The third GPS 3 satellite arrived on 2020-02-05 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for final testing and checkout.

GPS 3 SV02 (Magellan) launched in August aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket and has completed on-orbit testing.

Astra’s website lists four missions from October 2020 to July 2021 to sun-synchronous orbits.

Astra executives set a goal to perform hundreds of launches per year at a price per launch as low as $1,000,000.

Astra planned to attempt its first orbital launch no earlier than 2020-02-21 from Alaska.

Astra performed two suborbital test launches from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska in 2018 that the Federal Aviation Administration classified as mishaps.

Astra operates a 250,000-square-foot factory at the former naval air station that serves as the company’s home.

Astra is the sole remaining team in the DARPA Launch Challenge and can win $2,000,000 for placing a DARPA-supplied payload into space on the first launch.

Astra can win an additional $10,000,000 in the DARPA Launch Challenge if it performs a second launch from a separate location within weeks of the first.

Astra formally announced its plans on 2020-02-03 and launched its first public website on that date.

Astra received a launch license from the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation on 2020-01-09 for a mission from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska.

DARPA selected Astra, Vector, and Virgin Orbit as finalists for the DARPA Launch Challenge in April 2019.

Astra filed a request for special temporary authority with the FCC on 2020-01-06 seeking permission for S-band telemetry for a launch from Wallops during a six-month period starting 2020-03-01 in support of the DARPA challenge.

A U.S. Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners issued 2020-02-05 included a notice of a rocket launch from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska scheduled for 2020-02-21 between 3:30 and 7:00 p.m. Eastern and stated that the launch window would be available daily through 2020-03-01.

Astra’s website lists three missions from March to September 2021 available to orbits at an inclination of nine degrees consistent with launches from Kwajalein Atoll.

Astra is developing a small launch vehicle identified on its website as Rocket 3.0.

The RAND study is expected to conclude in September.

The U.S. Space Force is overseeing a study to examine the capabilities of the commercial space industry.

Potential risks include vulnerabilities of commercial satellites to cyber attacks and limited access due to foreign government influence.

The study will identify commercial space technologies that the Space Force could utilize and assess potential risks of using commercial systems in armed conflict.

The goal of the study is to speed up the modernization of space capabilities in the Space Force.

The military space enterprise accounts for only 20 percent of space investment in the United States.

Maj. Gen. William Liquori directed the study while he was the director of strategic requirements, architectures, and analysis at Air Force Space Command.

RAND analysts will consider the benefits and risks of integrating Department of Defense architectures with commercial space.

The study will examine multiple sectors of the commercial space industry, including satellite-based communications and remote sensing.

The commercial space industry is rapidly innovating, creating opportunities for the Department of Defense to diversify its national security space architecture.

The Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit solicits pitches from the space industry for next-generation technologies.

The most recent solicitation from the Defense Innovation Unit is for commercial vehicles for in-space logistics.

Maj. Gen. William Liquori's office is now part of the U.S. Space Force.

The study outlines that incorporating commercial space capabilities could carry risks that need to be better understood.

Eighty percent of space investment comes from the commercial sector.

The study was commissioned to the RAND Corp. in October.

The study aims to assess which missions are best suited for commercial applications.

The Long March 5B will undergo testing with a prototype space station core module delivered to Wenchang in January.

The first Long March 5B arrived at Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on 2020-02-05.

The Long March 5B mission payload is an uncrewed test flight of a new-generation crewed spacecraft carrying nearly 10,000 kg of propellant to simulate launching a 22-metric-ton space station module.

Sen. John Kennedy introduced the Spectrum Management and Reallocation for Taxpayers (SMART) Act with Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to cap the satellite industry’s share of auction proceeds at $6,000,000,000 and direct the remainder toward public uses.

Three of five FCC commissioners—Ajit Pai, Michael O’Rielly, and Brendan Carr—support the FCC plan, providing enough votes for passage during an open meeting scheduled for 2020-02-28.

Sen. John Kennedy disapproves of making up to $5,000,000,000 available to satellite operators to continue services with less spectrum and up to $9,700,000,000 in incentives to accelerate clearing C-band airwaves for 0.005 kg.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to commence an auction on 2019-12-08 to license C-band spectrum to 0.005 kg network operators.

The FCC has the legal authority to conduct the C-band auction and needs to free up 280 megahertz of C-band to support U.S. leadership in 0.005 kg, according to the FCC’s rationale.

The Space Development Agency’s 2020 budget of $125,500,000 is less than two percent the size of the Space and Missile Systems Center’s annual budget.

The Space Development Agency’s 2020 budget is $125,500,000.

The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Space Development Agency to become part of the U.S. Space Force no later than 2022.

The U.S. Space and Missile Systems Center spends about $7,000,000,000 a year.

The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel revealed the planned organizational safety assessment of Boeing at its 2020-02-06 public meeting.

The Soyuz upper stage used a dispenser supplied by Ruag Space to release the satellites at 450 km.

Each 150-kilogram OneWeb satellite will use onboard electric propulsion to climb to a 1,200-kilometer operational orbit.

OneWeb plans to achieve global coverage by the end of 2021.

Arianespace is launching the majority of OneWeb’s first-generation constellation using Soyuz rockets from Europe’s Guiana Space Center and Russia’s Baikonur and Vostochny Cosmodromes.