May 20, 2025

Japan’s iQPS Lines Up Eight SAR Launches (Source: Space News)
Japan’s Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, iQPS, plans to launch eight additional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites through the end of 2026. Rocket Lab, the U.S. launch provider that sent QPS-SAR-10 into orbit on May 17, is on contract to launch the next iQPS satellite no earlier than June. Including that flight, four more iQPS missions will fly in 2025. (5/19)

Space Force FORGEing Ahead with Missile Warning Ground System (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force is moving to finally put in place the long-troubled next-generation ground system for its missile warning constellations — with service officials now predicting the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) command and control (C2) system to be fully functioning in 2028. Space Systems Command (SSC) in recent weeks has issued a flurry of contracts for the key hardware and software “thrusts” that make up the FORGE program, following a restructuring in 2023 that broke the effort into more manageable pieces. (5/19)

From GPS to Weather Forecasts: the Hidden Ways Australia Relies on Foreign Satellites (Source: Space Daily)
You have probably used space at least 20 times today. Satellites let you buy a coffee with your phone, book a rideshare, navigate your way to meet someone, and check the weather. Satellites are also essential for monitoring floods, cyclones and bushfires, and supporting the people they affect. Farmers depend on satellite data, too, as does everyone trying to understand and tackle climate change, not to mention our military.

Yet Australia's access to space services depends almost entirely on satellites owned and run by foreign governments and companies. In an increasingly uncertain world, having our own sovereign space technology is becoming even more important for security. According to Australia's 2024 National Defence Strategy, space capabilities are "equally as important as the maritime, land and air domains". But we are in many respects simply users of space infrastructure that belongs to partner countries for our military needs. (5/15)

China's Queqiao-2 Satellite Ready for Global Lunar Mission Support (Source: Space Daily)
Queqiao-2, China's dedicated relay satellite for lunar landing missions, is now poised to support both domestic and international lunar exploration efforts, according to the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory. First launched in March 2024, Queqiao-2, also known as Magpie Bridge 2, played a critical role in the Chang'e 6 mission, which successfully retrieved samples from the far side of the moon. The satellite has been in stable operation for 14 months, conducting scientific observations and providing crucial communication support for Earth-moon missions. (5/20)

OroraTech Secures Euro-37M (Source: Space Daily)
OroraTech has expanded its Series B funding round to euro 37 million, with significant support from BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund and Rabo Ventures, alongside continued backing from Bayern Kapital, Edaphon, and the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). With a fleet of ten satellites already operational, OroraTech provides the most continuous and extensive thermal data stream available, empowering the creation of a digital wildfire twin of the Earth. This advanced system offers 24/7 global wildfire monitoring and future fire behavior simulation, transforming raw thermal data into actionable insights. (5/19)

Satellite Firms Brace for Potential Imagery Budget Cuts in 2026 (Source: Space News)
The National Reconnaissance Office has privately warned its commercial satellite imagery providers of potential funding cuts that could slash as much as one-third from the previously projected $450 million commercial imagery budget for the upcoming fiscal year, industry and congressional sources told SpaceNews.

The issue came to light last week during a House Armed Services Committee hearing when Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), ranking member on the Strategic Forces subcommittee, referenced “rumors” that the NRO had been directed by the White House Office of Management and Budget to scale back commercial imagery funding in its upcoming budget request. (5/20)

Spinning in the Black: The Satellite Data System and Real-Time Reconnaissance (Source: Space Review)
A key element in the NRO’s creation of a real-time reconnaissance capability a half-century ago was the development of dedicated data relay satellites. Dwayne Day examines the Satellite Data System program and its unusual management approach. Click here. (5/20)
 
An Asteroid’s Threatened Impact May Still Impact Planetary Defense (Source: Space Review)
For a time early this year, a near Earth asteroid had a small but growing chance of hitting the Earth in 2032. That risk is now gone, Jeff Foust reports, but it has people talking about planetary defense and how to support NASA’s efforts there. Click here. (5/20)
 
Space Mining: Corporate Autocracy or Global Solidarity? (Source: Space Review)
The international community continues to debate how utilization of space resources should be regulated and managed. Nikola Schmidt and Martin Švec ague that failing to act opens the door to companies having their own way, to the detriment to humanity in general. Click here. (5/20)
 
Opportunities for New Zealand as Geopolitics Reshapes the Space Economy (Source: Space Review)
Discussions about a new space race have focused on a competition between China and the United States, but other nations can play roles as well. Three authors discuss how New Zealand could leverage its unique position in geopolitics to grow its space activities. Click here. (5/20)

The Universe Will Decay a Lot Sooner than Expected (Source: 404 Media)
Bad news for anyone who was hoping to live to the ripe old age of 1078 years. It turns out that the universe might decay into nothingness around that time, which is much sooner than previous estimates of cosmic death in about 101100 years. Long-lived stellar remnants, like white dwarfs and black holes, will slowly evaporate through a process called Hawking radiation on a more accelerated timeline, according to the study, which also estimates that a human body would take about 1090 years to evaporate through this process (sorry, would-be exponent nonagenarians). (5/17)

Labor, Not Trade, Must Be Aerospace’s Top Concern (Source: Aviation Week)
The turmoil over tariffs that has engulfed global trade brings with it a little-discussed risk for the aerospace industry that could have a far more lasting impact than inflationary pressures or supply chain disruptions: failure to focus on the sector’s production crisis.

One of the main causes of aircraft-makers’ inability to deliver their products is a labor and skill shortage. This crisis in the commercial aerospace industry is unlike any it has faced. Other crises were ones of demand. The only way out of this crisis of supply is to expand, not cut. The supply chain needs to adapt and grow. Because less experienced workers are not as skilled as the senior ones they replaced, productivity has eroded. To maintain the same level of output, workforces need to grow to compensate for the lower efficiency. (5/16)

Rocketing Toward Monopoly (Source: American Prospect)
The federal government’s reliance on SpaceX started well before the Trump administration, and for good reason. SpaceX rockets have proved efficient, reusable, and cost-effective. SpaceX enjoyed $3.8 billion in federal contracts in 2024, the last year of the Biden administration. But critics, including those inside the Department of Defense, have sounded the alarm on the increasing dominance of a single company.

“Heaven forbid we have a mishap with a Falcon 9 launch,” Col. Richard Kniseley, an officer in the Space Force’s Commercial Space Office, told The New York Times last year. “That means it is grounded, right? And that means we could be without launch.” Kniseley’s concern is just one among many related to SpaceX dominating the full range of space services.

Hal Singer, a professor of economics at the University of Utah, has even more concerns. Singer’s tally of anti-competitive SpaceX actions includes corporate predation, barrier-to-entry protectionism, exclusionary contracting, and more. Meanwhile, two competitors of note—Jim Cantrell of Phantom Space and Peter Beck of Rocket Lab—have both publicly disclosed actions that SpaceX has taken to undercut their growth. (5/19)

NASA Continues Building Next-Gen Roman Space Telescope Despite Budget Worries (Source: Space.com)
NASA engineers have successfully completed testing on one half of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — a key step in making sure this future observatory will perform as expected once it reaches space. "This milestone tees us up to attach the flight solar array sun shield to the outer barrel assembly, and deployable aperture cover, which we'll begin this month," said Jack Marshall, who leads integration and testing for these Roman Space Telescope elements at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. (5/16)

New Strain of Bacteria Found on China’s Tiangong Space Station (Source: SCMP)
Chinese scientists have discovered a new microbe that developed on board the county’s Tiangong space station, according to a new study. The strain, officially named niallia tiangongensis, is a new variant of a previously known terrestrial bacteria and was found on a cabin in the space station. The discovery was announced by researchers from the Shenzhou Space Biotechnology Group and the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering. (5/17)

NASA Satellite Images Could Provide Early Volcano Warnings (Source: NASA)
Scientists know that changing tree leaves can indicate when a nearby volcano is becoming more active and might erupt. In a new collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, scientists now believe they can detect these changes from space.

As volcanic magma ascends through the Earth’s crust, it releases carbon dioxide and other gases which rise to the surface. Trees that take up the carbon dioxide become greener and more lush. These changes are visible in images from NASA satellites such as Landsat 8, along with airborne instruments flown as part of the Airborne Validation Unified Experiment: Land to Ocean (AVUELO). (5/15)

A Crucial System of Ocean Currents is Slowing. It’s Already Supercharging Sea Level Rise in the US (Source: CNN)
Flooding on the US Northeast coast has risen significantly as a critical network of Atlantic Ocean currents weakens, according to a new study — an alarming glimpse into the future as some scientists warn the current system could be just decades from collapse. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, known as the AMOC, works like a vast conveyor belt, transporting heat, salt and freshwater through the ocean and influencing climate, weather and sea levels around the planet. (5/16)

Can We Actually Build a Thriving Economy On and Around the Moon? (Source: Space.com)
Cislunar space — the region extending from our planet to the moon — is getting a lot of attention these days, as more and more spacecraft make their way to Earth's nearest neighbor. But what needs to happen to help spark a true cislunar economy? And, given actions of late here on Earth, are we headed for a tariff-free cislunar zone?

There's a lot of hard work ahead to put in place the needed hardware to sustain and define such a dollar-generating idea, experts say, but we at least have some ideas about how to get started. Click here. (5/17)

ispace Secures $35 Million in Bank Financing (Source: ispace)
ispace announced a resolution has been made by its Board of Directors to secure approximately $35 Million in new financing as part of a loan agreement with Mizuho Bank, Ltd. The loan is intended to secure working capital for development of mission and other related expenses. (5/13)

Thousands of Teachers Protest Trump-Musk Cuts Outside SpaceX in California (Source: City News Service)
A sea of protesters gathered outside Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket manufacturing and testing facility in Hawthorne Saturday to show opposition to federal budget cuts threatening special education and meal programs and a move to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Signs proclaimed the educators were "Ready to fight" the cuts ordered by President Donald Trump and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were at the rally. (5/17)

The Challenges Facing Elon Musk and NASA in Sending Humans to Mars (Source: CNBC)
In Musk’s view, going to Mars is tantamount to preserving humanity and escaping the ever-growing threats to Earth, including natural disasters and warfare. For scientists, Mars offers possible answers to questions such as the prevalence and diversity of life in the universe.

“The Mars landing problem is complicated. The transit problem, super complicated. You know, the radiation environment is very severe. The life support problem. The reliability has to be super high,” said Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator of the Moon to Mars Program at NASA. Click here. (5/17)

SatVu’s Thermal Imaging Satellite Winning Over Customers Despite Early Setback (Source: Space News)
British startup SatVu is proving that even a short-lived satellite mission can yield big business opportunities in the competitive remote-sensing sector. Despite the premature failure of its first thermal imaging satellite after just six months in orbit, the company has already signed up ~$6 million in pre-order customers for its next satellite scheduled to launch later this year. (5/19)

China Readies Asteroid/Comet Mission (Source: Space News)
China is set to launch a mission to an asteroid and a comet next week. The Tianwen-2 spacecraft is expected to launch on a Long March 3B during a four-hour window that opens at 12 p.m. Eastern May 28, with backup opportunities the next two days. Tianwen-2's first goal is to collect samples from near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamo'oalewa and deliver them to Earth in late 2027. The spacecraft will then head to the comet 311P/PANSTARRS, arriving in early 2035. The mission aims to advance China's planetary exploration capabilities, provide new insights into the understanding of small planetary bodies and their evolution and potentially for planetary defense and the origins of life. (5/20)

Scientists Want NASA to Repurpose Probes From Canceled Janus Mission (Source: Space News)
Scientists are asking NASA to take action on a proposal to repurpose an asteroid mission. NASA canceled the Janus mission to fly by binary asteroids in 2023, putting the twin smallsats into storage. Those spacecraft could instead be used to visit the asteroid Apophis before that asteroid makes a very close, but harmless, flyby of Earth in 2029.

In a statement summarizing a conference held last month about the Apophis flyby, scientists called on NASA to act on responses to a request for information the agency issued last fall exploring that potential reuse of the Janus spacecraft. NASA has not commented on its plans for Janus, but the agency noted at a hearing last week that the OSIRIS-APEX mission, which will arrive at Apophis after the Earth flyby, will be able to observe the asteroid at a distance before the flyby as well. (5/20)

Seraphim Picks 10 Companies for Space Accelerator (Source: Space News)
Seraphim Space has selected 10 companies for its next space-focused accelerator program. The 15th round of the accelerator program, announced Monday, includes startups from five countries, including the first to participate from Mongolia. Those startups are aiming to support services ranging from defense communications to artificial intelligence-powered surveillance. The three-month program is designed to make the startups investor-ready. (5/20)

Sophia Raises $3.5 Million for Orbital Compute and Data Centers (Source: Space News)
Sophia Space raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding to develop orbiting compute and data centers. The company believes its modular data centers will be particularly useful for intelligence gathering, disaster monitoring and disaster management. The company aims to provide the capability to do on-orbit processing of satellite data, "dramatically reducing" the time to get actionable insights from it. Unlock Venture Partners led the Sophia Space investment round with participation from angel investors and industry leaders. (5/20)

Border Focus Could Shift IC Space Resources (Source: Space News)
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the United States will redirect its intelligence collection efforts toward border security. Speaking at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium Monday, Gabbard outlined how the Trump administration's national security priorities will reshape the work of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, placing unprecedented emphasis on domestic border surveillance while maintaining America's global intelligence capabilities.

The shift would affect thousands of intelligence professionals across the geospatial intelligence sector. Gabbard also said her office would work to streamline contracts across intelligence agencies and make more use of commercial solutions and open-source intelligence. (5/20)

NATO Members to Invest More in Space (Source: Space News)
NATO members plan to invest more in defense, including space technologies. At the June NATO summit in the Netherlands, allies will outline specific capabilities to contribute to the alliance, said U.K. Royal Marines Maj. Gen. Paul Lynch, NATO deputy assistant secretary general for intelligence. Space technology is an important component of NATO's modernization campaign, he said at GEOINT Monday, citing two promising space-related programs: Allied Persistent Surveillance from Space, which is aimed at ensuring NATO can collect data on any location at any given time, and the Strategic Space Situational Awareness System for NATO Headquarters. (5/20)

SatVu Committed to Thermal Imaging (Source: Space News)
SatVu said it has strong interest in its thermal imaging capabilities despite the premature end of its first satellite. The British company's HotSat-1 satellite failed after six months in orbit, but the thermal imagery it provided has generated $6 million in pre-orders for its HotSat-2 spacecraft. SatVu is carving a niche in high-resolution mid-wave infrared sensing, with the ability to detect heat signatures as small as 3.5 meters. SatVu has signed agreements with U.S. defense contractors involved in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's Luno program, which aims to integrate commercial satellite data into government intelligence workflows. (5/20)

South Korea's SI Imaging Plans On-Orbit Satellite Leasing (Source: Space News)
South Korean company SI Imaging is allowing customers to lease its satellite as well as buy images. The company launched the 650-kilogram SpaceEye-T satellite in March, and the satellite will be able to provide imagery at resolutions as sharp as 25 centimeters. Customers will have the ability to take control of the satellite, choosing what to observe and when. SI Imaging Services plans to follow up SpaceEye-T with another high-resolution satellite launched in 2027 and two more in 2028. (5/20)

Iceye Seeks Role in Golden Dome (Source: Space News)
Radar imaging company Iceye is looking to play a role in the Golden Dome missile-defense system. The company says that its synthetic aperture radar imaging satellites could support infrared sensors used to detect missile launches, such as tracking activities leading up to those launches. Iceye is in early conversations with potential partners in the defense industry regarding Golden Dome opportunities. (5/20)