#WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched a South Korean smallsat and a #NASA solar sail experiment on the company’s fifth flight of the year April 23.

An #Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 6:32 p.m. Eastern. Liftoff was delayed nearly 20 minutes because of a problem with ground equipment. The rocket’s kick stage, deployed from the upper stage nine minutes after liftoff, carried out a series of maneuvers to deploy its two payloads into different orbits.

The kick stage first moved into a circular orbit at an altitude of 520 kilometers, deploying the NEONSAT-1 spacecraft about 50 minutes after liftoff. The stage then moved into a 1,000-kilometer orbit before deploying the ACS3 satellite one hour and 45 minutes after liftoff.

#NEONSAT-1, the primary

SAN FRANCISCO – The #European Space Agency has approved major changes in the ClearSpace-1 debris-cleanup mission.

Under the new plan approved by ESA’s Space Safety Programme Board, OHB SE of Bremen, Germany, will provide the satellite bus in addition to leading systems integration and launch. Swiss startup ClearSpace will oversee proximity operations and capture of the mission’s new debris target, ESA’s Project for On-Board Autonomy-1 (PROBA-1) satellite.

Originally, the ClearSpace-1 mission was scheduled to capture a Vega rocket payload adapter, Vespa. In August, the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron notified ESA of debris in the vicinity of Vespa, indicating a probable collision

#WASHINGTON — NASA is continuing to refine its response to a decadal survey for biological and physical sciences in space, balancing ambitious science goals with limited budgets.

The decadal survey, released in September, identified 11 key science questions in three themes: adapting to space, living and traveling to space, and probing phenomena hidden by gravity or terrestrial limitations. It also identified two specific major research campaigns for NASA to undertake in those research areas.

In a recent interview, Lisa Carnell, director of NASA’s biological and physical sciences (BPS) division, said the agency is working to analyze and respond to the recommendations in the decadal survey. That includes an ongoing “roadmapping” approach to link programs to key science questions.

#WASHINGTON — #NASA has approved for development a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan despite a cost that has doubled since the agency selected the mission nearly five years ago.

#NASA announced April 16 that the Dragonfly mission had passed its confirmation review. Passing the review allows #Dragonfly, a nuclear-powered rotorcraft that will travel to various locations on Titan to study the moon’s habitability, to move into full-scale development.

The mission went through part of its confirmation review last fall, but the agency said in November that it would defer a final decision on the mission until the spring, after the release of the fiscal year 2025 budget proposal. NASA also announced then that the launch of the mission, previously scheduled for July 2027, had slipped a year to July 2028

#HELSINKI — #China launched its second Yaogan-42 reconnaissance satellite over the weekend, weeks after sending the first such satellite into a similar orbit.

A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 7:45 p.m. Eastern (2334 UTC) April 20. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success within the hour.

CASC’s statement revealed the previously undisclosed payload to be the second batch of Yaogan-42 satellites. Yaogan translates to “remote sensing”.

Neither #CASC nor Chinese state media provided any details regarding the satellites. These statements omitted usual general descriptions of Yaogan satellites

#COLORADO SPRINGS — Aside from the usual closing festivities, one final-day highlight of the 39th Space Symposium was a heated debate of sci-fi fandoms.

Moderated by SpaceNews Senior Staff Writer Jeff Foust, the April 11 debate saw Team Star Trek, represented by Redwire Chief Growth Officer Mike Gold and NASA Chief Technologist A.C. Charania, go head-to-head with Team Star Wars, consisting of Jessica Noble, general counsel at iSpace Technologies U.S. and Camille Bergin, better known as The Galactic Gal.

In a contentious decision, former NASA administrator and debate judge Jim Bridenstine awarded the victory to Team Star Wars, despite the audience demonstrating an audible preference for Team Star Trek (well, except for that Leonard Nimoy vs Harrison Ford applause poll).

#WASHINGTON — A surge in demand for small satellites to support national security space programs is exposing weaknesses in the U.S. space industrial base, leading to supply chain issues as the military prioritizes rapid deployment of constellations.

In the latest sign of the strain, defense contractor #L3Harris Technologies has sued one of its suppliers, the #aerospace firm Moog Inc., in federal court, alleging Moog failed to timely deliver critical satellite components and that parts it did provide were defective.

The lawsuit, filed in late March in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, is the latest flashpoint in the space industry’s struggle to adapt to the military’s shift toward smaller, more affordable satellites, led by the Space Development Agency

#TAMPA, Fla. — The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded #MDA Space a contract extension worth around $182 million to continue supporting robotics operations on the International Space Station until 2030.

The contract now also includes robotics flight controller duties, in addition to the operational readiness support #MDA Space has provided for the Mobile Servicing System on the ISS since 2001.

MDA Space has previously only provided training to CSA and NASA staff for operating this system, which includes the space station’s 17-meter Canadarm2 robotic arm, alongside mission planning and engineering support.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies released its annual #Space Threat Assessment report April 17. Analysts leveraged open-source information to examine developments in space weapons and trends impacting U.S. national security space systems.

The assessment highlights the expanding anti-satellite capabilities of foreign adversaries, notably #China and #Russia, alongside the world’s growing reliance on space-based systems for critical services. The report also emphasizes the increasing vulnerability of both civilian and commercial space systems, not just to traditional “counterspace” weapons but also to #cyberattacks and #espionage.

#WASHINGTON — #Astrobotic, a company that develops vehicles for space exploration missions, is making a strategic move into the defense sector with its Xogdor reusable rocket, designed to test payloads at the edge of space.

Masten Space Systems, a company acquired by Astrobotic in 2022, started developing the suborbital Xogdor vehicle in 2021. The rocket, expected to debut in 2025, is funded by a NASA contract, “but we are also looking at applications to support the Department of Defense,” Sean Bedford, Astrobotic’s director of business development for propulsion systems, said in an interview last week at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.