June 19, 2025

Starship Explodes During Pad Test (Source: Space News)
A SpaceX Starship upper stage exploded on a test stand overnight. The vehicle, known as Ship 36, exploded just after midnight Eastern while on a test stand ahead of a planned static-fire test. SpaceX said all personnel were accounted for and that it was working with local officials to secure the site. Ship 36 was being prepared for the tenth Starship/Super Heavy test flight, which had been planned for as soon as late June. The explosion dealt another setback to SpaceX's development of Starship after failures of the upper stage on three previous flights. (6/19)

Guetlein Nominated to Lead Golden Dome (Source: Space News)
The White House formally nominated Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein to lead development of the Golden Dome missile defense system. The Pentagon said Wednesday President Trump submitted the nomination of Guetlein to be "direct reporting program manager for Golden Dome for America" to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Trump said last month he has selected Guetlein to oversee Golden Dome, citing the general's experience leading complex programs and integrating space technologies into national defense. Guetlein has described Golden Dome as comparable in scale and ambition to the Manhattan Project. (6/19)

Varda Readies for Launch of In-House Produced Spacecraft (Source: Space News)
Space manufacturing startup Varda Space Industries will use a spacecraft built in-house for its next mission. The company said Wednesday its W-4 mission is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Transporter mission lifting off as soon as this weekend. W-4 will use a spacecraft bus the company built on its own, after using a Rocket Lab spacecraft bus for its first three missions. The move to in-house spacecraft production is part of an effort to shorten the timeline between missions.

Varda also hopes to increase its flexibility to tailor vehicles to customer requirements, with a goal of launching monthly. The W-4 mission will test the new bus design and also attempt a manufacturing process known as solution-based crystallization. Varda also received a new FAA reentry license Wednesday that will allow it to perform unlimited reentries of its capsule in Australia. (6/19)

Ukraine Permits Starlink Use for Direct-to-Cell (Source: Space News)
Ukrainian regulators will permit a telecom company to use Starlink for direct-to-cell services in the country. Kyivstar said Wednesday it was granted approval to start testing space-enabled texting services this summer using Starlink. The operator will focus on areas crippled by Russian strikes and other terrestrial coverage gaps.

Kyivstar is Ukraine's largest mobile operator with more than 23 million subscribers, according to the company, and aims to deploy the Starlink direct-to-cell service commercially for unmodified handsets in the fourth quarter of 2025. SpaceX said last week it completed the first-generation deployment of Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell payloads, although the service is limited to messaging and emergency alerts. (6/19)

Maxar and Array Labs Agree on Imagery Integration (Source: Space News)
Maxar Intelligence announced an agreement with radar imaging startup Array Labs. The companies said Wednesday that Maxar agreed to buy capacity on Array Lab satellites, which will produce high-resolution 3D imagery of the Earth using radar. The two companies will work to integrate Array Labs data into the Maxar 3D product line. Array Labs launched its first two prototype satellites in 2024. The company plans to launch its next demonstration mission in 2026, followed by the deployment of its first full production cluster. (6/19)

Russia Launches Angara Rocket with Classified Payload (Source: RussianSpaceWeb)
A Russian Angara rocket launched a classified geostationary orbit satellite Wednesday. The Angara-A5 rocket launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at about 11 p.m. Eastern. This was the fifth launch of the Angara-A5 but the first to carry an operational payload. That payload is a classified GEO satellite that some speculate may be designed to inspect or even attack other GEO satellites. (6/19)

Space Force Gets Space Force Contract for MILNET Satellite Network (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force is awarding SpaceX a contract for a satellite communications network. The MILNET network will consist of more than 480 satellites that will be operated by SpaceX but overseen by the Space Force's Delta 8, which handles satellite communications. SpaceX will also provide terminals based on those it uses for Starshield. The Space Force had not discussed MILNET in detail before, reportedly because while the contract is with the Space Force's Space Systems Command, the ultimate customer is the NRO. (6/19)

SETI Agrees with SpaceX  on Starlink Interference Mitigation (Source: SETI Institute)
The SETI Institute has reached an agreement with SpaceX to prevent Starlink from interfering with a radio astronomy observatory. The SETI Institute said the agreement will protect the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a radio observatory in northern California that is used for general astronomy as well as searches for signals from any extraterrestrial civilizations.

The institute and SpaceX will work to avoid interference through a technique called boresight avoidance capabilities, where SpaceX will ensure that, as Starlink satellites pass overhead, they do not direct signals that would be in the telescope's line of sight. SpaceX has a similar agreement with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. (6/19)

NASA and Germany Agree on Updated Artemis Cooperation (Source: NASA)
NASA signed a new Artemis cooperation agreement with Germany despite uncertainty about the future of the lunar exploration effort. NASA signed the agreement with the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, at the Paris Air Show this week. The agreement extends an existing partnership on space medicine, including mitigating the effects of radiation exposure on deep-space missions.

DLR will provide radiation sensors for the Orion spacecraft flying the Artemis 2 mission next year. The announcement comes as Europe examines effects of proposed NASA budget cuts related to Artemis. NASA had a low public profile at the air show, one of the biggest events in the aerospace industry. (6/19)

Renovated Sands Space History Center Reopens at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
The Sands Space History Center outside of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station reopened on June 17 after six weeks of renovations. This followed a significant financial donation by Jared Isaacman a year prior. The renovated facility is renamed after Major General Harry Sands Jr. who originally proposed the creation of a museum at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station dedicated to the nation's space heritage from 1950 onward. (6/18)

Trump is Undermining U.S. Science. Here’s Why That’s Dangerous (Source: Washington Post)
The Trump administration’s reckless assaults on U.S. science are endangering the nation. If allowed to continue, they will lead to the destruction of a grand but politically vulnerable edifice that has been the envy of the world for decades. The evisceration of the National Science Foundation (NSF) — including wholesale firings, budget-slashing and arbitrary elimination of grants — is especially worrisome to those of us who understand the crucial role science has played in making America a great and powerful nation. Congress must act soon to halt this devastating attack. (6/18)

ESA Teams Up with Leonardo Against Satnav Jamming (Source: ESA)
Uninterrupted access to satellite navigation is essential in our modern world, but it is threatened daily by external interference, such as jamming and spoofing. New technologies and concepts can help increase the resilience of our satellite navigation solutions. ESA and Leonardo are embarking on a joint project to explore smart antennas powered by Machine Learning to block unwanted signals. (6/16)

SpaceX Could Face More Fees for Launching Under a New Proposal (Source: Houston Chronicle)
SpaceX is aiming to set a new record for its rocket launches with 170 by the end of the year, up from about 130 last year. But that increased pace could soon require the rocket maker to chip in more money for the resources it uses each launch. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), in the Senate Republicans' budget reconciliation bill, included a proposal to charge rocket companies licensing fees starting in 2026.

Essentially, the new fee structure would reimburse the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) for launch licensing costs, a summary notes. An FAA license is required for any launch or reentry, and acts as a public safety measure since the evaluation for one can include reviews on policy, payload and airspace planning.

The charges, which would be based on the weight of the payload on each launch, start off with 25 cents per pound in 2026, with a gradual increase to $1.50 per pound in 2033. The total fee per launch would be capped at $30,000 in 2026, though the cap will increase to $200,000 in 2033, then steadily increase to account for inflation. Those fees would go into a trust fund to help pay for operating the FAA's commercial space office. The Committee estimates this would allow for $100 million in user fees to be collected through 2034 to support the AST. (6/18)

Blue Origin Signs ESA, Thales For Orbital Reef (Sources: Aviation Week, ESA)
The European Space Agency (ESA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) June 18 to work with a third aspiring U.S. space station operator, all of which are developing platforms to host astronauts, research experiments, technology demonstrations and commercial projects for NASA and other customers.

The signatories will explore opportunities for European payloads and/or crew members to utilize on a non-exclusive basis the low-Earth orbit (LEO) space station Orbital Reef which will offer end-to-end services, including transportation of crew and cargo, astronaut accommodations, and payload utilization services.

Through this MoU, the European Space Agency intends to develop a closer relationship with Blue Origin and Thales Alenia Space for the development of Orbital Reef, that could provide services meeting Europe’s long-term research and commercial needs in alignment with ESA’s recently announced requirements. (6/18)

What is Launch Site One? What to Know About Texas Site of Blue Origin Spaceflights (Source: El Paso Times)
Among the Guadalupe mountains in the remote West Texas desert, a sight seemingly incongruous to the rugged terrain often emerges on the skyline: sleek, white rockets. The spacecraft regularly blast off high into the sky from a spaceport owned by one of the world's richest men. Welcome to Launch Site One.

The private, sprawling ranch owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos is the famed site where Blue Origin – the spaceflight company he also owns – launches and tests its New Shepard spacecraft. Since Blue Origin's first test flight in 2012, Launch Site One has been host to more than 30 New Shepard rocket launches. And since the company's human spaceflights began in 2021, more than 60 lucky passengers have had the chance to board a crew capsule for thrilling trips to the edge of space, where they're treated to views few have ever seen. (6/18)

Can the Huge New Vera Rubin Observatory Function in the Megaconstellation Age? (Source: Space.com)
When astronomers first dreamt up the Vera Rubin Observatory in the 1990s, the sky above the Chilean Cerro Pachón, where the star-observing machine was to be located, looked different than it does today. Just a few years before the observatory's expected inauguration, the era of megaconstellations took off, and astronomers found themselves racing to find ways to protect the telescope's images from satellite contamination. They didn't have much time.

When construction of the $680 million observatory began in 2015, everything was still going according to plan. Four years later, SpaceX launched the first batch of Starlink internet satellites, Starlink trains became a thing, and astronomers realized that the satellites, orbiting only 340 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth, were too bright not to interfere with their observations. Vera Rubin, due to its wide field of view and exceptional sensitivity, was to feel their presence especially keenly.

"It's true that a large fraction of exposures is going to contain a satellite streak, but the field of view is big, and so the number of actual pixels that are affected is very small," said Rawls. "At most, [the satellite streaks] are a few hundred pixels wide. But a single detector has 4,000 pixels, and the camera has 189 CCD detectors tracking the sky." (6/18)

DIU Seeks Funding for EMI Response Project (Source: Via Satellite)
The Defense Innovation Unit is seeking funding for a project to help the Department of Defense respond to electromagnetic interference against commercial satellite operators. The project involves a prototype to quickly report interference to entities with Title 10 authority, leveraging industry data and collaborating with the Joint Commercial Operations cell. (6/17)

Firefly Aerospace Announces New Lunar Imaging Service on its Elytra Spacecraft (Source: Firefly)
Firefly Aerospace announced a new lunar imaging service, named Ocula, offered through Firefly’s Elytra orbital vehicles as early as 2026. Ocula is enabled by high-resolution telescopes from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) that operate onboard Elytra in lunar orbit and provide ultraviolet and visible spectrum imaging – a key capability to identify mineral deposits on the Moon’s surface, map future landing sites with higher fidelity, and enable cislunar situational awareness. (6/18)

Greenerwave Secures a €10M+ to Equip the French Armed Forces with SATCOM (Source: Greenerwave)
Greenerwave is proud to be at the heart of a strategic initiative supporting the French Armed Forces, thanks to its breakthrough satellite communication (SATCOM) technology. As part of a recently awarded contract by the French Defence Procurement Agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement – DGA), led by Airbus Defence and Space and involving satellite operator Eutelsat OneWeb, Greenerwave will play a key role in enhancing military connectivity.

The contract marks the culmination of years of development, innovation, and collaboration with the DGA and the French Defense Innovation Agency (AID), and will allow Greenerwave to demonstrate the full potential of its technology. A key objective is to validate its performance in a Satcom On the Move configuration — that is, integrated into a vehicle — using the Ku-band on Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation. (6/18)