February 17, 2021

Russia, China Plan Collaboration on International Lunar Research Station (Source: Space News)
Russia is preparing to sign a memorandum of understanding with China to cooperate on a vision for an international lunar research station. Roscosmos' press office said the official announcement of the plans to create the International Lunar Research Station is planned to coincide with one of the upcoming international events. St. Petersburg is due to host the Global Space Exploration Conference 2021 in June. Roscosmos did not provide requested further details on the makeup of, nor contributions to the International Lunar Research Station.

The ILRS is understood to be a Chinese-developed vision for a robotic base at the lunar south pole. The first steps will be the upcoming Chang’e-,6, -7 and -8 missions and international missions such as Russia’s Luna 27. In the early 2030s an expanded ILRS will involve long-term robotic and potentially short-term crewed missions. A long-term human presence at the lunar south pole is the goal for 2036-2045. (2/17)

Hurlburt Airmen Transition Into Space Force, Become Guardians (Source: USAF)
Four Air Commandos with the 1st Special Operations Communications Squadron made the leap into the U.S. Space Force during a ceremony Feb. 5, 2021. The communications Airmen formally transitioned into their new roles as Guardians after taking the oath of enlistment from their flight commander in front of their closest wingmen and family members, while also livestreaming the ceremony for dozens of others to join in safely from home. (2/11)

Northrop Grumman SharkSat Satellite Demo Goes Swimmingly Well (Source: SatNews)
Northrop Grumman recently developed SharkSat, a pioneering payload to demonstrate on-orbit mission agility and meet demands for rapid development and deployment in space. In January, after completing a three-month stay at the International Space Station hosted aboard the company’s Cygnus spacecraft, SharkSat spent two weeks orbiting the Earth and transmitting valuable telemetry and performance data back to mission controllers. (2/15)

DARPA Defends Moon Manufaturing Plan (Source: Breaking Defense)
DARPA’s new project to research and develop novel materials and processes for manufacturing in space — in particular on the Moon — is stirring a legal and political dust storm about what DoD can and cannot do in cislunar space under the Outer Space Treaty. “From an international perspective, DARPA doing anything on the Moon looks bad. It raises suspicions about the intentions of the U.S. space program there, and rightfully so,” Jessica West, senior researcher at Canada’s Project Ploughshares and managing editor of the widely-respected Space Security Index project, said in an email yesterday.

“I really, really hope there’s some miscommunication here and the DoD is not actually planning on building illegal military bases on the Moon,” tweeted Secure World Foundation’s Brian Weeden. The program, Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D), and first reported by colleague Sandra Irwin, “seeks to pioneer technologies for adaptive, off-earth manufacturing to produce large space and lunar structures,” according to DARPA’s website. “There’s a little bit of Internet traffic on Twitter … about whether or not this abrogates the OST. And, certainly, we’re firmly of the belief that it does not,” said Jared Adams, DARPA spokesperson. (2/12)

NASA Advances SLS Block 1B (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program and prime contractor Boeing have a new framework in place to finish development of the next version of the new launch vehicle, called Block 1B. The biggest addition to the Block 1B SLS vehicle will be the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), which completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) on December 18.

The CDR milestone indicates the design of the larger, higher performance upper stage is mature enough to begin construction and assembly of the test and flight articles needed for first flight certification while incorporating lessons learned while starting Core Stage production, including the 2020 creation of a separate Block 1B/EUS Development Office within the program to advance Block 1B to its first flight while much of the rest of the workforce focuses on efforts to get the initial SLS Block 1 vehicle off the ground for the first time on Artemis 1. (1/17)

Several Technology Development Payloads Sponsored by the ISS National Lab Launching on Northrop Grumman CRS-15 (Source: Parabolic Arc)
On 20 February Northrop Grumman is scheduled to launch its Cygnus spacecraft on an Antares rocket to the ISS from Virginia's Wallops Island spaceport, marking its 15th mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program. The launch will deliver thousands of pounds of critical supplies and research to the space station. Moreover, many of the payloads on this mission showcase the diversity of research sponsored by the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, with investigations in the physical and life sciences, materials research, and the validation of new facilities that further research and development in low Earth orbit. (2/17)

Best Look Yet at Russia's Secretive Space Cannon, the Only Gun Ever Fired in Space (Source: The Drive)
More than four decades after the Soviet Union's 23mm R-23M automatic cannon became the first and only gun to have actually been fired in space, at least that we know about, a new picture of this secretive weapon has emerged. The image offers the clearest look to date of the entire Shchit-1 self-defense system that armed the Almaz OPS-2 military space station, which orbited the Earth for around eight months between 1974 and 1975. Click here. (2/16) https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39277/heres-our-best-look-yet-at-russias-secretive-space-cannon-the-only-gun-ever-fired-in-space

Spaceflight Inc. Readies Its Largest Satellite Contracted to Date, Amazonia-1, for Launch (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Spaceflight Inc., the global launch services provider, today revealed details about the upcoming launch of its largest customer satellite launch to date, the Amazonia-1 spacecraft. To accommodate the nearly 700-kilogram satellite, Spaceflight purchased an entire NewSpace India Limited’s (NSIL) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The mission, named PSLV-C51/ Amazonia-1, is targeted for launch at the end of February from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota (SDSC, SHAR), India. (2/17)

SpaceX Raised $850 Million,Jumping Valuation to About $74 Billion (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX completed a raise of $850 million last week, people familiar with the financing told CNBC, sending the company’s valuation to about $74 billion. The company raised the new funds at $419.99 a share, those people said, or just a cent below the $420 price that Elon Musk made infamous in 2018. SpaceX’s latest raise also represents a jump of about 60% in the company’s valuation from its previous round in August, when SpaceX raised near $2 billion at a $46 billion valuation.

The Commercial Space Age Is Here (Source: Harvard Business Review)
There’s no shortage of hype surrounding the commercial space industry. But while tech leaders promise us moon bases and settlements on Mars, the space economy has thus far remained distinctly local — at least in a cosmic sense. Last year, however, we crossed an important threshold: For the first time in human history, humans accessed space via a vehicle built and owned not by any government, but by a private corporation with its sights set on affordable space settlement. It was the first significant step towards building an economy both in space and for space. The implications — for business, policy, and society at large — are hard to overstate.

In 2019, 95% of the estimated $366 billion in revenue earned in the space sector was from the space-for-earth economy: that is, goods or services produced in space for use on earth. The space-for-earth economy includes telecommunications and internet infrastructure, earth observation capabilities, national security satellites, and more. This economy is booming, and though research shows that it faces the challenges of overcrowding and monopolization that tend to arise whenever companies compete for a scarce natural resource, projections for its future are optimistic. Decreasing costs for launch and space hardware in general have enticed new entrants into this market, and companies in a variety of industries have already begun leveraging satellite technology and access to space to drive innovation and efficiency in their earthbound products and services.

In contrast, the space-for-space economy — that is, goods and services produced in space for use in space, such as mining the Moon or asteroids for material with which to construct in-space habitats or supply refueling depots — has struggled to get off the ground. As far back as the 1970s, research commissioned by NASA predicted the rise of a space-based economy that would supply the demands of hundreds, thousands, even millions of humans living in space, dwarfing the space-for-earth economy (and, eventually, the entire terrestrial economy as well). The realization of such a vision would change how all of us do business, live our lives, and govern our societies — but to date, we’ve never even had more than 13 people in space at one time, leaving that dream as little more than science fiction. (2/12)

Maine Senator to Chair Defense Subcommittee (Source: Space News)
A Maine senator is the new chair of a defense subcommittee responsible for space. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, will chair the strategic forces subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the committee's leadership announced Tuesday. That subcommittee oversees space programs, nuclear and strategic forces, arms control and missile defense. King replaces Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) who will now be the ranking Republican on the subcommittee. (2/17)

ESA Seeks 'Parastronauts' (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency's upcoming astronaut call will include studying the feasibility of "parastronauts." The agency said it intends to select an astronaut from among a pool of candidates deemed psychologically, cognitively, technically and professionally qualified but who have a physical disability that would normally prevent them from being selected due to requirement imposed by current space hardware. That parastronaut would be among up to 20 "reserve" astronauts ESA expects to select in the upcoming recruitment drive who could then be called up for one-time missions, in addition to four to six career astronauts. (2/17)

Progress Cargo Craft Docks Manually to ISS (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
A Progress cargo spacecraft docked with the ISS early Wednesday, but only after cosmonauts took manual control of the spacecraft. Controllers aborted an automated approach of the Progress MS-16 spacecraft to the station's Pirs module because of problems with its Kurs docking system. Cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov took over control of the spacecraft and guided it to a successful docking at 1:27 a.m. Eastern. (2/17)

LinQuest Wins $200M Space Force Contract (Source: Space News)
LinQuest won a $200 million contract for advisory and support services from the U.S. Space Force Tuesday. The contract is for work performed at the Space Operations Command headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado through February 2030. LinQuest is a longtime support contractor of the Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center and other defense organizations. (2/17)

New Post-Minuteman ICBM Passes Review (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman's design for a new ICBM passed its first review. The company announced Tuesday that the Air Force approved the company's plan for the engineering and manufacturing of the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent missile, the follow-on to the Minuteman 3 ICBM that has been in service since 1970. The company won a $13.3 billion contract to develop the ICBM last fall, and has to deliver a new ICBM by 2029. (2/17)

ABL to Launch Two Satellites in Upcoming California Launch (Source: Space News)
ABL Space Systems has a customer for its first launch. The company said Tuesday that L2 Aerospace will fly two satellites designed to test "a unique communications and network architecture" and cybersecurity applications on the inaugural flight of the RS1 rocket. The RS1 small launch vehicle is scheduled to make its first launch in the spring from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (2/17)

India Shifts Timeline for Crewed Spaceflight (Source: Times of India)
An Indian government minister said the country's first crewed spaceflight won't take place until 2023. Jitendra Singh, the minister of state for space, told the Indian parliament in a written response to questions that the Gaganyaan program now plans an initial uncrewed test flight this December, followed by a second uncrewed flight in 2022-23, and only then will it fly a crewed mission. The program originally had a goal of flying people by August 2022 to mark the 75th anniversary of India's independence. (2/17)

NASA Fears Gap in ISS Astronaut Crew (Source: Space Daily)
Having spent well over $150 billion on the International Space Station, NASA fears a potential lack of launch vehicles could leave the orbiting platform without a U.S. astronaut and create a potential safety risk. Such a gap would occur only if a crew had a problem that forced them to leave the space station early, but it would represent a costly "lost opportunity that cannot be regained" for maintenance work and science, NASA spokesman Josh Finch said in an email.

"NASA's position is that at least one U.S. crew member on the International Space Station at all times is the best way to maintain safe operations," Finch said. To resolve the potential for a gap, NASA is considering buying an additional seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket and capsule planned for launch in the spring, he said. NASA has sent six astronauts to the space station aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsules, four of whom are currently in orbit as SpaceX Crew 1. A launch of SpaceX Crew 2 is planned April 20, but the feared gap could occur in the six months after that, according to Finch. (2/17)

Mars Relay Network Connects Us to NASA's Martian Explorers (Source: Space Daily)
A tightly choreographed dance between NASA's Deep Space Network and Mars orbiters will keep the agency's Perseverance in touch with Earth during landing and beyond. When NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover touches down with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, they won't be alone. From orbit, two robotic buddies will be playing a special role in the event by checking in on the mission's vital signs from the moment Perseverance enters the atmosphere to long after it makes its first tracks on the Martian surface.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter are a part of the Mars Relay Network, a constellation of spacecraft that serves as a lifeline to the current surface missions on Mars - NASA's Curiosity rover and InSight lander. While some commands and telemetry can be sent directly to and from Earth, for the most part, the huge quantities of science data collected by rovers and landers cannot, because it would take too long. Most data traveling back to Earth must first be sent to the Mars orbiters overhead. (2/17)