December 8, 2020

Dragon Capsules Parked Side-by-Side at ISS (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A SpaceX supply ship bearing Christmas goodies arrived at the International Space Station on Monday, parking alongside another Dragon capsule that carried up astronauts three weeks ago. It’s the first time Elon Musk’s company has two Dragons at the orbiting lab, filling both available slots. Unlike SpaceX’s previous cargo carriers, which had to be plucked from orbit by the space station’s robot arm, this larger and updated model docked all by itself a day after rocketing into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. This unusually large shipment — exceeding 6,400 pounds — includes experiments, equipment, Christmas presents and the makings for a holiday feast for the seven station astronauts. (12/8)

NASA Outlines Science Goals for Future Astronauts on Moon (Source: Space Daily)
The US space agency NASA published a voluminous report on Monday outlining the scientific priorities for the Artemis III astronauts it intends to send to the Moon in 2024. One of the goals will be to bring back a total of 85 kilograms (187 pounds) of lunar samples, both from the surface and sub-surface, more than the average 64 kilograms brought back by Apollo mission members between 1969 and 1972.

The Artemis I mission, scheduled to take place before the end of 2021, will involve a test of the Space Launch System and an unmanned Orion spacecraft. Artemis II will see a crewed test flight sent into orbit in 2023 but will not involve an actual landing on the Moon. Artemis III is to send astronauts, including the first woman, to the Moon in 2024. In the 188-page report, NASA set seven scientific objectives for the Artemis III mission including understanding planetary processes. Click here. (12/7)

Florida Launches 'Strong Case' For Space Command HQ (Source: FDCA)
Space Florida leaders on Tuesday praised aerospace facilities and commercial operations in the state, as site selectors inspected Patrick Air Force Base as a finalist to be the permanent command headquarters of Space Force. Space Florida President and CEO Frank DiBello told the Enterprise Florida Board of Directors that Florida has made a “very strong case” for the Brevard County military base south of Cape Canaveral, which is one of six finalists for U.S. Space Command headquarters.

The growth of the commercial aerospace industry throughout the state enhances the appeal of Florida for serving as the “launch pad for national security missions in space,” Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, who serves as chairwoman of the Space Florida board of directors, told the Enterprise Florida board. DiBello noted that U.S. Air Force officials were onsite Tuesday, conducting an engineering and tactical-focus review of Patrick Air Force Base in the effort to select the command headquarters of Space Force, the new military branch created by President Donald Trump.

The Air Force has outlined that the command headquarters should be located within 25 miles of a military installation, be among the top 150 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S. and score a 50 or higher out of 100 on the American Association of Retired Persons Public Policy Institute’s Livability Index. Patrick Air Force Base was the only Florida location to make the shortlist. Other remaining candidates to host the new combatant command, which will house about 1,400 military and civilian personnel, are in New Mexico, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, and Alabama. The current shortlist was announced on Nov. 19 and the site-selection team is expected to hold a virtual meeting Dec. 21. A final decision is expected early next year. (12/8)

Raytheon Files Another Protest Over L3Harris and SpaceX Missile Tracking Awards (Source: Space News)
Raytheon has filed another protest to a Space Development Agency (SDA) missile tracking award. Raytheon and Airbus filed protests with the GAO in late October and early November, challenging the SDA's award of contracts to L3Harris and SpaceX. SDA agreed to reevaluate the bids to resolve the protest last week, but Raytheon filed another protest challenging the agency's corrective action. Neither Raytheon nor the SDA would comment on the new protest. (12/8)

SpaceWERX Opens as New Space Tech Accelerator (Source: Space News)
The Space Force has opened a new space technology accelerator. SpaceWERX will be based at the Space and Missile Systems Center and will work with companies in the space industry, giving the service access to new commercial space technologies. SpaceWERX is designed to be the space version of AFWERX, used by the Air Force to support technology startups. (12/8)

White House Plans to Rename Florida Bases Over Military Objections (Source: Defense One)
The White House plans to assign the Space Force name to two Air Force facilities. Patrick Air Force Base would become Patrick Space Force Base, while nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station would become Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The renaming may be announced at a meeting of the National Space Council on Wednesday. The renaming reportedly violates a "gentleman's agreement" between the Air Force and Congress to hold off on renaming bases until after the National Defense Authorization Act is signed into law. Pentagon officials had discussed renaming those two bases earlier this year, but put the plans on hold. (12/8)

Spire Raises $24 Million for Satellite Constellation (Source: Space News)
Spire raised $24 million from the European Investment Bank. The company will use the venture debt financing to continue development of its satellite constellation and work on new applications of data from it. The investment is part of efforts by European agencies to increase funding for space startups. (12/8)

Millennium Prepares Deorbit Demonstration (Source: Space News)
Millennium Space is preparing to demonstrate a deorbiting technology for small satellites. The company flew two satellites last month on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket for an experiment called DragRacer. One will deploy a tether that should allow it to reenter in 45 days, while the other will remain in orbit for more than seven years. The company believes the technology is a possible solution to the growing problem of orbital debris congestion. (12/8)

Space Offers Perspective on Pandemic's Environmental Impact (Source: Space News)
Researchers are using space to study the effects of the pandemic on the environment. Scientists at the AGU Fall Meeting said they're using satellite imagery and other data to measure how the decline in economic activity has changed the environment, including reduced pollution. However, satellite data also showed increased deforestation in Brazil, perhaps because of limited enforcement of regulations during the pandemic. (12/8)

Google Cloud Service to Handle Interim Data From Rubin Observatory (Source: Space News)
An observatory will use Google's cloud computing services to manage the large volumes of data it will collect. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will establish an interim data facility called the Rubin Science Platform using Google. The observatory will use the platform to train astronomers on the data system that the observatory will use when it begins its full-scale survey in three years. The Rubin Observatory has not yet decided what type of cloud-based platform it will build or buy to house data when the main survey begins. (12/8)

Peter Teets Dies at 78 (Source: Air Force Magazine)
Peter Teets, former director of the NRO and president of Lockheed Martin, has died at 78. Teets worked at the Martin Company and Martin Marietta for years, becoming president and COO after its merger with Lockheed to form Lockheed Martin. He left Lockheed Martin 2001 to become director of the NRO and undersecretary of the Air Force, retiring in 2005. (12/8)

Chuck Yeager Dies at 97 (Sources: AP, NASA)
Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier, has died at 97. Yeager was the first person to go faster than the speed of sound when he flew the X-1 rocketplane in October 1947, a highlight of an accomplished career for the West Virginia native that included serving as a fighter pilot in World War II. Yeager ``advanced America's abilities in the sky and set our nation's dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. (12/8)

Orlando Company Among Winners of Space Force 'Hyperspace Challenge' (Source: Ars Technica)
Hyperspace Challenge, a business accelerator run by the Air Force Research Laboratory and CNM Ingenuity for the U.S. Space Force, announced today the first, second and third place winners of its 2020 cohort, which focused on identifying and developing safe and secure autonomous technology for the space domain. The 2020 cohort’s first place winner was Resilient Solutions 21 (RS21), a data science analytics company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. RS21 is leveraging machine learning and precision oncology techniques to predict satellite systems failures and provide operators with advance warning.

The cohort’s second place winner was Seattle-based Starfish Space, which is building space “tugs” that can transport and service satellites on demand. The company’s autonomous satellite servicing technology enables it to extend the life and use of aging satellites, and remove space debris, more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

Orlando, Florida-based Space Domain Awareness, a tracking service for CubeSats and intentional debris in low earth orbit, took third place. The company’s technology will enable the rapidly growing number of satellite operators to identify and locate their equipment in space using the world’s first “orbital license plate.” The companies were awarded $25,000, $15,000 and  $10,000, respectively, to help them defray costs associated with continued customer discovery. (12/3)

SpaceX Gets $886 Million From FCC to Subsidize Starlink in 35 States (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX has been awarded $885.51 million by the Federal Communications Commission to provide Starlink broadband to 642,925 rural homes and businesses in 35 states. The satellite provider was one of the biggest winners in the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, the results of which were released today. Funding is distributed over 10 years, so SpaceX's haul will amount to a little over $88.5 million per year.

Charter Communications, the second-largest US cable company after Comcast, did even better. Charter is set to receive $1.22 billion over 10 years to bring service to 1.06 million homes and businesses in 24 states. FCC funding can be used in different ways depending on the type of broadband service. Cable companies like Charter and other wireline providers generally use the money to expand their networks into new areas that don't already have broadband. But with Starlink, SpaceX could theoretically provide service to all of rural America once it has launched enough satellites, even without FCC funding. (12/7)

Pentagon, Industry Investing in Space Force Simulations (Source: National Defense)
As the Space Force nears the first anniversary of its creation, the new service is continuing to build out the framework for training warfighters for a future conflict that could take place in space. Maj. Gen. John Shaw, commander of the Combined Force Space Component at U.S. Space Command and deputy commander of the Space Force’s Space Operations Command, touted the importance of better simulators during the virtual Training and Simulation Industry Symposium. (12/7)

Brevard Faces Stiff Competition From Colorado for Space Command Headquarters (Source: Florida Today)
A bipartisan contingent of Florida members of Congress is pushing for the Air Force to locate U.S. Space Command headquarters in Brevard County. But Dale Ketcham, Space Florida’s vice president for government and external relations, says it could be an uphill battle to win the headquarters away from front-runner Colorado, where the headquarters is temporarily based and where a predecessor of Space Command had been located.

"For any state, dethroning Colorado is a monumental task," Ketcham said. "Everyone everywhere recognized that Colorado is the front-runner." Even if the Space Coast does not make the final cut, Ketcham said being in the current process will put the area in a good spot to be in the running for future missions, programs and units. Ketcham said the Space Coast's strength in the competition is its extensive space-related facilities and operations.

He said Space Florida will "bring everything we can to the table" as part of a coordinated state effort to get the Space Command headquarters. "The whole state is aggressively teed up to go after that," Ketcham said. At stake are about 1,400 positions directly connected to Space Command headquarters, with about 40% uniformed personnel — including a four-star general —and 60% contractors and civil servants. (12/6)

RUAG Space Has Developed a New Powerful Computer for Satellites (Source: RUAG)
RUAG Space, a leading supplier to the space industry, has developed a new powerful computer for satellites called “Lynx”. The development was achieved with the help of a contract from the European Space Agency’s program of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) and has been done at RUAG Space in Gothenburg, Sweden. “Our computer contains an extreme amount of power”, explains Anders Linder, Senior Vice President Electronics at RUAG Space. Lynx is 250 times more powerful than the normal On Board Computers, which RUAG currently delivers to ESA programs. (12/1)

Heritage Space Exploration Auction Soars Past $1.8 Million (Source: Heritage Auctions)
A piece of cloth that flew on the two most important flights in history sold for $81,250 to lead Heritage Auctions' Space Exploration Auction to $1,819,798.75 in total sales. "Other than the Armstrong Family Collection auctions we had in 2018 and 2019, this was the biggest Space auction we have had," Heritage Auctions Space Exploration Director Michael Riley said. "One thing that was particularly gratifying about this sale was the fact that we sold several of the top lots to people who placed their bids before it even started." (11/30)

Canada Can’t Afford Not To Be in Space (Source: Hill times)
People sometimes ask me how Canada can afford to be in space when there are so many problems that need our attention here on Earth, especially in light of the global pandemic. That’s when I realize that those of us working in this industry haven’t done a good enough job of explaining how essential space is to our everyday lives—did you know that space touches the lives of Canadians 20 to 30 times a day? It provides the silent, but critical infrastructure for everything from television, weather predictions, monitoring climate change, the internet and wireless communications, finance, agriculture, shipping, to ground and air traffic management, and so much more.

And, maybe more importantly, we haven’t done a good job of explaining just how important being a leader in space is going to be to Canada’s future, both our immediate future (the economic recovery), and longer term, as Canada positions itself for future prosperity and continued high quality of life.

In terms of the economic recovery, there’s a school of thought that says, ‘Let’s look back to how things were and try to repair pandemic ravages to our economy by directing money where the damage is worst.’ There is another school of thought that says, ‘Let’s turn this epic challenge into an opportunity for a reset and build back better, charting a path to the future that focuses on areas of strength and claims them for this country.’ Space is one such area. (12/7)

Irianian Nuclear Scientist Was Assassinated with Help of 'Satellite Device' (Source: CNN)
The recent assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist was carried out remotely with the help of satellite guidance, artificial intelligence and facial recognition, according to Iranian military officials cited by Iranian media. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, believed to be the mastermind of Iran's controversial nuclear program, was traveling by car east of Tehran when he was shot dead on the afternoon of Friday, November 27. There are conflicting reports on how the attack unfolded, but most Iranian accounts agree that it was a sophisticated attack with gunfire and an explosion. (12/7)