April 22, 2025

Space Force Seeks Firms for Satellite Ground Control (Source: Military & Aerospace Electronics)
The US Space Force is looking for companies to manage ground control for future missile-tracking satellites in medium-Earth orbit. The Resilient MEO Missile Warning and Tracking program will include a primary operations center in Colorado and three ground entry points, with satellite launches planned for 2026 and 2028. (4/22)

“A Bonafide Frigging Flight”: How NS-31 Broke Spaceflight Norms and Created an Online Uproar (Source: Space Review)
Last week’s New Shepard suborbital flight, with six women on board, generated a lot of attention but also criticism. Deana Weibel examines the flight and how it broke decades-old norms of spaceflight. Click here. (4/22)
 
Space Weather and Spaceflight (Source: Space Review)
Much of the focus on forecasting and responding to space weather has been on the terrestrial impact of solar storms on communications and the power grid. Jeff Foust reports the effect of space weather on satellites and space missions is now growing in importance. Click here. (4/22)

He Was a Prophet of Space Travel. His Ashes Were Found in a Basement (Sources: New York Times, tvdays)
During his life, Willy Ley predicted the dawn of the Space Age with remarkable accuracy. How did his remains end up forgotten in a co-op on the Upper West Side? The basement of the prewar co-op on the Upper West Side was so cluttered and dark in one area that the staff called it “the Dungeon,” and last year, the building’s new superintendent resolved to clear it out.

For weeks, he hauled the junk left behind by former tenants — old air-conditioners, cans of paint, ancient elevator parts and rolled-up carpets — through the winding hallway with its low ceilings to the dumpster out back. About halfway through the job, he spied an old tin can on a shelf next to a leaf blower. He read the label: “Remains of Willy Ley. Cremated June 26, 1969.” This was not the sort of thing you toss in a dumpster. “We needed to handle the remains as respectfully as possible,” said Dawn Nadeau. “So I set out trying to figure who this was and who it belonged to.”

Willy Otto Oskar Ley was a German and American science writer and proponent of space exploration and cryptozoology. The crater Ley on the far side of the Moon is named in his honor. He's featured in this video. (4/21)

Amid Eroding US Alliance, Europe Considers Defense Boss (Source: Reuters)
How to spend 640 billion euros? That’s the amount that European governments, including Britain, would pour each year into their militaries if they make good on their stated intention to beef up defense spending to 3% of GDP. Finding the money is the immediate challenge, given weak growth and heavy debt loads in many countries. A longer-term task is making sure that all the extra investment follows a coherent strategy. It calls for a new figurehead who can coordinate cross-border military projects and keep governments on track. In other words, Europe needs a defense czar.

European governments have now recognized the need to make up for lost time by turbocharging their military spending. What’s missing is someone who can knit together the disparate plans and make sure that Britain, France, Germany and other major powers avoid backsliding and wasteful duplication. The EU is not the right forum for these discussions. The United Kingdom, which is not a member, has the same interests as the rest of the region in resisting Russian aggression amid a wider pullback from the United States. (4/22)

DARPA Seeks Proposals for Lunar Orbiter (Source: Space News)
DARPA is requesting proposals for a lunar orbiter to test maneuverability and look for water ice on the moon. The agency released a program solicitation last week for Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter (LASSO), a proposed smallsat mission that would operate in lunar orbit at altitudes as low as 10 kilometers. DARPA wants to use LASSO to test navigation and propulsion technologies needed for operating in such low orbits, which could be applicable elsewhere in cislunar space.

LASSO would also carry instrumentation to map the moon for concentrations of water ice high enough to justify efforts to extract them. DARPA expects to choose several proposals for concept studies to mature designs, then select one for development. DARPA anticipates working with NASA to launch LASSO, perhaps as a secondary payload. (4/22)

SpaceX Launches Rideshare Mission into Mid-Inclination Orbit From Florida (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched a rideshare mission Monday night with very few rideshare payloads on board. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 8:48 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral on the Bandwagon-3 mission, the third in a series of missions going to mid-inclination orbits. This mission, though, included just three payloads, led by a reconnaissance satellite for the South Korean military. It also carried a smallsat for Tomorrow.io and a reentry vehicle demonstrator for Atmos Space Cargo. (4/22)

US Urges Allies to Avoid Chinese Collaboration on Satellite Services (Source: Defense One)
The United States is urging allies not to use Chinese satellite services. In an undated memo providing talking points to diplomats, the U.S. State Department argued that countries should not allow Chinese satellite services to operate in other countries, calling such services "untrusted providers." The memo also stated that U.S. companies offered more reliable services, but acknowledged those companies, like SpaceX, have the right to restrict or withhold services. (4/22)

Cargo Craft Arrives at ISS (Source: NASA)
A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the ISS this morning. The Dragon docked with the station at 8:40 a.m. Eastern, a little more than a day after its launch from Florida. The spacecraft, on a mission designated SpX-32, is carrying about 3,000 kilograms of cargo, with an emphasis on crew supplies given the cancellation of the NG-22 Cygnus cargo mission that was to launch in June. (4/22)

African Space Agency Opens Headquarters in Cairo (Source: Egypt Today)
The African Space Agency formally opened its headquarters in Cairo. The agency, established by the African Union, seeks to coordinate space activities among African nations and unify positions of those countries in international settings like the United Nations. The opening of the agency's headquarters was attended by representatives from Europe, Japan and the United States, among other nations. (4/22)

NASA's Lucy Asteroid Probe Returns Images (Source: Sky  Telescope)
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has returned images from an asteroid flyby. Lucy passed within about 1,000 kilometers of the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson on Sunday. Initial images transmitted by Lucy show the asteroid is elongated, with two lobes that suggest it is a contact binary. The asteroid is also larger than expected, extending about 8 kilometers on its longest axis. Lucy will be returning more data from the flyby in the coming days as it heads towards the Trojan asteroids that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit around the sun. (4/22)

NASA Team to Ring NYSE Closing Bell (Source: NASA)
The stock market is so desperate for good news it's forced to go into space to find it. Members of the team that built and launched NASA's SPHEREx astronomy mission last month will ring the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange this afternoon. That team includes people from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as BAE Systems, which built the small space telescope. (4/22)

Andromeda Has a Bunch of Satellite Galaxies — and They're Weirdly Pointing At Us (Source: Space.com)
Our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, or M31) appears to sport a lopsided arrangement of satellite galaxies that defy scientific models, stumping astronomers who are also trying to figure out why so many of this galaxy's family members point in our direction. All but one of M31's brightest 37 satellites are on the side of the Andromeda spiral that faces our Milky Way galaxy – the odd one out being Messier 110, which is easily visible in amateur images of the Andromeda Galaxy. (4/22)

Trump Wants a Golden Dome Over America. Here's What it Would Take (Source: NPR)
Israel's Iron Dome is much more modest than a Golden Dome. "It's the difference between a kayak and a battleship," says Jeffrey Lewis. A big part of that difference is the size of the landmass that needs to be protected — Israel is more than 400 times smaller than the United States, and it's mostly flat desert that's easy to defend. "Iron Dome, fundamentally, is designed to deal with slow moving, short-range projectiles," Lewis says. For the most part, it shoots at missiles and rockets fired from near the border that can typically fly just tens of miles.

But the missiles Russia and China have pointed at the U.S. are completely different. They include huge, powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles that soar into space and shriek back to Earth at hypersonic speeds. Iron Dome could never intercept them. Therefore, a key part of Golden Dome will likely be space-based interceptors. The idea is to have [thousands of] satellites in orbit that could spot missiles as they leave the ground and then shoot at them at the beginning of their flight. But "you need a lot of things in space in order to have them at the right place at the right time," Laura Grego says. (4/22)

Boeing to Sell Some of Its Navigation Business in $10.55 Billion Deal (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Boeing has agreed to sell portions of its Digital Aviation Solutions business to Thoma Bravo in an all-cash deal worth $10.55 billion as it looks to double down on its core business. The definitive agreement includes several assets that provide digital tools and services for aviation operations, such as Jeppesen, a provider of navigation charts and flight planning for pilots and airlines, and ForeFlight, another flight-planning and navigation app that helps with route optimization, weather tracking and flight management. (4/22)

Maserati Supercar with No Driver Breaks Autonomous Speed Record at Cape Canaveral Spaceport Runway (Source: Florida Today)
Revving up to extreme speed, the Maserati MC20 screamed just shy of the 200-mph barrier while zooming down the center of NASA's old space shuttle landing strip — with nobody in the driver's seat. The sensor-equipped supercar shattered the autonomous-driving speed record by reaching an eye-watering 197.7 mph at the Space Florida-managed Launch and Landing Facility — one of the world's longest runways — at Kennedy Space Center. AI software piloted the vehicle, with "a driving robot" powering delicate movements of the steering wheel.

Ranking as America's fourth-longest runway, the LLF measures more than 2.8 miles long (15,000 feet) and spans as wide as an NFL football field is long. This colossal concrete strip supported 218 ground tests last year for companies ranging from space-industry stalwarts to Tesla, Volvo and the Florida Highway Patrol, Space Florida reported. (4/17)

Space Industry Set for Explosive IPO Growth in 2025: Are You Ready for the Next Frontier? (Source: MicroCap Focus)
The space industry is poised for a significant transformation as projections suggest a wave of initial public offerings (IPOs) is on the horizon for 2025. Fueled by a renewed vigor in public interest and investment, this year, especially the latter half, could witness the emergence of a “new vintage of space companies,” according to Fortuna Investments CEO Justus Parmar. This trend comes amid rising aspirations and ambitions in space exploration, notably sparked by political leadership and corporate advances.

The space sector already sees prominent players planning to enter the public markets. Notably, Voyager Technologies recently submitted a draft IPO registration with the SEC. Others to watch include Karman Holdings, and Sierra Space. Click here. (4/21)

Phoenix Systems' Mission to Become the Invisible Backbone of the LEO Revolution (Source: Sirotin Intelligence)
Unlike the government-funded space programs of the 20th century, Space Phoenix Systems represents something new: the vanguard of what economists call the Fourth Wave of human technological development.

"We're building the railroads of the coming space gold rush," Andrew Parlock explains, gesturing toward schematics on the conference table. During California's 1849 gold rush, those who supplied the infrastructure accumulated more wealth than most prospectors. Space Phoenix aims to be the equivalent for the orbital economy—not mining resources, but providing the essential infrastructure and tools that makes commerce possible. (4/18)

OMB Suggests NOAA Scale Back Plans for Geostationary Satellites (Source: Space News)
A White House budget proposal calls for replacing NOAA’s future geostationary satellite constellation, GeoXO, with a far less expensive and ambitious program. The plan was included in the draft 2026 budget proposal, called the passback, prepared by the White House Office of Management and Budget and delivered to NOAA earlier this month. The document suggests NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) “immediately cancel all major instrument and spacecraft contracts on the GeoXO program,” saying the projected costs are “unstainable, lack support of Congress, and are out of step with international peers.” (4/21)

NASA’s Moon Seismometer Cleared for Construction (Source: NASA)
NASA has confirmed that a seismometer being designed for the lunar surface is ready for building and assembly. The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) is one of several science payloads in development for potential deployment by astronauts during NASA’s Artemis III mission. 

The LEMS instrument is a compact suite of seismometers, about the size of a carry-on suitcase, designed to continuously monitor the Moon’s surface for ground movement caused by moonquakes. Both meteoroid impacts and a shrinking and cooling moon cause the lunar surface and subsurface to shake. The data from LEMS, which will be recorded for up to several years after the end of the Artemis III surface mission, can help scientists better understand the Moon’s internal structure and evaluate the seismic hazards for human exploration. (4/21)