#WASHINGTON — #NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he is concerned about reports that Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, has had discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Nelson’s comments, made at Semafor’s World Economy Summit Oct. 25, represent his strongest public criticism to date of the owner of the company that NASA relies upon for transporting crews to the International Space Station and for launching key missions.

In an on-stage interview at the summit, Nelson was asked about a Wall Street Journal article that stated that Musk has had a regular series of conversations with Putin over the last two years, starting after Putin embarked on a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The article said it confirmed those discussions with current and former American, European and Russian officials.

According to the article, the discussions between Musk and Putin included a request by Putin that SpaceX not activate its Starlink service over Taiwan, as Russia sought to win support from China. SpaceX does not provide Starlink service in Taiwan, but it is unclear if that request was a factor

“I don’t know that that story is true,” Nelson said at the conference. “I think it should be investigated. If the story is true that there have been multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the president of Russia, then I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies.”

Nelson has avoided directly criticizing Musk even after the billionaire increasingly disparaged the Biden administration and, in July, formally endorsed Donald Trump for president. Musk is now actively campaigning for Trump, holding a series of town halls in Pennsylvania, one of the key swing states in the presidential election.

Nelson has frequently noted that he does not deal directly with Musk about SpaceX but instead with Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer of the company. Shotwell runs SpaceX on a day-to-day basis, but Musk is the chief executive and largest shareholder and drives the overall vision of the company.

#Intelsat 33e loses power in geostationary orbit .

TAMPA, Fla. — Intelsat 33e has lost power in geostationary orbit and the satellite is no longer providing communications for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific, its operator announced Oct. 19.

Intelsat said it is working with satellite maker Boeing to address the anomaly, but “believe it is unlikely that the satellite will be recoverable.” An Intelsat spokesperson said the satellite was not insured at the time of the issue.

The company said in a brief news release it is working to move customers to other satellites in Intelsat’s fleet or spacecraft operated by third parties.

Intelsat 33e launched in August 2016 and entered service in January 2017 at 60 degrees East, about three months later than planned following an issue with its primary thruster.

A second propulsion issue that emerged during in-orbit tests helped knock off around 3.5 years from the satellite’s initially estimated 15-year lifespan.

Intelsat 33e is the second in Intelsat’s EpicNG (next-generation) series of high-throughput satellites.

The first, Intelsat-29e, was declared a total loss in 2019 after just three years in orbit. That failure was pinned on either a meteoroid impact or a wiring flaw that led to an electrostatic discharge following heightened solar weather activity.

Efforts to standardize #satellite and terrestrial #communications are moving beyond narrowband capabilities toward a universal broadband terminal for seamless, global connectivity.

#Geostationary operator Intelsat recently partnered with Softbank, a Japanese internet conglomerate, to essentially integrate satellites with the roaming agreements cellular companies use to keep subscribers connected from country to country.

The partnership is one of the first practical steps Intelsat has taken toward 5G following years of rhetoric about the revolutionary capabilities on the horizon for truly global hybrid connectivity.

It comes a few months after 3GPP, a mobile industry consortium, approved plans to work Ku-band satellite spectrum into a future update for the 5G standards used by smartphones and other mass-market devices.

The standardization work builds upon the integration of space-based narrowband connectivity with 5G, which satellite operators such as Viasat are leveraging to provide basic messaging services to certain smartphones coming out later this year.

The U.S. Space Force announced that its secretive X-37B spaceplane will execute a series of maneuvers to change its orbit and jettison components.

The reusable #spacecraft, which has been in orbit since December 28, 2023, will perform aerobraking maneuvers to alter its trajectory around Earth, the Space Force said Oct. 10. This technique involves making multiple passes through the planet’s upper atmosphere, using atmospheric drag to modify the vehicle’s orbit while conserving fuel.

These maneuvers also are intended to showcase responsible space operations, the Space Force said. The aerobraking enables the spaceplane to change orbits and comply with space debris mitigation rules by safely discarding the service module.

The X-37B, manufactured by Boeing, is jointly operated by the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. Since its launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the spaceplane has been conducting radiation effect experiments and testing space domain awareness technologies in a highly elliptical orbit.

Experts note that the X-37B’s current mission, its seventh to date, has taken on increased significance in light of recent developments in space capabilities by other nations. The launch of the X-37B came just two weeks after China sent its own Shenlong spaceplane into orbit, fueling speculation about both countries’ intentions.
In orbit for extended periods

The X-37B, capable of operating at altitudes between 150 to 500 miles above Earth, has previously demonstrated the ability to remain in orbit for extended periods, with missions lasting over 900 days. This longevity allows for prolonged studies on the effects of space radiation and other environmental factors on various materials and technologies.

“There is no other space platform as capable, flexible and maneuverable as the X-37B.” Michelle Parker, vice president of Boeing’s Space Mission Systems, said in a statement.

After completing its aerobraking maneuvers, the X-37B will resume its testing and experimentation objectives. Once these are accomplished, the vehicle will de-orbit and return to Earth, utilizing its autonomous landing system to touch down horizontally like a conventional aircraft.

The Space Force has not disclosed the expected duration of the current mission.

“This first-of-a kind maneuver from the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain,” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations.

#MILAN — #SpaceX launched its fifth Starship vehicle Oct. 13, successfully making an unprecedented “catch” of its Super Heavy booster back at the launch site.

The Starship/Super Heavy vehicle lifted off from the company’s Starbase site at Boca Chica, Texas, at 8:25 a.m. Eastern on a mission called Flight 5 by SpaceX.

The main upgrade for this test was an attempt by SpaceX to recover the Super Heavy booster by having it come back to the launch site, where it would be cradled by two mechanical arms, sometimes called “chopsticks,” attached to the launch tower it lifted off from. That required the booster to perform precise boostback and landing burns to guide the stage back to the launch pad.

The Super Heavy booster, known as Booster 12, achieved that feat. The booster descended over the pad and the two arms closed around the top of the booster, just below the grid fins, about seven minutes after liftoff, achieving the desired catch of the booster.

Achieving the launch pad return and landing is critical to SpaceX’s long-term ambitions for rapid reflight of the vehicle. In the company’s vision, the landed booster could be rapidly turned around on the pad, with a Starship attached for its next flight within days or even hours.

The success of the catch appeared to take even company leaders by surprise. “I don’t know what to say!” posted Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of the company, on social media, attaching a video of the landing.

Before the launch, though, Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability, was optimistic about the catch attempt. “We landed with half a centimeter accuracy in the ocean” on the previous flight, he said at an Oct. 9 meeting of the National Academies’ Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, “so we think we have a reasonable chance to go back to the tower.”

The Starship vehicle, Ship 30, flew on a suborbital trajectory similar to the previous flight in June, reaching a peak altitude of 212 kilometers. The vehicle appeared to survive reentry in better condition than on that previous flight; SpaceX noted it made changes to Starship’s heatshield. The vehicle made a powered ocean “landing” in the Indian Ocean nearly 66 minutes after liftoff, with the vehicle, not intended to be recovered, exploding several seconds after splashing down.

“Ship landed precisely on target!” Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, posted minutes after the landing. “Second of the two objectives achieved.”
Last-minute license

The launch took place less than 24 hours after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a revised launch license for the mission, the subject of controversy over the last month after SpaceX complained it had been informed by the FAA that the updated license would not be ready until late November.

The license required revisions to an environmental assessment because of changes in the flight profile, including a larger area where the interstage ring, also called a forward heat shield in FAA documents, might be dropped in the Gulf of Mexico as well as a sonic boom analysis for the returning Super Heavy booster.

That environmental analysis, signed and published a few hours before the license was granted, concluded “no structural damage or significant impacts to third-party structures is anticipated” from sonic booms. “No adverse impacts to biological resources in the Gulf of Mexico are anticipated as a result of the proposed change to the forward heat shield landing location,” it stated.

The analysis, though, does include several conditions related to the overall effects of Starship launches at Boca Chica, including “field experiments to determine the extent of the gravel plume impact area” caused by Starship launches, which would support any measures to protect bird nests in the surrounding wildlife preserve, as well as monitor other impacts of the launches on birds there. The company must also provide an annual certification “attesting to SpaceX’s compliance with all applicable environmental laws, regulations, permits, or other authorizations” relating to launches at Starbase.

SpaceX compliance to those laws has also been a topic of controversy regarding the permitting of a water deluge system at the pad, which resulted in the company agreeing to a nearly $150,000 fine from the Environmental Protection Agency for operating the deluge system with an EPA permit. The company noted it did have a permit from Texas regulators.

The revised license requires SpaceX to provide the company with the state and, when completed, EPA permits for the deluge system and “to send the FAA copies of all monitoring data within 45 days of sampling the use of its deluge system.”

The license does allow SpaceX to conduct at least one more launch, called Flight 6, using the same profile without obtaining another authorization from the FAA. “The SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Flight 5 license authorization also includes FAA approval of the Flight 6 mission profile,” the agency stated. “The FAA determined the changes requested by SpaceX for Flight 6 are within the scope of what has been previously analyzed.” The agency didn’t state what those changes were.

#Brightness of first #Chinese broadband constellation satellites alarms astronomers .
The first #satellites of a #Chinese broadband constellation are significantly brighter than those of Western systems, posing a new challenge for astronomers.

In a paper posted on the arXiv preprint server Sept. 30, a group of observational astronomers reported on observations of a set of 18 Qianfan, or “Thousand Sails,” satellites launched in August. The satellites are the first of a constellation that may ultimately consist of more than 14,000 satellites.

The study found that the brightness of the #satellites ranges from magnitude 8 when low in the sky to magnitude 4 when nearly overhead. That makes the satellites, at those higher elevations, bright enough to be seen by the naked eye — which can see objects down to magnitude 6 in dark skies — and well above the threshold of magnitude 7 recommended by professional astronomers it mitigate interference with major groundbased observatories.

“Qianfan satellites are brighter than magnitude 6 except when observed at low elevations in the sky,” the astronomers note in the paper. “So, they will adversely impact professional and amateur astronomical activities unless the operators mitigate their brightness.”

#WASHINGTON — A #Falcon 9 launched a #NASA astronaut and Russian #cosmonaut to the International Space Sept. 28 on the first crewed mission from a historic Cape Canaveral pad.

A Falcon 9 lifted off at 1:17 p.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 04 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It placed into orbit the Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom, which is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station around 5:30 p.m. Eastern Sept. 29.

The Crew-9 mission will deliver NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos Aleksandr Gorbunov to the station. The two will spend about five months on the station as part of Expedition 72.

The launch comes a month after NASA revamped the crew for the mission, removing NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson from the flight. That decision freed up two seats on the spacecraft that will be filled on the return leg by NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who flew to the station on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner in June. NASA elected in August to bring back Starliner uncrewed because of concerns about the performance of its reaction control system thrusters.

Cardman had been commander of Crew-9, but NASA elected to keep Hague, originally the pilot, on the crew because of his previous flight experience. During a Sept. 27 briefing, Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for space operations, said the decision on crew reassignments was made by the agency’s flight operations directorate.

“They looked at the skill mix of the crew and decided it made the most sense to have Aleksandr and Nick fly together,” he said. “I know it was a really close call for them.”

He praised both Hague and Gorbunov for the last-minute training changes needed to fly the spacecraft themselves as well as Cardman and Wilson for accepting being taken off the mission. “We’re going to find spots for them to fly and we really appreciate how hard it is to give up a mission and wait a little bit longer.”

#Japan launched the classified IGS-Radar 8 satellite early Thursday with the second-to-last H-2A rocket.

A #Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H-2A rocket in a figuration with a pair of SRB-A3 solid boosters lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan at 1:24 a.m. Eastern (0524 UTC) Sept. 26. MHI confirmed separation of the IGS-Radar 8 reconnaissance satellite from the launch vehicle around two hours after launch.

Information Gathering #Satellite (IGS) #Radar 8 was launched into sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Japan’s Cabinet Satellite Information Center will operate the satellite. The IGS series includes both optical and radar satellites. Radar 8 will gather data for intelligence purposes and environmental and natural disaster monitoring, as with earlier IGS #satellites.

These massive #satellites play a crucial role in detecting missile launches and providing early warnings of potential threats to U.S. military forces and allied nations. Despite the trend towards smaller, cheaper satellites, the Next-Gen OPIR program underscores the military’s reliance on high-altitude, persistent observation sensors in geostationary and highly elliptical orbits.
Progress amid complexity

Raytheon delivered the first of two infrared payloads for Next-Gen OPIR geosynchronous (GEO) #satellites last month, marking a key milestone in the program. Lockheed Martin is building these satellites, with the Space Force now expecting the first #GEO satellite to be delivered in late 2025.

Frank Calvelli, the Space Force’s top procurement official, said contractors are meeting milestones and development timelines for Next-Gen OPIR at a faster pace than previous systems like SBIRS (Space-Based Infrared System).

“Current production time has been reduced by 50 percent for Next-Gen OPIR GEO when compared to SBIRS’ initial development,” Calvelli said in a statement to SpaceNews.

The Next-Gen OPIR program, initiated in 2018, includes two GEO and two polar satellites in highly elliptical orbits. Northrop Grumman, leading the polar-orbit satellite program, “has been meeting its planned milestones to date,” according to Calvelli. The first polar satellite, scheduled for launch in 2028, is seen as crucial for monitoring missile threats via Northern Hemisphere routes.

#Mexico’s EE Print Pack, Rex Irrigación Huasteca and Grupo Inders will provide “growers across Mexico and Guatemala” with Hydrosat’s tools to improve water use efficiency, increase crop yields and promote sustainable agriculture, Hydrosat announced Sept. 26.

Hydrosat send its first thermal-infrared instrument into low-Earth orbit in July on Loft Orbital’s YAM-7 mission. Data from Hydrosat’s first mission feeds into the company’s IrriWatch platform, which also ingests NASA and European Space Agency thermal-infrared data.

IrriWatch is designed to offer farmers “critical insights on essential crop conditions, such as leaf and soil temperatures, soil moisture, water use, and overall agricultural productivity,” according to the news release. Hydrosat’s goal is to help farmers “maximize yields while minimizing water consumption, supporting fertilizer management through leaf nitrogen monitoring, facilitating carbon sequestration analysis, and delivering hyper-local weather data.”
Improving Yields

EE Print Pack will bring Hydrosat’s technology to Mexico via its newly launched Agrolika division.

“Our collaboration with Hydrosat is the next step in modernizing agriculture across Mexico,” said EE Print Pack CEO Alonso García said in a statement. “By incorporating Hydrosat’s data-driven insights, we are equipping farmers with the tools they need to optimize water usage and improve yields, which is vital for both economic growth and environmental sustainability.”

Rex Irrigación Huasteca will integrate IrriWatch with its offerings for Mexico’s Huasteca region.

“IrriWatch is a tool that allows farmers to monitor their fields reliably and accurately to obtain the highest productivity,” Luis Martínez Rosete, Rex Irrigación Huasteca general manager, said in a statement. “All Mexican farmers need this tool to make decisions based on real-time data from their fields. Together, we are enabling producers to increase yields while promoting responsible resource management.”