#WASHINGTON — Commercial #satellite operators for years have urged the Department of Defense to rely less on government-owned satellites and more on their own services. While advocacy efforts haven’t resulted in a massive shift yet, a proposed increase in the 2025 budget allocation for commercial #satellite #communications integration offers a glimmer of hope, said a senior industry executive.

The #Pentagon’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 includes a $134 million line item for “commercial satcom integration” — an increase from $71 million in the 2024 budget. While the amount is still dwarfed by the $1.2 billion the Space Force has for military satellite programs, the industry views it as a positive sign, Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for government strategy and policy at Viasat, told SpaceNews.

#HELSINKI — Tracking data appears to show #China is attempting to salvage #spacecraft initially intended for the moon but left stranded by a rocket stage malfunction.

The small #DRO-A and B spacecraft launched from Xichang spaceport on a Long March 2C rocket March 13. Hours later, the first acknowledgement of the mission came from Chinese state media Xinhua, which announced that the spacecraft had not been inserted accurately into their designated orbit by the rocket’s Yuanzheng-1S upper stage.

“The upper stage encountered an abnormality during flight, causing the satellites to fail to accurately enter the preset orbit,” Xinhua stated. “Relevant disposal work is currently underway,” it added, citing Xichang launch center.

#TAMPA, Fla. — South Korea’s Hancom InSpace has ordered two more remote sensing satellites from Spire Global as the status of a cubesat ordered two years ago remains up in the air.

Spire said March 27 it will build and operate Sejong-2 and Sejong-3 on behalf of Hancom InSpace to join Sejong-1, a six-unit (6U) cubesat that Vienna, Virginia-headquartered Spire deployed in May 2022 under a payload-hosting agreement with the South Korean firm

#WASHINGTON — Commercial space station developer Vast Space has hired an executive from another space station company as an adviser.

Vast announced March 28 that it hired Clay Mowry as an adviser. In that role, he will provide support for the company as it works on its proposed commercial space stations.

Mowry was previously chief revenue officer at Voyager Space, which is working with Airbus Defence and Space on the Starlab commercial station. That effort is one of three commercial station initiatives being funded by #NASA, alongside those led by Axiom Space and Blue Origin

#WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency, impressed with India’s growing space capabilities, is exploring opportunities for enhanced cooperation in space activities.

At a March 27 media briefing after a meeting of the ESA Council, Renato Krpoun, chair of the council, said that ESA members received a presentation during the meeting from S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Somanath “presented a very impressive vision of the future of the Indian space program,” Krpoun said.

#ARLINGTON, Va. — Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, said the U.S. Space Force has robust intelligence about what foreign adversaries are doing in outer space. Still, military leaders always want more comprehensive data and analysis about activities in orbit, he said March 27.

“I don’t often get surprised by things I hear,” Saltzman said at the Mitchell Institute’s Space Security Forum

Awareness about potential threats and what other nations are up to in space is foundational to all military space activities, he said. But having additional sensors and #analytics tools would further boost the Space Force’s visibility into technologies being tested by strategic competitors like #China and #Russia.

#WASHINGTON — A #NASA official says he is optimistic that a problem with the Voyager 1 spacecraft that has kept it from transmitting intelligible data for months can be resolved.

Speaking at a March 20 meeting of the National Academies’ Committee on Solar and Space #Physics, Joseph Westlake, director of NASA’s heliophysics division, said it appeared possible to fix the computer problem on the nearly 50-year-old spacecraft that has disrupted operations since last November.

“I feel like we’re on a path now to resolution,” he said. “They’re on the right path and I think we’re going to get to a point where Voyager 1 is going to continue, alive and kicking in space.”

#WASHINGTON — In a mission targeted for 2025, a robot satellite in geostationary orbit around 22,000 miles above Earth will rendezvous with a military satellite and attempt to affix a new imaging sensor payload on the spacecraft.

The servicing vehicle — equipped with a robot arm developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Naval Research Laboratory — will seek to connect the payload to the satellite’s launch adapter ring. This ring, which originally connected the satellite to its rocket during launch, will provide the attach point for an electro-optical imaging sensor payload developed by the startup Katalyst Space Technologies.

#SAN #FRANCISCO – Los Angeles startup In Orbit Aerospace won a $1.8 million #AFWERX contract to develop a novel method of spacecraft docking in partnership with the University of Colorado, Boulder.

The #electrostatic adhesion technology being developing under the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract will enable In Orbit’s vehicles to dock with one another, Ishaan Patel, In Orbit chief technology officer, told SpaceNews.

In addition, the technology has applications for satellites seeking to rendezvous and dock with cooperative or uncooperative targets for refueling, debris removal or other services.

#HELSINKI — #China should intensify its asteroid research and focus on sample return mission plans, according to scientists.

China’s future asteroid exploration should focus on “low-cost, high-frequency sample return missions, and emphasize strengthening coordination between missions,” according to a paper published recently in the Chinese Journal of Space Sciences. Establishing scientific design teams can also help better serve China’s future asteroid explorations.

Asteroid studies and exploration can bring new understanding to the solar system’s early stages and potentially the origins of life. This can also open the door for future space resource assessment and utilization and developing asteroid defense strategies