December 1, 2020

Russian Spaceport Officials are Being Sacked Left and Right (Source: Ars Technica)
The controversial leader of Russia's space enterprises, Dmitry Rogozin, has continued a spree of firings that have seen many of the nation's top spaceport officials fired, arrested, or both. Most recently, on November 27, Russian media reported that Rogozin fired the leader of the Center for Exploitation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure, which administers all of Russia’s spaceports.

Andrei Okhlopkov, the leader of this Roscosmos subsidiary, had previously faced a reprimand from Rogozin for "repeated shortcomings in his work." The spaceport organization has more than 12,000 employees. Earlier this month, Rogozin also fired Vladimir Zhuk, chief engineer of the center that administers Russian spaceports. According to Russian media reports, Zhuk was then arrested for abusing his authority in signing off on water supply contracts.

Several other key officials connected with the Vostochny Cosmodrome—under development since 2011 and intended to reduce Russia's reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan—have also been recently let go. These include Vostochny head Evgeny Rogoz (fired and under house arrest), Vostochny Director Roman Bobkov (fired and arrested), and Defense Ministry Inspector General Dmitriy Fomintsev (arrested). Construction of the spaceport has been riven with corruption, often through embezzlement, and overall cost estimates of the facility have increased to more than $7.5 billion. (12/1)

China Lands Chang’e-5 Spacecraft on Moon to Gather Lunar Rocks and Soil (Source: New York Times)
China has landed a robotic spacecraft on the moon, Xinhua, the official statenews agency reported on Tuesday. The probe will spend two days gathering rocks and dirt from the lunar surface, with the goal of returning the first cache of moon samples to Earth since 1976.

The spacecraft, Chang’e-5, was the third successful uncrewed moon landing by China since 2013, when Chang’e-3 and its Yutu rover became China’s first visitor to make a lunar soft landing. In 2019, Chang’e-4 landed on the moon’s far side, the first spacecraft from Earth to ever do that. At least three more Chang’e moon landers are planned for the coming decade, ahead of China’s aspiration of building a moon base for astronauts in the 2030s. (12/1)

Chief Engineer at Vostochny Arrested (Source: Kommersant)
The criminal case against the 50-year-old director for the operation of Vostochny spaceport infrastructure - Vladimir Zhuk, was initiated on November 23 by the third department for the investigation of crimes at Vostochny under Part 1 of Art. 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of office). On the same day, Mr. Zhuk was detained and placed in a temporary detention center.

The court concluded that Mr. Zhuk is accused of committing an intentional crime of average gravity directed against state power and the interests of the civil service, for which a penalty of up to four years' imprisonment is provided. In addition, it turned out that he does not have a permanent place of residence in the Amur Region. The court agreed with the position of the investigation that, while at large, the chief engineer of JSC TSENKI could hide from law enforcement agencies, destroy evidence and otherwise obstruct the proceedings in the criminal case. (11/26)

Orion Component Failure May Delay Project For Months or More (Source: The Verge)
A malfunctioning component in the Orion spacecraft assembled for the Artemis 1 mission could take up to a year to repair. A component in one of eight power and data units failed, engineers reported in early November. The units are located in an adapter between the crew capsule and service module, and are difficult to access. Replacing the unit could take up to a year if engineers decide to demate the two modules, although an alternative, but untried, repair approach could be done in four months. NASA and Orion's prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, could also decide to fly the unit as-is because of redundancy in the unit. (12/1)

SES to Support Advanced Battle Management System (Source: Space News)
SES will provide satellite connectivity services for a military internet of things system. SES said Monday it will join a pool of vendors who will compete to provide communications services for the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) program, an Air Force project that seeks to connect weapon systems and command centers so they can share data. ABMS is one piece of a larger Pentagon effort to build a military internet of things known as Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control. SpaceX's Starlink system has also been selected to provide satellite-based communications for the ABMS. (12/1)

NASA Considers Options for Replacing Arecibo Capability (Source: Space News)
NASA is considering options to replace the planetary radar capability that will be lost at Arecibo. The NSF announced in November it will be decommissioning the giant radio telescope there because of damage that is unsafe to repair. NASA has used Arecibo as a planetary radar, including for tracking and characterizing near Earth asteroids. At a committee meeting Monday, agency officials said another planetary radar in California can provide some, but not all, the capabilities lost at Arecibo. NASA is starting to look into options for future planetary radar systems. That may include possible collaboration with the Space Force, which could use a radar for tracking objects in cislunar space. (12/1)

Launchspace Plans Debris Collection Satellites (Source: Space News)
Launchspace Technologies is continuing to work on concepts for tracking and collecting orbital debris. The company announced plans in 2017 to fly "Debris Collection Unit" satellites into equatorial orbits to sweep up debris too small to be tracked. The company plans to test the technology in 2022 by mounting it onto the external Bartolomeo platform on the International Space Station. Launchspace is also proposing a constellation of satellites equipped with sensors into equatorial low-Earth orbit to keep track of other satellites in low Earth and geostationary orbits in addition to monitoring orbital debris and other threats. The company is still working to secure funding for these proposed satellite systems. (12/1)

Space Force and AFRL Plan Lunar Satellite (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force and Air Force Research Lab are developing a smallsat to demonstrate operations in lunar orbit. The Defense Deep Space Sentinel (D2S2) satellite would launch in late 2022 and test "extreme orbit mobility" by moving from geostationary orbit to the moon through an electric propulsion system. Once in a lunar orbit, D2S2 would test a camera that could image the lunar surface as well as provide "situational awareness" in cislunar space. (12/1)

NASA Picks Masten and Virgin Galactic to Carry Suborbital Flight Experiments (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded contracts to two companies for suborbital flight services. Masten Space Systems and Virgin Galactic won the contract to provide flight services through the agency's Flight Opportunities program, which provides rides for science and technology demonstration payloads on suborbital vehicles, high-altitude balloon and parabolic aircraft flights. The total value of the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract, which runs through July 2023, is $45 million. (12/1)

Huge Solar Flare Flared on Sunday (Source: Space.com)
The sun has generated the strongest solar flare seen in three years. The medium-class M4.4 flare took place Sunday and comes as the sun is starting a new cycle of activity. The flare had little impact on Earth, although the fact that the region of the sun where the flare took place was just starting to rotate into view from Earth may have mitigated its effects. (12/1)

Collapse Delivers Death Blow to Arecibo Radio Dish (Source: Cosmic Log)
The Arecibo radio telescope’s 900-ton instrument platform fell into the 1,000-foot-wide antenna dish Tuesay morning, adding to previous damage and putting Puerto Rico’s iconic scientific structure beyond repair. The National Science Foundation, which funds the Arecibo Observatory through a management contract with the University of Central Florida, said no injuries were caused by the collapse.

Today’s collapse delivered the killing blow to the current telescope. Seth Panchanathan said “our focus is now on assessing the damage, finding ways to restore operations at other parts of the observatory, and working to continue supporting the scientific community, and the people of Puerto Rico.” (12/1)