| | | | |  Phillip Swarts — The Air Force selected United Launch Alliance as the launch provider for an experimental blast detection satellite, beating out SpaceX, the service announced June 29.
The $191.1 million contract is for the Space Test Program (STP) 3 mission, set to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in June 2019 aboard an Atlas 5 rocket in the 551 configuration. The service said that $184.9 million is being awarded at the time of the contract using fiscal year 2017 space procurement funding. The Air Force put the STP-3 launch up for bid in September 2016, giving SpaceX and ULA until December to submit proposals. It's just the third competitively-bid national security space launch contract after an era where ULA — a joint venture between defense industry giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin — was the government's sole source for launches. | | |  Caleb Henry — British small satellite manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) is closing down a Denver factory in favor of centralizing spacecraft production back in the United Kingdom.
SSTL formed its U.S. subsidiary, Surrey Satellite Technology-US, in 2008, and opened a factory in the Denver suburb of Englewood, Colorado, to specifically focus on the vibrant U.S. small satellite market. At one time, the company had ambitions of growing that office to upwards of 200 people, but growing competition in small satellite manufacturing scuttled those plans. | | |  Jeff Foust — As House appropriators approved a spending bill that rolled back some of the proposed cuts in the administration's 2018 budget request for NASA, Senate colleagues raised similar concerns about cuts to agency programs.
The commerce, justice and science (CJS) subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee approved on a voice vote June 29 a spending bill that includes $19.872 billion for NASA in fiscal year 2018. Members made no changes to the bill, which the committee released the day before the markup. "NASA has had far too much on its plate for too long, and too little funding," Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), chairman of the subcommittee, said in remarks at the markup. "I'm determined to see that turned around." | | | 
Debra Werner — To date, only 536 people have traveled to space and the vast majority have been men from a handful of nations. Dylan Taylor, a space industry angel investor and SpaceNews columnist, is eager to share the experience with 10,000 people through a nonprofit organization, Space for Humanity, that will pay for the trips. "We are going to mint new astronauts from all communities," Taylor said June 27 at the annual NewSpace conference here. "We want to influence public policy and opinion… by changing the mindset." Space for Humanity is beginning to solicit nominations through its website for people from diverse backgrounds to travel to space or near space and return to Earth to serve as ambassadors who can share their experiences. | | |  Caleb Henry — SpaceX intends to launch a final upgrade to the Falcon 9 rocket, known as the Block 5, later this year, and has three Falcon Heavy launches planned for the next 18 months.
Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, confirmed in a June 22 appearance on "The Space Show" online radio show that the Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 will be the "final design spin," following just a few months after an "incremental" Block 4 version that will be more of a transition model.
"We are flying Block 3s right now," Shotwell said. "Block 4s start flying shortly, and then Block 5 at the end of this year. We definitely have gotten better [at] more smooth introducing of change. You don't see the big impacts to production we've had before when we've changed vehicle designs." | | |  Jeff Foust — An independent assessment of rocket engine development delivered to a House committee last week has concluded that Blue Origin remains well ahead of Aerojet Rocketdyne despite a recent testing setback.
That assessment, provided in a closed-door meeting organized by the House Armed Services Committee June 23, comes as the full committee is scheduled to mark up a fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on June 28 that would limit the Air Force's ability to support launch vehicle development.
The "chairman's mark" version of the bill, released by the committee June 26, includes a section restricting Air Force funding of vehicle development under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. Under that provision, the Air Force would be limited to funding new engines, integration of those engines with vehicles, and related capabilities to support national security launches. | | |  Caleb Henry — After scrapping an attempt at a satellite servicing business six years ago, MDA Corp. launched a new venture June 28 to repair and refuel satellites in orbit using a spacecraft it is building for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Fleet operator SES of Luxembourg has agreed to be the first customer for the venture, called Space Infrastructure Services (SIS) — the same name MDA used in 2011. Steve Oldham, senior vice president of business development for Space Systems Loral, the U.S. satellite manufacturer MDA bought in 2012, is returning to lead the SIS business that he guided in the early 2010s. In a June 28 interview with SpaceNews, Oldham said MDA canceled its previous in-orbit servicing venture out of a concern that as a Canadian company it would be unable to compete with similar programs underway at NASA and DARPA. | | | | | | |
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