WASHINGTON — The White House said Feb. 23 has no schedule for nominating a NASA administrator as a new round of rumors swirl about who might be selected to lead the agency.

The topic arose at a press conference when a reporter asked press secretary Jen Psaki about rumors that the Biden administration was considering Bill Nelson, a former senator from Florida, for the post.

WASHINGTON — The leaders of the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces during a hearing Feb. 23 called on the Defense Department and other agencies to more openly discuss the threats posed by China and Russia as these nations advance their space and nuclear weapons technologies.

 NASA marked another milestone last week with the successful landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars. Perseverance is now the fifth and most technologically advanced rover to reach the surface of the red planet.

WASHINGTON — Millennium Engineering and Integration received a $13.2 million award from the U.S. Space Force on Feb. 19 for services in support of the certification of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.

WASHINGTON – Scott Soenen, who held key engineering jobs at Capella Space and Planet, is the new chief technology officer of Hydrosat, a data analytics company building a satellite constellation to produce a global thermal infrared map.

“If you are looking for the one person that has engineered successful remote sensing data platforms across three high-growth commercial satellite operators, Scott is that person,” Hydrosat CEO Pieter Fossel said in a statement.

WASHINGTON — Two startups are partnering on technology that they hope can jump-start the market for in-space refueling of satellites.

Orbit Fab and Benchmark Space Systems announced Feb. 23 that they are teaming up to provide the capability to refuel Benchmark’s thrusters with hydrogen peroxide propellant provided by an Orbit Fab tanker in low Earth orbit.