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Hey everyone. NASA published exciting news today - the Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element, planned to launch with the lunar station earliest in late 2025, has fired up its electric propulsion system for the first time for a series of vacuum tests. The unit is manufactured by Maxar Techologies and Aerojet Rocketdyne and sits right on the first station module - bolted to the HALO hab module. Good to see things are moving along at (some) pace with the mission - we’re rooting for you, Gateway ✨.

Launch Tracker:

Noteworthy: The final flight of Europe’s satellite launcher Vega (and the precursor to Vega C) went textbook early this morning - as a ‘FrankenVega’: In late 2023, EUS reported that two propellant tanks needed for ArianeSpace’s Sentinel 2C mission were lost by contractor Avio and found on a landfill. Vega’s final flight launched earlier today with a modified version of the AVUM+ upper stage (designed for Vega C). Watch the launch here.

Eurofocus

Themis, the reusable booster demonstrator developed by ArianeGroup and funded by ESA, is facing significant delays, with initial hop tests now pushed to 2025. Originally announced in May 2018, Themis aims to showcase the Prometheus rocket engine in a reusable demonstrator with the goal of becoming a stepping stone for European reusable launch vehicles. Despite a relatively promising start and an initial, ESA-led funding round of €33 million, the development has been slow. Testing started in late 2021 with the integration of propellant tanks. The first hop test had at that point slipped from 2022 to late 2023. ArianeSpace shared images of a Themis booster during the inauguration of the Swedish Esrange orbital launch range - together with an announcement that hop tests would be further delayed to 2024. Now, as pressure mounts from commercial actors all around the world, the first test has been delayed again - to 2025, ArianeSpace tells us.

In April 2023, Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël suggested that a reusable launch vehicle for Europe might not exit the development stat until the 2030s, highlighting a potential lack of insitiutional inertia. ArianeSpace is, however, relying on the programme for its own reusable launch vehicle program. MaiaSpace, a subsidiary of the company, founded in 2022 with the goal of launching Maia, a wholly reusable European launch vehicle in 2025, is integrating the Prometheus upper stage engine into the vehicle.

What does this mean for European launchers? They’re falling further behind. As China scrambles to make up for US successes, Europe lags behind without access to responsive and cheap launcher services. And a well-oiled bureaucratic machine like the ESA, and its main actors like ArianeSpace, are nearly impossible to unseat and resteer - and perhaps private companies have a chance to disrupt the market before it is too late. link

Rapid-fire

• ESA requests novel proposals for cubesat deorbiting systems

Since their inception at Stanford in 1990, thousands of cubesats with mostly limited propulsion systems have launched into orbit. ESA now seeks proposals to deorbit 12U cubesats with inert or electric thruster systems for controlled reentry.

• Vega retires - with an inconclusive record of commercial success

Launching just over 20 times in the span of almost a dozen years of service, the European prospector of the small satellite launch service industry never gained traction with international partners and remained an ESA vehicle for most of its service.

Zooming out

Navy x Starlink

The US Navy is partnering with SpaceX’s Starlink to bring reliable high-speed internet to deployed vessels.

The Navy, along with most other branches of the military and government, has traditionally relied on a geostationary satellite network - one with traditionally high latency, difficult connection, and little flexibility when it comes to integrating new or existing technologies into an already existing constellation. With an expansion to the Navy’S Sailor Edge Afloat and Ashore (SEA2) initiative, Starlink connection terminals are being installed on a handful of test platforms, enabling connection to the system. The SEA2 system, dubbed the Satellite Terminal (transportable) Non-Geostationary (STtNG), allows a warship’s tactical feeds to secure access to low-orbit satellites with a median connection speed of 30 to 50 megabits per second, according to NAVWAR. With the installation of additional Starlink antennas, the system can scale up to speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

SEA2 systems were first installed aboard the next-generation aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in February last year, giving sailors opportunity to quickly and easily communicate with loved ones without relying on traditional systems that would not allow for video communication—a major boost to morale, so the DOD. The system even allowed hundreds of sailors to enjoy a live broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII through a normal TV streaming service aboard the warship this past year. The system is also used for ‘tactical and business applications’, like tracking maintenance or pay and benefits. Demonstrating the use of encrypted applications using Starlink internet is also on the horizon, as per a Navy representative, which the Navy expects to bring a “tangible warfighting impact” to outfitted ships. link

Headlines

• An awesome overview of personal science projects on the ISS

Don Petitt’s research on the International Space Station takes up most of his time. The chemical engineer with the first patent for an invention from space uses the rest for more science, like using sugar, salt and coffee to study planetary formation.

• What’s next for Orion?

After the well-recorded troubles with Starliner NASA’s focus can shift back to Orion. The moonshot capsule is far from greenlit, with heatshield problems riddling engineers. An insight into what we can expect before Artemis II.

Oh, one more thing: we’d love to hear from you. Give us feedback, let us know if we’ve missed updates that you find exciting, or shoot us a message just because. DM us on social media, or just reply to this email.