By Jeff Foust for SpaceNews – Japanese lunar lander developer ispace confirmed its second mission to the moon will launch on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 as Firefly Aerospace’s first lunar lander. The two spacecraft, while launched together, will take different routes to the moon.
By Jeff Foust for SpaceNews – Hours after the Federal Aviation Administration granted a launch license for New Glenn, Blue Origin completed a static-fire test on Dec. 27, paving the way for an inaugural launch.
By Rachel Jewett for Via Satellite – FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed reallocating the 2360–2395 MHz band on a secondary basis for space operations. Rosenworcel said this will provide “certainty and predictability” for commercial launches.
By Adithi Ramakrishnan for AP – NASA’s Parker Solar Probe passed within a record-breaking 3.8 million miles of the sun. Scientists hope the data from Parker will help them better understand why the sun’s outer atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface.
Aerospace employees are in 13 of NASA’s 19 Technical Discipline Teams, which provide critical independent expertise to ensure the safety, sustainability, and success of NASA’s ambitious space missions.
By Aaron Gregg for The Washington Post, featuring Marlon Sorge, Aerospace’s executive director for orbital and reentry debris studies. “Kessler syndrome” is a worst-case scenario chain reaction of collissions flooding low Earth orbit with debris.
By Alexia Austin for Nature – Amid rapid space-industry growth, Jamie Morin, head of Aerospace’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy, highlights the need for international cooperation and leadership.
Courtney Albon, DefenseNews – To prepare for potential wars in the near future, U.S. Space Force plans to rely on capability from industry to address its biggest training gaps: understanding how the service’s satellites interact with one another on orbit and simulating that in a virtual training environment.
Mark Carreau, Aviation Week – NASA moved future Artemis launches to 2026 and 2027, after the Orion crew capsule’s heat shield from Artemis I charred in an extensive, unanticipated fashion.
Jeff Foust, SpaceNews – Andrius Kubilius, the new European Union commissioner responsible for space, says he will focus on improving European competitiveness and security in space, including passage of a long-delayed space law.
