January 15, 2025

Lawmakers Push Space Force to Fulfill NRO Staffing (Source: Breaking Defense)
The US Space Force has been slow to meet an agreement to assign personnel to the National Reconnaissance Office, prompting Congress to mandate updates on the issue through the fiscal 2025 Intelligence Authorization Act. The NRO relies heavily on military personnel for its operations, with 27% of its workforce coming from the Space Force. (1/14)

GE Aerospace Charts Ohio Workforce Expansion (Source: Dayton Daily News)
General Electric Aerospace will create hundreds of Ohio-based jobs in coming years, supported by a research and development grant from JobsOhio. The company, which became a standalone entity in 2024, is investing $650 million in manufacturing sites and supplier partners, including significant investments in Ohio. (1/13)

Is Humanity Alone in the Universe? What Scientists Really Think (Source: Ars Technica)
During February to June 2024, we carried out four surveys regarding the likely existence of basic, complex, and intelligent extraterrestrial life. We sent emails to astrobiologists (scientists who study extraterrestrial life), as well as to scientists in other areas, including biologists and physicists. In total, 521 astrobiologists responded, and we received 534 non-astrobiologist responses. The results reveal that 86.6 percent of the surveyed astrobiologists responded either “agree” or “strongly agree” that it’s likely that extraterrestrial life (of at least a basic kind) exists somewhere in the universe.

Less than 2 percent disagreed, with 12 percent staying neutral. So, based on this, we might say that there’s a solid consensus that extraterrestrial life, of some form, exists somewhere out there. Scientists who weren’t astrobiologists essentially concurred, with an overall agreement score of 88.4 percent. In other words, one cannot say that astrobiologists are biased toward believing in extraterrestrial life, compared with other scientists.

When we turn to “complex” extraterrestrial life or “intelligent” aliens, our results were 67.4 percent agreement, and 58.2 percent agreement, respectively for astrobiologists and other scientists. So, scientists tend to think that alien life exists, even in more advanced forms. These results are made even more significant by the fact that disagreement for all categories was low. For example, only 10.2 percent of astrobiologists disagreed with the claim that intelligent aliens likely exist. (1/15)

Lunar Landers Launch at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
Two commercial lunar landers are on their way to the moon after an overnight launch. A Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 1:11 a.m. Eastern. It deployed Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lander about 65 minutes after liftoff, followed nearly a half-hour later by ispace's HAKUTO-R M2 Resilience lander. Blue Ghost 1, scheduled to land on the moon in early March, is carrying 10 NASA payloads as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Resilience, slated to make a lunar landing in four to five months, is carrying a set of payloads primarily for Japanese companies and a Taiwanese university. SpaceX paired the two missions to use the same Falcon 9 to maximize payload and reduce costs for Firefly and ispace. (1/15)

Loft Orbital Raises $170 Million for Expansion (Source: Space News)
Loft Orbital has raised $170 million to expand manufacturing facilities and streamline operations with more artificial intelligence. The San Francisco-based company announced its Series C round Tuesday led by Tikehau Capital and Axial Partners, bringing its total capital raised to around $325 million. Loft Orbital takes buses from multiple vendors and integrates payloads flown on behalf of customers who want to avoid the cost and complexity of operating their own satellites. Proceeds from the Series C round will support ramping up manufacturing and integration facilities, including a 4,600-square-meter factory being developed in the United Arab Emirates under a joint venture. They will also be used to further artificial intelligence that will automate satellite operations and optimize data processing to further improve efficiency. (1/15)

China's Lunar Rover Has Stopped (Source: Space News)
A Chinese robotic lunar rover likely can no longer move. Images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that the Yutu-2 rover, which has been on the lunar farside since January 2019 as part of the Chang'e-4 mission, has not moved since March 2024. The rover had initially been moving up to 40 meters per lunar day, but in 2023 those drives became shorter before stopping entirely. It's not clear what caused Yutu-2 to become immobile, although it was reported to be still functioning last September. (1/15)

SWAFS to Evaluate On-Orbit Anomalies (Source: Space News)
A new tool will allow U.S. military satellite operators to determine if spacecraft problems can be blamed on space weather. Space Weather Analysis and Forecast System (SWAFS) 2.0, a cloud-based platform, will be available in March or April, an Air Force official said at the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting this week. The system will help operators evaluate on-orbit anomalies, communications interference and false-echo returns for radar systems to see if spacecraft problems can be linked to space weather events versus other causes. (1/15)

Tomorrow.io Provides Precipitation Forecasting (Source: Space News)
Weather intelligence startup Tomorrow.io has rolled out a global-precipitation forecasting platform using data from its satellites. The platform, called NextGen, ingests data from Tomorrow.io satellites to provide global precipitation forecasts with a resolution of 2.5 kilometers, updated every five minutes. The system is designed to fill gaps in terrestrial weather radars to improve forecasts and monitoring of extreme weather events. Tomorrow.io operates a constellation of six satellites: two Ka-band radar satellites launched in 2023 and four satellites with microwave sounders launched in 2024. Additional satellites are scheduled to launch in 2025. (1/15)

SpaceX Launches Over 130 Satellites on California Rideshare Mission (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched more than 130 satellites on its latest rideshare mission Tuesday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:09 p.m. Eastern on the Transporter-12 mission. The rocket carried 131 satellites, including some in orbital transfer vehicles that will be deployed later. That payload included imaging satellites for Planet, Satellogic, Iceye and Indian startup Pixxel, which flew its first three commercial high-resolution hyperspectral satellites.

Also on board was Varda Space Industries' second mission, W-2, which carries NASA and Air Force Research Lab payloads on a capsule that will return to Earth, landing in Australia. Inversion space flew its first reentry vehicle, Ray, on the mission as well; it will splash down off the California coast after spending a few weeks in orbit. (1/15)

Rosotics Shifts From 3D Printers to OTVs (Source: Space News)
A startup is making a sharp pivot from producing metal 3D printers to orbital transfer vehicles. Rosotics had been developing Halo, a 3D printer for producing large metal structures for use in aerospace, maritime and other applications. The company is changing direction, using the Halo technology to instead produce orbital transfer vehicles and other in-space infrastructure. The company is moving from Arizona to Cape Canaveral to focus on those applications, but didn't disclose a schedule for flying those orbital transfer vehicles. (1/15)

India's Space Docking Experiment May Wait Until March (Source: India Today)
The Indian space agency ISRO may have to wait until March to attempt an in-space docking experiment. The agency's new chairman, V. Narayanan, said orbital parameters such as lighting conditions and access to ground stations means the current window for attempting a docking by the two Space Docking Experiment spacecraft closes Jan. 20 and does not reopen until late March. It was unclear if ISRO will make a docking attempt before the current window closes, but Narayanan said the agency was not "in any hurry" to try the docking, stating that the spacecraft have plenty of propellant. (1/15)

Study Proposed for Utah Spaceport (Source: KUTV)
Utah is showing new interest in a spaceport. State Sen. Jerry Stevenson introduced a bill in the state legislature that would provide $500,000 to establish a committee to study whether the state could host a launch site. A spaceport, he said, could support both the state's technology and tourism industries. More than a quarter-century ago, Utah examined establishing a spaceport that would serve flights by the VentureStar reusable launch vehicle, but those plans were shelved after the cancellation of that program. (1/14)