September 19, 2020

Iran's Space Program is Key to its Quest for Global Power (Source: Israel Haymon)
Compared to the attention paid worldwide to Iran's missile program, Iran's space programs attract scant notice. Occasionally, Western leaders protest weakly against an Iranian space launch, arguing that the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers forbids Tehran from developing, manufacturing, and launching long-range missiles, space launchers included. Iran invariably replies that its space launches do not violate the deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Alas, Iran's interpretation of the nuclear agreement is accurate. The drafters of the agreement intentionally obfuscated the language relating to Iran's missile obligations to the point where Iran is basically free to do as it pleases in this regard. The West tends to regard Iran's space program as a minor appendix of its missile program, itself viewed by the West as far less significant than the Ayatollahs' military nuclear program. But this trivialization of Iran's space ambitions dangerously misses its true essence. Iran's space program is one of the cornerstones upon which the entire edifice of Iran's strategic concept is built.

Iran aspires to leverage itself from a regional power to a regional hegemon, thence a leader of the Islamic World, and ultimately to a global power on par with Russia and China. A precondition for achieving global power are the ultimate status symbols: nuclear ICBMS backed by space-based early-warning satellites to ensure a credible second-strike capability. (9/18)

A Rival for Elon Musk? Russia's S7 Space Seeks to Create Reusable Rocket (Source: Sputnik)
Reports have said that the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos has commissioned an economic assessment of whether operations can be resumed on the floating spaceport Sea Launch, owned by the S7 AirSpace Corporation, with a return to launches planned for 2024. The Technology and Research Company that is part of S7 AirSpace Corporation, which owns the Sea Launch floating spaceport, has begun work to develop a light launch vehicle with a reversible first stage.

The work has been in progress since 2019, says the statement, adding that in the future, the experience gained will be employed to manufacture a medium-class rocket for the sea platform. Sea Launch is S7’s key asset, with the company nurturing ambitious hopes of competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, creating its own launch vehicle in the process. (9/19)

ISRO Gears Up for Two Launches in November (Source: New Indian Express)
After nine months of dry run, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will soon be taking to the skies. Two PSLV rocket launches are planned, tentatively, in November, and the work is underway in full swing at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-Shar) in Sriharikota. The last mission executed from Indian soil was PSLV-C48 carrying “spy” satellite RISAT-2BR1 on December 11, 2019. Although GSLV-F10 launch was planned on March 5, the mission had to be postponed due to technical reasons. Since then, the pandemic has crippled ISRO operations.

The spaceport was particularly hit by over 150 cases of Covid-19, forcing it to go on a temporary shutdown, but the operations are slowly being restored. As per the latest working modalities issued by Shar controller M Srinivasulu Reddy, a copy of which is available with TNIE, ISRO is planning to launch PSLV-C49 and PSLV-C50. (9/19)

Officials Say NASA Facing Increased Targeting by Foreign and Domestic Hackers (Source: The Hill)
Top officials at NASA say the agency is facing increasing attempts by foreign hackers to target sensitive information as it works to improve its IT security during the COVID-19 pandemic. “NASA has vast troves of intellectual information capital that it has spent decades amassing. I think country actors are after that information, the innovations that NASA is so famous for around the world,” agency Inspector General Paul Martin testified to a House Science, Space and Technology Committee subcommittee on Friday. (9/18)

Next SpaceX Launch Will Wait for Improved Ocean Conditions (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The launch of SpaceX’s next 60 Starlink satellites will wait for better weather and sea conditions after currents were too strong for the company’s rocket landing platform to hold position in the Atlantic Ocean for a launch attempt Thursday. After scrubbing Thursday’s launch attempt, SpaceX initially said it might try again to launch the mission Friday afternoon. But the launch company announced Thursday night that it would not proceed with a countdown Friday. It could take several days for conditions to improve enough to allow SpaceX to proceed with the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the company said. (9/18)

China’s Relentless Space March Calls For Renewed U.S. Resilience (Source: Forbes)
Just as integral as airplanes in the 20th century and merchant ships between the 15th and 17th centuries, the modern world economy is now completely dependent on satellite systems orbiting the earth. Today, access and freedom to operate in space is vital to nearly every aspect of modern life as we leverage space-based technologies to improve our lives and expand our businesses. These satellites provide the essential capabilities that enable precision navigation and communication, anticipate and help react to natural disasters, ensure treaty compliance, enhance scientific understanding, and so much more.

Yet the orbital domain that we find ourselves increasingly reliant upon is constantly changing, bringing in new challenges to security, safety and sustainability. Chief among these challenges is China's rapidly increasing presence in space for both civilian and defense purposes. China’s most recent space ambition would drastically accelerate the red dragon's presence in outer space, with its satellite industry expected to witness explosive growth in the next three to five years.

The country's next great leap forward has been dubbed "satellite internet," a part of its "new infrastructures" initiative that will pump millions into the Chinese space industry and has resulted in a flurry of activity within its commercial satellite sector in recent weeks. The push toward building space infrastructure has had an overwhelmingly stimulating effect on China's industrial base and has increased momentum for economic development in the sector. Which begs the question, "why doesn't America have an industrial plan for national security space?" (9/18)

Virgin Orbit Seeking Over $100 Million As ‘Jaw Dropping’ Costs Mount And Small Satellite Market Narrows (Source: Forbes)
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is looking for investors. Despite the small satellite launch business already having spent $700 million, billionaire Sir Richard Branson is yet to join Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Peter Beck’s Rocket Lab in reaching orbit, and pressure to do so is beginning to mount. With a second test pencilled in before the year’s end, the onus is on Virgin to make good on the money spent and bring their launch offer to market before someone else gets there first.

Confidence is high amongst Branson’s Virgin team who, after the failed demo launch in May, feel they now have proof that the technology could and would actually work. After confirming it would be taking a payload for NASA on their next demo, Virgin felt the time was right last week to instruct LionTree Advisors LLC and Perella Weinberg Partners LP to explore possible investment offers of “over $100 million” as potential new partners pin their dollars to Branson’s mast in the billionaire space race.

But it’s not all good news. The chorus of negativity from entrepreneurs and investors in the same field is gaining volume. And for Branson, the much-loved saying amongst space enthusiasts, investors and entrepreneurs – you’ve got to spend a billion, to make a million – risks coming true. “Most of them are going to die. It is going to be bloody and brutal.” Meagan Crawford, from the Houston-based venture capital SpaceFund tells Forbes of the 130-odd launch businesses she’s currently watching. (9/19)

NASA Touts Lunar Landing Tech, and Blue Origin Says There’ll be a Flight Test ‘Soon’ (Source: GeekWire)
Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong famously had to dodge a boulder-strewn crater just seconds before the first moon landing in 1969 — but for future lunar touchdowns, NASA expects robotic eyes to see such missions to safe landings. And Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is helping to make it so.

Today NASA talked up a precision landing system known as SPLICE (which stands for Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution). The system makes use of an onboard camera, laser sensors and computerized firepower to identify and avoid hazards such as craters and boulders. NASA says three of SPLICE’s four main subsystems — the terrain relative navigation system, a navigation Doppler lidar system and the descent and landing computer — will be tested during an upcoming flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. The fourth component, a hazard detection lidar system, still has to go through ground testing. (9/18)

ESA Develops Breakthrough Mesh Reflector for Shaped Radio Beams (Source: Parabolic Arc)
A prototype 2.6-m diameter metal-mesh antenna reflector represents a big step forward for the European space sector: versions can be manufactured to reproduce any surface pattern that antenna designers wish, something that was previously possible only with traditional solid antennas. “China and the US have also been working hard on similar shaped mesh reflector technology. It is needed so that sufficiently large antennas can be deployed in orbit, which would otherwise be too bulky to fit inside a launcher fairing, while also meeting required performance levels.”

ESA’s AMPER (Advanced techniques for mesh reflector with improved radiation pattern performance) project performed with Large Space Structures GmbH in Germany as prime and TICRA in Denmark as subcontractor. Antenna reflectors for satellites are often surprisingly ‘lumpy’ looking. Their basic paraboloid convex shape is distorted with additional peaks and valleys. These serve to contour the resulting radio frequency beam, typically to boost signal gain over target countries and minimise it beyond their borders. (9/19)

Air Pollution in a Post-COVID-19 World (Source: ESA)
Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental problems of our time. According to a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA), air pollution now contributes to one in eight deaths in Europe. Observations from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite have been vital in tracking the evolution of air pollution, specifically nitrogen dioxide concentrations, across Europe.

This year, satellite data have been widely used to monitor fluctuations in air quality brought on by strict COVID-19 measures. The Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, part of the European Copernicus programme, has been continuously mapping changes of air pollution since its launch in 2017. Scientists from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) have used satellite data from Sentinel-5P and ground-based data in order to pinpoint the correlation between COVID-19 and the effects of air pollution across Europe. (9/18)

How Should People Evaluate Presidential Campaigns on Space? (Source: Quartz)
Space has rarely been a presidential issue during a campaign… that space is not a partisan issue is a good thing. It can make it hard to say what president would be better for space. The question is, how much of a difference would you see in a Trump and Biden administration? I don’t think necessarily in broad strokes you would see a huge change. Look at the Democratic Party Platform—a relatively robust embrace of human exploration of the moon and Mars, endorsing the idea of sending humans into deep space. Beyond that, we are in speculative territory.

We are actually coming out of a huge transition period in NASA’s history after the retirement of the space shuttle, moving into the SLS/Orion and commercial era. Now it comes to priority and speed. How fast will we go to the moon? How much money to pursue that goal as a balanced part of the national priority is this administration going to have? A good way to think about space, in terms of what motivates any administration and how they approach it, is how is it perceived to address their goals for the nation? How is NASA a tool of domestic and international policy? Rarely is an individual president going to say, ‘I love NASA so much we are going to go to the moon.’

For the Biden administration, we can speculate by looking at their priorities for the nation. Focused a lot on workforce, manufacturing, R&D and climate change. They could see NASA as a chance to push those policies. Biden doesn’t have a deep space record, but he was the “stimulus czar” as vice president, which directed significant funding to NASA—is that a strategy we might see again? (9/18)