Researchers propose #UN goal to curb space #debris .
Countries must unite to include space stewardship in the United Nations’ sustainable development goals to address an escalating threat of orbital debris, an international group of scientists and other experts warned Jan. 9.

The group, including researchers from universities and #NASA, said adding space sustainability to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the UN adopted in 2015 would provide a framework for mitigating orbital debris while fostering global collaboration and accountability.

Existing SDGs range from ending poverty and hunger to combating climate change and protecting biodiversity. Most SDGs have targets for 2030; however, progress has been uneven, with nearly half showing minimal or moderate advancement, according to the UN, amid challenges such as COVID-19, geopolitical tensions, and climate disasters.

Still, with over 100 nations now involved in space activities and nearly 20,000 satellites launched since the 1950s, the group emphasized the need for urgent action to prevent irreparable harm to this vital environment.

Earth’s orbit currently supports $469 billion of human activity annually, the group noted in a report published in the journal One Earth, underpinning critical services like navigation, communications, and ecosystem monitoring. The rapid increase in satellite deployments raises the risk of cascading collisions, known as the Kessler Syndrome, which could render entire orbital regions unusable.

Co-author Melissa Quinn, general manager of international business at California-based space tracking and analytics company Slingshot Aerospace, said its data showed a 17% year-over-year increase in 2024 in the average number of close approaches per satellite in low Earth orbit.

#Rocket Lab asks NASA to open up #MSR to commercial competition

ORLANDO, Fla. — Rocket Lab is asking the incoming administration to reconsider NASA’s plans for Mars Sample Return (MSR), arguing it can offer an approach that is faster and less expensive than the agency’s alternatives.

NASA announced Jan. 7 it would spend the next year and a half studying two new architectures for MSR. One would deliver a sample retrieval lander using a version of the “sky crane” landing system developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. The other would use a commercially developed “heavy lander” to deliver the same lander.

NASA reached that conclusion after reviewing a dozen studies it commissioned in mid-2024 from industry and NASA centers. Among the studies was one by Rocket Lab, which won a study contract several months after the others were awarded.

The company proposed a completely new end-to-end system that would largely use its technologies in launch vehicles, spacecraft and other systems. That approach, which the company outlined on its website after the NASA announcement, is similar to NASA’s earlier architecture, including the use of a sample retrieval lander, Mars ascent vehicle rocket to launch the samples into orbit, and an Earth return orbiter that would bring the samples back to Earth.

The difference, the company argues, is that it can do it faster and cheaper than NASA’s plans. The agency said the two MSR architectures it is considering will cost between $5.8 billion and $7.7 billion and would return samples between 2035 and 2039. That is an improvement over earlier assessments of up to $11 billion and a sample return in 2040.

“We think we’re the organization that can bring these Mars samples home faster and cheaper,” said Richard French, vice president of business development and strategy for space systems at Rocket Lab, in an interview after the #NASA announcement. “Our architecture, as proposed to NASA, was to bring samples back for less than $4 billion and as early as 2031.”

He did not go into details on how Rocket Lab made those cost and schedule assessments, but emphasized the company was leveraging its capabilities across the company, from its Neutron launch vehicle to its work with Varda Space Industries on its reentry vehicle and on the Victus Haze mission for the U.S. Space Force that will feature rendezvous and proximity operations. “A number of these programs are pushing forward the capabilities that we would ultimately need for MSR,” he said.

The company got little response from NASA on its MSR study. “It was pretty frustrating,” French said. “We received very little to no feedback on our inputs.”

He said Rocket Lab wants NASA, rather than to continue studies of MSR, instead open the program to a commercial competition. “If NASA wants to show leadership, it’s to lean into commercial capability and be bold and compete,” he argued. “We’re pretty hopeful with what the new administration is going to bring and how they respond to this set of recommendations.”

Under that approach, NASA might first select several proposals for initial studies before choosing one to carry out the revised MSR program. French noted that NASA is asking for at least $300 million in the final fiscal year 2025 appropriations bill to study the two alternatives the agency is currently considering. “Initial studies with multiple commercial providers would be far more affordable, and it would, in our view, do much more to bring the schedule in and emphasize commercial innovation than the current plan.”

Dutch military signs satellite intelligence deal with #Maxar

#WASHINGTON — U.S. #satellite imagery provider Maxar Intelligence announced a $14.4 million contract with the Netherlands Ministry of Defense, highlighting growing European demand for commercial space intelligence amid heightened global security concerns.

The four-year agreement announced Jan. 9 provides Dutch military users with access to Maxar’s satellite tasking capabilities, imagery archive and data analytics through its Geospatial Platform Pro service.

The deal comes as NATO allies increasingly seek to develop independent geospatial intelligence capabilities, often through partnerships with commercial providers.

“As many NATO countries look to build up their own sovereign geospatial intelligence capabilities, they’re turning more and more to commercial partners,” said Anders Linder, Maxar’s general manager for international government.

The contract will support hundreds of users at the Dutch Defense Geographic Agency conducting mapping, intelligence and operational support missions.
WorldView Legions 5 & 6 ready for launch

Separately, Maxar said it has delivered its final pair of WorldView Legion satellites to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for a planned February launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

These satellites will complete Maxar’s first block of next-generation imaging spacecraft, with four satellites in mid-inclination orbit and six in sun-synchronous orbit. Maxar said this constellation will enable up to 15 daily revisits of specific locations and triple the company’s highest-resolution collection capacity.

The WorldView Legion system provides 30-centimeter resolution imagery, allowing customers to distinguish objects roughly the size of a car hood from space.

TAMPA, Fla. — Astranis said Jan. 10 that all four of its recently launched broadband satellites have passed early tests and begun using electric propulsion to reach #geostationary orbit in the coming months.

The #satellites launched on a Falcon 9 rocket Dec. 29 and feature multiple upgrades over Arcturus, the San Francisco-based manufacturer’s debut spacecraft, which malfunctioned during final testing after reaching orbital position in May 2023.

The failure of both solar array drive assemblies on Arcturus, used to position solar panels that power the satellite, meant it could not fulfill its original mission to provide continuous broadband over Alaska for local telco Pacific Dataport.

Astranis said initial tests for its latest four in-house-built satellites, collectively called Block 2, included placing them in a sun-pointing mode to maximize power generation.

“We’ve spent a week and a half checking out and testing every subsystem on the spacecraft and everything looks fantastic,” Astranis CEO John Gedmark said via email.

“We are now through initial commissioning, with all systems operating nominally, and we’ve kicked off electric orbit raise. Many potential mission risks are now behind us, and all four satellites came out the other side in great shape.”

Astranis said it also tested new software-defined radios on each Block 2 spacecraft, a gimbal set to extend operational life from seven to at least eight years, and a reflector designed to provide 12 gigabits per second of Ka-band throughput that successfully deployed.

The company, which is operating the spacecraft on behalf of customers that have leased their broadband capacity, expects to bring Block 2 services online by the middle of this year.

Two of the satellites, NuView Alpha and NuView Bravo, are intended to provide coverage across the Americas for inflight connectivity provider Anuvu.

Agila is designed to deliver broadband services across the Philippines for local internet service provider HTechCorp. Meanwhile, the multi-mission spacecraft UtilitySat will initially cover Mexico for Apco Networks, a Mexican telecommunications company that has also ordered two of the five Block 3 satellites Astranis plans to launch together this year on an undisclosed rocket.

The Block 3 series would include a replacement satellite for Pacific Dataport, another spacecraft for Orbits Corp, and a satellite for Thai fleet operator Thaicom.

Each 400-kilogram satellite, roughly the size of a dishwasher, is scaled for smaller regional coverage, compared with traditional GEO satellites that are typically the size of a school bus.

WASHINGTON U.S. military satellites manufactured by York Space Systems and SpaceX successfully demonstrated cross-vendor laser communications link in low Earth orbit, marking a milestone for the Pentagon’s next-generation satellite network.

The satellites are part of the U.S. Space Force’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a network designed to enhance military communications and missile tracking capabilities.

The demonstration involved satellites from PWSA’s Tranche 0, an initial phase comprising 27 satellites operating at approximately 1,000 km altitude. The program represents a shift from the military’s traditional reliance on fewer, larger satellites to a more distributed network of smaller spacecraft.

Denver-based York Space Systems announced Jan. 9 that one of its Tranche 0 Transport satellites transmitted data to a Tranche 0 Tracking satellite developed by SpaceX using laser communications terminals. The satellites utilized terminals supplied by Tesat-Spacecom. SpaceX uses internally developed terminals for its commercial satellites.

#WASHINGTON — A defunct military weather #satellite has broken up in orbit and created more than 50 pieces of debris, the latest in a series of similar incidents involving that line of spacecraft.

The U.S. Space Force reported Dec. 19 that it had identified a “low-velocity fragmentation event” involving the DMSP-5D2 F14 spacecraft. The event took place at 9:10 p.m. Eastern Dec. 18 at an altitude of 840 kilometers, but the announcement did not disclose how much debris had been created by the event.

Two commercial space situational awareness companies, LeoLabs and Slingshot Aerospace, said they were also tracking the breakup event. Slingshot, in a Dec. 19 social media post, said they believe the breakup took place before 8:15 p.m. Eastern on the 18th, an hour earlier than the Space Force’s estimate, based on tracking from its optical ground stations.

LeoLabs, in a Dec. 20 statement to SpaceNews, said its network of radars was tracking more than 50 objects from the fragmentation of #DMSP-5D2 F14.

The 750-kilogram satellite was launched in 1997 as part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, operating in a sun-synchronous orbit. The spacecraft was retired in 2020 but remained in its sun-synchronous orbit.

DMSP-5D2 F14 is part of a family of spacecraft that have suffered breakups in orbit. The F12 satellite broke up in October 2016, following the breakup of F13 in February 2015. In 2004, the F11 spacecraft broke up, creating 56 pieces of tracked debris. All the satellites had a battery assembly with a design flaw that made them vulnerable to explosion.

A similar spacecraft design was used for a line of civilian polar-orbiting weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The NOAA-16 satellite broke up in November 2015, followed by NOAA-17 in March 2021.

Many of those satellites broke up despite going through a “passivation” process at the end of their lives, which includes draining batteries and venting fuel tanks. That process is designed to remove energy sources in a satellite that could cause it to break up long after being decommissioned.

Industry experts have noted that the passivation process may not be fully effective on some older satellites designed before orbital debris mitigation practices were enacted.

#SpaceX launched the Thuraya-4 voice and data connectivity satellite Jan. 3 for Space42, the United Arab Emirates’ recently formed AI-powered space technology champion.

The first Falcon 9 mission of 2025 placed the satellite in a geostationary transfer orbit, shortly lifting off at 8:27 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Based on the Airbus Eurostar Neo Platform, the all-electric Thuraya-4 is equipped with a 12-meter L-band antenna to provide narrowband connectivity for mobile devices across Europe, Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East.

Yahsat, the UAE-based satellite operator merger that merged with local artificial intelligence provider Bayanat in October to form Space42, ordered Thuraya-4 in 2020 to succeed two aging Boeing-built spacecraft in geostationary orbit (GEO).

The contract included an option for a second satellite that would replace mobile satellite services over Asia, but this option has not been exercised.

Thuraya-4 was initially slated to launch in 2023, before Airbus ran into schedule and cost issues in its space business. Until recently, the satellite was also lined up for a launch in December, in a year SpaceX had hoped to perform a total 148 missions to orbit.

SpaceX ultimately closed out 2024 with 134 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches, up from 96 in 2023 and more than the rest of the world combined.

Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer at SpaceX, recently said the company is targeting 175-180 launches in 2025.

Ali Al Hashemi, CEO of Space42’s Yahsat Space Services division, said in a statement that Thuraya-4 will help the company “unlock innovative AI-powered services for our global client base,” but did not elaborate.

#HELSINKI — A #Chinese commercial Kinetica-1 solid rocket failed late Thursday, with the launch attempt setting a new domestic record for launches in a calendar year.

The #Kinetica-1 (Lijian-1) solid rocket lifted off at 8:03 p.m. Eastern Dec. 26 (0103 UTC Dec. 27) from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Rocket operator CAS Space confirmed the failure hours after liftoff.

“We can confirm that the first two stages were nominal. Stage 3 lost attitude three seconds after ignition and the self-destructing mechanism was activated,” CAS Space said in a statement. It added that the investigation into the cause of the anomaly is ongoing. CAS Space is a launch spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, aiming to secure contracts to launch domestic and international payloads.

Aboard were an undeclared number of satellites. These are known to include CASAA-Sat from the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory (LAM), supported by French space agency CNES, a cubesat intended to study the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly, and DEAR-3 (B300-L01), a 300-kilogram cargo spacecraft from Chinese commercial space firm AZSpace. The spacecraft carried science payloads.

#BlueOrigin test fires New Glenn first stage ahead of inaugural launch .
The seven BE-4 #engines in the first stage of New Glenn ignited shortly before 8 p.m. Eastern at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The engines fired for 24 seconds, Blue Origin said in a statement, including 13 seconds at 100% thrust.

The static-fire test was the culmination of a test campaign that involved loading propellants into both stages of the launch vehicle and going through practice countdowns. The company appeared to outside observers to be preparing to ignite the engines several times earlier in the day but did not do so. The company did not provide details about the tests while in progress during the day, or during similar tests Dec. 21 that also did not culminate with a static fire.

The company said the test campaign demonstrated “day-of-launch” operations of the rocket and validate vehicle and ground systems before an actual launch attempt. “The campaign met all objectives and marks the final major test prior to launch,” the company stated.

The test came hours after the Federal Aviation Administration granted a launch license to Blue Origin for New Glenn. The license authorizes the company to carry out New Glenn launches from Cape Canaveral, although with few details about specific trajectories or other conditions for such launches.

“By working closely with Blue Origin, the FAA issued this new launch license well in advance of the statutory deadline for the historic maiden flight of New Glenn,” Kelvin Coleman, associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA, said in a Dec. 27 statement.

#WASHINGTON — Startup Turion Space has been awarded a $32.6 million contract by the U.S. Space Force to launch three small satellites designed to monitor and track objects such as space debris.

The contract is part of a Strategic Financing Initiative (#STRATFI) agreement from SpaceWERX — the Space Force’s technology innovation arm — that matches government funds with private investment to accelerate the development and deployment of commercial space systems.

#SpaceWERX first announced the agreement with Turion Space in August, with the formal contract award on Dec. 18.

Based in Irvine, California, Turion Space specializes in satellites and software solutions for space situational awareness, debris removal, and other in-orbit services. The company won prior Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts from SpaceWERX and NASA to advance its technology.
Space domain awareness missions

Under the STRATFI agreement, Turion Space will develop three small satellites scheduled for launch in 2026 and 2027, said the company’s CEO and co-founder Ryan Westerdahl. They will perform missions in both low Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO), carrying payloads for space surveillance and debris tracking.

He said the satellites will be equipped with commercial optical communication terminals for high-data-rate, real-time command and control capabilities. “Each vehicle will carry three space domain awareness payloads and a long-range imager for non-Earth imaging,” Westerdahl said. “Get your Apple Vision Pro ready for live debris capture feed,” he added, referencing Apple’s mixed-reality headset.

Turion launched its first small satellite, Droid.001, in June 2023. The spacecraft was designed for space situational awareness and data it collected has been integrated into the Space Force’s Unified Data Library — a centralized repository of commercial and government data. The new STRATFI contract enables Turion to scale its technology for more complex missions and operational scenarios.

The Space Force contract focuses on demonstrating rendezvous and proximity operations which are key capabilities for potential debris removal missions. These operations require precise maneuvering near other objects in space.