October 23, 2020

'Starman' Just Zipped Past Mars in His Rapidly-Decaying Tesla Roadster (Source: Live Science)
Starman — the dummy riding a cherry-red Tesla Roadster through space — has made his closest approach ever to Mars. That electric convertible with its mannequin passenger bolted to the top of a Falcon Heavy rocket as a stunt during the SpaceX rocket's first test launch Feb, 6, 2018. (It's common for test launches to include heavy payloads, but they're usually more boring than cherry-red sportscars.) Two years later, the Falcon Heavy upper stage and the vehicle at its tip are making their second trip around the sun.

Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astrophysicist who tracks space objects as a side project, found that Starman passed 4.6 million miles (7.4 million kilometers) from Mars at 2:25 a.m. EDT Oct. 7. That's about 19 times the distance from Earth to the moon, and 35 times closer than anyone on Earth has gotten to Mars. (10/21)

'Scrubtober' Continues for SpaceX and Rocket Lab (Sources: Orlando Sentinel, Rocket Lab)
SpaceX scrubbed a Starlink launch Thursday because of "mission assurance" activities. The company said it halted the countdown about 10 minutes before liftoff "to allow additional time for mission assurance work," which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said was after a camera on the upper stage malfunctioned. Musk said that SpaceX halted the launch "to re-examine whole vehicle just in case," and has not yet set a new launch date. Rocket Lab, meanwhile, has rescheduled an Electron launch scrubbed on Wednesday to next Wednesday. Company CEO Peter Beck said a "small issue with an oxygen sensor" prompted the original delay, and weather is projected to be unfavorable for the next few days. (10/22)

Launch Scrubs a Sign the Systemis Working (Source: Space News)
The recent spate of launch scrubs may be disappointing, but a Space Force official says they're evidence the system is working. Col. Douglas Pentecost, deputy director of the Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise, said at a conference Thursday that scrubs involving SpaceX and United Launch Alliance rockets in recent weeks show that systems designed to detect potential problems are operating as designed. "We see that as a success," he said, by preventing a launch failure. (10/22)

Firefly's Alpha Launch Vehicle: Designing Performance In, Cost Out (Source: Composites World)
Firefly Aerospace’s all-composite Alpha small-satellite launch vehicle is scheduled for its first launch by the end of 2020. The rocket was originally conceived by Firefly Space Systems, which filed for bankruptcy in 2017. The intellectual property and assets of Firefly Space Systems were subsequently purchased by Dr. Max Polyakov’s Noosphere Ventures, which recapitalized and reopened it as Firefly Aerospace the same year.

The original Alpha vehicle was an all-composite, 6-foot-diameter rocket, with a payload capacity of 300 to 500 kilograms. In the reopening, the company decided that the new version of the launch vehicle, which can be referred to as Alpha 2.0, would be viable in the market only if it could carry a 1,000-kilogram payload, filling a need for launching mid-sized satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO).

In addition to increasing Alpha’s payload capacity, according to Jeff Duncan, Stage One airframe engineer, one of Firefly’s goals, for Alpha and for the company overall, is to take scientifically proven rocket technology and evolve it into a high-performance, relatively low-cost system (Alpha, for example, costs about $15 million per launch). Accordingly, Firefly Aerospace has spent the past three years designing, building, testing and qualifying the Alpha 2.0 rocket. Click here. (10/20)

Space Force Unifying Acquisitions (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is moving forward with plans to establish to unify space acquisitions. Gen. John "Jay" Raymond said Thursday that the Space Force is in the "final stages" of planning for the Space Systems Command, which he said should be established by spring 2021. The command will bring together multiple agencies that currently handle space acquisitions, with the major component being the Space and Missile Systems Center. The command will oversee research, development and acquisition of major programs such as satellites, launch services and information systems. (10/23)

Intelsat Rejects SES Claim it Scuttled C-Band Alliance (Source: Space News)
Intelsat rejected a $1.8 billion claim filed by SES in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. SES filed the claim in July, arguing that Intelsat broke up the C-Band Alliance to seek a larger share of FCC C-band spectrum clearing payments. Intelsat countered that the Alliance was established when plans called for a market-based auction of spectrum, and served no role in the public auction the FCC ultimately decided to pursue. Intelsat also argued SES shared a confidential report with the FCC prepared for the Alliance and misrepresented its contents, which may have cost Intelsat as much as $1.6 billion in spectrum payments. (10/23)

Lockheed Martin Switches UK Spaceports (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin is moving from one Scottish spaceport to another. The U.K. Space Agency announced Thursday it approved a proposal by Lockheed Martin to conduct a "pathfinder" launch from the Shetland Space Centre in the Shetland Islands. Lockheed won a $31 million award from the agency in 2018 to be one of the first customers of Space Hub Sutherland, a spaceport in northern Scotland. Lockheed said that conflicting technical requirements with Orbex, the other company planning to launch from Sutherland, led to its decision to move to the Shetland Space Centre. Both spaceports are still in the planning stages, with first launches some time in the early 2020s. (10/23)

Japan to Select Lunar Astronauts (Source: NHK)
Japan will select a new group of astronauts as it prepares for lunar missions. Science minister Hagiuda Koichi said Friday a new class of astronauts is needed as the country anticipates participating in NASA's Artemis lunar exploration program, which could include opportunities for Japanese astronauts to fly to the moon in the late 2020s. Japan's current astronaut corps has an average age of 51, and nearly half will reach retirement age by the late 2020s. (10/23)

Space Weather Bill Signed Into Law (Source: Space Policy Online)
A space weather bill has finally been signed into law. President Trump signed the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow, or PROSWIFT, Act Wednesday, more than a month after its passage by the House. The Senate passed the bill in July. The bill codifies elements of an existing space weather strategy and action plan. In a signing statement, Trump said he believed elements of the bill could limit his discretion to conduct the nation's foreign affairs, but did not elaborate on those provisions. He added that he believed the bill did not do enough to address space weather's effects on national security and critical infrastructure. (10/23)

Satellite Imagery and Broadband Set to Grow Four Fold in Precision Ag Market by 2029 (Source: Space Daily)
For its latest research titled, "EO4AG - Earth Observation for Agriculture", Euroconsult has teamed up with TerraMetric, a US-based, global business development firm focused on geospatial and new space markets, to provide an in-depth analysis on the global trends, vertical integration opportunities and regional demand forecasted for Earth observation-based services and products addressing the agriculture sector.

The two companies forecast that by 2029, the total agricultural market is expected to double in value to reach over $815 million. While government-driven sales are foreseen to remain significant, the uptake of precision agriculture solutions within the private sector due to expected near-global broadband coverage is expected to be the main catalyst behind this anticipated market growth.

Precision agriculture incorporates a broad range of technology areas. In this context, it refers to supporting commercial agricultural supply chains by providing Earth observation-based solutions and tools to back farming optimization processes, as well as research and development initiatives. For precision agriculture to evolve, connectivity will be key. (10/21)

The First Star in Our Galaxy Caught Sending Out Fast Radio Bursts Is Doing It Again (Source: Science Alert)
A little dead star that dazzled us earlier this year is not done with its shenanigans. Magnetar SGR 1935+2154, which in April emitted the first known fast radio burst from inside the Milky Way, has flared up once more, giving astronomers yet another chance to solve more than one major cosmic mystery.

On 8 October 2020, the CHIME/FRB collaboration detected SGR 1935+2154 emitting three millisecond radio bursts in three seconds. Following up on the CHIME/FRB detection, the FAST radio telescope found something else - a pulsed radio emission consistent with the magnetar's spin period. (10/22)

Space Force Welcomes New Command in Colorado Springs (Source: The Gazette)
If you just add a ‘k’ at the end of its acronym, you’ll see that America’s newest military command is witty. And leaders say Space Operations Command, or “SPOC,” pronounced like the pointy-eared Star Trek science officer, is also deadly if needed. The command, which was formally established Wednesday in Colorado Springs, will oversee Space Force satellite operators and others involved in defending those satellites and targeting enemies in orbit. (10/21)

Retired 4-Star Lester Lyles Leads a Life of Rocket Science, Personal Ethics and Inclusivity (Source: Washington Executive)
A retired general and former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, Lyles today serves on the board of directors for KBR Corp., and is a former director of General Dynamics Corp., Battelle Labs and USAA, where he also served as chair. He’s also chaired or served on various councils related to the U.S. space program, and advised on national security and intelligence boards. (10/21)

How Space Technology Can Help fight Global Crises (Source: Your Story)
Chances are that the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus is the only thing you have heard or read about from all possible sources in the past few months. The rampaging disease has virtually paralysed daily life as we know it. The prevailing threat to human order of life is so enormous that there is a need to use every available measure to defeat this crisis.

However, there remains another option that has perhaps not been fully utilised to its potential -- space technology. Advances made in space technology today allow for a multitude of applications. Click here. (10/22)

Australian Invention to Make it Easier to Find 'New Earths' (Source: University of Sydney)
Australian scientists have developed a new type of sensor to measure and correct the distortion of starlight caused by viewing through the Earth’s atmosphere, which should make it easier to study the possibility of life on distant planets. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, University of Sydney optical scientists have developed a sensor that can neutralise a star’s ‘twinkle’ caused by heat variations in the Earth’s atmosphere. This will make the discovery and study of planets in distant solar systems easier from optical telescopes on Earth. (10/21)

18 Reserve Astronauts Selected for China's Manned Space Program (Source: Xinhua)
China's manned space program has entered the mission preparation stage with the selection of a new group of 18 reserve astronauts. According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), the reserve astronauts, including one female, have been selected recently from 2,500 candidates. Among them are seven spacecraft pilots, seven space flight engineers and four payload experts. Flight engineers and payload experts have been selected for the first time as reserve astronauts to meet China's space station construction needs. (10/22)