June 23, 2025

Space Sector is Forgoing Civil Programs for the Defense Boom (Source: Aviation Week)
In one of the most glaring examples of the new reality, Northrop Grumman's CEO said the company's work with NASA "will not be a growth driver for us," if the proposed budget cuts hold. The company is NASA's fourth-largest contractor. Northrop Grumman recently disclosed a $50 million investment into a joint project with Firefly to develop a medium-lift launcher, targeting the national security space market with the Pentagon's focus on proliferated constellations. (6/21)

Atlas 5 Launches Amazon Kuiper Satellites at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Spaceflight Now)
An Atlas 5 lifted off Monday morning carrying the second set of Amazon Project Kuiper satellites. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral after a technical problem scrubbed a launch attempt last week. Neither ULA nor Amazon provided many details about the launch after the second stage ignited, but ULA confirmed successful payload deployment a little more than an hour after liftoff. The rocket carried 27 Kuiper satellites, the second batch of operational satellites after the first was launched on another Atlas 5 in April. Amazon plans to launch more than 3,200 satellites for the constellation, providing broadband services. (6/23)

ULA Explores AI for Some Tasks (Source: Space News)
United Launch Alliance is testing a version of OpenAI to help it with some "tedious" tasks. ULA has deployed what it calls “RocketGPT” to about 150 employees as part of a trial program. The tool uses a government-compliant version of OpenAI's technologies running on a secure cloud computing platform. ULA CEO Tory Bruno said the company is "super excited" about using RocketGPT to help with tasks like writing reports, drafting government proposals and analyzing flight telemetry. He said the technology is not intended to replace employees but instead as a research assistant, noting that AI systems still make mistakes requiring human oversight, meaning employees remain accountable for final work products. (6/23)

SpaceX Lights Up Space Coast with Overnight Starlink Mission on Monday (Source: WFTV)
SpaceX has racked up another launch from Florida’s Space Coast. The company sent 27 new Starlink satellites into orbit early Monday. A foggy morning at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station didn’t keep the Falcon 9 on the pad. The rocket lifted off at 1:58 a.m. (6/23)

Isaacman Interested in Privately Funded Science Missions (Source: Space News)
Jared Isaacman said he is interested in pursuing, outside of NASA, an initiative he planned to implement if he had become NASA administrator. In comments after accepting a National Space Society award Saturday, Isaacman said one of his goals for NASA was a concept in which NASA would provide support to outside organizations interested in pursuing scientific missions.

While Isaacman's nomination to lead NASA was withdrawn three weeks ago, he said he was interested in trying to test that concept "and see if you could fund an interesting robotic mission" with academic organizations. He said that while people are "rightfully" upset about proposed NASA budget cuts, he still believed that this was the best time for human spaceflight since the 1960s. (6/23)

DoD Pursuing "Enterprise Satcom" (Source: Space News)
Pentagon officials say they are still a long way from their goal of creating seamless, interoperable space communications networks. The goal is creating what the Defense Department calls “enterprise satcom:" a virtualized, software-defined network that could automatically reroute communications between military, commercial and allied nations’ satellites if an adversary jams one satellite system. But the reality is an ecosystem full of manual processes, hardware silos and incompatible standards. What's needed, government and industry official said, are standards analogous to those that allow smartphones to operate on different networks. (6/23)

Chinese Satellite Pulverizes Starlink With a 2-Watt Laser 36,000 KM From Earth (Source: Daily Galaxy)
In a stunning leap forward for space technology, Chinese scientists have achieved an unprecedented breakthrough in satellite communication, using a laser as weak as a nightlight to outpace the speeds of Starlink. Operating from an altitude of 36,000 kilometers—more than 60 times higher than SpaceX’s Starlink network—this Chinese satellite has demonstrated a level of data transmission far superior to what Starlink can offer, pushing the boundaries of what many thought possible. (6/22)

Sidus Space Selects Atomic-6 as Solar Array Partner for Cislunar Data Satellite Mission (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space announced the next milestone under its expanded $120 million preliminary agreement with Lonestar Data Holdings to support the world’s first lunar data centers. Atomic-6 has been selected to supply its Light Wing solar arrays to power Sidus’ LizzieSat satellites supporting Lonestar’s cislunar data storage constellation. (6/23)

Arianespace Aims to Ramp Up Ariane 6 Cadence (Source: Space News)
Arianespace said it will work "as soon as possible" to reach its planned Ariane 6 launch rate, but that may take years. At the Paris Air Show last week, Arianespace CEO David Cavaillolès said the company still planned for four more Ariane 6 launches this year, after one launch in March.

The company has a goal of 10 Ariane 6 launches per year, but Cavaillolès did not commit to a specific year the company would reach that rate, only that it expected to do so by the time it is scheduled to start launching IRIS² communications satellites in 2029. He added the company is seeing strong interest in the Ariane 6 from government and commercial customers, including those worried about relying on a single launch provider. (6/23)

China Launches GEO Comsat on Long March 3B (Source: Space News)
China launched a GEO communications satellite Friday. A Long March 3B lifted off at 8:37 a.m. Eastern from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center and placed into a geostationary transfer orbit the ChinaSat-9C (Zhongxing-9C) communications satellite. The 5,500-kilogram satellite is based on a DFH-4E satellite platform, an enhanced version of China’s widely used DFH-4 satellite bus, and will provide improved regional coverage for TV and radio, with Ku-band and other frequency band transponders. It will replace ChinaSat-9 at 92.2 degrees East in GEO. (6/23)

Psyche Switches to Backup Fuel Line En Route to Asteroid (Source: NASA)
NASA's Psyche spacecraft has resumed use of its electric propulsion system after switching to a backup fuel line. NASA said Friday the spacecraft's electric thrusters started operating last week after being turned off since early April. Engineers concluded that a valve malfunction reduced the flow of xenon propellant to the thrusters, and switched to a redundant fuel line. Psyche will fire its thrusters for three months between now and November to keep the spacecraft on its trajectory to the asteroid of the same name, arriving in 2029. (6/23)

Tehran Warns Iranians: Don’t Install Elon Musk’s Starlink Internet (Source: Jerusalem Post)
Iran’s government is threatening citizens with prosecution if they set up Starlink satellite-internet dishes, even as activists smuggle the equipment across the country’s borders to bypass a sweeping wartime blackout. The Information and Communications Technology Ministry used state outlets over the weekend to declare Starlink terminals “illegal” and to remind Iranians that importing or operating one “will expose offenders to the full force of the law.” (6/23)

SpaceX Sends Icelandic Hemp on Orbital Mission (Source: Iceland Review)
Icelandic hemp seeds will be launched into space today aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket as part of a scientific mission to study how plant materials respond to space conditions. The seeds, sent from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, are expected to return to Iceland this autumn for analysis. (6/23)

Philippine Space Agency Talks Satellites, Startups, and Spaceports with Austria (Source: PhilSA)
The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) welcomed H.E. Johann Brieger, Ambassador of Austria to the Philippines for a high-level meeting aimed at exploring future collaborations on space matters. Ambassador Brieger met with Director General Dr. Joel Joseph Marciano Jr. and key PhilSA officials to learn about the agency’s work in building a space-ready Philippines. The two sides discussed possible partnerships in satellite data use, startup support, and joint research, especially in areas like disaster response and environmental monitoring. (6/23)

Philippine Space Agency and JAXA to Collaborate (Source: GMA)
The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are set to collaborate on initiatives that will help Filipinos in the face of climate challenges and disasters, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos said. The President announced the development in a statement on Instagram, saying the two agencies will work to maximize space technology that would allow better tracking of weather disturbances and faster disaster response. (6/21)

White House Aims To Halt NASA Missions Across The Solar System (Source: Forbes)
The Trump administration’s bid to terminate NASA’s leading-edge flights of exploration “across the solar system” may cripple American leadership in space, preventing discoveries that could reshape civilization in what is now considered the first Space Age, says one of the world’s top planetary scientists.

As space powers across the continents vie to map and image planets and moons, comets and ice-worlds circling the sun, slashes to NASA’s funding would represent a great leap backward, crippling it even as rivals race ahead, says Alan Stern, a one-time leader at NASA and a globally acclaimed space scientist. (6/23)

How to Stay Fit in Orbit (Source: Olympics.com)
Tracy C. Dyson has no excuse not to exercise. Even if she is in outer space. The NASA astronaut has two and a half hours blocked out of her work schedule for exercise every day, including cardio and resistance training, to prepare for the rigorous physical demands of her job. Click here. (6/23)

Group Protests Trump Administration's Proposed Job Cuts at Glenn Research Center (Source: WKYC)
Amid the Trump administration's proposal to cut over 500 jobs at Cleveland's NASA Glenn Research Center, a nonprofit organization held a protest rally. Stand Up for Science hosted the rally on June 21. "NASA Glenn is facing a 40% workforce cut if Trump’s planned FY26 budget goes through, which means 500 career civil servants in the Cleveland area are facing layoffs. We need to show the NASA Glenn staff that we support them and we oppose these cuts.," Stand Up for Science wrote. (6/22)

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Has Always Worked for NASA (Source: Florida Today)
A visit to the Kennedy Space Center visitor center in Florida typically starts with the Heroes and Legends Exhibit. As we waited for entry during a recent visit, I looked around and saw America. During our six hours at the visitor center, my family and I had a palpable feeling of inclusion everywhere we went.

Educational displays and videos were recorded by or about astronauts of color including some presented in the astronaut’s native language. How important is that to the many visitors with Hispanic backgrounds or who are of African descent? We should always celebrate Guion Bluford, the first African-American to go into space in 1983 and Franklin R. Chang Diaz, the first Hispanic-American in 1986.

Unfortunately, recent reporting by Ars Technica, among others, indicate that the White House has reneged on its pledge from the first Trump administration to include a Black astronaut and a female astronaut on the first Artemis mission to the moon. This is blatantly racist and misogynistic. Space is no place for racial or sexual animosity. We must remember that we all belong to ‘One World’, and it is not just 'Our America' as we explore the universe. (6/22)