Tag: competition

SpaceX launches three payloads

8:44 am

SpaceX yesterday successfully launched three different payloads on its third “Bandwagon” launch, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.

The first stage completed its third flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral. The fairings completed their second and fifteenth flights respectively.

The rocket’s primary payload was a commercial satellite for a South Korean company. Next was a commercial weather smallsat from the startup Tomorrow.

The third payload was from the European company Atmos, and was intended to test its deployable heat shield designed to protect payloads returning from orbit. According to the company, preliminary data says the deployment and return went as planned.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

46 SpaceX
20 China (with a launch scheduled for this morning)
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 46 to 35.

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Rocket Lab gets two big military contracts, from the Space Force and the UK

9:17 am

Due to its success in quickly redesigning the first stage of its Electron rocket into a hypersonic test vehicle dubbed HASTE, Rocket Lab has now won two very large hypersonic test program contracts from both the American Space Force as well as the United Kingdom.

Rocket Lab has been selected by the U.S. Air Force to participate within its Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract (EWAAC), a $46 billion indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract designed for the rapid acquisition of innovative technologies, engineering services, and technical solutions that develops the Air Force’s new capabilities. The program has a contracting period through to 2031 and is designed to be broad in scope, flexible in funding, and agile for maximum use to enable the Air Force to quickly procure services and technologies across various domains.

Further, Rocket Lab has also been selected by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (UK MOD) for its Hypersonic Technologies & Capability Development Framework (HTCDF), a ~$1.3 billion (£1 billion) framework to rapidly develop advanced hypersonic capabilities for the United Kingdom. As a newly-selected supplier to the HTCDF, Rocket Lab is now eligible to bid to provide services, technologies, and testing capabilities that support the UK’s development of sovereign hypersonic technology.

In both cases Rocket Lab will bid for test contracts using HASTE.

These deals indicate that Rocket Lab has essentially grabbed the business that Stratolaunch had been vying for with its giant Roc airplane and Talon test drop vehicles. Stratolaunch might get some contracts, but it appears the bulk of the work will instead go to Rocket Lab. It also appears that Stratolaunch has also been beaten to this business by the startup Varda, which has also won an Air Force contract for hypersonic testing using its orbital capsules during their return to Earth.

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India’s Spadex mission completes second autonomous docking

9:06 am

According to one government official, India’s space agency ISRO has now successfully completed a second autonomous docking in orbit using the target and chase spacecraft of its Spadex mission, launched in December 2024.

Between the undocking on March 13 and the second docking operation, Isro had carried out a “rolling” or “rotating” experiment — in late March. … At the time, Narayanan [ISRO chairman], while confirming the success of the operation, had said that more experiments were in store. … “…The satellites have a lot of propellant… I have only told [the teams] one thing, please do everything [on] simulation on ground [first]. Let us be very careful. Let us not make any mistakes as a wealth of data can be generated [through various experiments].”

The rolling experiment, which was likened to the Chandrayaan-3 “hop” experiment the space agency conducted on Moon in terms of learning it provides for future missions, helped Isro validate multiple softwares, ground station control and more.

This second docking further confirms the technology and the ability of ISRO’s engineers to perform it. Originally the plan had been to do only one docking. The two spacecraft were to then undock and go their separate ways, doing other orbital research. Narayanan changed that plan, since this technology is essential for India’s planned space station. The focus is now on multiple test dockings, in a variety of configurations, with more to come.

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SpaceX launches cargo Dragon to ISS; Problems with Tenacity?

8:55 am

Early this morning SpaceX successfully launched a cargo Dragon to ISS, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first stage completed its fifth flight, landing back at Kennedy. The capsule is on its fifth flight, and is carrying significantly more cargo than previous SpaceX cargo missions because it has had to replace much of the cargo that would have been launched on a Cygnus capsule whose launch was cancelled because it had been damaged during transport.

Furthermore, as part of their updates on this mission NASA officials revealed that Sierra Space’s cargo mini-shuttle, Tenacity, is facing more delays, and is now not expected to launch until late this year. This Dream Chaser spacecraft had begun ground testing early in 2024, with a first launch planned for shortly thereafter. For reasons that have not been explained, that ground testing has now been going on for more than a year, and will apparently continue for most of 2025. My guess is that the spacecraft has experienced engineering problems during that testing, and has required fixes that neither Sierra Space nor NASA wishes to reveal.

The result has been that NASA has had a shortage of cargo vehicles to keep ISS supplied. A significant number of science experiments had to be removed from today’s Dragon to make room for consumerables. NASA officials also stated publicly during this update that it is now definitely considering using Starliner as a cargo vehicle on its next flight, a plan that previously had only been hinted at.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

45 SpaceX (with another launch scheduled for later today)
20 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 45 to 35.

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Northrop Grumman’s first Mission Extension Vehicle completes first commercial undocking in space

9:50 am

On April 9, 2025 Northrop Grumman’s first Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-1) successfully undocked from an Intelsat communications satellite five years after attaching itself to it and extending its operational life for that time period.

This was the first autonomous undocking by two commercial spacecraft ever.

MEV-1 has provided five years of life-extension services to IS-901, allowing Intelsat to operate this space-based asset beyond its design life. In 2020, MEV-1 successfully proved docking with IS-901 was possible in the GEO graveyard orbit and brought IS-901 back into operation in GEO. Now that life-extension services are complete, MEV-1 released the IS-901 satellite back into the GEO graveyard and is relocating to the next servicing mission.

The company did not name the satellite for MEV-1’s next servicing mission. Meanwhile the company’s second MEV remains docked to another Intelsat communications satellite, its contract extended to double the amount of time it will provide service to the satellite.

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Soyuz safely returns three astronauts from ISS

9:42 am

A Russian Soyuz capsule successfully landed in Kazakhstan this morning, bring two Russians and one American back to Earth after a seven month mission to ISS.

The American on board, Don Petit, also celebrated his 70th birthday today, completing his fourth mission in space. According to the article at the link, he did not do well upon landing, requiring significant aid to exit the capsule. The picture released by NASA of him being carried to the medical tent shows him smiling with a thumbs up, but he is clearly unable to walk at this point on his own. That fact by itself is not significant, because many astronauts after missions lasting longer than six months need aid upon return. It does indicate however that this flight is almost certainly Petit’s last one. As that NASA release it notes he “is doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth.”

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SpaceX launches another classified satellite for National Reconnaissance Office

9:34 am

SpaceX early this morning successfully launched a classified reconnaissance satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

The first stage completed its twelfth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

44 SpaceX
20 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 44 to 35.

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China launches six technology test satellites

9:50 pm

China today successfully placed a set of six technology test satellites into orbit, its Long March 6 rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters crashed inside China. Furthermore, the upper stage of the Long March 6 rocket, which reaches orbit, has a history of breaking up and creating clouds of space junk. We have no assurance from China whether they have fixed this issue.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

43 SpaceX
20 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 43 to 35. (Note: this last number is corrected from the previous update, which was one number short.)

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Two different states in India announce space policies

11:15 am

Map of India

Capitalism in space: In another indication that India’s governments are going full bore for private enterprise in space, two different Indian states this week announced new space policies designed to attract private investment and space startups.

Those two states, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, are shown on the map to the right. Tamil Nadu announced its new space industrial policy hopes to attract more than a billion dollars in space companies to the state. Gujaret in turn announced its own space policy aimed at attracting $5 billion in investment and 25,000 jobs over the next five years.

It is not surprising that Tamil Nadu has issued this policy, considering that it is the state where India’s new second spaceport, Kulasekarapattinam, is located, and is being built as a launch site for commerical operations. Gujaret is at first glance less obvious, but it houses a major facility of India’s space agency ISRO. It is also one of India’s most industrialized states.

Both however illustrate the impact of the Modi government because of its policy to encourage private enterprise and de-emphasize government control. Not only is the federal government pushing capitalism, the country’s individual states are joining in.

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An American government program to get to the Moon is simply not necessary; If we let them Americans will do it on their own

12:08 pm

As a historian I often bring to any discussion of modern politics and our American space effort a perspective that is very alien to modern Americans. I see things as they once were in the United States back before we had a big overbearing federal government that everyone looked to for leadership. Instead, I see the possibilities inherent in a free nation led by the people themselves, not the government, as America was for its first two centuries.

This sadly is not how America functions today, and it is for that reason that as a nation we can no longer get great things accomplished routinely, as we once did.

Norwegian Amundsen, first to reach the south pole
Norwegian Amundsen, first to reach the south pole.

To understand how different the American mindset once was, consider just one example, the 19th century effort by numerous nations and individuals to plant their flag at both the north and south poles. While a handful of private American citizens mounted their own expeditions to reach the north pole, none attempted to do so in Antarctica. At both poles the bulk of the effort was done by other nations, sometimes on expeditions privately funded, and sometimes by expeditions with extensive government aid.

In the U.S. however there was no government program to compete in this race. Nor was their the slightest desire by Americans to create one. The attitude of Americans then was very straightforward. They found the race to get to the poles exciting and fascinating, and thoroughly supported the efforts of the explorers both intellectually and emotionally. They however had no interest in their government committing one dime of their tax dollars on its own campaign.

You see, they did not feel a need to establish American prestige in this manner. So what other nations got to the poles first? What mattered to Americans then was what each American wanted to do, and what Americans wanted to do in the 19th century was to settle the west and build their nation into a prosperous place to raise their children.

And so, the south pole was first reached by a Norwegian, followed mere weeks later by an Englishman. Americans played no major role in that early exploration. Nor did it harm America’s prestige in the slightest that it did not compete there. The nation was growing in wealth and prosperity, its citizens were completely free in all ways to follow their dreams, and everyone worldwide knew it.

America might not be the leader in far-flung exploration, but the world knew it was the leader in something as important if not more so, the idea that a nation and a government could be built on the premise that the citizen is sovereign, and that all law should be based on making that citizen’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness primary in all things.

And in the end, it did not really matter that the U.S. did not compete in that race to the poles. » Read more

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Oman announces aggressive ’25 launch schedule and public viewing area at its new Duqm spaceport

9:59 am

Middle East, showing Oman's proposed spaceport
The Middle East, showing the location of
Oman’s proposed spaceport at Duqm.

Oman yesterday announced that it has added a viewing area so that the public can view the planned half dozen launches that are presently planned for the rest of 2025 at its new spaceport in Duqm.

A three-day fan experience in the free-of-charge zone, called Etlaq FX, will feature a series of activities for different age groups, including a robotics competition.

“It is an interactive area within the spaceport, so we can give the public an opportunity to see the launch and engage them with educational activities,” said Zainab Alsalhi, business development manager for Etlaq, during a webinar this month.

The announced launch schedule is of course the real story, as it involves five launches from two different commercial companies as well as from Kuwait.
» Read more

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Northrop Grumman launches reconnaissance satellite

8:40 am

Northrop Grumman yesterday successfully launched a National Reconnaissance Office surveillance satellite, its Minotaur-4 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

This was the company’s first launch since 2023. Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket has been out of commission since the company used up its Ukrainian-built first stages, waiting for Firefly to complete its replacement. The repurposed Minotaur-4 missile does not have the capability to replace it.

The leader board for the 2025 launch race remains unchanged:

43 SpaceX
19 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 43 to 33.

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The Bahamas suspends further Falcon 9 1st stage landings pending environmental report

12:15 pm

The government of the Bahamas has suspended any further Falcon 9 1st stage landings within its territorial waters until SpaceX completes and submits a full environmental report that proves the one previous drone ship landing in February caused no environmental changes at all.

This quote from the article explains everything:

Addressing calls from environmentalists for an EIA, Mr Dontchev [SpaceX’s vice president of launch] said officials heard their feedback. He added that SpaceX hopes to complete the EIA by the end of summer and resume landings thereafter.

The economic impact of space tourism in The Bahamas has also come into focus. [Deputy Prime Minister Chester] Cooper said the February landing could have sparked a greater interest among students inspiring them to pursue STEM studies. SpaceX also announced its $1m donation to the University of The Bahamas in support of STEM education. [emphasis mine]

First, anti-Musk activists, using the environment as a ploy, made enough noise that the Bahamas government felt forced to bow to them. Second, SpaceX is making sure that government will bow more to it by contributing a lot money to its government educational programs.

Expect more landings soon, as SpaceX predicts.

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China successfully tests a three-satellite constellation in lunar space

9:40 am

China/Russian Lunar base roadmap
The original Chinese-Russian lunar base plan, from June 2021.
Most of the Russian components are not expected to launch.

China’s state-run press today announced that it has successfully completed the first three-satellite communications test of a constellation in a Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) in lunar space.

DRO-A and DRO-B, two satellites developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and deployed in the DRO, have established inter-satellite measurement and communication links with DRO-L, a previously launched near-Earth orbit satellite. The achievement was disclosed at a symposium on Earth-moon space DRO exploration in Beijing on Tuesday.

DRO is a unique type of orbit, and the Earth-moon space refers to the region extending outward from near-Earth and near-lunar orbits, reaching a distance of up to 2 million kilometers from Earth. In the Earth-moon space, DRO is characterized by a prograde motion around Earth and a retrograde motion around the moon, said Wang Wenbin, a researcher at the CAS’ Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU). Since DRO provides a highly stable orbit where spacecraft require little fuel to enter and stay, it serves as natural space hub connecting Earth, the moon and deep space, offering support for space science exploration, the deployment of space infrastructure, and crewed deep-space missions, Wang said.

On Feb. 3, 2024, the experimental DRO-L satellite was sent into a sun-synchronous orbit and began conducting experiments as planned. The DRO-A/B dual-satellite combination was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province on March 13, 2024, but failed to enter its intended orbit due to an anomaly in the upper stage of the carrier rocket.

Facing this challenge, the satellite team performed a “life-or-death” rescue operation under extreme conditions, promptly executing multiple emergency orbit maneuvers to correct the trajectory of the two satellites. After a journey of 8.5 million kilometers, the DRO-A/B dual-satellite combination ultimately reached its designated orbit, according to Zhang Hao, a researcher at CSU who participated in the rescue operation.

On Aug. 28, 2024, the two satellites were successfully separated. Later, both DRO-A and DRO-B established K-band microwave inter-satellite measurement and communication links with DRO-L, testing the networking mode of the three-satellite constellation, Zhang said.

China’s government space program continues to follow a very rational and well-thought-out plan for establishing a manned base on the Moon, as shown in the 2021 graph to the right that China appears to be achieving as planned. While it is very likely it will not meet its 2030 goal for landing a human on the Moon, it is clearly establishing the technology for making that landing in a reasonable timeline with a later long-term permanent presence in a lunar base possible.

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German rocket startup Rocket Factory Augsburg replaces its CEO

9:27 am

Screen capture of test failure
Screen capture from video of test failure in August 2024.
Note the flame shooting out sideways.

In a major managerial shake-up as it preps for its first launch attempt later this year, the German rocket startup Rocket Factory Augsburg has replaced its CEO, switching from someone with more general business experience to a CEO with a lot of direct experience in the space industry itself.

In an April 11 statement not widely publicized by the company, RFA announced that Stefan Tweraser, who had been chief executive since October 2021, had been replaced by Indulis Kalnins.

The announcement did not give a reason for the change, but it suggested that the company was seeking someone with expertise in the aerospace industry to lead the company. Kalnins is on the aerospace faculty of a German university, Hochschule Bremen, and has been managing director of OHB Cosmos, which focused on launch services.

…Tweraser, by contrast, came from outside the space industry. He joined RFA after past work that included being a consultant at McKinsey & Company, country director for the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region at Google and executive at music streaming company Deezer. [emphasis mine]

The highlighted phrase provides I think the explanation for the change. The company had hoped to launch last year, but had a major failure during a static fire engine test on the launchpad, destroying the rocket first stage. The company has probably decided it needed someone in charge who had some hands-on experience with launchpad operations.

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Blue Origin completes ground simulation of Orbital Reef space station

9:16 am

Artist rendering of Orbital Reef design, as of April 2025
Artist rendering of Orbital Reef design, as of
April 2025. Click for original image.

According to a NASA press release today, Blue Origin has successfully completed a ” human-in-the-loop test” in a ground mock-up of the commercial Orbital Reef space station.

The human-in-the-loop test scenarios utilized individual participants or small groups to perform day-in-the-life walkthroughs in life-sized mockups of major station components. Participants provided feedback while simulating microgravity operations, including cargo transfer, trash transfer, stowage, and worksite assessments.

…The milestone is part of a NASA Space Act Agreement originally awarded to Blue Origin in 2021 and focused on the design progress for multiple worksites, floors, and translation paths within the station. This ensures a commercial station can support human life, which is critical to advancing scientific research in a microgravity environment and maintaining a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit.

Though this test might be providing useful information, it leaves me cold. While Blue Origin’s partner in this project, Sierra Space, has been testing real hardware for its LIFE inflatable module (as seen on the left side of the artist’s rendering above), Blue Origin itself appears to have built nothing real. Instead, it is following the old big space paradigm of companies like Boeing that invest none of its own money in development. Instead, the company uses NASA’s development money solely for PR mockups, in the hope the PR will convince NASA to give it the full contract, worth billions. Only then will the real work begin.

Boeing did this with Starliner, and we can all see now how well that turned out.

It also appears that the overall scale of Orbital Reef has been reduced significantly when comparing the current design above with the earlier artist renderings.

Based on this new information, I have dropped Orbital Reef to the bottom in my rankings of the four private space stations presently under development. While Starlab has built as little (following the same play-it-safe paradigm), the company has at least gotten its final design approved. It has also signed a partnership with the European Space Agency, giving it a powerful government backer in addition to NASA.

  • Haven-1, being built by Vast, with no NASA funds. The company is moving fast, with Haven-1 to launch and be occupied in 2026 for a 30 day mission. It hopes this actual hardware and manned mission will put it in the lead to win NASA’s phase 2 contract, from which it will build its much larger mult-module Haven-2 station..
  • Axiom, being built by Axiom, has launched three tourist flights to ISS, with a fourth scheduled for this spring, carrying passengers from India, Hungary, and Poland. Though there have been rumors it has cash flow issues, development of its first module has been proceeding more or less as planned.
  • Starlab, being built by a consortium led by Voyager Space, Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, with an extensive partnership agreement with the European Space Agency. It recently had its station design approved by NASA.
  • Orbital Reef, being built by a consortium led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. Overall, Blue Origin has built almost nothing, while Sierra Space has successfully tested its inflatable modules, including a full scale version, and appears ready to start building its module for launch.
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Italy awards Italian company contract to design constellation of radio telescopes orbiting the Moon

8:45 am

Capitalism in space: The Italian Space Agency has awarded the Italian company Blue Skies Space a contract to design a constellation of radio telescopes orbiting the Moon and designed to map the universe’s earliest radio emissions.

The project, named RadioLuna, aims to uncover whether a fleet of small satellites in a lunar orbit could detect faint radio signals from the universe’s earliest days—signals that are nearly impossible to pick up on Earth due to man-made radio interference. These signals, in the FM radio range, come from a time before the first stars formed, when the universe was mostly hydrogen gas. By listening from the far side of the Moon, free from Earth’s radio noise, scientists could use the satellites to uncover a missing piece of the puzzle in our understanding of the cosmic “dark ages.”

The study will establish the viability of operating simple and cost-effective CubeSats equipped with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components orbiting the Moon and will be led by Blue Skies Space Italia S.r.l., a subsidiary of UK-based Blue Skies Space Ltd. Project partner OHB Italia will be responsible for the definition of a viable platform in a Moon orbit.

The contract is another example of Italy (and Europe) shifting to private enterprise in space. Rather than design this project in-house, its space agency is contracting it out to private companies.

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SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites

9:54 pm

Continuing its relentless launch pace, SpaceX this evening successfully launched another 27 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 27th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. This is a new record for flights by a Falcon 9 booster, exceeding the space shuttle Endeavour’s record of 25 by two, and trailing the space shuttle Columbia by only one. The record for most reflights by a spacecraft is presently 39 by the space shuttle Discovery, followed by the shuttle Atlantis at 33. Expect several Falcon 9 boosters to exceed these numbers in the next two years.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

43 SpaceX
19 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 43 to 33.

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New Trump executive order requires Pentagon to “prioritize commercial solutions”

9:24 am

A new Trump executive order signed on April 9, 2025 now requires the space divisions in the Defense Department to “prioritize commercial solutions” in all its future space projects.

The executive order, called “Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base,” referenced commercial technology multiple times, including call to utilize existing authorities to “expedite acquisitions throughout the Department of Defense, including a first preference for commercial solutions” and “the restructuring of performance evaluation metrics for acquisition workforce members to include the ability to demonstrate and apply a first consideration of commercial solutions.”

According to Pentagon officials, this order simply underlines what they have been doing. Maybe so, but the reason the Pentagon has been moving in this direction is not because it wanted to, but because of two factors in the past decade that forced action. First, for the past three decades the Pentagon has increasingly failed to get much accomplished in space. Under Air Force leadership (before the creation of the Space Force) the military focused on designing its own big satellites, creating projects that generally went overbudget and behind schedule. That general failure demanded change.

Second, to institute change Trump created the Space Force in his first term with the express desire to shift the military from building its own gold-plated satellites to buying them from the private sector. And despite the four years when Biden was president, the Pentagon maintained that shift, which is why this new Trump executive order will do little to disturb its present space plans.

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Indian satellite thruster manufacturer opens American factory

9:09 am

Capitalism in space: The Indian satellite company Bellatrix, which up-to-now has manufactured electrical attitude thrusters for satellites built by India’s space agency, has now opened a factory in Delaware in order to attract business from American satellite companies.

Bellatrix hired Chris MacDonald, a former business development director at rocket developer Astra and satellite provider Terran Orbital, to lead its recently created U.S. subsidiary, headquartered in Delaware. The manufacturing facility would support localized production, testing and delivery of propulsion systems to enable faster turnaround times and closer collaboration with U.S.-based customers, MacDonald said via email.

Founded in 2015, Bellatrix’s electric hall effect thruster has been used in a handful of missions for India’s space agency in recent years.

Bellatrix is not the only foreign space company to open offices in the U.S. for similar reasons. The Japanese startups Astroscale and Ispace have done the same, as well as several other companies listed in the article at the link. It appears the new American launch industry, which has significantly lowered the cost to orbit, is attracting orbital business from across the world.

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Vast signs three more customers to fly payloads on its first space station

8:58 am

Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule

The space station startup company Vast has now signed up three more customers to fly payloads on its first space station, Haven-1, due to launch now in the spring of 2026 on a 30-day-long private commercial manned mission.

Vast announced April 8 that Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation (JAMSS), Interstellar Lab and Exobiosphere will fly research payloads on the Haven-1 station launching no earlier than May 2026. They join Redwire and Yuri as payload partners for the station.

JAMSS, which has supported research on Japan’s Kibo module on the International Space Station, will provide a multi-purpose payload facility for microgravity research on Haven-1. Interstellar Lab, a French company, will provide an advanced life sciences research facility called Eden 1.0 that will be used for experiments such as plant growth. Exobiosphere, based in Luxembourg, will fly a biotechnology payload to perform pharmaceutical and healthcare experiments.

The company says it still has one or two payload racks available for additional customers, suggesting that it is finding enough demand to justify profitable commercial operations.

Below are the four private space stations presently under development, with those I consider the most advanced in development ranked first:

  • Haven-1, being built by Vast, with no NASA funds. The company is moving fast, with Haven-1 to launch and be occupied in 2026 for a 30 day mission. It hopes this actual hardware and manned mission will put it in the lead to win NASA’s phase 2 contract, from which it will build its much larger mult-module Haven-2 station..
  • Axiom, being built by Axiom, has launched three tourist flights to ISS, with a fourth scheduled for this spring, carrying passengers from India, Hungary, and Poland. Though there have been rumors it has cash flow issues, development of its first module has been proceeding more or less as planned.
  • Orbital Reef, being built by a consortium led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. Though Blue Origin has apparently done little, Sierra Space has successfully tested its inflatable modules, including a full scale version, and appears ready to start building the station’s modules for launch.
  • Starlab, being built by a consortium led by Voyager Space, Airbus, and Northrop Grumman. It recently had its station design approved by NASA.
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China launches another technology test communications satellite payload

10:52 pm

China today successfully launched a test technology satellite for doing “multi-band and high-speed communication technology validation tests, possibly for future large internet/communications constellations, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

40 SpaceX
19 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 40 to 33.

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Congress: Let’s throw some more astronaut lives away so we can preen for the camera!

2:48 pm

Jared Isaacman
Jared Isaacman

Here we go again: As I noted yesterday, the hearing this week of Jared Isaacman, Donald Trump’s nomination to become NASA’s next administrator, revealed almost nothing about what Isaacman plans to do once confirmed by the Senate. He very carefully kept his options open, even while he strongly endorsed getting Americans on the Moon as fast as possible in order to beat the Chinese there. When pressed by senators from both parties to commit to continuing the SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway projects to make that happen, Isaacman picked his words most cautiously. He noted that at the moment that plan seemed the best for getting to the Moon first. He also noted repeatedly that this same plan is years behind schedule and overbudget.

Like any smart businessman, Isaacman knows he cannot make any final decisions about SLS, Orion, or Gateway until he takes office and can aggressively dig into the facts, as administrator. He also knew he could not say so directly during this hearing, for to do so would antagonize senators from both parties who want those programs continued because of the money it pours into their states. So he played it coy, and the senators accepted that coyness in order to make believe they were getting what they want.

But what do these senators want? It appears our politicians (including possibly Trump) want NASA to launch humans to the Moon using SLS and Orion and do so as quickly as possible, despite knowing that both have real engineering issues of great concern. Instead, our elected officials want politics to determine the lunar flight schedule, instead of engineering, the same attitude that killed astronauts on Apollo 1 in 1967, on Challenger in 1986, and on Columbia in 2003. The engineering data then said unequivocally that things were not safe and that disaster was almost guaranteed, but NASA and Congress demanded the flights go on anyway, to serve the needs of politics.

With SLS and Orion it is now the same foolishness all over again. » Read more

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Anti-Musk terrorists damage Musk statue in Brownsville

9:23 am

In another demonstration of their intolerance and willingness to commit violence and vandalism, anti-Musk terrorists have damaged a bust of Elon Musk in Brownsville that had been placed there by a French entrepreneur.

A 9-foot-tall statue depicting a bust of tech billionaire Elon Musk has been vandalized in South Texas. According to multiple posts across social media, the statue of the SpaceX CEO was vandalized not far from where the company’s Starbase facility sits near Boca Chica Beach.

“The recently installed Elon Musk statue, known as ‘Elonrwa,’ has been damaged. Visible patches of the outer layer appear to have been peeled off the face,” a Facebook user who goes by RGV.me said in an April 8 Facebook post. The Facebook post is accompanied by a photograph showing two areas where it appears a top layer of material has been stripped from the statue, revealing a white or pale gray layer underneath.

This senseless hate of Musk, almost certainly committed by supporters of the Democratic Party — which has been encouraging this violence because it sees Musk as an opponent — must end. And if the fools perpetrating this vandalism don’t come to their senses and stop voluntarily, they should be stopped by force and imprisonment. Just because you disagree with someone on policy does not give you the right to break the law.

And if you doubt this vandalism isn’t being spurred on eagerly by the leadership of the now vile and wholly evil Democratic Party, you need only watch that party’s Senate leader, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York), practically endorse it when asked:
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Isaacman’s nomination hearing reveals nothing of note

10:00 am

Jared Isaacman
Jared Isaacman

The Senate committee on commerce, science, and transportation has just concluded its hearing on the nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator. Several take-aways:

First, there was little opposition to Isaacman on either side of the aisle. He will be confirmed easily.

Second, Isaacman was very careful to say nothing that might commit him to keeping all present Artemis programs (such as SLS, Orion, or Gateway) unchanged. He instead made it clear his goal is for NASA to attempt a parallel programs to establish a permanent American presence on both the Moon and Mars. This enthusiasm suggests he sees Starship as the vehicle capable of making those parallel programs possible.

In other words, he kept his options open. His goal is to get the Artemis program functioning more efficiently, and will do whatever is necessary to do so. He repeatedly made it clear that too many of NASA’s projects, including specifically Artemis, are routinely overbudget and behind schedule, and this must be fixed.

At the same time he said his goal is to get Americans back to the Moon ahead of the Chinese, and suggested that the present plan using SLS and Orion is likely the fastest way to do so. The technical issues that might make that program very unsafe for the astronauts however were never mentioned.

We shall see whether Isaacman as administrator will be so sanguine about sending Americans around the Moon within an Orion capsule with a questionable heat shield.

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Firefly wins Space Force contract to test orbital maneuvers with its Elytra space tug

12:33 pm

Firefly yesterday announced it has been awarded a Space Force contract to use its Elytra space tug to test orbital maneuvers designed for military purposes.

As part of the mission, Elytra will host a suite of government payloads, including optical visible and infrared cameras, a responsive navigation unit, and a universal electrical bus with a payload interface module. Firefly’s Elytra Dawn configuration will utilize common components from the company’s launch vehicles and lunar landers, including the avionics, composite structures, and propulsion systems, to enable on-demand mobility, plane changes, and maneuvers with high delta-V capabilities and reliability.

Though unstated, the inclusion of cameras suggests the Pentagon wants to test Elytra’s ability to maneuver close to other satellites and photograph them.

This contract further illustrates Firefly’s effort to diversify its space products. Like Rocket Lab, it is not relying solely on its rocket division to make money, but is also developing and selling a range of space products, from lunar landers to orbital tugs to satellite equipment.

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Ted Cruz: Isaacman in interview commits NASA to getting Americans to Moon fast

8:52 am

In a tweet posted yesterday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) revealed that in his private interview with Jared Isaacman, nominee for the post of NASA administrator, Isaacman “committed to having American astronauts return to the lunar surface ASAP.”

During our meeting, Mr. Isaacman committed to having American astronauts return to the lunar surface ASAP so we can develop the technologies needed to go on to Mars.

The moon mission MUST happen in President Trump’s term or else China will beat us there and build the first moonbase.

Artemis and the Moon-to-Mars Program are critical for American leadership in space!

It appears Cruz is trying to apply pressure on Isaacman and the Trump administration to not cancel SLS, as has been rumored for months. Though SLS and Orion have numerous issues, being too costly and cumbersome with risky designs that threaten the lives of any astronauts on board, cancelling them would likely delay any American manned mission to the Moon for several years, possibly allowing China to get there first.

We shall get a better idea of this situation at Isaacman’s nomination hearing, scheduled for tomorrow.

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Space Force gives SpaceX launch originally contracted to ULA

8:45 am

For the second time in less than a year, the Space Force has taken a launch away from ULA and given the payload to SpaceX to launch.

The GPS III SV-08 satellite, the eighth in the GPS III constellation, is now scheduled to launch no earlier than late May aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, the Space Systems Command announced April 7.

This marks the second time in recent months that the Space Force has reassigned a GPS launch from ULA to SpaceX. Last year, the GPS III SV-07 satellite was moved from a planned ULA Vulcan rocket launch in late 2025 to a SpaceX Falcon 9, which successfully launched on December 16 in a mission called Rapid Response Trailblazer.

Both switches were apparently triggered because of the delay in getting ULA’s new Vulcan rocket certified by the military, resulting in all of ULA’s launches in 2025 being pushed back significantly. That certification finally occurred a few weeks ago, but it appears the Space Force has decided that ULA won’t be able to get all those launches off this year as planned. It therefore decided to shift this launch to SpaceX.

This situation once again highlights the importance of private companies to move fast in the open competition of private enterprise. SpaceX has always done this, and thus it gets contracts and business that other companies that move with the speed of molasses lose.

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Russia launches three astronauts to ISS

10:57 pm

Russia early on April 8, 2025 successfully launched two Russians and one American to ISS on a six month mission, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from its Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.

They will dock with ISS after only two orbits, three hours after launch.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

40 SpaceX
18 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 40 to 32.

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