April 9, 2025

Redwire and Ispace U.S. to Collaborate on Lunar Missions (Source: Space News)
The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to jointly pursue lunar missions such as those though NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Ispace U.S., the American subsidiary of Tokyo-based ispace, is currently working on its APEX 1.0 lunar lander for Draper Laboratory that will go to the far side of the moon for a CLPS mission in 2026. Future landers will take advantage of Redwire technologies such as cameras and deployable systems, as well as Redwire assembly, integration and test facilities. (4/8)

Lunar Lander Operators Cite Growing Demand Beyond NASA (Source: Space News)
Through government-backed lunar missions, companies are identifying customers for future flights. For example, international space agencies, universities, companies and rideshare customers contributed about 10% of the money that helped Intuitive Machines reach the moon March 6 with its second lander. The other 90% came from NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. (4/8)

Industry Eyes Continuous Satellite Production to Keep Pace with Demand (Source: Space News)
Skyrocketing demand for satellites may call for continuous production in order to avoid delays, though such a capability is still years away in the United States, according to a panel of prime contractors. (4/8)

Space Nuclear Power Poised for Breakthroughs — if NASA and DoD Stay Committed (Source: Space News)
Space nuclear power generation and propulsion technologies are poised for a breakthrough that, after decades of development, could make deep space exploration faster and more efficient. But the technology will need consistent government investment to transition to operational systems, according to L3Harris executives. (4/8)

GITAI Creates US Defense Subsidiary to Chase Prime Government Contracts (Source: Space News)
Space robotics firm GITAI has created a defense-focused subsidiary at its Torrance, California, headquarters to pursue prime contractor roles in U.S. government contracts. The company already designs and builds robotic arms, satellites and rovers entirely within the country under GITAI USA, after relocating headquarters from Japan in 2023, and has secured contracts from government agencies such as DARPA. (4/8)

GomSpace and Neuraspace Partner to Advance Satellite Collision Avoidance (Source: Space News)
GomSpace, a Danish smallsat maker, announced plans to integrate space traffic management tools from Portugal’s Neuraspace into its satellite operations platform to help avoid collisions in increasingly congested orbits. The partnership combines Neuraspace’s artificial intelligence-driven satellite tracking capabilities with GomSpace’s Hands-Off Operations Platform, designed to automate spacecraft management tasks from pre-launch preparations through to decommissioning. (4/8)

SpaceX Secures Majority of NSSL Phase 3 Fiscal Year 2025 Missions (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force’s Systems Command has assigned the first nine National Security Space Launch missions under the Phase 3 Lane 2 contracts, with SpaceX capturing seven launches worth $845.8 million and United Launch Alliance securing two missions valued at $427.6 million. (4/8)

Umbra to Develop Maritime Surveillance Satellites for U.S. Military (Source: Space News)
Umbra, a California-based manufacturer of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, has been tapped to develop next-generation sensor satellites aimed at enhancing maritime and open-ocean search capabilities for the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific, under a public-private agreement known as Strategic Funding Increase that could be valued at up to $60 million pending final contracting and co-investment commitments. (4/8)

To Build New Weather Satellite Instruments, L3Harris Opts for Automated Manufacturing (Source: Space News)
L3Harris Technologies is preparing to modernize the development, production and testing of weather satellite instruments in a new 9,290-square-meter automated manufacturing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (4/8)

Space Force to Revamp Training for a New Era of Space Conflict (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force is expanding its search for training and testing technologies and is now planning to put more than a half billion dollars toward the effort in a few years. The move comes as the service looks to close any gaps in the readiness of space operations and as concerns about Russia and China accelerate. (4/8)

SpaceX Leads in NSSL Contract Launches (Source: Space News)
SpaceX won most of the first year of launches assigned under the new National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contract. SpaceX received seven of the nine launches in fiscal year 2025 for the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 contracts awarded last week, with ULA getting the other two. Industry sources said two of the SpaceX launches, a pair of NRO missions, were originally assigned to ULA but moved to SpaceX due to ongoing construction and upgrades at ULA's West Coast launch facility for its Vulcan rocket. The Space Force says that ULA launch site is not yet certified. The NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 contracts include 54 launches over five years for SpaceX, ULA and Blue Origin. (4/9)

DoD's 'Orbital Watch' to Distribute Unclassified Threat Data to Companies (Source: Space News)
Space Systems Command announced a new intelligence-sharing program aimed at warning commercial satellite operators about potential threats to their orbital assets. The "Orbital Watch" will distribute unclassified threat data to more than 900 space companies registered through the command's "Front Door" portal even if the companies do not have security clearances. The initiative comes amid growing concerns about threats to space assets, from physical attacks to jamming and cyberattacks. (4/9)

Space Command Using Experimentation to Field High-Need Capabilities (Source: Defense News)
U.S. Space Command’s top officer said today his team is leaning hard into experimentation as a means for fielding capabilities that address some of its highest priority missions, including missile threat tracking, command and control and domain awareness.

The command recently produced its first-ever strategies for experimentation and AI and machine learning, Gen. Stephen Whiting said Tuesday — a step toward addressing operational needs by trying out capabilities that are available today from both traditional defense companies and new entrants to the market. (4/8)

Satellite Demand Drives Production-Line Operations (Source: Space News)
Companies are pushing toward the capability for continuous satellite production. That effort is a major shift for an industry that has traditionally operated on a lumpy production cycle, building large, exquisite systems on a decade-scale cadence, executives of several manufacturers said at Space Symposium Tuesday. Reaching that continuous production rate is still several years away, in part because their supply chains also need to scale up production of key components. (4/9)

L3Harris Expands Indiana Factory for Satellite Instruments (Source: Space News)
L3Harris is shifting to automated processes for a new facility that will produce weather satellite instruments. The new $125 million factory in Indiana, scheduled to open next week, is a paperless facility designed for automated manufacturing, the company said. It will produce instruments for the next generation of NOAA geostationary weather satellites as well as Japan's Himawari-10 weather satellite. (4/9)

Intuitive Machines Picks SpaceX to Launch Fourth Lunar Lander Mission (Source: Intuitive Machines)
Intuitive Machines selected SpaceX to launch its fourth lunar lander mission. Intuitive Machines said Tuesday it selected SpaceX's Falcon 9 to launch the IM-4 mission in 2027. The company used the Falcon 9 for its first two lander missions and will also launch its IM-3 lander mission on that rocket next year. In addition to the IM-4 lander, the launch will also carry two satellites as part of Intuitive's deployment of a five-satellite constellation for data relay services at the moon. (4/9)

GomSpace Teams with Neuraspace for Space Traffic Management Tech (Source: Space News)
Danish smallsat manufacturer GomSpace will use space traffic management tools from Portugal's Neuraspace. The companies announced the partnership Tuesday where GomSpace's Hands-Off Operations Platform (HOOP), a system designed to automate spacecraft management tasks, will incorporate Neuraspace's artificial intelligence-driven satellite tracking capabilities. HOOP users would receive automated conjunction alerts and optimized collision-avoidance maneuver recommendations as part of their service from GomSpace. (4/9)

Aerospace Corp. Succeeds with Cubesat Optical Data Links (Source: Space News)
Recent tests have proven the feasibility of optical intersatellite links involving cubesats. The Aerospace Corporation and Spire Global announced similar, but independent, on-orbit tests of optical links involving cubesats earlier this year. While optical links have long been used with larger spacecraft, these tests show the technology can be used on much smaller satellites despite challenges like pointing accuracy and limited power. (4/9)

NOAA Decides to Maintain Polar-Orbit Weather Satellites (Source: E&E News)
NOAA has backed off from plans to defer maintenance on polar-orbiting weather satellites. A recent internal memo has called for a "minimum mission operations approach" for the two Joint Polar Satellite System spacecraft to save money, a move some worried could lead to technical problems that would interrupt service. NOAA now says it will not change its operations of those satellites but declined to provide details about that decision and its cost. (4/9)

Bangladesh Signs Artemis Accords (Source: NASA)
Bangladesh is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords. Bangladeshi government officials signed the Accords at a ceremony in the capital of Dhaka Tuesday, making Bangladesh the 54th country to sign. Bangladesh is the second country to join this year after Finland in January. (4/9)

Committee Leaders Demand Answers from NASA on DOGE Access After the Agency Refuses to Comply with Investigation (Source: NASA Watch)
Specific instances of DOGE employees (who are named) with unparalleled access to NASA sensitive information have been identified. NASA has not been forthcoming in their responses to earlier Congressional inquires in this regard. Now Congress wants answers, saying “The information we have reviewed of NASA’s vulnerability to DOGE-related threats is chilling.” The leaders have sent two previous letters to NASA on Elon Musk’s numerous conflicts of interest with the Agency and DOGE personnel access. The vast majority of the Members’ questions and concerns over the risks DOGE poses to NASA have gone unanswered up to this point.

“Our oversight into the danger that DOGE poses for NASA is being impeded by a lack of comprehensive and transparent responses and disclosures on the part of the agency,” the Members wrote in their letter. “This is regrettable, because we have reason to believe DOGE is more harmful than ever. We have obtained new information regarding the DOGE team at NASA and the alarming degree of access they have been granted to agency facilities and data systems without undergoing NASA’s standard vetting process used to identify the potential risk of an employee’s system access." (4/8)

Trump’s Billionaire NASA Pick Argues US Can Do Moon and Mars (Source: Bloomberg)
President Donald Trump’s pick to run NASA sought to reassure US Senators on Wednesday that he wouldn’t abandon the agency’s multibillion-dollar push to put US boots on the moon in favor of Elon Musk’s longstanding goal of a human mission to Mars. Billionaire fintech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman tried to walk a political tightrope, arguing the agency can pursue the Mars effort — championed by Musk’s SpaceX and, increasingly, Trump — and America’s Artemis program in parallel.

Isaacman wouldn’t answer a question from Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey about whether Musk was in the room when Trump offered him the job of NASA administrator. “I was being interviewed by the president of the United States,” he repeated without confirming or denying Musk’s presence. In recent months, Musk has voiced bold opinions about space policy, calling the moon a “distraction”.

Editor's Note: If driven by Elon Musk to focus primarily on Mars, NASA runs the risk of allowing China to dominate the development of strategically important lunar and cislunar capabilities. Musk's fixation on Mars colony development has been widely criticized as an infeasible pipe dream, at least in the near-term. (4/8)

General Says US Needs Weapons in Orbit (Sources: Breaking Defense, Air & Space Forces)
US Space Command chief Gen. Stephen Whiting has emphasized the need for weapons in space to deter conflicts and ensure dominance, highlighting initiatives such as a recent US-French maneuver and a project for sustained space maneuver. Whiting notes the importance of alliances and the need for modern command and control and space domain awareness. (4/9)

$40 Million Suborbital Flight For Fiance and Friends is a Small Price for Bezos (Source: Luxury Launches)
Is it really greedy to dream and see that dream fulfilled? Especially when the entire purpose of building a space company is to explore space? If no one seizes the opportunity and shows the world that dreams can come true, then what is the point of innovation? For someone as well-heeled as Jeff Bezos, who is currently worth $189 billion, the space trip carrying Lauren Sánchez and her all-female crew, which includes Katy Perry, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn, will hardly make a difference. Spending $40 million is the equivalent of parting with just 0.021 percent of his fortune as the tech tycoon makes nearly $200 million a day. (4/8)

South Korea is Converting an Abandoned Coal Mine into a Moon Exploration Testing Ground (Source: Space.com)
South Korea is transforming abandoned coal mines into testing grounds for lunar exploration. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) conducted a demonstration inside the tunnel of the former Hamtae mine in Taebaek, Gangwon Province, in late March, deploying prototype lunar rovers using autonomous navigation and other technologies with potential for use in space mining.

The rovers demonstrated mobility across challenging terrain, sample collection and remote sensing capabilities. The move highlights the plan, which involves government and research institutes, to turn the mine into a space resource convergence demonstration complex and help develop technologies that could extract useful resources from the moon. (4/8)

Astroscale U.S. to Lead the First-Ever Refueling of a United States Space Force Asset (Source: Astroscale)
Astroscale will conduct two refueling operations of a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) satellite in geostationary orbit (GEO) for the United States Space Force (USSF). This mission will demonstrate the ability of commercial Servicing, Mobility and Logistics providers to deliver on-orbit capabilities supporting the warfighter. The Astroscale U.S. Refueler is manifested to launch in the summer of 2026. (4/8)

Firefly Aerospace Awarded DoD Contract for Responsive On-Orbit Mission with Elytra Spacecraft (Source: Firefly)
Firefly Aerospace was awarded a contract to perform a responsive on-orbit mission with its Elytra spacecraft in support of the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Sinequone Project. During the DoD mission, Elytra will serve as a space maneuver vehicle to perform a series of responsive on-orbit tasks, including space domain awareness operations in low Earth orbit (LEO). The mission is set to launch as early as 2027. (4/7)

Can OneWeb Capitalize on Tensions Over Elon Musk and Starlink? (Source: The Times)
Musk’s alliance with Trump, as a senior adviser, has sparked concerns in Europe that the US government could use the removal of Starlink as leverage in negotiations over Ukraine. The European Commission is now in discussions with Eutelsat and other European satellite providers over services they could provide to Ukraine as a potential alternative to Musk’s dominant satellite system. (4/7)

Limited Budget, Manpower are Stifling India’s Space Ambitions (Source: The Print)
India wants to land its first citizen on the Moon by 2040, build an International Space Station-like docking hub by 2035, and bring back lunar samples in the next five years. But Sriharikota, we have a situation. While it is reaching breathlessly for the stars, the Indian space agency only has about 13,000 employees and a limited budget. Add to that youngsters jumping ship for better opportunities and the picture becomes clearer. (4/7)