MethaneSat goes AWOL
The £65 million satellite has disappeared just a year after it was launched.
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🛰️ BBC News reports that MethaneSat, the £65 million satellite backed by Google and Jeff Bezos, has gone missing, in what it calls a ‘major setback for climate efforts’. But thanks to private companies – notably the French energy and environmental intel firm Kayrros, which for years has tracked methane globally and inspired climate legislation – the hunt for methane will continue:
‘The MethaneSat satellite, which had backing from Google and billionaire Jeff Bezos, was launched only last year aboard an Elon Musk SpaceX rocket.
It was meant to collect data for five years on sources of the powerful greenhouse gas, which is responsible for nearly a third of human-induced warming, to help curtail the worst offenders.
The Environment Defense Fund, the NGO which oversees the satellite, said that communication was lost ten days ago and is currently undertaking an investigation into what happened.
Methane is the most potent of the greenhouse gases, and although it does not hang around in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, it is 28 times stronger over a 100-year period.
Despite an international commitment to reduce methane levels by 30% by 2030, year-on-year it continues to rise with the target unlikely to be met, according to the European Space Agency.’
🇪🇺 In Space News, Jeff Foust writes that this year’s Paris Air Show had a stronger space presence than usual, including a dedicated exhibit area hosting European space companies:
‘That increased emphasis comes exactly as Europe is weighing its own future in space. Governments are showing a willingness to invest more in space, linked to growing defense needs as Europe notes the lessons of the war in Ukraine. Another factor is the perception of weakening ties with the United States, including budget cuts at NASA that could hinder ESA programs.
But if Europe is going to invest more in space, it’s clear that what has worked in the past will no longer be enough. A theme from the Paris Air Show and other recent events is that Europe’s distributed approach to space, spreading funding and effort across multiple agencies and a wide range of companies, will need to change. Governments are working to more closely cooperate on space while companies are feeling pressure to consolidate.
At stake, officials say, is Europe’s place as a leading space power as America and China accelerate their efforts. “If we do not seize the opportunity to enhance our cooperation and work even more efficiently together,” said Francois Jacq, chief executive of CNES, “we will fall behind.”’
💰 For CNBC, Ruxandra Iordache writes about how U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ could bolster the U.S. Space Force’s budget:
‘If the reconciliation package is enshrined according to earlier versions, it and budgetary measures could be set to deliver the U.S. Space Force a 30% year-on-year increase in funding to just under a whopping $40 billion in 2026. That’s no small amount of change, even relative to the broader $1 trillion defense strategy that the administration’s officials are trying to push through.
And it adds up. Some $25 billion was slated for Trump’s mammoth multi-layered missile defense system, Golden Dome. Crunching some numbers, that’s a seventh of the total $175 billion cost the White House administration has billed for the project — whose overall expense and viability lawmakers and analysts have repeatedly questioned — in a short stretch. It is, nevertheless, worth remembering other estimates put the final bill closer to $540 billion.
These funds will make an “initial investment” in Golden Dome focused on procuring interceptors like the existing Patriots, developing new space-based interceptor options, and putting a down payment on advanced sensors and command and control systems, according to a U.S. Department of Defense briefing on June 26.
The money will go toward “vital space-based capabilities” alongside “space control and resilient combat credible architectures,” all part of a broader bid to achieve Washington’s “space superiority,” a senior defense official said last week.’
🇱🇹 Lithuania is becoming a promising hub for space start-ups, reports BBC News:
‘Worth about £2.5bn, Lithuania's defence budget is small when you compare it to larger countries like the UK, which spends around £54bn a year.
But if you look at defence spending as a percentage of GDP, then Lithuania is spending more than many bigger countries.
Around 3% of its GDP is spent on§ defence, and that's set to rise to 5.5%. By comparison, UK defence spending is worth 2.5% of GDP.
Recognised for its strength in niche technologies like Astrolight's lasers, 30% of Lithuania's space projects have received EU funding, compared with the EU national average of 17%.
"Space technology is rapidly becoming an increasingly integrated element of Lithuania's broader defence and resilience strategy," says Invest Lithuania's Šarūnas Genys, who is the body's head of manufacturing sector, and defence sector expert.’
🤖 Europe’s top CEOs, including Antoine Rostand of Kayrros, Pierre-Damien Vaujour of Loft Orbital, and AXA’s Thomas Buberl, have signed an open letter calling on the EU to pause the Artificial Intelligence Act, reports POLITICO:
‘The landmark tech regulation has come under scrutiny in Brussels as part of an effort by European Union officials to cut red tape to boost its economy. The AI Act in particular has faced intense lobbying pressure from American tech giants in past months.
European Commission tech chief Henna Virkkunen told POLITICO this week she would make a call on whether to pause the implementation by end August if standards and guidelines to implement the law are not ready in time.
The chief officials lamented that "unclear, overlapping and increasingly complex EU regulations" is disrupting their abilities to do business in Europe. A pause would signal that the EU is serious about simplification and competitiveness to innovators and investors, they added.
The pause should apply both to provisions on general-purpose AI that take affect on August 2, as well as systems classified as high-risk, that have to apply the rules in August 2026, the letter said.’
🎥 And finally, as NATO chief Mark Rutte warns that parallel attacks by China and Russia could kick off World War III, we thought it was worth revisiting this clip, from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: