October 14, 2020

Astroscale Raises $51 Million for Debris Removal and Satellite Servicing Tech (Source: Space News)
Orbital debris removal company Astroscale has raised $51 million in a new funding round. The Tokyo-based company said aStart Co. Ltd., a Tokyo venture capital firm, led its Series E round, with participation from Hulic Co. Ltd., I-Net Corp., Shimizu Corp. and Sparx Space Frontier Fund. The funding will allow Astroscale to continue development of technologies for on-orbit satellite servicing and active debris removal. Astroscale plans to demonstrate its debris-removal technology through a self-funded mission to low Earth orbit, called End-of-Life Service by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d), scheduled for launch late this year. (10/14)

Hughes, SpaceX and Viasat Qualify for FCC Broadband Subsidies (Source: Space News)
Hughes Network Systems, SpaceX and Viasat have all qualified for an FCC broadband subsidy program. The FCC said Tuesday those three companies were among 386 qualified bidders for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which will offer $20.4 billion in subsidies for companies to provide broadband internet access to communities that currently lack such access. While there was little doubt that Hughes and Viasat would make the list of qualified bidders, SpaceX's inclusion wasn't a given because the Starlink constellation does not yet offer commercial service. Satellite operators complained earlier in the process that the RDOF rules put too much emphasis on low signal latency, which they say will make it too tough to win a share of the funds. (10/14)

Planet Offers High-Res Rapid Revisit (Source: Space News)
Earth observation company Planet announced new services Tuesday, including one offering frequent high-resolution imaging of selected areas. Rapid Revisit is a product that provides customers SkySat imagery at a resolution of 50 centimeters updated for any latitude between 7 and 12 times per day. Planet is also offering a commercial change-detection product, allowing customers to detect changes in specific regions which can then be followed up with SkySat imagery. While privately held Planet doesn't disclose financial information, the company said its customer bookings more than doubled in the last two quarters compared with a year ago. (10/14)

Blue Origin Flies Suborbital Experiments From Texas with Reusable New Shepard (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin's New Shepard made its first suborbital flight in 10 months on Tuesday. The reusable rocket lifted off from the company's West Texas test site at 9:36 a.m. Eastern on a 10-minute mission to the edge of space, with both the booster and crew capsule landing safely. New Shepard carried a dozen research payloads on this flight, including one for NASA to test sensors for future lunar landers. Blue Origin continues to provide few details about when it will start flying people on New Shepard, although the company said on its webcast of the flight that it needs "just a couple more flights" before it's ready for crewed launches. (10/14)

ULA Chief Recommends Lunar Propellant Reserve (Source: Space News)
The head of United Launch Alliance says the U.S. should develop a "strategic propellant reserve" for space operations. In a webinar Tuesday, Tory Bruno said that such a reserve, created from extracting lunar ice, could support a "self-sustaining cislunar economy." The reserve is modeled on the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve and would store up to two years' worth of propellant. Bruno said he discussed the idea with fellow members of the National Space Council's Users' Advisory Group, which agreed to study the concept. (10/14)

Japan and India Plan November Launches (Source: Space News)
Japan and India are gearing up for launches next month. K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian space agency ISRO, said at the International Astronautical Congress that the first PSLV launch of this year is planned for early November. Launches in India have been postponed since March by the coronavirus pandemic, which could also "slightly" delay the country's first human spaceflight mission that was scheduled to take place by August 2022. The Japanese space agency JAXA is planning a launch in late November of the Japanese Data Relay Satellite-1, which will provide communications services for JAXA and other Japanese government agencies. That launch, on an H-2A rocket, will be the first since the launch of the UAE's Hope Mars mission in July. (10/14)

Pluto Mountaintops Capped with Methane (Source: NPR)
Pluto's mountains have snowcaps, but they're not made of snow. Images of the dwarf planet taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft five years ago showed mountain ranges with white tops. Those "snowcaps" are made of methane frost, and the mountains themselves made of water ice that is extremely hard in the cold temperatures found on Pluto. Scientists said in a recent paper that the snowcaps form on Pluto when methane in its tenuous atmosphere condenses on the cold mountain tops. (10/14)

Flax Fibers Considered for Spacecraft (Source: ESA)
Fibers once used to wrap Egyptian mummies could help construct future spacecraft. The European Space Agency is testing the use of flax, used to make linen, as a natural composite material for spacecraft. Like other carbon composites, the "bio-composite" material is stronger and lighter than metals. This material, though, burns up more easily than other composites during reentry, which could ensure debris from deorbiting spacecraft never reaches the ground. (10/14)

NASA Announces Partners to Advance ‘Tipping Point’ Technologies for the Moon, Mars (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected 14 American companies, including several small businesses, as partners to develop a range of technologies that will help forge a path to sustainable Artemis operations on the Moon by the end of the decade. U.S. industry submitted the proposals to NASA’s fifth competitive Tipping Point solicitation, and the selections have an expected combined award value of more than $370 million. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate will negotiate with the companies to issue milestone-based firm fixed-price contracts lasting for up to five years.

Editor's Note: Among the winners is Eta Space, located on Florida's Space Coast. The company, which focuses on lunar in-situ propellant production, will receive $27 million. Click here for the complete list of companies. (10/14)

U.S. Astronaut Arrives At Space Station On Last Scheduled Russian Flight (Source: WMFE)
A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station after blasting off from Kazakhstan Wednesday morning. The crew of three, including NASA’s Kate Rubins, launched on a Russian Soyuz capsule. It’s Rubins second stay on the space station. On a previous mission in 2016, she became the first person to sequence DNA in space.

The launch marked the last scheduled Russian flight carrying a U.S. astronaut. NASA is now working with commercial companies SpaceX and Boeing to ferry astronauts to the station, launching from the U.S. SpaceX is set to launch another crew of four next month, three U.S. astronauts and one Japanese astronaut, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are now 6 crew members — 2 Americans and 4 Russians — currently occupying the station. Rubins joins NASA’s Chris Cassidy on station. (10/14)

‘Very High Risk’ Two Large Pieces Of Space Junk Will Collide This Week (Source: Forbes)
A defunct Russian satellite and a spent Chinese rocket just floating around high over Earth could smash into each other within a few days, potentially creating a big mess in orbit with potentially dire long-term consequences. LeoLabs, which tracks space debris, put out the alert on Tuesday warning that the two large hunks of junk will come within 25 meters of each other and have up to a twenty percent chance of colliding Thursday evening. (10/13)

SpaceX to Explore Ways to Provide Weather Data to U.S. Military (Source: Space News)
SpaceX is looking at ways it could provide weather data to the U.S. military. The company is working under a $2 million six-month study contract from the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center. Charlotte Gerhart, chief of the Space and Missile Systems Center Production Corps Low Earth Orbit Division, said in a statement to SpaceNews that SpaceX received the contract in July from SMC’s Space Enterprise Consortium.

The contract is to “assess the feasibility and long term viability of a ‘weather data as a service business model,’” said Gerhart. SpaceX did not respond to questions from SpaceNews on how the company would leverage the Starlink internet constellation to provide weather data.

The contract awarded to SpaceX is part of a Space Force program called Electro Optical/Infrared Weather System (EO/IR EWS). The consortium in June awarded $309 million in contracts to Raytheon Technologies, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, and Atmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates to develop weather satellite prototypes and payloads. (10/14)

Northrop Grumman Abort and Attitude Control Motors to Support Six Crewed Artemis Missions (Source: Space Daily)
Northrop Grumman will continue supporting NASA's Artemis missions by providing six additional abort motors and attitude control motors (ACM) for the Orion human spaceflight capsule's Launch Abort System (LAS), under an agreement with Lockheed Martin, Orion's prime contractor. These motors will be used for six crewed Artemis missions III-VIII and are the first procured under the new Orion production contract.

The Launch Abort System is a three-motor stack consisting of an abort motor, an attitude control motor and the jettison motor all mounted atop the Orion spacecraft crew capsule, and the combined Orion and LAS sit atop of NASA's Space Launch System. The LAS is designed to carry the Orion spacecraft and its crew to safety if an anomaly occurs on the launch pad or during the SLS rocket's climb to orbit. The abort motor would provide thrust of about 400,000 pounds in less than two seconds to lift the crew away from the launch vehicle. (10/13)

New Helicopters for KSC (Source: Florida Today)
Kennedy Space Center took delivery of two brand new Airbus helicopters late last month, kicking off a flight team transition that will support SpaceX's upcoming launch of four astronauts in a Crew Dragon capsule. On the last day of September, two NASA-branded Airbus H135s circled around KSC's former Shuttle Landing Facility and touched down near a building known as the Reusable Launch Vehicle Hangar. The Space Florida-owned facility will be the new home for the helicopters and their flight teams.

Federal records show NASA ordered three H135s in September 2019 for $18.3 million with the third slated for delivery early next year. Once the final aircraft arrives, it will complete KSC's transition from three older – but iconic – aircraft: the Bell UH-1H, also known as Huey II. The existing fleet was delivered to KSC in 2008 and has been used for everything from security to medical transport to moving essential personnel around the area. (10/13)

Virginia’s Place in Space: A Conversation With Dale Nash (Source: Virginia Economic Review)
Dale Nash is CEO and executive director of Virginia Space, owner and operator of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. VEDP President and CEO Stephen Moret spoke with Nash about the mission and history of Virginia Space and the opportunities for commercial space flight at Wallops. Click here. (10/7)

Mars Has Four Bodies of Water Underneath Surface (Source: Space Daily)
Planetary scientists say in a new report that Mars has four subsurface lakes, which could be a habitat for life. After finding one location where water may be buried in 2018, researchers did a more detailed analysis of the region using radar data from the spacecraft Mars Express. The new study used data sets from 134 observations from 2012 to 2019, said the report published Monday in Nature Astronomy.

The spacecraft used a radar system called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding to examine the planet's southern polar region. The radar bounces radio waves off layers of material on the planet's surface and subsurface. It can detect the presents of rock, ice or water from the way the signal is reflected back. A similar method is used to find subsurface glacial lakes on Earth. The result on Mars indicated liquid water was trapped under more than 3,280 feet of ice. Researchers said the largest lake spans about nearly 19 miles across and is surrounded by the three smaller lakes. All four lakes cover about 46,600 square miles. (9/29)