LOS ANGELES — Redwire announced a contract June 17 to serve as prime mission integrator for a DARPA satellite with a novel propulsion system for very low Earth orbit (VLEO).

SabreSat, Redwire’s VLEO satellite for government intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, will house “air-breathing” electric propulsion systems being developed through DARPA’s Otter program.

Phantom, another VLEO platform, is being developed by Redwire’s European office for the European Space Agency’s Skimsat mission.

“We are taking an innovative approach to developing a new breed of spacecraft that bridge the gap between air and space,” Spence Wise, Redwire senior vice president for missions and platforms, told SpaceNews by email. “DARPA Otter is the first major win for our SabreSat VLEO platform, and it extends our leadership as a prime integrator and international pioneer in VLEO.”

Redwire did not disclose the value of the multi-year DARPA Otter contract, which includes pricing for design through on-orbit operations.

TAMPA, Fla. — Amazon Web Services is busy positioning its cloud infrastructure business to capitalize on the promise of generative artificial intelligence for transforming space and other industries.

More than 60% of the company’s space and aerospace customers are already using some form of AI in their businesses, according to AWS director of aerospace and satellite Clint Crosier, up from single digits around three years ago.

Crosier predicts similar growth over the next few years in space for generative AI, which uses deep-learning models to answer questions or create content based on patterns detected in massive datasets, marking a major step up from traditional machine-learning algorithms.

Mathematical advances, an explosion in the amount of available data and cheaper and more efficient chips for processing it are a “perfect storm” for the rise of generative AI, he told SpaceNews in an interview, helping drive greater adoption of cloud-based applications.

TAMPA, Fla. — Regulatory delays in India have knocked #Eutelsat off course for reaching 90% of the world with its OneWeb low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband constellation by summer, the French satellite operator said May 14.

The company said last year it was the first to get permission to provide commercial satellite broadband services from IN-SPACe, India’s newly created space regulator, but radio waves from the country’s government still needed to be allocated.

Eutelsat is “on track in terms of landing rights and operating permits with the exception of India” for reaching its mid-2024 coverage goal, chief financial officer Christophe Caudrelier told investors during the operator’s May 14 earnings call.

With 633 satellites in LEO, the operator had planned to start worldwide services in early 2024, before falling behind on regulatory approvals and rolling out gateways for the network.

#WASHINGTON — A Falcon 9 successfully placed into orbit a pair of Galileo navigation satellites April 27 in a launch that was unusual in several aspects.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 8:34 p.m. Eastern, carrying the Galileo GM25 and FM27 satellites. The European Union Agency for the Space Programme, or EUSPA, the EU agency that handles Galileo operations, confirmed the satellites were in orbit and operating several hours later.

The launch took place with a degree of secrecy usually reserved for classified national security launches. SpaceX provided no video from the launch after stage separation and ended its webcast after confirmation of payload fairing separation. The company deferred to the customer for further updates on the mission.

#WASHINGTON — Gravitics, a startup developing modules for commercial space stations, will use its technologies for tactically responsive space applications for the U.S. Space Force.

The company announced April 25 it won a $1.7 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the Space Force. The contract, a “direct to phase 2” SBIR award, is in partnership with Space Systems Command’s Space Safari Program Office.

Gravitics, based near Seattle, is developing modules for use on future commercial space stations. One concept, called StarMax, is a cylindrical module with an aluminum full 7.6 meters in diameter and offers 400 cubic meters of volume, about 40% of the volume of the entire International Space Station

#WASHINGTON — A #NASA Mars smallsat mission is slated to launch in late September on the first flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, assuming the vehicle is ready in time.

In a presentation at a meeting of a planetary protection committee of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) in London April 24, Nick Benardini, NASA’s planetary protection officer, listed a Sept. 29 date for the launch of Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, a pair of smallsats that will go into orbit around Mars to measure the interaction of the planet’s magnetosphere with the solar wind.

#Nicaragua signs up to China’s #ILRS moon program

#HELSINKI — #China’s latest crew of three astronauts arrived at the Tiangong space station Thursday following launch from Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi Desert.

The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft completed rendezvous and docking with Tiangong’s radial docking port at 3:32 p.m. Eastern (1932 UTC), April 25, China’s human spaceflight agency announced shortly after the event.

The Shenzhou-18 astronauts—commander Ye Guangfu and rookies Li Cong and Li Guangsu—will soon be greeted aboard Tiangong by the Shenzhou-17 crew upon opening of the hatch.

#HELSINKI — #China is on target to reach its goal of putting its astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade, according to the country’s human spaceflight agency.

Officials with the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) provided a rare update on the crewed lunar program during a press conference at Jiuquan spaceport April 24.

“The program development for major flight products, including the Long March 10 rocket, the Mengzhou crew spacecraft, the lunar lander Lanyue and the lunar landing suits, are all complete,” said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of CMSEO. “Their prototype production and tests are in full swing.”

Chinese officials previously announced a plan to put a pair of astronauts on the moon before 2030. Two Long March 10 lunar variant rockets will separately launch Mengzhou and three astronauts and th

#WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force in early 2023 floated the idea of establishing a “commercial space reserve” that would allow the military to quickly tap private satellite operators during a conflict.

Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, said the Space Force is in the midst of figuring out how to establish such a commercial reserve, which will require intricate negotiations with satellite operators to hash out binding agreements.

Speaking April 24 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Guetlein said the military’s reliance on private sector contractors during past wars underscores the historical significance of its relationship with industry, and that dynamic that should extend to space operations through the envisioned commercial reserve.