U.S. Space Force statement: The seal “honors the Department of the Air Force’s proud history” SpaceNews.com

The battery malfunction that put DirecTV’s Spaceway-1 satellite at risk of exploding has a “very low likelihood” of occuring on other satellites, according to the satellite’s manufacturer, Boeing.  SpaceNews.com

The leadership of the House Science Committee introduced a NASA authorization bill Jan. 24 that seeks to significantly alter NASA’s current plans to return humans to the moon and make them part of an effort to send humans to Mars. SpaceNews.com

A team of U.S. military and civilian defense officials spent most of 2019 drawing up plans to create a Space Force as a new service branch within the Air Force. But it wasn’t until Congress reached a deal in December on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that the Space Force went from concept to reality. SpaceNews.com

Getting the Space Force right and creating the first new U.S. armed service in more than half a century will be a herculean task. Meeting that growing challenge will require, first and foremost, getting Space Force acquisition right. SpaceNews.com

NASA has selected acting directors at two of its field centers to take those positions on a permanent basis. SpaceNews.com

Vector, the launch vehicle and smallsat technology company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, announced Jan. 24 it is proceeding with plans to sell its satellite technology to Lockheed Martin or another bidder. SpaceNews.com

SpaceX will launch Egyptian operator NileSat’s next communications satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2022, SpaceXsaid Jan. 23. SpaceNews.com

NASA will turn off an aging infrared space telescope in a week, citing the complexities of continuing to operate the spacecraft as it drifts away from the Earth. SpaceNews.com

The Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or Space ISAC, will launch an unclassified portal where companies can share and analyze cybersecurity information. SpaceNews.com

Hoyt said observations from the U.S. military’s Space Surveillance Network showed the Prox-1 satellite deorbiting more than 24 times faster than before deploying the tape.  SpaceNews.com

The European Commission has “pre-booked” four launches using Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 rocket. SpaceNews.com

Firefly Aerospace says it had an “anomaly” during a Jan. 22 static-fire test of the first stage of its Alpha rocket under development, an incident that prompted evacuations and road closures in the vicinity in the test site. SpaceNews.com

Descartes Labs unveiled Jan. 22 a cloud-based platform for commercial customers that pairs geospatial datasets with modeling tools and applications. SpaceNews.com

SpaceX has asked the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California to hold a hearing on March 2 to consider the company’s protest against the U.S. Air Force. SpaceNews.com

The U.S. Space Force must acquire responsive, routine, and reliable access to space — starting with launch systems optimize for reaching low Earth orbit (LEO). SpaceNews.com

DirecTV is racing to move its Spaceway-1 satellite out of the geostationary arc after the 14-year-old satellite suffered a crippling battery malfunction that the company fears could cause it to explode.  SpaceNews.com

Boeing has decided to no longer continue development of an experimental suborbital spaceplane for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the latest setback for DARPA’s long-running efforts in space access. SpaceNews.com

Dutch launch broker Innovative Space Logistics and Firefly Aerospace signed a launch services agreement for launch opportunities on multiple Firefly Alpha missions starting this year. SpaceNews.com

The acting administrator of NOAA says the private sector is playing an increasingly important role in its work across the board, including space. SpaceNews.com