A missile-tracking satellite developed by L3Harris Technologies demonstrated its ability to track hypersonic missiles from space, giving the defense contractor a potential key advantage in the Golden Dome program directed by the Trump administration to bolster U.S. defenses against advanced aerial threats.

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) confirmed April 25 that L3Harris’ Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) satellite prototype met performance targets in tests. The agency launched two competing HBTSS demonstration satellites in February 2024 — one built by L3Harris and another by Northrop Grumman — but only the L3Harris satellite has satisfied program requirements, according to an MDA spokesperson.

“While a full assessment of proven payload performance has not yet been concluded, MDA can confirm that the L3Harris satellite is successfully demonstrating its primary functions,” the spokesperson told SpaceNews. “The Northrop Grumman satellite failed to meet established requirements.”

MDA awarded Northrop Grumman a $155 million contract and L3Harris a $121 million contract in January 2021 to develop HBTSS prototype satellites for the demonstration.

“We were pleased to partner with both L3Harris and Northrop Grumman on this important homeland missile defense capability and look forward to working with them in the future,” the MDA spokesperson said. “The rapid prototype process was designed for a fair but difficult challenge for the industry members involved … This entire effort represents a great lesson learned in the success and effectiveness of the rapid prototype process.”
EO calls for ‘acceleration’ of HBTSS

HBTSS is seen as a cornerstone technology in the Golden Dome program — a missile defense initiative launched by the Trump administration and formalized through executive order. The directive calls for the “acceleration of the deployment of the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor layer” as part of a broader strategy to protect the U.S. against missile and aerial threats.

The HBTSS sensor is designed to track fast, low-flying #hypersonic weapons that can maneuver unpredictably in the atmosphere — a significant challenge for traditional radar and satellite systems. Unlike ballistic missiles that follow predictable arcs, hypersonics require real-time, high-fidelity tracking data to enable interception.

BOSTON — #NASA is canceling the lease for the offices of a branch of the Goddard Space Flight Center in New York that does Earth science research.

In an April 24 email to Goddard employees, Makenzie Lystrup, director of Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the lease the agency has for office space in a Columbia University building will end May 31. Those offices host the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), part of Goddard’s Earth science division.

Lystrup said the decision to terminate the lease was linked to ongoing reviews by the current administration of all government leases, but did not give further details on the decision, including whether it was made by NASA or outside the agency, such as the Department of Government Efficiency.

GISS has been in New York since its founding in 1961, established there “on the premise that conducting theoretical research in the space sciences would be facilitated by being near the leading universities in the greater metropolitan area,” GISS explains on its website. It has been in its current offices, in a building known as Armstrong Hall, since the late 1960s.

GISS is best known for its work in climate sciences, modeling changes caused by natural and human-made phenomena. The institute has been led since 2014 by Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist who served as the agency’s acting senior climate adviser in 2021. More than 130 people work at GISS, according to an online staff directory.

NASA leases more than 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet) in the building, paying an annual rent of $3.03 million, according to data from the General Services Administration confirmed by a NASA spokesperson. That lease was set to run through August 2031.

While NASA is terminating the lease on the GISS offices, it is not closing the institute itself. Lystrup said in the email that it will help employees move “to remote work agreements in the short-term as the agency seeks a new, permanent space for the team.”

“And while the lease is ending, the Institute’s mission continues,” she added. “The work of the GISS team is considered critical for the Earth Science Division, particularly as the Division looks to the future of its modeling work and capabilities.”

However, agency sources said they are concerned that GISS could become a victim of budget cuts. A draft “passback” budget proposal for NASA delivered to the agency earlier this month by the Office of Management and Budget proposed cutting NASA’s Earth science budget by more than 50% to about $1 billion in fiscal year 2026.

HELSINKI — Three Chinese astronauts arrived at the Tiangong space station Thursday aboard the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, hours after launching from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

Shenzhou-20 docked with the radial port of the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station at around 11:49 a.m. Eastern (15:49 UTC) April 24, according to the the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).

The spacecraft, carrying commander Chen Dong and crewmates Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, launched atop a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 5:17 a.m. Eastern (0917 UTC).

The trio will soon take over control of Tiangong in the coming days from the incumbent Shenzhou-19 crew, who are completing their own six-month-long mission aboard the space station. Shenzhou-19 commander Cai Xuzhe and colleagues Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze are due to return to Earth early Eastern April 29, targeting the Dongfeng landing site near Jiuquan.

Shenzhou-20 is the sixth three-person mission to arrive at Tiangong since the three-module outpost was completed in late 2022. Chen is commanding his second mission to Tiangong, following the 2022 Shenzhou-14 mission, which saw the addition of Tiangong’s two experiment modules, Wentian and Mengtian, to the Tianhe core module.

States bid to host a revamped #NASA headquarters.

More states are lining up in a bid to host NASA’s headquarters, but the prize they seek may turn out to be smaller than they expect.

On April 16, members of the Texas congressional delegation sent a letter to President Trump requesting that he move NASA’s headquarters from its current location in Washington to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“For NASA to return to its core mission of excellence in exploration, its headquarters should be located at a place where NASA’s most critical missions are and where transformational leadership from the ground up can be provided,” the letter, signed by 27 members, stated. “We write to urge you to use this opportunity to reinvigorate our national space agency and move NASA’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas.”

#NRO reaches milestone with over 200 satellites deployed in two years

WASHINGTON — Following the launch of a classified mission April 20, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has reached a new milestone, deploying more than 200 satellites into orbit in just over two years.

The NROL-145 mission lifted off Sunday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 8:29 a.m. Eastern. This marked SpaceX’s 10th launch of satellites for the NRO’s proliferated architecture, which includes Starshield imaging satellites built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman.

A proliferated architecture refers to the strategy of using numerous smaller satellites rather than fewer large ones, creating networks that are more resilient against potential threats and capable of providing more comprehensive coverage.

The National Reconnaissance Office designs and operates classified U.S. government surveillance and intelligence satellites. The agency is currently deploying an extensive network of satellites designed to track ground targets in near real-time.
New contract phase begins

Sunday’s launch was the first mission awarded by the U.S. Space Force under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program. The task order for NROL-145 was one of nine awarded to SpaceX in October 2024.

“This was our first Phase 3 launch, coming only months after establishing this new contract,” Col. Jim Horne, launch execution senior materiel leader at the Space Systems Command, said in a statement.

Horne also noted that 44 missions from the previous NSSL Phase 2 contract remain to be launched. The majority of those missions were awarded to United Launch Alliance. ULA’s new Vulcan rocket is expected to conduct its first NSSL mission this summer.
NRO’s multiple launch approaches

The NRO said in a news release that NSSL represents just one of multiple acquisition approaches the agency employs to deploy its satellites. For example, the agency has launched satellites with SpaceX and Rocket Lab under commercial contracts, and most recently utilized Northrop Grumman’s solid-fueled Minotaur IV for a mission under a separate contract vehicle used by the Space Force for small rockets.

“Over the past two years, NRO has launched more than 200 satellites, creating the largest and most capable government constellation on orbit in our nation’s history,” the agency said. Looking ahead, “2025 is set to be another dynamic year, with approximately one dozen NRO launches scheduled. Half of these launches will focus on advancing the NRO’s proliferated architecture with additional proliferated launches planned through 2029.”

#China sent six experimental Shiyan series satellites into orbit late Friday Eastern, using its Long March 6A rocket launched from Taiyuan.

The Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 6:51 p.m. Eastern (2251 UTC) April 18 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, northern China. The state-owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) announced launch success, revealing the payloads to be Shiyan-27 (01-06).

SAST provided no images nor details of the satellites, instead stating that they are mainly used for space environment detection and related technical tests. This general description is typical of the Shiyan series, which is considered by some Western analysts to be used for piloting new technologies, playing a role in the earlier stages of developing space systems. This could be somewhat analogous to the U.S. military’s use of USA-designated satellites for classified technology demonstrations.

U.S. Space Force cataloged the satellites in 1,000 by 1,010-kilometer-altitude orbits inclined 99.7 degrees, while the upper stage was left in an 834 by 990 km orbit.

Many Shiyan satellites operate in low Earth or near-polar orbits, though a number have headed to geosynchronous orbits, including the possible inspector satellites Shiyan12-01 and 02. Shiyan-10 satellites, meanwhile, entered Molniya orbits.

The 50-meter-long, 530-metric-ton Long March 6A, developed by SAST, is the first and so far only Chinese launcher to bundle a liquid propellant core stage with solid propellant side boosters. It is capable of launching 4,500 kilograms of payload to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. It has a dedicated pad at Taiyuan spaceport.

The rocket has now flown 11 times, having had its debut flight in March 2022. All launches have been successful, though some of the upper stages disintegrated in orbit, creating debris. The Long March 6A upper stage is one of the first Chinese kerosene-liquid oxygen upper stages.

SAST states that Friday’s launch was the first time the Long March 6A used “multi-satellite wall-mounted deployment.” indicating that satellites were mounted around a central load-bearing structure, rather than being stacked vertically. This approach brought increased challenges in terms of satellite-rocket integration, according to SAST.

The launch was China’s 20th orbital launch attempt of 2025. It follows the launch of the classified TJS-17 satellite via a Long March 3B from Xichang, April 10. Slingshot Aerospace has since detected a likely apogee kick motor near geostationary orbit, following a similar profile to the earlier TJS-15 launch.

Moon, Mars — #China leads to both .

In the Senate hearing considering the confirmation of Jared Isaacman as NASA Administrator, he and Senator Ted Cruz engaged in extensive dialogue about China. They strongly expressed the view that the United States must get our astronauts back to the moon before the Chinese get theirs there. Isaacman expanded that goal to assert that we should work on sending humans to Mars at the same time.

The six-decade old idea of a space race with astronauts putting footprints on the moon is still with us. It is good for politics, but not good for space development or for national strategy. Whether for commercial concepts like resource mining, or for military strategy like cis-lunar dominance, or scientific purposes like a lunar far side observatory or moon base, activity will be largely robotic, characterized by advanced technology of augmented reality, telerobotics, quantum communications and artificial intelligence. And with robotic missions and progress to a moon base, the Chinese are leading. In this decade they have conducted two lunar sample returns with rovers, including one to the lunar far side. The U.S. has never done a robotic lunar sample return. China has also begun emplacement of the lunar communication infrastructure and initiated first steps in development of the planned International lunar research station. In that same time, the U.S. has cancelled its only planned lunar rover and conducted several attempted smallsat missions with new companies — only one of which has succeeded with a two-week mission.

On Mars, the U.S. has delayed its Mars Sample Return plans, despite the wonderful collection already assembled by its Perseverance rover, while China has actually accelerated its timetable for a Mars Sample Return to launch in 2028.

In speeches, we lead. President Trump, Elon Musk, and now Administrator-designate Isaacman all assert the U.S. human Mars goal. But they do not mention (out of ignorance or convenience) the obvious engineering and scientific requirements for precursor knowledge and testing for a robotic Mars return mission. They do not mention the toxicity of the Martian surface, the terrible health effects of long-duration interplanetary flight, the incredibly thin Martian atmosphere that has to slow down a very-heavy landing vehicle with the humans on board, the closed-loop ecological life support necessary, or the sheer number of rendezvous and in-orbit docking and transfers that will be necessary to test and prove.

All that requires robotic Mars Sample Return — now, so unimportant to NASA as to not even be included in their moon-Mars architecture, and so unimportant to the policy planners as to not being mentioned in the Senate confirmation hearings. The Chinese will beat us with their Mars Sample Return, but we are making no plans for cooperation, either in science or mission development, to boost our program.

If the moon race was about development and utilization, instead of about footprints, we would keep our astronauts in orbit and teleoperate the instruments, vehicles and machines on the surface. We would accomplish more surface operations — faster and at much lower cost — that way. And science investigations, even an astronomical observatory, as well as technologies such as drilling and mining, are inherently robotic, and would be advanced more quickly if teleoperated than if having to be coupled with a human-support system in the hostile lunar or Martian environment.

With the astronauts in orbit, they would be doing what they do best — thinking and controlling, not hopping in space suits and worrying about life support. If the race to Mars were really to get humans there faster, we would not be detouring them to the lunar surface where the entry, descent, landing and environmental conditions are totally different. We would be preparing them for long-duration flights, first in lunar orbit, then with excursions beyond Earth orbit. The notion of a lunar base preparing us for Mars missions is as sensible as a trip to Omaha preparing us for a trek to Nepal.

The human spaceflight goals are symbolic — and the U.S. already won that race a half-century ago. The U.S. now should capitalize on its half century experience of scientific and technological leadership — not to repeat the past, but to create a new kind of space cooperation of humans and robots together on other worlds. Instead, it appears now just the opposite — the Trump administration rejecting science (despite Isaacman’s endorsement of the science program) and robotic missions of exploration including the Mars Sample Return. Not doing Mars Sample Return is a clear statement that we will never be ready to send humans there.

Louis Friedman is co-founder and Executive DirectorEmeritus of The Planetary Society

#NASA safety panel warns of increasing risks to #ISS operations .Members of a NASA safety panel said they were “deeply concerned” about the safety of the aging International Space Station, citing long-running issues and funding shortfalls.

During a public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) April 17, members expressed concerns about growing risks as the station nears its projected end in 2030.

“The ISS has entered the riskiest period of its existence,” said Rich Williams, a member of the panel, arguing there were “increasing risks” to the station.

Some of those risks are problems the station has been facing for years, such as leaks in a vestibule of the station’s Zvezda module called PrK. Russian and American experts have been investigating small cracks seen in PrK for several years, with no resolution on their cause or how to best address them.

Williams said officials from NASA and Roscosmos are scheduled to meet later this month in Moscow to update efforts to mitigate risks on the cracking. In the meantime, he said ISS managers have implemented procedures such as limiting repressurization of the vestibule, which links a docking port to the rest of the station. “The panel has considered this one of our highest concerns,” he said.

Another concern is developing deorbit plans for the ISS, particularly in an emergency before its scheduled retirement at the end of the decade before the arrival of the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) that NASA has contracted SpaceX to build. “If there is a deorbit of the ISS before the USDV is delivered, the risk to the public from ISS breakup debris will increase by orders of magnitude,” Williams said.

The station is dealing with several other issues, such as keeping sufficient spare parts for life support systems and delays with cargo resupply vehicles. That latter concern involves both the delays in the first flight of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser vehicle, now expected no earlier than late summer. and Northrop Grumman scrapping its NG-22 Cygnus mission to the ISS, which was scheduled to launch in June, because of damage to the spacecraft incurred during shipping.

White House proposal would slash #NASA science budget and cancel major missions

NOAA budget proposal would affect weather satellite, other space programs .

The White House’s budget proposal for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would seek to make major changes in a weather satellite program as well as transfer space weather and space traffic management efforts.

NOAA received a draft of the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) April 10. The document, known as a passback, offers the agency a chance to seek any final changes in the proposal before the budget proposal is formally released by the administration.

Like the NASA budget passback, which proposed severe cuts in its science programs, the NOAA passback would make major changes to many of its space-related activities. Among them is the Geostationary Extended Observations, or GeoXO, program that will develop a new generation of weather satellites operating in geostationary orbit starting in the early 2030s