On guard (5/5/23)

Good morning. Happy Friday, Payload readers, especially the 217 of you who came aboard this week. We hope your margaritas are cold, your tacos are spicy, and your weekend is great.

In today’s edition…
💂 Space Guard debate heats up
🛰️ SES Q1 earnings
✨ Payload’s picks

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Congress Reopens Space National Guard Battle

Some lawmakers are re-launching their bid to establish a Space National Guard, despite strong White House opposition to previous efforts.

House Armed Services Committee members Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO) and Doug Lamborn (R-CO) this week reintroduced the Space National Guard Establishment Act, which would move space-focused Air National Guard members from seven states and one territory into a new Space branch. Last session, the proposal passed the House as part of broader defense policy legislation, but was removed from a final version of the bill in December.

For it: The bill has bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, where Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced a similar bill in February.

Supporters argue that space missions should be stripped out of the Air National Guard the same way space priorities were removed from the Air Force to establish the Space Force. Standing up a Space National Guard would “correct this misalignment,” lawmakers claim.

The proposal has other high-power allies, including the National Guard Association of the US and Guard Chief Gen. Daniel Hokanson, who said in 2021 that establishing a space guard was “among my most pressing concerns.”

Against it: The White House in September 2021 said it “strongly opposes” the creation of a Space National Guard due to concerns about ballooning bureaucracy and cost—and officials have given no reason to think that view has changed.

“Establishing a Space National Guard would not deliver new capabilities—it would instead create new government bureaucracy, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates could increase costs by up to $500 million annually,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy.

Refresher on cost: The CBO scored two plans.

• A Space National Guard that’s ~⅓ the size of the Space Force would cost up to $490M more per year, plus up to $900M in onetime costs.

• A smaller version that transfers 1,500 space operators from the Air and Army Guard to a Space branch—in line with the lawmakers’ plan—would cost about $100M extra each year, plus startup costs of $20M.

What’s next: Debate about the Space National Guard is almost certain to be a centerpiece of debate in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which the House Armed Services Committee will mark up on May 23.

But wait, there’s more! Next week, Payload is launching Polaris, a weekly space policy newsletter written by Jacqueline, our DC-based interim managing editor. Subscribe now so you don’t miss the inaugural issue on Tuesday afternoon.

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SES Announces Better Than Expected Q1 2023 Earnings

SES, a satellite telecommunications network provider from Luxembourg, reported Q1 financial results above market expectations on Thursday.

Overall financials:

• Revenue = €490M ($540M), a 9.6% increase YoY

• Adjusted EBITDA = €265M ($292M), a 3.2% decrease YoY

• Cash & cash equivalents = -€1.1B (-$1.2B)

• SES-17 & O3b mPOWER backlog = $1B

SES’s next system: The company expects to begin commercial service in Q3 of its O3b mPOWER system, a communication satellite network that will serve customers such as Microsoft and Orange. SES launched two O3b mPOWER satellites this quarter, with the fifth and sixth satellites planned to launch in June.

Looking ahead: Officials didn’t provide any updates on the possible merger with Intelsat, but CEO Steve Collar echoed his positive views about consolidation in the industry.

In Other News…

• Construction has started at Scotland’s Sutherland Spaceport.

• Cosmonauts relocated an airlock from one module on the ISS to another during an 11-hour spacewalk.

• SpaceX has surpassed 4,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.

• JPL Director Laurie Leshen chatted with the Planetary Society about problems with Psyche, and how the ripple effect from that program has affected the lab.

• Lockheed reorganized its space division to quickly meet growing satellite demand.

Payload's Picks

📖 What we’re reading:

• A dive into SpaceX’s finances and how much money they can afford to spend on Starship (4 min read).

• Grappling with the impacts of mega constellations on astronomy (3 min read).

• Parallax looks to the sun to see how Earthly molecules were formed (1 min read).

👀 What we’re watching:

• Firefly and the Slow Mo Guys join forces to film an engine hot fire test in super slow mo (9 min watch).

• SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy fairing re-enters the atmosphere at 15x the speed of sound (30 sec watch).

🏆 ICYMI, here were the three most-read stories on our website this week:

• Relativity Developing New 3D Printing Tech for Terran-R

• UT Races Towards the Kármán Line with its Liquid-Fueled Rocket

• Redwire, Microsoft, and Marvel Team Up on STEM Initiative

The View from Space

New evaluation of existing data suggests four of Uranus’ largest moons likely contain oceans under their icy exterior, NASA’s JPL announced Thursday.