April 4, 2025

Counterspace Capabilities Advancing Around the Globe (Source: Breaking Defense)
Perhaps the most telling indicator of how far and how fast space attack capabilities — ranging from stun to kill — have grown over the past decade is simply the size of this year’s “Global Counterspace Capabilities” report by the Secure World Foundation. The 2025 edition weighs in at a whopping 316 pages, whereas the first version published in 2018 numbered 148.

That’s the result of all of the “significant research and development of a broad range of destructive and non-destructive counterspace capabilities in multiple countries,” the report says, based on open-source evidence compiled from February 2024 to February 2025. While the report didn’t add any new countries to the tally of the 12 cited last year that are at least researching related capabilities, it shows that China, Russia and the United States are growing ever-more entangled in an arms race to develop, test and deploy counterspace weapons. (4/3)

Here’s What to Expect from Project Kuiper’s First Full-Scale Satellite Launch (Source: Amazon)
Project Kuiper is set to send its first full batch of satellites to space, marking an important step in its mission to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world. The mission, named “KA-01” for Kuiper Atlas 1, will launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and deploy 27 satellites at an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth. Launch is currently scheduled for no earlier than (NET) 12 p.m. EDT on April 9.

While the satellites complete the orbit-raising process, we will look ahead to our ultimate mission objective: providing end-to-end network connectivity. This involves sending data from the internet, through our ground infrastructure, up to the satellites, and down to customer terminal antennas, and then repeating the journey in the other direction. (4/3)

AIA Calls out Workforce Challenges in Tariff Debate (Source: Politico)
US defense production could face significant challenges due to President Donald Trump's new tariffs on foreign parts, which could drive up costs and disrupt supply chains, Defense News reports. The Aerospace Industries Association has expressed concern about the defense industry's ability to attract enough workers to meet demand. "There are simply not enough people in the aerospace and defense sector to meet the current need," AIA's Dak Hardwick told a meeting of American and European defense executives on Thursday. (4/3)

Voyager to Acquire LEOcloud (Source: Space News)
Voyager Technologies will acquire LEOcloud, a startup focused on space-based cloud computing. LEOCloud is preparing to install its Space Edge micro datacenter on the International Space Station as a test of a future system that would provide cloud computing infrastructure in low Earth orbit. Voyager said it plans to integrate the technology into its overall portfolio of space systems. The companies did not disclose terms of the acquisition. (4/4)

NOVI and Sedaro Demonstrate Small Spacecraft Autonomy (Source: Space News)
A small spacecraft earlier this year successfully demonstrated the ability to analyze data and make decisions independent of controllers on the ground. The demonstration was conducted by Arlington, Virginia-based startups NOVI and Sedaro, with NOVI providing the spacecraft that had been built for an unnamed government customer and Sedaro offering the software that enabled autonomous operations. In this demonstration, the Sedaro software allowed the satellite to be "self aware," or to autonomously execute tasks based on its environment and status, the companies said. The satellite was launched on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission in January and completed its tests in February. (4/4)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From California (Source: Noozhawk)
SpaceX launched another set of Starlink satellites Thursday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:02 p.m. Eastern and placed 27 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was scheduled for Tuesday but postponed by weather. The launch marked the third flight in 23 days of the same Falcon 9 booster, which conducted launches for NASA and the NRO last month. (4/4)

Rocket Cargo Plans Cause Concern Among Pacific Islanders (Source: Reuters)
Wildlife experts have concerns about plans by the U.S. Air Force to conduct "rocket cargo" tests on a Pacific island. The Air Force announced last month a proposal to create landing pads on Johnston Atoll, an uninhabited island that previously hosted military facilities, for the Air Force Research Lab's Rocket Cargo program. Those pads would support landings of vehicles, such as SpaceX's Starship, to demonstrate the ability to quickly transport cargo. Biologists, though, are worried that the project could disrupt the tropical birds that use the island for nesting. The island hosts about 1 million birds a year, compared to a few thousand a year in the 1980s. (4/4)

Artemis Mission Gets Patch (Source: NASA)
NASA's Artemis 2 mission now has an official patch. NASA unveiled the patch design Thursday, featuring the moon in the foreground with a crescent Earth rising behind it, recalling the famous "Earthrise" photo from the Apollo 8 mission. The patch also includes an "A II" intended to both represent Artemis 2 but also be read as "all", which NASA says is intended to emphasize that the overall Artemis campaign "seeks to explore for all and by all." (4/4)

Next Starship Test to Feature Reused Booster (Source: Ars Technica)
The ninth flight of SpaceX's Starship will feature the first reuse of a Super Heavy booster. The company performed a static-fire test of the Super Heavy booster, designated Booster 14, Thursday morning at its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas. This booster previously launched and returned on Flight 7, and 29 of its 33 Raptor engines are flight proven. After the test, SpaceX said Booster 14 will be used for the next Starship launch, which has not been scheduled. (4/3)

Williams Reunites with Dogs After Extended Mission (Source: AOL)
After spending a whopping 288 days in space, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is back on Earth and has finally been reunited with her beloved Labrador Retrievers. In this heartwarming video, you can see that these dogs are truly ecstatic to be welcoming their human mama back home. And we are sure that as many dog parents know, there is no greeting quite like a Labrador greeting. (4/3)

Trio of Russian Military Satellites Release Mystery Object Into Space (Source: Straight Arrow News)
A trio of Russian satellites left many questions unanswered among the scientific community after a mysterious object was released into orbit from one of the satellites. The new development raised concerns that Moscow may be weaponizing space. Russia has not released details on the nature of the satellites or the object. The mystery object purpose is unknown and speculation on its use is ongoing among scientists. (4/3)

‘City-Killer’ Asteroid Now on Crash Course with the Moon (Source: New York Post)
A “city killer” asteroid experts feared was on a crash course with Earth is now expected to miss the planet — but it still has a chance of smashing into the moon. Asteroid 2024 YR4, first detected in December 2024 and believed to have a 3% chance of hitting the Earth in 2032, now has a near-zero chance of striking Earth. However, the football field-sized asteroid’s odds of striking the moon on Dec. 22, 2032, jumped from 1.7% in late February to 3.8%. (4/3)

PLD Space and D-Orbit Sign Launch Agreement for Equatorial Missions (Source: PLD Space)
PLD Space, an international space services company with vertical integrated engineering and manufacturing, has signed an agreement with D-Orbit, a global leader in space logistics and orbital transportation, to deploy satellites aboard MIURA 5 to equatorial orbit. With this, PLD Space has now fulfilled more than 80% of the slots in its manifest until 2027. (4/3)

Interpreting the Outer Space Treaty (Source: McGill University)
The McGill Institute of Air and Space Law is thrilled to undertake the first comprehensive multilingual analysis of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (Outer Space Treaty).
 
The Outer Space Treaty was authenticated in five languages—English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Chinese—plus an official Arabic translation. However, linguistic discrepancies across these versions have led to inconsistencies in treaty interpretation and the obligations of space actors, impacting global space governance.
 
This project will bring together leading space law scholars, policymakers, and industry experts for a series of five international workshops held in key locations worldwide. These sessions will foster dialogue among diverse stakeholders and contribute to a rigorous comparative analysis of the treaty’s language. (4/2)

Space Sickness for Fram2 Astronauts (Source: IFL Science)
While the launch went well and the crew were placed into their unusual orbit, things took a turn when the crew's orbit gave them the experience of weightlessness. The four astronauts, flying on an orbit nobody has traveled before, began vomiting profusely. "It felt different from motion sickness in a car or at sea," said Chun Wang. "You could still read on your iPad without making it worse. But even a small sip of water could upset your stomach and trigger vomiting." (4/3)

SpinLaunch Plans Alaska Spaceport and 250-Satellite Broadband Constellation to be Deployed in a Single Launch (Source: SpinLaunch)
SpinLaunch, a pioneer of disruptive space solutions, today announced a $12M strategic investment from Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, unveiling Meridian Space, an ultra-high performance, low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband constellation. The constellation can uniquely provide global coverage with only one traditional rocket launch deploying 250 next-generation microsatellites that leverage a proprietary suite of groundbreaking technologies.

Meridian Space satellites will feature compact a flat-pack design, efficient payload technology, and our high-performance, mass-efficient MP42 microsatellite avionics. The Meridian Space constellation will be deployed in a single launch. SpinLaunch has teamed with Aleut Corporation for an exploratory lease agreement to develop a state-of-the-art launch site on Adak Island in Alaska. (4/3)

Will Apple's Satellite Ambitions Push it Into EchoStar's Arms? (Source: Light Reading)
There are continued rumblings – but nothing concrete – that Apple could be angling for some kind of satellite partnership with EchoStar. Such a deal would make sense as Apple appears keen to expand its nascent satellite-based messaging services. The company has already agreed to plow an additional $1.7 billion into its satellite partner Globalstar for the construction of a new satellite constellation. The new constellation would represent an upgrade to the current Globalstar satellites that support Apple's existing iPhone satellite messaging services. (4/3)

Air Canada Becomes First Airline to Launch Eutelsat OneWeb In-Flight Wi-Fi (Source: DriveTesla)
Air Canada has partnered with Eutelsat to become the first commercial airline to deploy the company’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite-powered internet service, delivering high-speed, low-latency Wi-Fi to travelers. Eutelsat’s aviation services, powered by its OneWeb LEO satellite constellation, officially went live this week after completing over 100 certified antenna installations across various aircraft. (4/3)

DARPA Unintentionally Invents New Rocket ‘Radar’ Thanks to SpaceX (Source: Gizmodo)
While listening in on the atmosphere, a team of researchers from the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) picked up unexpected disturbances caused by a SpaceX rocket plummeting through the atmosphere toward its landing site.

DARPA’s AtmoSense program seeks to use Earth’s atmosphere as a global sensor by measuring acoustic and electromagnetic waves propagating through the atmosphere, and attempting to trace them back to a specific disturbance event that took place on Earth. In doing so, DARPA hopes to be able to trace underground explosions or other national security threats using the signals detected from the atmosphere. (4/2)

Lichen Species Might Survive on Mars (Source: Gizmodo)
Most planetary scientists agree that Mars’ extreme conditions would be uninhabitable to life as we know it. New research, however, suggests that we might be underestimating the hardiness of lichens. Researchers in Poland have revealed that some lichen species (Diploschistes muscorum and Cetraria aculeata) can endure a Mars-like environment while remaining biologically active. As detailed in a study published Monday in the journal IMA Fungus, their work challenges the widely held notion that Mars’ surface is, in its current state, completely incapable of hosting any sort of life. (4/3)

Nuclear-Powered Rocket Concept Could Cut Journey Time to Mars in Half (Source: CNN)
With funding from the UK Space Agency, British startup Pulsar Fusion has unveiled Sunbird, a space rocket concept designed to meet spacecraft in orbit, attach to them, and carry them to their destination at breakneck speed using nuclear fusion. For now, Sunbird is in the very early stages of construction and it has exceptional engineering challenges to overcome, but Pulsar says it hopes to achieve fusion in orbit for the first time in 2027. (4/3)

The Hubble Tension Is Becoming a Hubble Crisis (Source: Scientific American)
Over the past decade, two very different ways of calculating the rate at which the universe is expanding have come to be at odds, a disagreement dubbed the Hubble tension, after 20th-century astronomer Edwin Hubble. Experts have speculated that this dispute might be temporary, stemming from subtle shortcomings in observations or analyses that will eventually be corrected rather than from some flawed understanding of the physics of the cosmos.

Now, however, a new study that relies on an independent measure of the properties of galaxies has strengthened the case for the tension. Quite possibly, it’s here to stay. For some researchers, the word “tension” fails to convey the problem’s increasing severity. “We’ve been at this ‘Hubble tension’ level for a long time. At some point the community needs to say, ‘This is more serious,’” says physicist Dan Scolnic of Duke University, who was not associated with the new study. “And the step up from ‘tension’ is ‘crisis.’” (4/2)

Students Designed a Mission to Venus on the Cheap (Source: Universe Today)
Sometimes, the best way to learn how to do something is just to do it. That is especially true if you're learning to do something using a specific methodology. And in some cases, the outcome of your efforts is something that's interesting to other people. A team from across the European Union, led by PhD candidate Domenico D'Auria, spent a few days last September performing just such an exercise - and their work resulted in a mission architecture known as the Planetary Exploration Deployment and Research Operation - Venus, or PEDRO-V.

PEDRO-V was designed to complete its mission by providing a mothership carrying 20 1U CubeSats to Venus' orbit. Once in orbit, it would release them into the atmosphere over the course of 6 months, with each small CubeSat sending back data about its performance to the mothership, which then transmitted it back to Earth. (4/2)

Janet Petro Wants Your Efficiency Ideas (Source: NASA Watch)
Amidst the ever present fear of being fired (without any real details), having budgets cut and missions cancelled, Janet Petro wants your ideas on how to improve NASA. She writes: "NASA senior leadership will review submissions, prioritizing ideas based on feasibility, cost impact, and alignment with our mission. Some ideas may be assigned to directorates or program offices for further development. We’ll keep you updated on the ideas that move forward." (4/3)

Chinese Astronauts Light a Match Aboard Their Space Station (Source: Glass Almanac)
In a groundbreaking experiment conducted aboard China’s Tiangong space station, astronauts recently performed a task that many would consider impossible in space: they lit a match. But the results were anything but ordinary, sparking fascinating insights into how flames behave in microgravity environments. Click here. (4/2)

‘Space is Finally Going to Be Glam’ — Meet the Female Rocket Crew (Source: The Times)
In their tailored outfits and towering heels, they may not seem the likeliest of space travelers. In less than two weeks, Katy Perry and five female crewmates will embark on a thrill-ride to space — and they are perhaps the first to say that their lipstick, eyelash extensions and hairstyles matter on the journey. “Space is finally going to be glam … We are going to put the ‘ass’ in ‘astronaut’,” said the Perry, 40. (4/2)

Safran Nears EU Approval for $1.8B Collins Aerospace Acquisition (Source: Reuters)
Safran is expected to receive conditional EU antitrust approval for its proposed $1.8 billion acquisition of Collins Aerospace's flight controls unit, sources say. The approval is contingent on Safran selling its North American electromechanical actuation business to address competition concerns. (4/2)

Rivals are rising to challenge the dominance of SpaceX (Source: MIT Technology Review)
Other space companies have been scrambling to compete for years, but developing a reliable rocket takes slow, steady work and big budgets. Now at least some of them are catching up. A host of companies have readied rockets that are comparable to SpaceX’s main launch vehicles. The list includes Rocket Lab, which aims to take on SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 with its Neutron rocket and could have its first launch in late 2025, and Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, which recently completed the first mission of a rocket it hopes will compete against SpaceX’s Starship. Click here. (4/3)

Iran to Inaugurate Second Phase of Chabahar Spaceport (Source: PressTV)
The head of the Iranian Space Agency has announced that the second phase of the Chabahar spaceport for semi-heavy liquid-fueled launchers is to be inaugurated in the current Persian calendar year.

Hassan Salarieh said on Tuesday that the first phase of the Chabahar spaceport is for solid fuel launchers and is expected to be inaugurated this year (which started March 21), adding that adequate studies were conducted regarding the second phase of the site in previous years and the new phase for semi-heavy liquid fuel launchers is to be opened during the year. (4/1)

Spaceport Cornwall Job Councilors Calling for Investigation (Source: Falmouth Packet)
The controversial appointment of a Cornwall councilor to a top Spaceport Cornwall job while he was still the cabinet member for the economy has taken another turn. A Cornish MP and a number of councilors are calling for an investigation after it was suggested Cllr Louis Gardner didn’t declare an interest while in a council meeting which agreed to give the Spaceport thousands of pounds worth of funding; he was appointed as its Head of Future Air and Space just days later. (4/3)

Portuguese Space Agency Highlights Dual-Use Space Investments (Source: European Spaceflight)
A review carried out by the Portuguese Space Agency has found that over the last six years, the agency has invested roughly €40 million into projects with “dual-use potential.” The term dual-use refers to the leveraging of technologies, infrastructure, and supply chains to serve both civilian and defense applications. This allows for greater scalability, cost efficiency, and resilience in critical sectors. (4/3)

Biotech is the Launchpad for Human Survival in Space (Source: Space News)
For decades, life support systems have relied on chemical filtration, physical processing, and non-renewable materials. While effective for shorter missions, these systems become impractical for extended stays beyond Earth’s orbit. Transporting enough consumables and spare parts for long-duration Moon expeditions or multi-year Mars missions adds significant cost, fuel requirements, and logistical challenges, making resupply-dependent systems unsustainable.

Biotechnology offers a scalable alternative, but realizing its full potential requires commitment from governments and space agencies. By harnessing biological processes such as microbial and plant-based systems, space missions can become more self-sufficient. If decision-makers prioritize biotech innovation and fund new research and development, these technologies could support air purification, water recycling, and food production — creating the closed-loop environments essential for deep space habitation. (4/2)

SpaceX Rocket Cargo Project Puts Pacific Seabirds in Jeopardy (Source: Reuters)
A project proposed by Elon Musk's SpaceX and the U.S. Air Force to test hypersonic rocket cargo deliveries from a remote Pacific atoll could harm the many seabirds that nest at the wildlife refuge, according to biologists and experts who have spent more than a decade working to protect them.

It would not be the first time that SpaceX's activities have affected protected birds. A SpaceX launch of its Starship rocket in Boca Chica, Texas, last year involved a blast that destroyed nests and eggs of plover shorebirds, landing the billionaire Musk's company in legal trouble and leading him to remark jokingly that he would refrain from eating omelets for a week to compensate. (3/2)

Eutelsat Begins OneWeb Services for the Aviation Market (Source: Via Satellite)
OneWeb LEO services for commercial and business aviation are now live and operational, as the operator targets more revenues from this lucrative and increasingly competitive market for satellite players. There are now over 100 certified antenna installations completed and the first commercial and business aircraft now flying using OneWeb LEO connectivity, Eutelsat announced on April 2. Air Canada is the first commercial airline to deploy the multi-orbit GEO/LEO service, by working with Intelsat. (4/2)