January 24, 2021

SpaceX Launches Polar Orbit Rideshare Mission From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX launched the first in a series of small satellite rideshare missions Sunday from Cape Canaveral, providing transportation for 143 U.S. and international spacecraft to low Earth orbit, a record number of satellites on a single flight. Liftoff occurred at 10 a.m. EST Sunday after bad weather forced SpaceX to scrub a launch attempt Saturday morning. The rocket's first stage landed successfully downrange near the Bahamas on a droneship, and the two fairing halves were recovered after parachute landings in the Atlantic Ocean. (1/24)

Hyten: U.S. Space Force is ‘On Solid Ground’ Despite Speculation (Source: Space News)
What does a change in administration mean for the U.S. Space Force? “I get that question a lot,” Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Jan. 22. President Biden is not expected to make abrupt changes to U.S. national security programs but there is particular uncertainty surrounding the Space Force because it was so actively championed by the Trump administration. Hyten said he had not yet spoken with President Biden or Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the Space Force. “I don’t know exactly what is going to happen to it,” said Hyten. (1/24)

Air Force Says Facts, Not Politics Favored Alabama in Space Command HQ Decision (Source: AL.com)
The Air Force defends its decision to locate the U.S. Space Command headquarters in Huntsville, citing a list of government offices and organizations that gave feedback before the decision. Leaders in Colorado are complaining that politics drove the decision, claiming Donald Trump intervened to choose Alabama to reward Sen. Tommy Tuberville, one of the eight Republican senators who challenged portions of the Electoral College certification in Congress.

The Air Force said: “The Secretary of the Air Force thoughtfully considered all input, feedback, staff analysis, best military advice, changes in the strategic environment and what evaluation criteria is the most important...she also received feedback from the National Command Authority, defense oversight committees, senior commanders and functional staff experts. The National Command Authority included Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is unclear who in that group gave Barrett feedback or what that feedback may have been.

The Air Force said this week that Alabama was chosen “based on factors related to mission, infrastructure capacity, community support and cost to the Department of Defense. Huntsville compared favorable across more of these factors than any other community...” It cited the area’s “large, qualified workforce, superior infrastructure capacity, and low initial and recurring costs.” (1/24)

Alabama Incentives Contributed to Space Command HQ Win (Source: AL.com)
The Alabama siting is not final pending an environmental impact study. The final decision is expected in Spring 2023. Asked about incentives from Huntsville and Alabama, the Air Force said it would “defer to the local community of Huntsville for any information related to its self-nomination package.” Mayor Tommy Battle has said the city will be accelerating some major road projects to accommodate the command, including a highway project that will expand and smooth traffic flow into the site.

The State of Alabama is also providing incentives. “We are working through the details to finalize and agreement with local stakeholders and so I am not yet able to provide values of financial support for the U.S. Space Command to locate in Huntsville, AL on Redstone Arsenal,” Alabama Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield said this week. “The State of Alabama will be providing support for new housing and recruitment of the workforce.” (1/24)

America Has a GPS Problem. It Is Essential But Vulnerable (Source: New York Times)
Time was when nobody knew, or even cared, exactly what time it was. The movement of the sun, phases of the moon and changing seasons were sufficient indicators. But since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve become increasingly dependent on knowing the time, and with increasing accuracy. Not only does the time tell us when to sleep, wake, eat, work and play; it tells automated systems when to execute financial transactions, bounce data between cellular towers and throttle power on the electrical grid.

Coordinated Universal Time, or U.T.C., the global reference for timekeeping, is beamed down to us from extremely precise atomic clocks aboard Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. The time it takes for GPS signals to reach receivers is also used to calculate location for air, land and sea navigation. Owned and operated by the U.S. government, GPS is likely the least recognized, and least appreciated, part of our critical infrastructure. Indeed, most of our critical infrastructure would cease to function without it.

The problem is that GPS signals are incredibly weak, due to the distance they have to travel from space, making them subject to interference and vulnerable to jamming and what is known as spoofing, in which another signal is passed off as the original. And the satellites themselves could easily be taken out by hurtling space junk or the sun coughing up a fireball. As intentional and unintentional GPS disruptions are on the rise, experts warn that our overreliance on the technology is courting disaster, but they are divided on what to do about it. Click here. (1/23)

South African Astronomy Has a Long, Rich History of Discovery – and a Promising Future (Source: The Conversation)
The South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town is the oldest permanent observatory in the southern hemisphere: it turned 200 in 2020. This observatory is a fundamental part of South Africa’s long history of astronomical research, which began when French academic Nicolas-Louis de La Caille visited Cape Town from 1751 to 1753. He undertook a careful examination of every square degree of the southern sky. This resulted in the first comprehensive sky survey ever made, in either hemisphere. (1/12)

Spirit of Space Shuttle Challenger Alive and Well in Tallahassee (Source: Tallahassee Democrat)
Challenger Learning Centers across the country were built to revive the shuttle’s primary mission: recapture the country’s love of space, science and education.  In 2003, after years of hard work from academics, elected officials and community leaders, including former astronauts Dr. Norman E. Thagard and Captain Winston Scott — and in partnership with both Florida A&M University and Florida State University — the Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee opened. 

Since then, CLCTLH has served as a tourist destination, community partner, economic engine, employer and educational resource. Partnering with Leon County Schools and school districts across the tri-state service area, CLCTLH has provided free “edu-taining” field trips for K-12 students from Title I schools, free teacher training in the STEM subject areas, free monthly STEM events, free community learning events and more. 

In fact, CLCTLH is the K-12 and community outreach facility of the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering. As such, the CLCTLH has served 40,000-60,000 students and approximately 100,000 visitors annually. That is, until, spring 2020, when COVID closed our community, the world as we knew it, and the operations of the CLCTLH changed. Though on-site operations were halted, it did not stop the spirit of the CLCTLH staff and their mission to continue inspiring students to foster an interest in STEM. (1/24)

Cornwall Spaceport Test Launch by Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit (Source: The Packet)
Cornwall’s dream of joining the space race could finally be realized – and without too much longer to wait. Spring 2022 when it is hoped the first launch will take off from Spaceport Cornwall. The idea of Cornwall playing a key role in the global space industry was, until a few years ago, nothing but a pipedream. But with Virgin Orbit – a key partner in Spaceport Cornwall – finally completing its first test launch at the weekend it is now something which is within touching distance.

For Melissa Thorpe, the new head of Spaceport Cornwall, her focus is now on next spring and that first launch into orbit. Spaceport Cornwall will be a horizontal launch site where modified aeroplanes will be used to launch small satellites into orbit above the Earth. The first launch from Spaceport Cornwall had originally been earmarked for October this year but the various delays and the pandemic mean that it is now set for spring 2022.

The regulatory components and legislation are expected to go through Parliament in the summer which will enable Spaceport Cornwall to apply for the licences required to operate as a spaceport while Virgin Orbit will be able to apply for the licences needed to launch from the site. (1/23)

Japan’s New H-3 Rocket Almost Complete (Source: Yomiuri Shimbun)
The first next-generation H-3 rocket is nearing completion, developed as the successor to the H-2A and H-2B. The rocket’s fuselage sections were shown to the press on Saturday at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.’s Tobishima plant in Tobishima, Aichi Prefecture. It is scheduled to be transported by ship to Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture a early as this month, with the aim of launching it in fiscal 2021.

The H-3 is being jointly developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and other entities. They unveiled on Saturday the 37-meter-long first stage section and the 12-meter-long second stage section of the rocket, both of which will carry engines and fuel including hydrogen. The fuselage was enlarged to 5.2 meters in diameter — 30% larger than that of the H-2A — to increase the propulsive power. The developers are aiming to reduce the cost of each launch to about ¥5 billion, about half that of the H-2A. (1/24)

Musk Targets Telecom for Next Disruption With Starlink Internet (Source: Bloomberg)
Elon Musk became the world’s richest person this month by upending the global auto industry and disrupting aerospace heavyweights with reusable rockets. Now he’s setting his sights on another business dominated by entrenched incumbents: telecommunications. Musk’s SpaceX has launched more than 1,000 satellites for its Starlink internet service and is signing up early customers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. SpaceX has told investors that Starlink is angling for a piece of a $1 trillion market made up of in-flight internet, maritime services, demand in China and India -- and rural customers such as Brian Rendel.

Rendel became a Starlink tester in November after struggling for years with sluggish internet speeds at his 160-acre farm overlooking Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. After he paid about $500 for the equipment, FedEx arrived with a flat dish and antenna. For $99 a month, Rendel is now getting speeds of 100 megabytes per second for downloads and 15 to 20 for uploads -- far faster, he says, than his previous internet provider. “This is a game changer,” said Rendel, a mental health counselor, who can now easily watch movies and hold meetings with clients over Zoom. “It makes me feel like I’m part of civilization again.” (1/22)

Starlink Satellites are Fainter Now, But Still Visible (Source: Sky & Telescope)
The first launch of Starlink satellites two years ago alarmed many amateur and professional astronomers. Lone satellites coursing through the night sky are commonplace, but in May 2019 observers witnessed an unprecedented parade of startlingly bright objects marching across the heavens. To the company’s credit, SpaceX is attempting to address astronomers’ concerns. An initial attempt at dimming a Starlink (dubbed “DarkSat”) by painting parts of it black resulted in thermal problems.

A second attempt involved a sunshade, a visor-like appendage that reduces the sunlight reflected to observers on the ground. The first so-called VisorSat launched on June 4, 2020, on the seventh operational Starlink launch. Since the ninth such launch, on August 7, 2020, all Starlink satellites have been VisorSats. Along with the hardware change for VisorSat, SpaceX also altered the relative orientation of the orbiting satellite bodies and solar arrays to further diminish their brightness. This change in software was instituted on all operational Starlinks.

Another factor that limits the adverse impact of Starlink satellites is that, because of their low orbit, they are not all reflecting sunlight during the darkest part of the night. Furthermore, Earth shadowing makes satellites less visible in the eastern sky early at night and less visible in the west before dawn. So, theoretically anyway, observations can be scheduled by time and by sky region in order to avoid satellites. Starlink satellites will continue to be a distraction to observers for now, but the significantly dimmer VisorSats represent a marked improvement. It remains to be seen if and how other satellite companies will take note and follow suit. (1/22)

Dawn Aerospace Aims to Launch New Zealand's 1st Space Plane From a Conventional Airport (Source: Space.com)
A New Zealand-based company has received approval to fly a suborbital space plane from a conventional airport. Dawn Aerospace got the nod from the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to fly the company's Mk-II Aurora space plane, which is designed to send satellites into space on multiple flights a day, at a conventional airport whose name and location has not been disclosed yet. Usually such vehicles need to be launched at isolated facilities, because otherwise regulators need to shut down the local commercial air space to allow the space planes to fly out of the atmosphere. (1/22)

One Hull Crack Located in ISS, Another One Suspected (Source: TASS)
The specialists have discovered one more crack at the International Space Station and suspect that yet another one exists, said ISS Russian Segment head Vladimir Solovyov. "So far, we have found one place and suspect another, where as some kind of leak exists. We must bring a powerful microscope on a cargo spacecraft and use to examine this place. We are not totally certain so far," Solovyov said.

He underscored that air loss due to the crack are insignificant. "This leak is like as if you’d drill the hull with a 0.2 mm diameter drill. I’m not sure such drills even exist in household. As for the leak it causes, our [space air] pressure is 750 mmHg, and this alleged crack causes us to lose 0.3 to 0.4 mmHg every day," the official said, adding that emergency leak starts when pressure falls at 0.5 to 1 mmHg per minute. (1/22)

Candidate for the Head of the NASA Office in the Russian Federation Was Denied a Visa (Source: RIA Novosti)
The candidate for the post of the head of the NASA office in Russia did not receive a diplomatic visa in response to a similar step by the United States against a number of Russian diplomats, three sources in the rocket and space industry said. Information on the non-issuance of a visa was confirmed by two more interlocutors of the agency. According to one of them, a similar situation developed with the appointment of the current head of the NASA office in Moscow, Trisha Mack. "After her appointment to Moscow, she spent a year and a half in Houston and flew only for starts and landings in Kazakhstan, because during this period she did not receive a visa," the source explained. (1/23)