Lawmakers Will Debate Space Amendments to NDAA
House lawmakers submitted 1,100+ amendments to the NDAA. The rules committee met yesterday to decide which ones will be considered on the floor this week. Here’s what’s in, and what’s out.
Jacqueline Feldscher
CNES Taps Industry For 5G D2D Demo
Thales Alenia Space—a joint company between Thales and Leonardo—will lead the consortium, which also includes participation by Thales and Capgemini.
New Acting Director at SDA as Tournear Leaves Agency
Derek Tournear, the inaugural director of SDA, is leaving his position after six years running the office tasked with quickly building satellite constellations to better serve troops.
ispace, Digantara Join Forces on Cislunar SSA
“Through this joint mission, we are laying the foundation for a sustainable lunar ecosystem, where safe operations, resource utilization, and long-term infrastructure go hand in hand.”
Scientists Call For New Agency to Promote, Oversee Space
The Federation of American Scientists recommended that the Space Promotion and Regulatory Agency should be formed by merging the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation and the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce.
Rocket Lab’s Neutron Pad Is Open For Launch
Officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the oceanside Launch Complex 3 on Thursday. While pausing to mark the milestone, however, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said there’s still a lot of work to be done—and that the company is racing to meet its goal of launching Neutron on its first flight by the end of the year.
A Policy Proposal For Happy Hour in Orbit
“This is not to squash anyone’s dreams. This is to say you can’t just go up there and use lead pipes to make bathtub gin.”
Organizations Band Together to Save NASA Science
The organizations’ plan is to educate members of Congress on the importance of NASA science, and the wide-ranging benefits the agency provides to the whole country.
Can the TERP RAPTOR Replace NASA’s Apophis Explorer?
NASA’s budget cuts may force the space agency to miss the chance to study the asteroid Apophis when it makes a close fly-by of Earth—but academia isn’t giving up on the opportunity.
SmallSats Could Have Big Role in Solar Exploration, Too
Small sats have historically mainly made their homes in LEO, but more and more operators are shrinking the size of the platforms they send to GEO and beyond.
SWISSto12 Aims to Boost European Space Sovereignty
HummingSat’s first commercial mission will be a satellite to provide additional capacity for Intelsat (now SES).
Fuel Constraints Impact Uptake of Autonomy In Orbit, Colonel Says
“We have a dynamic going on with the Space Force in space right now in that we’re scared to use our satellites,” Stevens said at a panel on the sidelines of SmallSat hosted by Redwire.