#SAN #FRANCISCO — Exploration Labs, a Southern California startup focused on space resources, is planning a 2028 mission to rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis before it reaches Earth.

During the mission, ExLabs intends to deposit three #cubesats in Apophos’ orbit. The flight also is designed to validate systems and software for future campaigns to capture and move near-Earth asteroids into stable orbits for resource acquisition.

“We’re creating a unique partnership to enable a new style of lower-cost missions in collaboration with government and commercial partners,” ExLabs CEO #Matthew #Schmidgall told #SpaceNews.

#WASHINGTON — The non-profit Aerospace Corp., which functions as a federal research lab focused on space, announced last week it is relocating its corporate headquarters from El Segundo, California, to Washington D.C.

In an interview with #SpaceNews March 25, Aerospace’s president and chief executive Steve Isakowitz said the decision was driven by the evolving space landscape in the U.S. government and a need for closer proximity to key decision makers.

“What has happened in the last few years really drove major trends that made it a very powerful case to head to Washington D.C.,” Isakowitz said

#WASHINGTON — Modifications to a large deployable antenna on a joint U.S.-Indian radar spacecraft will delay its launch, likely to the second half of the year.

In a March 22 statement, #NASA said a new launch date for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission will be set at the end of April because of work to protect the spacecraft’s reflector, an antenna that is 12 meters across when fully deployed, from temperatures when in its stowed configuration.

“Testing and analysis identified a potential for the reflector to experience higher-than-previously-anticipated temperatures in its stowed configuration in flight,” NASA said in the statement. To prevent those increased temperatures, a “special coating” will be applied to the antenna so that it reflects more sunlight.

That work, NASA said, requires shipping the antenna, curre

The last time Patricia Cooper attended a meeting of the #American Astronomical Society, she wasn’t sure what she was getting into.

It was January 2020 and Cooper, at the time a vice president at SpaceX, had agreed to represent the company on a panel discussion at the conference on the interference satellite constellations could create for astronomers.

That discussion was prompted by SpaceX’s first launch of 60 Starlink #satellites a little more than six months earlier, widely visible in the night sky and alarming astronomers, who feared what tens of thousands of such satellites would do to their observations. “The term I kept hearing was ‘into the lion’s den,’” she recalled of preparations for the panel. “We didn’t know what was going to happen: pitchforks, rotten tomatoes?”

#WASHINGTON — A #Soyuz #spacecraft is en route to the International Space Station, two days after a rare last-minute launch scrub.

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 8:36 a.m. Eastern March 23. It placed the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft into orbit about nine minutes later.

Soyuz MS-25 is commanded by Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Marina Vasilevskaya, a Belarusian spaceflight participant, also on board. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the station’s Prichal module at 11:09 a.m. Eastern March 25.

Private #satellite operators make case for helping military track ground targets. As the U.S. military looks to replace spy planes, companies tout commercial constellations for battlefield awareness

#WASHINGTON — AT&T is prepared to provide more funds to help get #AST #SpaceMobile’s direct-to-smartphone constellation plans off the ground.

#AST #SpaceMobile raised $155 million from AT&T and other investors in January, but the satellite operator needs more capital to provide 5G connectivity globally from low Earth orbit to phones and other devices outside cell tower coverage.

While AT&T is a conservative company that does not generally provide venture funding, Chris Sambar, head of network for the U.S. telecoms giant, said March 20 its investment in #AST SpaceMobile is unlikely to be its last.

Despite only investing recently, Sambar said during a Satellite Conference panel here with AST SpaceMobile CEO Abel Avellan that the telco has been working with the satellite operator for six years.

#HELSINKI — The People’s Liberation Army is working comprehensively on the technology and training tools for on-orbit satellite refueling for both peacetime and wartime scenarios.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is already integrating lessons learned into military doctrine and training tools, while a defense contractor has already demonstrated what it calls a space fuel tanker in geosynchronous Earth orbit ( #GEO ), according to a report published by the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) March 18.

The report underlines that the #PLA has a strategic focus on enhancing its on-orbit logistics capabilities and is integrating commercial enterprises into the space sector. These developments have potential implications for international space operations norms and should prompt action by the U.S. Space Force to attain similar capabilities and readiness

#WASHINGTON — A cargo #spacecraft launched towards the International Space Station March 21, hours after a rare last-minute abort of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft launch to the station.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40 at 4:55 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s payload, a cargo Dragon spacecraft, deployed from the Falcon’s upper stage 12 minutes after liftoff.

The Dragon is flying the CRS-30 mission to the ISS and is scheduled to dock with the station at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern March 23, remaining there about a month. The spacecraft is carrying 2,841 kilograms of cargo, including a mix of science experiments, crew supplies and station hardware.

#WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit announced March 21 it has signed an agreement with Firefly Aerospace to study the potential use of the company’s Elytra orbital vehicle for missions beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit.

The Pentagon’s commercial technology arm, DIU awarded Firefly a study contract that, once complete, could lead to as many as two flight demonstration missions in the region between GEO orbit and the moon, known as cislunar space.

The contract supports DIU’s Sinequone project that aims to deliver cost-effective, responsive access to cislunar space through both launch and orbital transfer services.

“The Department of Defense must be poised to foster safe and secure commercial and civil growth in this region,” DIU said of cislunar space.