtown Los Angeles since his arrest. (3/31)

Northwest Florida Project Would Invest Over a Billion for Aerospace Manufacturing (Source: Get the Coast)
The Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday to submit a $16.8 million application for Project Opal, described as the largest single economic development investment in Northwest Florida’s history. The project involves a confidential aerospace company planning to construct a 1 million square foot manufacturing complex for critical aircraft systems serving both commercial and defense markets.

The company has selected a 135-acre parcel near Eglin Air Force Base, contingent on finalizing infrastructure support. The total investment is $1,040,819,000. The project would create 336 jobs with an average annual wage of $69,434, which is 122% of the county’s current average wage of $56,849. (4/2)

Blue Origin Responds to Failure Analysis for New Glenn Debut Landing Attempt (Source: Blue Origin)
We’ve submitted our final report and fulfilled our obligations to the FAA regarding the NG-1 mission booster landing attempt. New Glenn launched successfully on January 16, achieving our goal to reach orbit and deploy Blue Ring. Our ambitious attempt to land the booster, "So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance," was unsuccessful due to our three BE-4 engines not re-igniting properly.

Our review confirmed that all debris landed in our designated hazard area with no threat to public safety. The report identified seven corrective actions, focusing on propellant management and engine bleed control improvements, which we’re already addressing. We expect to return to flight in late spring and will attempt to land the booster again. (4/1)

Sidus Space Signs $120M Agreement with Lonestar for Lunar Data Storage Spacecraft (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space announced a decision to move forward with, and broaden the scope of, a preliminary agreement valued at approximately $120 million with Lonestar Data Holdings. The agreement defines the collaboration between Sidus and Lonestar to design, build and provide on-orbit support for six lunar data storage spacecraft, marking a significant milestone in advancing secure, resilient data solutions beyond Earth. (4/2)

Canada's MDA to Buy Israel's SatixFy (Source: Space News)
Canadian satellite manufacturer MDA Space announced Tuesday it will buy Israeli satellite chipmaker SatixFy in a $269 million deal. MDA would pay $2.10 per SatixFy share, a 75% premium over its stock price Monday, and pay off SatixFy's debt in a deal expected to close in the third quarter. MDA said SatixFy would strengthen the company's supply chain as it works to ramp up to producing two satellites a day with software-defined payloads that can be reprogrammed in orbit. SatixFy, already a major supplier of chips to MDA after selling its U.K.-based satellite payload systems and subsystems to the Canadian company in 2023, would also support the development of next-generation satellites. (4/2)

CLPS Companies Seek NASA Expansion of Program (Source: Space News)
Companies offering commercial lunar lander services to NASA want the agency to expand the scope of the program. At a House space subcommittee hearing Tuesday, companies involved with NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program advocated for block buys of landers as well as opening up the program to other agencies that might be interested in delivering payloads to the moon. NASA is beginning planning for a "CLPS 2.0" when the current CLPS contracts expire in 2028. Some members of the committee criticized NASA for its decision not to fly the VIPER lunar rover on a CLPS lander as originally planned, which the agency blamed on budget problems. (4/2)

Slingshot Wins USAF Contract to 'Fingerprint' Satellites (Source: Space News)
Slingshot Aerospace won a U.S. Air Force contract on technology to 'fingerprint' satellites. The project, funded by the AFWERX program, focuses on photometric fingerprinting, a method that uses measurements of a satellite's brightness over time to create a unique signature for each space object. By collecting and analyzing this data, Slingshot said, it can classify satellites, detect anomalies, and maintain custody of objects in low Earth orbit. This technology could help military operators to detect unexpected maneuvers by adversaries' satellites, identify newly launched foreign satellites and reacquire lost objects. (4/2)

JAXA Studies Mars Landing Concept (Source: Space News)
The Japanese space agency JAXA is studying a new concept for landing small payloads on Mars. The director general of JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences said Tuesday that the agency is working with a Japanese company on an inflatable aeroshell concept that could handle most phases of a spacecraft's entry and descent through the Martian atmosphere. That approach could allow it to deliver payloads such as rovers weighing up to 100 to 200 kilograms to the Martian surface. Work on the aeroshell is funded by Japan's Space Strategic Fund, but JAXA did not give a schedule for potentially flying such a mission. (4/2)

Northrop to Demo Satellite Refueling for Space Force (Source: Defense News)
The US Space Force has selected Northrop Grumman for the Elixir mission to demonstrate satellite refueling. The mission will build on the Geosynchronous Auxiliary Support Tanker project, and the Rapid On-Orbit Space Technology Evaluation Ring will carry the refueling payload. (4/1)

First Contracts Awarded for Commercial Space Reserve (Source: Air & Space Forces)
The US Space Force has awarded its first contracts under the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve program, with four short-term contracts totaling $1.1 million to enhance space domain awareness. The program aims to leverage commercial satellites during conflicts, similar to the Air Force's Civil Reserve Air Fleet. Col. Richard Kniseley says the program will likely expand, with satellite communications as the next focus. (4/1)