International Affairs
Biweekly Washington D.C. Updates for the Week Ending on October 3, 2025
Written by: Molly Prochaska
United States Space Policy Updates
- Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center since February 2024, announced his resignation. (AL.com, September 25)
- Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy announced that Space Force will require its next generation of space domain awareness satellites to be able to be refueled in orbit. (Breaking Defense, September 24)
- The Artemis 2 lunar fly-by mission could launch astronauts as early as February 2026. (Space.com, September 23)
- Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman says the branch is developing operational plans for five, 10 and 15 years in the future to prepare for “what our adversaries might do next.” (Breaking Defense, September 23)
- Space Force plans to release a request for proposals by the end of the year to purchase commercial space domain awareness capabilities. (Breaking Defense, September 22)
- NASA selected 10 new astronaut candidates out of 8,000 applicants for the 24th astronaut class. (NASA, September 22)
- A NASA safety panel warned that SpaceX’s Starship could be “years late” to support the Artemis 3 mission in 2027. (SpaceNews, September 20)
International Space Policy Updates
- The 76th International Astronautical Congress took place in Sydney from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3, featuring more than 4,000 abstracts from 95 countries. (IAC, September 29)
- The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) signed an agreement to develop a positioning system on Jeju Island to foster the country’s space industry. (Orbital Today, September 29)
- German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced the country will invest more than $40 billion over the next five years to improve space security. (Breaking Defense, September 25)
- The Australian Space Agency joined the 14-member Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). (Australian Space Agency, September 23)
- NATO announced it is investing $728 million in new space capabilities to support its Space Operations Center. (Breaking Defense, September 22)
- Director General of Roscosmos Dmitry Bakanov stated that the space agency is developing a satellite internet service to rival Starlink. (Reuters, Sept. 17)
- Poland announced plans to purchase six secure communications satellites for €470 million. (European Spaceflight, September 17)
Space Industry Updates
- Intuitive Machines completed the acquisition of KinetX, which specializes in deep space navigation and systems engineering, for $30 million. (Intuitive Machines, October 1)
- ESA awarded Italian company Avio €40M to develop a reusable upper-stage demonstrator for rocket launches. (ESA, September 29)
- NASA awarded Solstar Space a $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop a Lunar Wi-Fi Access Point to support the Artemis program. (Solstar Space, September 29)
- Axiom Space awarded a contract to Redwire to provide solar panels for Axiom’s upcoming commercial space station. (SpaceNews, September 25)
- California-based satellite company Planet Labs plans to set up its first production site near Berlin, following a $280 million contract from the German government. (Reuters, September 25)
- Blue Origin won a $190 million contract to send NASA’s imperiled VIPER rover to the Moon. (Payload, September 22)
- The Aerospace Corporation selected Tanya Pemberton as its next president and CEO, succeeding Steve Isakowitz. (The Aerospace Corporation, September 18)
Reading Corner
Space.com | Meet ‘Integrity’: Artemis 2 astronauts name the spacecraft that will fly them around the moon
The crew of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission have announced the name of their Orion capsule: Integrity. This is in keeping with the tradition of the first crew of a spacecraft to decide on its name and was done by the four astronauts: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Their backups, NASA’s Andre Douglas and CSA’s Jenny Gibbons were also present for the decision.
To decide on the name, the crew worked their way through NASA and CSA core values, as well as their own, to decide on one key characteristic that they wanted to define the Artemis 2 mission. They determined that their key goal for the mission was to provide some ‘peace and hope for all humankind’. Therefore, Integrity was chosen to exemplify their core values, while also uplifting each person who contributed to the mission, from the crew to the ‘engineers, technicians, scientists, planners, and dreamers required for mission success’.