Welcome to our seventeenth Monthly Dose of Space! In this monthly newsletter, we bring you major news from the past month. February has continued last month's momentum, so let's jump into it!

News of the Month

News in February saw SpaceX being awarded another NASA launch, the OneWeb constellation testing 5G, Artemis II's SLS boosters completing stacking, and the Einstein Probe making discoveries.

Trouble ahead for SLS & Artemis

Back in the first week of February, Boeing warned employees working on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) of potential layoffs that may occur within 60 days. With the warning to employees, Boeing also told Ars Technica and SpaceNews:

"To align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations, today we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for approximately 400 fewer positions by April 2025," – "This will require 60-day notices of involuntary layoff be issued to impacted employees in coming weeks, in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. We are working with our customer and seeking opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented teammates."

According to Ars Technica's sources, senior leadership at NASA including acting administrator Janet Petro, who has been a yes man of policy since the inauguration, have been urging the White House not the cancel the rocket before the Artemis III mission returns American Astronauts to the moon around 2027.

SLS has been criticized routinely due to an estimated cost of 2 billion United States Dollars per launch, but it is the only way the Orion spacecraft can be sent toward the Moon. No alternatives for launching Orion currently exist but those against SLS argue in favor of using a commercial launch vehicle, none of which would be able to send the spacecraft toward the Moon.

Additionally, NASA's associate administrator Jim Free retired from NASA, effective from February 22nd. The day before, three unnamed key officials also reportedly retired from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, located in Huntsville Alabama, who were key parts of the agency's Artemis program in its current setup.

Free's retirement came during a transition period for the agency as it navigates the shifting plans of the second Trump administration. Free had been set to become acting NASA administrator for the transition but was passed up for Janet Petro, head of the Kennedy Space Center, instead. Neither NASA nor the White House have provided a reason why Free was not selected but it is said to have been on grounds of political beliefs.

During the transition period, NASA is also dealing with the 'Department of Government Efficiency' and its attempts to slash the space agency's workforce. The so-called efficiency department is headed by Elon Musk and aims to remove trillions of dollars from government spending with no oversight or transparency. A few days ago Musk's efficiency department tried, and thankfully failed, to reduce NASA's workforce by a level not seen since the end of the Apollo program in the 1970s.

Alongside these developments, Ars Technica is reporting that long-time supporter of the SLS Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council during Trump's first term, has had a change of tune and is now supporting alternatives to the vehicle. Scott Pace was quoted by Ars as stating that reliance on SLS needs an off-ramp and that NASA should instead look to buy a services with a commercial heavy lift rocket. Additionally, Pace believes a commercial vehicle could allow for multiple missions per year.

Having key figures within NASA leave, while policymakers no longer support SLS, and possibly canceling SLS before it can perform the Artemis III mission may allow China to send people to the lunar surface before Americans can return. This would be a major blow to the U.S.'s image of being a leading science and exploration power.

Part of this story was taken from Weekly Dose of Space (2/2-8/2) and Weekly Dose of Space (16/2-22/2).

Artemis II booster stacking completed

The two solid rocket boosters of NASA's Space Launch System after stacking off all segments was completed. ©Kim Shiflett/NASA
The two solid rocket boosters of NASA's Space Launch System after stacking off all segments was completed. ©Kim Shiflett/NASA

Despite potential troubles, NASA announced on February 19th that it had completed the stacking of its Space Launch System's (SLS) two solid rocket boosters ahead of the Artemis II mission next year. Both of the boosters consist of five segments, an avionics package, and a nosecone, with a total height of 54 meters (177 feet).

Stacking of the two boosters began back in November 2024, with teams gradually stacking all of the hardware over the last four months. Throughout the remainder of the year, teams will lift SLS' core stage between the boosters, followed by attaching the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter atop of the core before the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Station is stacked too. Eventually, the Orion spacecraft, including its service module and launch abort system, will be stacked to complete the vehicle.

NASA's Artemis II mission, which will utilize the SLS currently being stacked, is currently set to launch around April 2026. This mission will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon.

This story is from Weekly Dose of Space (16/2-22/2).

Eutelsat performs 5G test with LEO satellites

SpaceNews is reporting that Eutelsat has successfully performed a 5G connectivity test using its fleet of over six hundred OneWeb satellites in low Earth orbit. The tests were reportedly performed using a MediaTek 5G chipset and a 5G base station on a private network. Quoted by SpaceNews, Daniele Finocchiaro, Eutelsat’s head of R&D and technology roadmap, said:

“The target was to demonstrate feasibility, so we do not have performance measures to share at this stage,” – “This opens the way to a smoother integration between terrestrial and satellite networks, as many components (both hardware and software) will be identical or very similar.”

If the technology is proven at scale, Eutelsat will be able to utilize its OneWeb fleet to remove service deadzones worldwide. Notably, Eutelsat is also set to be the operator of Europe's IRIS² constellation, which will have a few hundred satellites in low Earth orbit by the 2030s.

Einstein Probe detects unusual celestial pair

The joint Chinese Academy of Sciences-European Space Agency Einstein Probe has been in orbit for just over a year and is already making discoveries.

In late February, the European Space Agency shared that the Wide-field X-ray Telescope on the Einstein Probe spotted X-rays coming from the Small Magellanic Cloud. These X-rays were coming from a new source labeled EP J0052. Additionally, Alessio Marino, a researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences in Spain, explains:

“We were chasing fleeting sources, when we came across this new spot of X-ray light in the Small Magellanic Cloud. We realised that we were looking at something unusual, that only Einstein Probe could catch,” — “We soon understood that we were dealing with a rare discovery of a very elusive celestial couple” — “The unusual duo consists of a massive star that we call a Be star, weighting 12 times the Sun, and a stellar ‘corpse’ known as a white dwarf, a compact and hyper-dense object, with a mass similar to that of our star.”

The European Space Agency also states that the two stars closely orbit each other, and the white dwarf’s intense gravitational field pulls matter from its companion. As more and more material rains down on the compact object, its strong gravity compresses it, until a runaway nuclear explosion is initiated. This creates a bright flash of light across a wide range of wavelengths from visible light to UVs and X-rays. Speaking to China Daily, Yuan Weimin, the Einstein Probe's principal investigator, added:

“The discovery opens a new way to explore how massive stars interact and evolve, confirming the unique power of the mission to uncover fleeting X-ray sources in the sky,” — "We hope the Einstein Probe satellite will continue to drive advancements in high-energy time-domain astronomy"

SpaceX selected to launch NEO Surveyor

NASA announced on February 21st that it had selected SpaceX to launch its NEO Surveyor spacecraft atop of a Falcon 9 no earlier than September 2027. The contract to launch the spacecraft is valued at approximately 100 million United States Dollars.

NASA's NEO Surveyor mission is aiming to last around five years while finding at least two-thirds of the potential near-Earth asteroids that are larger than 140 meters in diameter. To find asteroids, NEO Surveyor has a single approximately 20-inch diameter telescope that will operate in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths.

Launches of the Month

This month saw twenty-two launches worldwide, continuing a hectic year. If you want to know what each launch was we have them all listed below!

Beginning the month was a batch of twenty-two Starlink satellites were delivered to low Earth orbit atop of Falcon 9, flying from Space Launch Complex 4E in California. Supporting this mission was booster B1075, making its seventeenth flight and landing downrange on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You'.

February 2nd - H3 with Michibiki-6

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' H3 rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center, in southern Japan, carrying the Michibiki-6 satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. Michibiki-6 is a navigation satellite for providing services in urban centers and mountainous regions.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida, carrying twenty-one Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The booster supporting this mission was b1069, flying for the twenty-first time and landing on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instruction' downrange.

February 4th - New Shepard for NS-29

New Shepard performed a suborbital flight from Blue Origin's West Texas launch site carrying thirty payloads above the Kármán line and simulating lunar gravity. The booster for this mission is believed to have been NS-5, flying for the second time. More details about this mission are available here.

February 4th - Falcon 9 with WorldView Legion 5 & 6

Two more satellites for Maxar's WorldView Legion constellation were launched from Launch Complex 39A, in Florida, to low Earth orbit. Supporting this launch was booster B1086 on its fourth flight, with a landing back at Landing Zone 1 in Florida.

February 5th - Soyuz 2.1v with three Kosmos satellites

What is believed to have been the last Soyuz 2.1v lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome carrying three Kosmos satellites into a polar orbit.

Another Falcon 9 carried twenty-one Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40. B1078 supported this mission for its seventeenth flight, with a landing downrange on the drone ship 'A Shortfall Of Gravitas'.

February 8th - Electron for 'IoT 4 You and Me'

Rocket Lab launched Kinéis' fourth group of five satellites for a planned Internet of Things constellation, consisting of five satellites. This mission was launched onboard Electron from Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula, in New Zealand.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 4E, in California, carrying twenty-three Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The booster supporting this launch was B1071, making its twenty-third flight and landing on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' downrange.

February 11th - Long March 8A with GuoWang Group 02

The first Long March 8A blasted off from LC-201 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center, in China's southern Hainan Province, carrying the second batch of satellites for the GuoWang satellite internet mega-constellation into low Earth orbit. This batch of satellites is believed to have consisted of nine satellites, bringing the constellation up to nineteen satellites of a planned 13,000 by the 2030s.

A Falcon 9 blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida, carrying twenty-one Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. Booster B1077 supported this launch for its eighteenth flight, with a landing downrange on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions'.

Twenty-one more Starlink satellites were delivered to low Earth orbit atop of a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 40. B1067 supported this launch for its twenty-sixth flight, landing on the drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas' downrange afterward.

February 18th - Electron for 'Fasten Your Space Belts'

Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1B, on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand, carrying a commercial imaging satellite into low Earth orbit from BlackSky.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida, carrying twenty-three Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. Supporting the launch was booster B1080 on its sixteenth flight, with a landing on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions' downrange.

Another Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 carrying another twenty-three Starlink satellites to low Earth Orbit. This launch was supported by B1076 on its twenty-first flight, and landing downrange on the drone ship 'A Shortfall Of Gravitas'.

February 22nd - Long March 3B/E with ChinaSat-10R

A Long March 3B/E lifted off from Launch Complex 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying the ChinaSat-10R spacecraft to a geostationary transfer orbit. The ChinaSat-10R spacecraft is a replacement for the aging ChinaSat-10 and will provide communications and data services for China and other Belt and Road initiative nations.

Twenty-two more Starlink satellites were carried into low Earth orbit by a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 4E, in California. Booster B1082 supported this launch, for its eleventh flight with a landing on the drone ship 'Of Couse I Still Love You' downrange.

February 25th - New Shepard for NS-30

Blue Origin launched New Shepard's tenth crewed mission from the company's West Texas launch site. Onboard New Shepard were passengers Lane Bess, Jesús Calleja, Elaine Chia Hyde, Dr. Richard Scott, Tushar Shah, and an undisclosed sixth individual.

February 27th - 27th - Falcon 9 with Nova-C IM-2 and other payloads

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A carrying Intuitive Machines' second Nova-C lander for the IM-2 mission, NASA's Lunar Trailblazer satellite, and an unknown commercial satellite to a lunar transfer orbit, more details on the payloads are available here. The booster supporting this mission was B1083, making its ninth flight and landing downrange on the drone ship 'A Shortfall Of Gravitas'.

Twenty-one more Starlink satellites were launched to low Earth orbit atop of a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 40. The booster that supported this mission may have been B1092, flying for the first time and landing on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions' downrange.

February 27th - Long March 2C with SuperView Neo-1 03 & 04

A Long March 2C lifted off from Launch Area 4 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center carrying two satellites to sun-synchronous orbit. The two satellites were the SuperView Neo-1 03 and 04 commercial remote sensing satellites.

February 27th - Soyuz 2.1a with Progres MS-30

A Soyuz 2.1a flying from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launched the Progress MS-30 spacecraft into low Earth orbit where it began its journey to the International Space Station.

Launches to look out for in March!

March will continue a hectic year of launches. Listed below are all of the launches expected or very likely to happen next month, launches on the 1st of March may have already occurred due to when this newsletter is published.

March 1st - Falcon 9 with SPHEREx and PUNCH

A Falcon 9 is planned to launch from Space Launch Complex 4E into a polar orbit carrying NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) and PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) spacecraft.

March 1st - Kuaizhou-1A with a to-be-announced payload

ExPace's Kuaizhou-1A may launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center carrying a to-be-announced payload into sun-synchronous orbit.

Another batch of Starlink satellites are expected to launch atop of a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 40.

March 2nd - Ceres-1 with a to-be-announced payload

Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 may launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center carrying a to-be-announced payload to a sun-synchronous orbit.

March 2nd - Soyuz 2.1b with Glonnass-K2

A Soyuz 2.1b may liftoff from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome carrying a Glonass-K2 satellite to medium Earth orbit.

Yet another batch of Starlink satellites may launch from Space Launch Complex 40 atop of a Falcon 9.

March 3rd - Ariane 6 with Composante Spatiale Optique-3

An Ariane 6 is expected to fly into sun-synchronous orbit from the Guiana Space Center carrying the Composante Spatiale Optique-3 optical imaging satellite for the French military.

March 3rd - Starship-Super Heavy for its eighth flight test

SpaceX could be attempting Starship-Super Heavy's eighth flight test on February 26th utilizing Ship 34 and Booster 15.

March 4th - Falcon 9 with Transporter-13

A Falcon 9 is planned to launch SpaceX's thirteenth dedicated Transporter rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4E.

March 12th - Falcon 9 with Crew-10

Crew Dragon is expected to launch atop of a Falcon 9 for NASA's Crew-10 mission carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos astronaut Kirill Peskov to the International Space Station.

March 12th - Long March 8 with Qianfan satellites

A Long March 8 may launch from Commercial Launch Pad 1 at the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site carrying a batch of Qianfan satellites into low Earth orbit.