August 5, 2020

Starship Makes Long Awaited Hop at Texas Spaceport (Source: Space News)
A SpaceX Starship prototype made a long-awaited brief test flight Tuesday evening. The Starship SN5 vehicle lifted off from the company's Boca Chica, Texas, test site shortly before 8 p.m. Eastern, touching down on a neighboring pad about 45 seconds later after flying to an estimated altitude of 150 meters. The "hop" test was the first free flight of a Starship prototype. Last September, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said such a flight would take place in one to two months, but several previous prototypes were destroyed in ground tests. (8/5)

DoD's SDA Wants Fast Action on Military Constellations (Source: Space News)
The head of the Pentagon's Space Development Agency (SDA) says he wants to move quickly in developing constellations of satellites. Derek Tournear said Tuesday that the motto of the agency, "semper citius" or "always faster," is intended to emphasize the idea that good enough capabilities in the hands of troops sooner is preferable than delivering the perfect solution too late. The first satellites that SDA plans to start deploying in 2022 will be a mix of surveillance sensors to help the military find targets on the ground and heat-tracking sensors to locate missiles in flight that might be aimed at U.S. or allied forces. (8/5)

NOAA to Use Commercial Satellite Data for Operational Weather Forecasting (Source: Space News)
NOAA is seeking proposals for the purchase of commercial satellite weather data for operational missions. NOAA is inviting companies to submit proposals within the next 30 days to offer radio occultation data under two-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity orders. NOAA has previously purchased such data in a pilot program, but used it only to evaluate its quality. The upcoming purchases will be for data that will be used to support weather forecasting models. (8/5)

PredaSAR Plans 48 Satellite Constellation (Source: Space News)
PredaSAR plans to launch at least one, and as many as 48, satellites with SpaceX. The company, which is developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar satellites, said Tuesday it will launch its first satellite on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission in the spring of 2021. PredaSAR hopes to use SpaceX to launch the remainder of its 48-satellite system, but has not yet signed contracts for them. The company declined to say when it expects to have all 48 satellites in orbit, or to state the resolution of the constellation. (8/5)

New NASA Office to Coordinate Smallsat Rideshares (Source: Space News)
NASA's Science Mission Directorate has a new office to coordinate rideshare launches of its smallsats. The office works to identify NASA science missions whose launches have excess capacity and arrange for using that additional performance for launching smallsats for NASA or other agencies. It's part of an initiative by the directorate announced two years ago to increase its use of small satellites for a variety of science missions. (8/5)

China Plans Missioins to Moon and Asteroids (Source: Space News)
China is proceeding with development of future missions to the moon and to near Earth asteroids. The China National Space Administration is seeking proposals for student experiments that could fly on the Chang'e-7 mission, which will send an orbiter and lander to the moon, landing in the south polar regions of the moon in 2024. Also in development is ZhengHe, a mission to go to the near Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 and return up to one kilogram of samples, then visit the comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro. (8/5)

AFRL to Support Both Air Force and Space Force (Source: Air Force Magazine)
The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) will continue to support both the Air Force and the Space Force. Brig. Gen. Heather L. Pringle, the new commander of AFRL, said the lab will continue to operate largely as it does now, even though some of its elements are being transferred to the Space Force. Those personnel will then be reassigned back to the lab, with Pringle predicting the change to be "seamless" for them. (8/5)

Benchmark Space Systems Offers Nontoxic Satellite Propellenat (Source: Space News)
Satellite propulsion startup Benchmark Space Systems will provide nontoxic chemical propulsion for a new transfer vehicle being developed by Spaceflight. That propulsion will be used on Sherpa-NG, a transfer vehicle for smallsat rideshare missions. Benchmark also announced a permanent licensing partnership with Tesseract Space, a California propulsion startup, giving Benchmark access to Tesseract's intellectual property, assets and staff. (8/5)

LockMart Working with Momentus and USC on Cubesat Program (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin will work with Momentus and USC on a cubesat program. Students at USC's Information Sciences Institute will build the satellites and integrate them with Lockheed Martin's SmartSat mission payload, with the goal of launching four such satellites over two years. Momentus will provide launch services through Falcon 9 rideshare launches, starting next February. (8/5)

Lunapolitics: 10 Points to Consider (Source: Space News)
Renewed competition for the moon is the basis for the rise of Lunapolitics: where political and economic interests intersect with the topography and physical properties of the moon, from its subsurface through to cislunar space. The competitors are primarily the United States and China, but also Europe, Japan, India, and Russia, as well as companies hoping to mine the moon’s resources. Lunapolitics is the equivalent of geopolitics, and it is a growing and important reality that will keep diplomats, executives, and strategists busy for decades to come. Click here. (8/1)

Rocket Lab Increases Electron Payload Capacity (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab announced Aug. 4 it has increased the payload capacity of its Electron launch vehicle thanks to improvements in the batteries used in the rocket. Rocket Lab previously promoted a payload capacity of 150 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) and 225 kilograms to lower orbits. The company now says the vehicle can place 200 kilograms into SSO and 300 kilograms in lower orbits. (8/4)

Astronauts Praise 'Flawless' SpaceX Capsule Landing (Source: Space Daily)
Two NASA astronauts who returned from space to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday praised the SpaceX Dragon capsule's performance in their first public comments since the mission. "We're so proud of the SpaceX and NASA teams to get Dragon through its first crewed flight flawlessly," Doug Hurley said. "I'm almost kind of speechless, as far as how well the vehicle did and how, how well the mission went and all the things we did on board [the International Space Station]."

Hurley and Bob Benken spent 64 days in space after lifting off May 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Their assessment of the trip is important because the flight was the last test of the Crew Dragon capsule before NASA considers certifying it for regular flights. The space agency still must pore over data from the flight, which could take weeks. If all goes well, the first regular SpaceX mission will be scheduled for as early as late September. (8/5)

SES Picks ULA for Launching Two Satellites in 2022 (Source: Space News)
SES signed launch agreements with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to each launch two C-band communications satellites in 2022. The launch agreements follow contracts with manufacturers Boeing and Northrop Grumman signed in June to build the satellites. SES emphasized its decisions to purchase from U.S. companies amid pressure to rely on American suppliers. ULA will launch two satellites from Boeing on an Atlas 5, while SpaceX will launch two satellites from Northrop Grumman on a Falcon 9. SpaceX’s agreement includes room to launch an additional “contingency satellite” that has not yet been ordered. (8/5)

Arianespace Moves Ariane 5 Launch to Aug. 14 (Source: Arianespace)
Arianespace has rescheduled an Ariane 5 launch to Aug. 14 after a last-minute scrub July 31. The European launch provider said a sensor located inside a liquid hydrogen tank in the launcher’s main cryogenic stage demonstrated “unexpected behavior,” triggering the scrub. The launch, designated VA253, will carry communications satellites for Intelsat and BSAT, and Northrop Grumman’s second satellite servicer. Arianespace said launch preparations could be accelerated to Aug. 13, one day earlier than planned. (8/5)

Russia's RSCC Plans 10 Satellite Constellation, Service Beginning in 2021 (Source: RSCC)
The Russian Satellite Communications Company expects to start service with its two new satellites, Express-80 and Express-103, in early 2021. The satellites, built by ISS Reshetnev with payloads from Thales Alenia Space, launched on a Proton rocket July 30 and separated 18 hours after liftoff. RSCC said the satellites grow its constellation to 10 geostationary satellites and increase the company’s total capacity by a quarter. The state-owned company’s fleet covers Russia and 57 other countries. (8/5)

Solar Interference Put NBN Satellite Out of Service for 7 Hours (Source: IT News)
Solar weather likely caused an NBN satellite to stop service for about seven hours on Aug. 4. NBN said it believes one of its twin Sky Muster broadband satellites “experienced a natural radiation event” in orbit and “went into self-preservation mode to avoid being damaged." Approximately 60,000 Sky Muster broadband users lost service during the outage of the Australian satellite. Service was restored by 4:30 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time. (8/5)

Canada's ExactEarth Sells Satellite and Ground Station Assets to Australia's Myriota (Source: ExactEarth)
Canadian company exactEarth has completed the sale of four satellites and six ground stations to Australian startup Myriota. exactEarth expects the divestiture to save the company 1 million Canadian dollars ($760,000) a year. Myriota is planning a constellation of at least 25 small satellites to connect sensors and low-data-rate devices globally. (8/5)

Amazon Web Services Shifts Satellite Ground Station Plans (Source: Space News)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is changing plans for its ground station business. AWS has built ground stations in six locations around the world instead of the 12 it had expected to complete by the end of 2019. Shayn Hawthorne, senior manager of AWS's ground station business, said the company realized customers wanted ground stations in different locations than AWS thought. That includes a new focus on ground stations at higher latitudes. (8/5)

LoftOrbital to Support Development and Launch of Canadian Quantum Communications Experiment (Source: Space News)
Loft Orbital will provide the spacecraft platform and arrange a launch for a Canadian quantum communications experiment. The company announced Tuesday a contract with Honeywell, who is the prime contractor for the Canadian Space Agency mission called Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat). The satellite will use a Blue Canyon Technologies bus designed for spacecraft weighing about 100 kilograms. The satellite is projected to launch in 18 to 24 months. (8/5)

Trump Claims NASA Was Dead Until He Was Elected (Sources: Donald J. Trump, Space News)
On Wednesday, after learning of SpaceX's Starship hop, President Trump tweeted: "NASA was Closed & Dead until I got it going again. Now it is the most vibrant place of its kind on the Planet...And we have Space Force to go along with it. We have accomplished more than any Administration in first 3 1/2 years. Sorry, but it all doesn’t happen with Sleepy Joe!"

Space News' Jeff Foust tweeted a fact-check: "NASA was neither closed nor dead at the start of the current administration. Many recent NASA successes have their origins in prior administrations. The Starship test the president is retweeting has nothing to do with NASA; it’s a private effort by SpaceX." (8/5)