September 10, 2025

Call for Papers: 2025 Sacknoff Prize (Source: Space 3.0)
Awarded since 2011, The Sacknoff Prize for Space History is designed to encourage original research by university students in the field of space history. Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to submit their original manuscript for consideration! Winners receive an $850 cash prize; publication in the peer-reviewed history journal, Quest; and an invitation to present their paper at the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) by its Aerospace Special Interest Group (Albatross). Click here. (9/10)

AeroVironment Wins Buyer for Space Laser Comm Terminals (Source: Defense Post)
AeroVironment has secured a contract valued at nearly $240 million to provide laser communications terminals for in-orbit deployment to an undisclosed client. This deal marks a significant expansion of the company's presence in the space communications sector and transitions its laser communications technology from laboratory demonstrations to operational use in real-world orbital environments. (9/9)

Bagging Space Junk: TransAstra’s Inflatable Tech Takes Aim at Orbital Debris (Source: CASIS)
In space, orbital debris travels faster than a speeding bullet. To make the orbit around Earth safer for astronauts, satellites, and spacecraft, aerospace startup TransAstra Corporation developed an innovative debris removal technology. The Capture Bag system can trap objects of different shapes and sizes and even those that are tumbling, a common challenge in space debris removal. To advance the technology, the company is sending the system to the ISS for testing in an investigation sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory. (9/10)

OSC Seeks Partners for Commercial Conjunction Assessment Screening Services Pilot Program (Source: OSC)
The Office of Space Commerce has announced a new round of solicitations for the General Services Administration’s Global Data Marketplace for the Commercial Conjunction Assessment Screening Services, or CASS, pilot program. The initiative, part of the Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS, marks the initial move toward boosting the quality of conjunction analysis, a critical space safety process involving enhancing space situational awareness. (9/9)

Sidus Space Commissions Automatic Identification System (AIS) (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space announced the successful on-orbit operation of its Automatic Identification System (AIS) sensor onboard LizzieSat-3. The AIS sensor receives real-time maritime vessel information from around the globe, including ship identification, position, and navigation data, advancing the company’s strategy to fuse multi-sensor satellite data with onboard artificial intelligence for next-generation intelligence solutions. (9/10)

One of the Rarest Coins Ever (Source: Space 3.0)
Did you know that the United States Mint struck 12 unique 22-karat Sacagawea gold dollars and flew them on Space Shuttle Columbia in July 1999 -- the first one commanded by a woman, Col. Eileen Collins? I didn't. These were the first-ever coins to be flown in space on behalf of the US government (others were carried by the astronauts but none were ever commissioned by the government.) Five of these coins will remain in Fort Knox never to be sold, but the other seven are being sold at an auction by Stacks Bowers this Friday. Bidding is currently at $150,000 each. (9/10)

Rocket Lab Unveils Mars Comms Orbiter (Source: Mach33)
Rocket Lab announced plans for a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter designed to provide persistent, high-bandwidth connectivity between Earth and Mars. The system aims to support future astronaut safety and mission readiness, marking a long-term extension of Rocket Lab’s ambitions beyond Earth orbit.

The company positions MTO within a commercial Mars Sample Return architecture, highlighting a vertically integrated, firm-fixed-price approach and heritage from ESCAPADE and prior Mars hardware contributions. Rocket Lab will be an early mover in the interplanetary infrastructure market, signaling intent to leverage its spacecraft platform and diversify revenue beyond LEO/GEO satellites into deep space communications. (9/9)

Isaacman: SpaceX Spacesuits Already Two Generations Beyond Polaris Dawn (Source: Mach33)
Jared Isaacman revealed that SpaceX has advanced “two generations beyond” the EVA suit tested on Polaris Dawn. The company ultimately plans to produce thousands of spacesuits for sustained lunar and Martian operations, with each iteration serving as a step toward that goal. SpaceX’s rapid suit development underscores its vertically integrated approach to human spaceflight, expanding beyond launch into mission-critical hardware. Scaling suit production could become a key enabler for NASA contracts, private astronaut missions, and long-term Mars infrastructure. (9/8)

Musk: SpaceX Targeting Full Mobile Service (Source: Mach33)
Elon Musk said Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell technology will deliver high-bandwidth satellite connectivity directly to standard smartphones, eliminating dead zones and enabling video streaming “anywhere on your phone.” He noted full rollout is ~2 years away, requiring both new Starlink satellites and modified chipsets in phones. Musk tied the vision to SpaceX’s $17B spectrum acquisition, saying Starlink could act as an additional U.S. carrier, and even hinted that buying a carrier “is not out of the question.”

The service is designed to work indoors and across devices, positioning Starlink as both a home broadband and mobile option. By aiming to deliver Starlink services directly to regular smartphones, SpaceX is positioning itself to become a full-stack connectivity provider; fixed broadband and wireless mobile. (9/9)

FCC Ends Investigation Into EchoStar After Spectrum Sale to SpaceX (Source: Wall Street Journal)
The FCC is ending its investigation into whether EchoStar was sufficiently utilizing its spectrum licenses after the company agreed to sell some of its spectrum to SpaceX. In May, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to EchoStar, threatening to strip some of its licenses, saying it wasn’t effectively using its spectrum rights to compete with the big wireless carriers. That led to a flurry of deal talks from telecom giants looking to scoop up EchoStar’s licenses. (9/9)

"Keep the Shuttle" Group Opposes Texas Taking Discovery (Source: NASA Watch)
The KeepTheShuttle team is pleased to report that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors just completed a unanimous and bipartisan vote opposing the proposed relocation of the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian. Since 2012 Discovery has been viewed by millions of visitors at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center, located in Fairfax County. If the relocation to Houston happens, it will require a 25+ mile tow though Fairfax County and other parts of Northern Virginia to reach a navigable portion of the Potomac River, at which point the shuttle would be loaded onto a barge for a 2,000+ mile journey to Texas.

As illustrated by the 12 mile tow of the Space Shuttle Endeavour through Los Angeles in 2012, the tow would require significant local support and resources. Endeavour’s move required cutting down 400 trees, reinforcing roads with steel plating, removing hundreds of utility poles, traffic signs, and streetlights, and other support from local officials. (9/9)

NASA Clarifies Plans for Commercial Space Station Use (Source: Space News)
NASA says it is not shifting to short-duration missions to low Earth orbit as it moves to commercial space stations. Part of the next phase of its Commercial LEO Destinations program is a demonstration mission lasting as little as 30 days on a commercial station, seen by some as a shift away from long-duration missions currently used on the International Space Station. At an industry day meeting Monday, agency officials said such short mission were not a long-term goal of the agency, but instead designed for this program as a way to test station systems while also performing some science, minimizing the impacts of any gap between the ISS and commercial stations. (9/10)

Airbus Still Committed to Big European Merger (Source: Space News)
The CEO of Airbus says he is still “very committed” to combining his company’s space business with those of two European rivals. Guillaume Faury said after a speech at the Global Aerospace Summit Tuesday that discussions among Airbus, Thales Alenia Space and Leonardo about creating a combined space company are ongoing, including due diligence examinations and planning for antitrust reviews. In June, the CEO of Leonardo said he expected a “go/no-go” decision on proceeding with a combination of their space businesses by the end of July, and Faury didn’t offer a schedule for the effort. Executives with the companies previously said that combining their space businesses into a joint venture could establish a “European champion” able to better compete with American firms. (9/10)

Musk: Starship to Launch 100 Ton Palyloads Next Year (Source: Space News)
Elon Musk says he expects a fully reusable Starship to start launching 100 tons of payload to orbit next year. He said version 3 of Starship should be able to place more than 100 tons into a “useful orbit” some time next year with both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage recovered and reused. Version 3, he said, is a “gigantic upgrade” from the current version 2, and cautioned there may be some “initial teething pains” with the new design. As part of that development, SpaceX has been testing new thermal protection system technologies on the current version of Starship. That included metallic tiles that “didn’t do so good” on last month’s test, SpaceX’s Bill Gerstenmaier said at another conference this week, with the tiles oxidizing during reentry and creating a rust-colored patina on much of the vehicle. (9/10)

Maxar to Provide Maps and Terrain Data to US Army (Source: Space News)
Maxar Intelligence will provide 3D maps and terrain data for a U.S. Army digital platform. Maxar said this week it will provide the data for the Soldier-Borne Mission Command Architecture (SBMC-A), a mixed-reality system designed to give soldiers an immersive view of the battlefield through specialized headsets. By feeding near-real-time geospatial intelligence into soldiers’ fields of view, SBMC-A aims to give small units the kind of situational awareness typically available only at command centers. Anduril and Rivet, a startup backed by Palantir Technologies, won contracts to build prototype wearable devices for the program. (9/10)

Progress Cargo Craft Undocks From ISS (Source: NASA)
A Progress cargo spacecraft undocked from the ISS Tuesday. The Progress MS-30 spacecraft, designated Progress 91 by NASA, undocked from the Russian segment of the station at 11:45 a.m. Eastern Tuesday ahead of a destructive reentry. The spacecraft had been at the station since the beginning of March. Its departure clears a docking port for the next Progress spacecraft, Progress MS-32, scheduled to launch on Thursday. (9/10)

European Apophis Mission On Schedule (Source: Space News)
A European-led mission to the asteroid Apophis is on schedule ahead of key funding decisions. Officials with the Ramses mission said initial development of the spacecraft is on schedule, backed by funding provided by ESA last year. ESA member states will decide whether to provide full funding for the mission at its ministerial conference in November. Project leaders declined to provide an estimate of the cost of the mission but said it should be less than Hera, another asteroid mission launched last year with a total cost of 363 million euros. ESA is partnering with Japan on Ramses, with the Japanese space agency JAXA seeking funding to provide a spacecraft instrument and solar arrays as well as a launch of the spacecraft in 2028 on an H3 rocket. (9/10)

Space Beyond Enters Space Burial Market (Source: Space News)
A startup is entering the market for space burial services. Space Beyond is raising funds to fly a brick-sized cubesat as soon as next year that would carry at least 1,000 capsules of cremated remains. Space Beyond is offering the service to customers for as low as $249, a fraction of the price from Celestis, which offers a range of space memorial missions from suborbital to the moon. Celestis said it’s seeing strong demand for its premium offerings, which include three-day launch events, with 40% annual growth over the last five years. (9/10)

India's HAL to Commercialize SSLV Launcher (Source: PTI)
Indian company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has signed an agreement with the Indian space agency ISRO to commercialize a small launch vehicle. The agreement, signed Wednesday, will transfer technology for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) to HAL and allow the company to produce the rocket for the next 10 years. SSLV is a solid-fuel rocket capable of placing up to 500 kilograms into orbit, but has only flown a few times. (9/10)

South Korea to Develop Methane Rocket Engine (Source: Chosun Ilbo)
The South Korean government plans to develop a methane-fueled rocket engine. The Agency for Defense Development selected this week a team led by Hyundai Rotem and Korean Air to develop an engine using methane and liquid oxygen that will produce 35 metric tons of thrust. The project has raised questions in South Korea’s space industry about whether the military may be usurping the country’s space agency, KASA, in launch vehicle technology development. (9/10)

Ex-NASA Scientist Jailed over £1m Investment Fraud (Source: BBC)
A former NASA scientist has been sentenced to two years in prison over a £1m investment fraud case. John Burford, who now lives in Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, admitted in court in June to defrauding more than 100 investors out of £1m and using some of the proceeds to buy his own home. The 85-year-old had offered investment opportunities and trade alerts through his firm Financial Trading Strategies between 2016 and 2021. (9/8)

Space Consultant Arrested on Neglect Charge (Sources: WFTV, Florida Today)
A mother and father in Palm Bay face child neglect charges after police say their children were found in “unsafe” and “unsanitary” conditions. Nathan Forczyk said four of his non-verbal children were not potty-trained and had behavioral issues, causing them to damage the home. On Sep. 5, Laura Forczyk — a space industry consultant — set up a GoFundMe crowdfunding page to ask for help finding work and to raise money. Health problems for the couple led to her family falling on hard times, she wrote in the post. (9/5)

Mechanical Piston CPR Could Keep Astronauts Alive (Source: New Atlas)
CPR is a technique that has saved countless lives since the modern version was developed in the 1960s. However, it turns out it doesn't work very well in zero gravity, so a team of European cardiologists has been testing alternatives for astronauts. Cardiologists teamed up with the French space agency, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), to conduct tests aboard an Airbus A310 aircraft modified to fly in parabolic arcs to simulate weightlessness for brief periods. During these floaty interludes, the team tested manual CPR and three types of automatic chest compression devices. (9/6)

New Algorithm Hushes Unwanted Noise in LIGO (Source: Phys.org)
LIGO, which consists of two facilities—one in Washington and one in Louisiana—can detect undulations in space-time called gravitational waves that roll outward from colliding cosmic bodies such as black holes. Improvements to LIGO's interferometers mean that it now detects an average of about one black hole merger every three days during its current science run.

Together with its partners, the Virgo gravitational-wave detector in Italy and KAGRA in Japan, the observatory has in total detected hundreds of black hole merger candidates, in addition to a handful involving at least one neutron star. Scientists are developing a new AI method–called Deep Loop Shaping–that can better hush unwanted noise in LIGO's detectors. To scientists, the term "noise" can refer to any number of pesky background disturbances that interfere with data collection. (9/4)

Aerospace Company Launches Georgia Plant with 45 Jobs (Source: Fox 5)
An aerospace supplier has opened its U.S. headquarters and manufacturing facility in metro Atlanta. PBS Aerospace launched operations in Roswell, where it will produce small jet engines used in high-speed drones and missile systems. (9/5)

Spaceflight Activates ‘Dark Genome’ in Human Cells (Source: CNN)
Spaceflight makes certain human stem cells age faster, a new study has found, furthering scientists’ understanding of the potential effects of space exploration on the human body. Stem cells are found throughout the body, and they can make more of themselves or turn into other specialized cells — including blood, brain or bone cells — for maintenance and repair.

“Our stem cells should be asleep (inactive) 80% of the time to retain their full function,” Jamieson said. However, that wasn’t the case in space, where microgravity and cosmic radiation had an influence on their well-being. “The stem cells woke up, and they didn’t go back to sleep, and they became functionally exhausted,” she added. “If our stem cells become exhausted under conditions of stress like microgravity, then they won’t function to make a proper immune system.” (9/5)

Space Systems Command Hosts Industry Day in Preparation for Coming National Security Space Launch (Source: USSF)
Representatives from 17 commercial space companies joined officials from Space Systems Command on Aug. 19, 2025 for a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Industry Day to assist commercial launch service and space capability providers in planning for NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 on-ramp opportunities.
 
NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 is designed to encourage new launch providers, through annual on-ramps and missions with slightly higher risk tolerance. Lane 1 provides awardees who can meet a subset of NSSL requirements the opportunity to compete for approximately 20 missions over the next four years via annual task order competitions.
 
Lane 1 consists of multiple award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts with an ordering period through Fiscal-Year 2029 (FY29) and a single five-year option that could extend the ordering period through FY34. Lane 1 launch services will be procured via Launch Service Task Orders (LSTOs.) (9/4)

An Engineer Says He’s Found a Way to Overcome Earth’s Gravity (Source: Popular Mechanics)
“The most important message to convey to the public is that a major discovery occurred,” Buhler told The Debrief. “This discovery of a New Force is fundamental in that electric fields alone can generate a sustainable force onto an object and allow center-of-mass translation of said object without expelling mass.”

Charles Buhler stressed that this work is unaffiliated with NASA, and that he recently presented his findings at the Alternative Propulsion Energy Conference (APEC), which is a club of engineers and enthusiasts eager to find ways to overcome the limitations of gravity and physics—and not always with the most scientifically sound methods. (8/28)

Estes Wants You To 3D Print Their New Model Rocket (Source: Hackaday)
The Estes line of flying model rockets have inspired an untold number of children and adults alike, thanks in part to their simplicity. From the design and construction of the rockets themselves to the reliability and safety of the modular solid-propellant motors, the company managed to turn actual rocket science into a family activity. If you could glue fins onto a cardboard tube and stick a plastic nosecone on the end, you were nearly ready for launch.

But what if you’re looking for something a bit more challenging? That’s where the new Estes Scorpio 3D comes in. Unlike the classic Estes kit, which included the fins, nosecone, and other miscellaneous bits of the rocket, the Scorpio kit requires you to 3D print your own parts. Do it right, and the company says you can send your creation to heights of 1,000 feet (305 m). (9/5)

JWST to Investigate ‘Impossible Planet’ With Methane, Ammonia, and Potential to Revolutionize Science (Source: CZEN)
The planet, known as TOI-6894b, orbits a small star in the constellation Leo, and its unique features are challenging what scientists thought they knew about planetary formation. The planet orbits a red dwarf star—only about 20% the size of our Sun—which makes this finding surprising. That’s because, according to older models, a star this small shouldn’t be able to host such a big planet. (9/8)

The Messy Habits Of Small Black Holes (Source: Universe Today)
Astrophysicists are eager to understand when disk winds are launched in stellar mass black holes and what factors affect them. Disk winds act to remove material from a black hole's accretion disk. While that makes less material available for their growth, the winds and the lost material also remove angular momentum from the disk, which can end up helping remaining matter in the disk spiral more easily into the black hole.

Disk winds also create a negative feedback. The higher the accretion rate, the hotter the disk becomes, which drives stronger winds. Those winds can drive more material away from the disk, helping regulate accretion. Black hole feedback is an important concept in astrophysics, and researchers think that whatever they can learn from stellar mass black holes may also apply to supermassive black holes. (9/8)

Trump’s War on Climate Science is Weakening the US (Source: Bloomberg)
In late July, President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal so bold it would have once seemed unthinkable: to reverse the endangerment finding, a legal determination under which the agency regulates planet-warming pollution. The 2009 finding rests on a vast body of scientific evidence showing greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change and threaten public health.

The agency held a public hearing on the move last month. Speaking against were activists, doctors, state officials — and business leaders such as Chris Nevers, senior director of public policy at the electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc., who called it “detrimental to the US automotive industry, consumers, and public health and welfare.” (9/8)