Industry News

WASHINGTON — John Stopher, principal assistant to the secretary of the Air Force for space is stepping down from his post effective July 19. On Tuesday he submitted his resignation letter to President Trump. In the letter to the president, Stopher said he plans to return to the private sector “where I can help align the world’s greatest innovators who [...]

WASHINGTON — Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan on Tuesday removed himself from consideration as the next secretary of defense and resigned from his post as acting defense secretary. The news came shortly after USA Today reported the FBI was investigating a domestic dispute from nine years ago between ​Shanahan and his former wife. Shanahan “has decided not to go [...]

SANTA BARBARA — British satellite operator Avanti, whose revenues have declined since 2015, said it has rewritten its business plan to make consumer broadband a smaller portion of overall revenues. Selling capacity to other satellite operators is now one of Avanti’s main priorities, followed by selling to the U.S. Defense Department, Avanti CEO Kyle Whitehill said in a June 10 [...]

WASHINGTON — A startup company that plans to develop tankers for refueling satellites has completed a key test of its technology on the International Space Station. Orbit Fab announced June 18 it completed tests of an experiment called Furphy on the ISS, demonstrating the ability to transfer water between two satellite testbeds. At the end of the tests, the water [...]

WASHINGTON — The full House is unlikely to make major changes in NASA funding when it takes up an appropriations bill this week, but members will seek changes for two other agencies involved in space issues. The House is scheduled to start debate no earlier than June 19 on a “minibus” combining five separate appropriations bills previously approved by the [...]

SAN FRANCISCO – RBC Signals, a startup creating a global network of satellite ground stations, announced it’s first U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award June 17. Under the Phase 1 SBIR award managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate, Seattle-based RBC Signals will explore “multi-mission intelligent edge computing infrastructure in ground stations within the [...]

SAN FRANCISCO — Kinéis, a subsidiary formed last year by French maritime company CLS, has taken over operation of the Argos hosted payload system, and finalized manufacturing agreements for a constellation of 25 small satellites for Internet of Things connectivity. Alexandre Tisserant, Kinéis CEO, said assuming operational responsibility from CLS for the seven Argos payloads provides the company with a [...]

WASHINGTON — Senators are taking a new approach to winning passage of a commercial space bill, offering it as an amendment to a defense authorization bill. Several senators, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), introduced an amendment to the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2020 June 13. Cosponsors of the amendment include Sens. [...]

WASHINGTON — The United States has a vibrant space industry that is poised to become both an economic engine and a national security asset. At the same time, U.S. space companies are receiving unprecedented amounts of foreign investment and are the targets of corporate and state-sponsored espionage, a new report warns, calling on the U.S. government to take action. China [...]

The White House wants everyone to know that NASA’s moon plans are still on track, despite this bizarre tweet from the president: For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including [...]

SANTA BARBARA — Executives who previously worked for fleet operator ABS of Bermuda have formed a new company focused on building small geostationary satellites. Saturn Satellite Networks will build satellites ranging from 600 kilograms to 1,700 kilograms, and already has a customer order, Tom Choi, Saturn’s executive chairman, told SpaceNews. Choi, who co-founded ABS in 2005, stepped down as CEO [...]