Washington Updates: Space Soldiers

Written by: Jeff Gardner

What You Need to Know: 

• The Army welcomes its first class of enlisted space warfighters.
• The Artemis Accords reach more than 75 signatories.
• The SpaceX Crew-13 mission breaks the record for the fastest an American spacecraft has docked with the ISS after launch.

United States Space Policy Updates

• The Army welcomes its first class of enlisted space experts. More than 600 soldiers are taking up job titles as Tactical Space Operations Specialists. The soldiers will specialize in using space capabilities and countering threats to U.S. interests in orbit. (Payload, Oct. 5)
• NASA awards grants to 16 companies totaling $1.4 billion to provide enterprise logistics support services. (NASA, Oct. 1)
• Alabama submits a bid to build a proposed U.S. Space Academy in Huntsville.
  (Axios, Oct. 2)
• The Department of Energy announces $400 million in funding for energy science, fusion, and nuclear physics research. (DOE, Oct. 1)
• NASA’s Glenn Research Center opens Phase 1 proposals for the design and construction of the Aerospace Power Systems Laboratory. (NASA, Oct. 6)

 

International Space Policy Updates

• The Artemis Accords reach more than 75 signatories. NASA welcomed Albania, Croatia, Côte d’Ivoire, and San Marino, showing the rapid pace nations are signing on. The Accords now represent every continent except Antarctica, including nearly every nation in Europe. (NASA, Sept. 28)
• Turkey hosts the 77th International Astronautical Congress. (IAF, Oct. 5)
• Norway plans a second launchpad at Andøya Spaceport.
  (European Spaceflight, Oct. 1)
• Spanish Earth data company Xoople selects Norwegian Kongsberg Satellite Services to support its planned constellation of remote sensing satellites.
  (Aviation Week, Oct. 5)
• South Korea deploys Earth observation satellites on its first launch of the year. (Space Foundation, Oct. 7)

 

Space Industry Updates

• The SpaceX Crew-13 mission breaks the record for the fastest an American spacecraft has docked with the ISS after launch. The mission, carrying two NASA astronauts, a Canadian astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut, reached the ISS 7 hours and 55 minutes after it launched from Cape Canaveral. (Space.com, Oct. 1)
• York Space Systems satellites are cleared for a Space Force GEO tracking mission. (SpaceNews, Oct. 5)
• Blue Origin unveils its ‘Power Tower’ for Moon Base operations. (Yahoo, Oct. 5)
• Francis Halzen wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his work to detect high-energy neutrinos in space. (Reuters, Oct. 6)
• Rocket Factory Augsburg names Alexander Dahm as CEO. (RFA, Oct. 5)

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