August 6, 2020

Businesses Now at the Center of NASA's Transition (Source: Quartz)
A transition toward complete focus on the Artemis moon-landing program is what NASA would like, but moving on it won’t be simple, and not only because Boeing is still working to deliver the spacecraft it owes NASA as part of the commercial crew program. Unlike NASA’s partnerships with private companies to replace the Space Shuttle, Artemis isn’t obviously time sensitive (whereas every year without access to the International Space Station meant waste); it’s definitely not cheap; and it doesn’t help the US save face with the Russians, on whom the Americans had become embarrassingly dependent for access to low-earth orbit, and paying out the nose for the privilege, until SpaceX came along.

However Artemis proceeds, it is clear that the mode of space exploration has changed permanently. Trump’s commentary on NASA was posted over a video not of a NASA activity, but of SpaceX’s newest Starship prototype taking its first short hop. While technically a NASA-funded project, Starship never would have made it off a NASA whiteboard. The ability of private companies to carry humans into orbit as effectively as governments will increasingly put businesses at the center of space activity. (8/6)

SES Picks Both SpaceX and ULA for Satellite Launches (Source: Space News)
SES awarded contracts to SpaceX and ULA for the launch of new C-band satellites. Under the contracts announced Wednesday, ULA will launch two satellites built by Boeing on a single Atlas 5 in 2022, while SpaceX will launch two satellites built by Northrop Grumman on a Falcon 9 rocket the same year. SpaceX's contract includes an option for launching an additional "contingency satellite" not yet ordered. SES emphasized its decision to procure exclusively U.S.-built satellites and rockets, as the cost for both will be covered by winning bidders of the FCC's December C-band spectrum auction. (8/6)

China Launches Imaging Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China launched a new Earth imaging satellite overnight. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Thursday and placed the Gaofen-9 04 satellite into orbit. The satellite is the latest in a series to provide high-resolution imagery. The launch also carried a small secondary payload from Tsinghua University called Q-SAT that is described as a gravity and atmospheric science satellite. (8/6)

Space Force Plans Portfolio of Smallsat and Commercially Developed Capabilities (Source: Space News)
Much of the U.S. Space Force's future space infrastructure will be commercially developed. Col. Russell Teehan, portfolio architect of the U.S. Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, outlined an operational architecture that has three key parts: space superiority, strategic effects, and theater effects. The center plans to fund technology demonstrations for key elements of that architecture, which Teehan said will include many opportunities for smallsats, including those developed commercially. (8/6)

NanoAvionics Triples Revenue (Source: Space News)
Smallsat manufacturer NanoAvionics says its revenue has tripled in the last year. The company, headquartered in Lithuania and with facilities in the United States, did not disclose specific revenue numbers but announced orders so far this year from British space video startup Sen, a consortium of Dutch and Norwegian government agencies and Thales Alenia Space. NanoAvionics also announced it is expanding its product line to provide "full control" of the overall development of its customers' satellites. (8/6)

California Seeks to Expand Commercial Operations at Vandenberg Spaceport (Source: Space News)
California is seeking to expand commercial launch activity at Vandenberg Air Force Base. State officials announced Wednesday an agreement with the Space Force and others to improve commercial space launch infrastructure at the base. Under the agreement, the organizations will develop a master plan for increasing commercial launch activity at the spaceport. The announcement didn't include any specific funding commitments by the state, Space Force or others regarding spaceport infrastructure. Click here. (8/6) 

ATLAS Wins NASA SBIR Phase II for Constellation Management (Source: Space Newsfeed)
ATLAS Space Operations) ATLAS Space Operations has been selected by NASA for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II award to further the development of an algorithmic solution to develop satellite ground station contact schedules designed to optimize ground station antenna usage around a customer’s mission requirements. ATLAS’ intent is to provide this unique ability to satellite communications ground antenna owners, enabling automated analysis of a mission’s requirements and providing intelligent satellite communications schedules on a lights-out basis. (8/3)

Smallsat Reliability Improves (Source: Space News)
The reliability of smallsats is improving even as the number of such satellites continues to increase. An Aerospace Corporation study found that 87% of smallsats launched between 2009 and 2018 that had completed their missions had done so successfully, with higher success rates for satellites launched in the latter half of the study. Smallsats that do fail tend to do so in the first months after launch, with power and communications malfunctions the leading causes. (8/6)

ExoTerra to Expand Production of Smallsat Propulsion Units (Source: Space News)
Smallsat propulsion company ExoTerra Resources is preparing to quadruple production capacity to meet government and commercial demand. The company is moving into a new, larger facility in September that will allow it to produce 200 propulsion units a year. ExoTerra has grown rapidly in the last year, nearly doubling its staff to 35 people. It has won awards from the U.S. Air Force and NASA, including one from NASA for a miniature solar electric propulsion system. (8/6)

Interplanetary Cubesats: Difficult But Not Impossible (Source: Space News)
Two cubesats that successfully flew to Mars demonstrated that interplanetary cubesats are possible, but not easy. The twin Mars Cube One (MarCO) cubesats accompanied the InSight Mars lander spacecraft and flew past Mars, relaying data from InSight as it landed. Cubesats have the advantage of being cheaper to build than traditional larger science spacecraft, but those being used for deep space missions require more durable components than cubesats flown in low Earth orbit. Those challenges, though, have not deterred other missions under development at NASA and ESA to send cubesats to the moon and asteroids. (8/6)

Should South Korea Pursue a Launch Capability? (Source: Korea Times)
A new agreement with the U.S. could help South Korea's space program, but the country still faces other obstacles to its space ambitions. An agreement with the U.S. on missile guidelines will allow South Korea to develop larger solid-fuel motors that the country's government says could be used for future launch vehicles. However, others in the country's space industry say that South Korea is unlikely to be able to compete on the global launch market, and would be better off launching its satellites on foreign vehicles. [Korea Times]

Rideshare Available on Russian Lunar Mission (Source: Space News)
GK Launch Services is offering a smallsat rideshare opportunity on a Russian lunar mission. The company says it is selling space for secondary payloads on the Soyuz-2 launch of the Luna-Glob lunar lander mission, scheduled for October 2021. Secondary payloads launched on that mission would be placed in Earth escape trajectories. The company didn't disclose the cost of that launch opportunity, or rideshare missions on other Soyuz missions, other than to say they were "competitive" with SpaceX. (8/6)

Air Force Lab Prepares to Spend Billions on New Tech (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Air Force Research Laboratory has organized its first WARTECH summit to help the lab prioritize the development of promising technologies. The Air Force's Science and Technology Strategy 2030 calls for 20% of the lab's annual budget to be allocated toward "transformational capabilities." (8/5)

A Hypersonic Air Force One? (Source: Aerospace America)
Startup Hermeus aims to show how its planned Mach 5 airliners could carry the U.S. president, diplomats, others. Today, the president of the United States and other high-ranking officials fly from here to there no faster than you and I do. Now, the U.S. Air Force, which manages today’s executive fleet of converted Boeing, Bombardier and Gulfstream jets, is looking into the feasibility of adding a Mach 5 plane to the mix.

Hermeus Corp. of Atlanta, a 2-year-old startup, announced today that it has received a 12-month, $1.5 million contract from the Air Force Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate to study how its conceptual Mach 5 planes might someday join the U.S. government’s fleet. Hermeus has so far targeted the civilian air transport market. (8/6)

Manufacturers Worry About Smallsats Getting Too Hot (Source: Space News)
As small satellites become more powerful, manufacturers say they need better ways to manage excess heat generated by their electronics systems. Small satellites are increasingly handling more data, be it collecting remote sensing imagery or routing traffic for ground-based sensors and smart devices. Planet’s optical-imaging cubesats increased in onboard memory from 16 gigabytes a satellite eight years ago to 2 terabytes in 2020, a 125-fold increase, Chester Gillmore, Planet vice president of spacecraft development and manufacturing, said

Tim Lynch, executive director of the Space and Airborne Systems Multi-Domain Architecture Group within L3Harris Technologies, said power-intensive spacecraft functions, such as high-data-rate communications can generate a lot of unwanted heat. “We’ve built electronics packaging in very small volumes and getting the heat out is tough,” he said. “Thermal management is a big deal.” Manufacturers and their suppliers are developing new ways to deal with unwanted heat on smallsats. Atlanta, Georgia startup Carbice anticipates seeing satellites launch this year with its new nanotech carbon fiber thermal management material onboard. (8/6)

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