March 11, 2021

Speedcast Emerges From Bankruptcy with Clean Balance Sheet (Source: Space News)
Satellite communications provider Speedcast emerged Thursday from nearly a year in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under private equity ownership. Centerbridge Partners, which manages about $28 billion of assets, has officially taken ownership of the company after completing all necessary regulatory and administrative requirements. The private equity firm invested $500 million into Speedcast as part of a deal that wiped out all its debt. It also sees the previously Australia-based company become a U.S.-owned business, which it believes will significantly boost its presence in the government market. (3/11)

China Advanced Space Cooperation in 2020 (Source: Space Daily)
China actively promoted international space cooperation in 2020, offering satellite exports and launches, cooperative research and application services to the world, according to a recent report on China's aerospace industry. By the end of last year, 51 Chinese rockets had launched 59 foreign commercial satellites into space, said the 2020 Blue Book of China Aerospace Science and Technology.

In January and November, China's Long March rockets took 12 commercial remote sensing satellites developed by Argentina's Satellogic into orbit. The company has agreed with the China Great Wall Industry Cooperation on plans to launch 90 satellites on Long March rockets. In December, Ethiopia launched its second Chinese-backed satellite from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan province. The preliminary design of the satellite was done in Ethiopia, while a joint Ethiopian-Chinese engineering team did the technical and detailed design. The report said it set a new example of international aid on climate change. (3/11)

Industry Groups Advocate for Office of Space Commerce (Source: Space News)
Three space industry groups are asking the Commerce Department to commit to continued support and funding for the Office of Space Commerce. In a March 9 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the Aerospace Industries Association, Commercial Spaceflight Federation and Satellite Industry Association called for the department to fund the small office at a level “reflective of its critical role” supporting the space industry.

The office, located in NOAA, has gone through ups and downs in recent years. It was largely neglected during the Obama administration, which did not appoint a director. In 2018, the Trump administration appointed Kevin O’Connell as director, who held the post through the end of January. The office took on a higher profile in the area of space traffic management (STM). Space Policy Directive 3 in June 2018 directed the Commerce Department, through the Office of Space Commerce, to take over civil STM work from DoD, a transition that is ongoing. It also supported activities such as promoting the commercial space industry and measuring its size.

Before this year the office received an annual budget of $1.8 million, but the fiscal year 2021 appropriations bill provided the office $10 million. That includes both additional funding for an STM pilot program as well as absorbing the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs office within NOAA, responsible for licensing commercial imaging systems. The Commerce Department has been silent about its plans for the Office of Space Commerce. (3/11)

SLS Green Run Re-Do Planned on March 18 (Source: NASA)
NASA has set next Thursday as the date for the second Green Run test of the Space Launch System core stage. NASA said Wednesday it will perform a static-fire test of the stage at the Stennis Space Center March 18, wrapping up a test campaign that started more than a year ago. The first Green Run test in January was cut short after a little more than a minute because of limits set in the control system for the stage's four engines. NASA decided to perform a second test to collect all the data engineers needed, but delayed that test, which had been scheduled for late February, because of a valve problem in the core stage. (3/11)

NASA Michoud Could Expand with Commercial Tenants Under Agreement With Louisiana (Source: WGNO)
NASA and the state of Louisiana are planning a business park at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The 50-acre Louisiana Space Campus, located on the grounds of Michoud, would host commercial office space for both existing tenants and new users there. Neither state nor NASA officials announced a schedule for developing the campus or other details about the development. (3/11)

India Provides Radar for Joint NASA-ISRO Satellite (Source: Business Standard)
India has shipped to the United States a radar for a joint mission with NASA. The Indian space agency ISRO said this week it shipped the S-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where it will be integrated with an L-band SAR payload developed there. The radars are the primary payload on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) spacecraft, a joint mission between the two space agencies scheduled for launch in 2022. (3/11)

Perseverance Delivers Sounds From Mars (Source: Space.com)
Scientists released first results — and sounds — from an instrument on the Perseverance Mars rover. In a presentation Wednesday, scientists involved with the SuperCam instrument said the instrument fired its first laser pulses, vaporizing bits of rock then analyzed by its spectrometers. Those results showed the rock was basaltic, but scientists noted the rock could have either volcanic or sedimentary origins. SuperCam is also equipped with a microphone, and scientists released the first recordings it made of the Martian wind and the clicking noise made by its laser. (3/11)

SpaceX Launches More Starlink Satellites, Recovers First Stage Downrange (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched another set of Starlink satellites early this morning. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 3:13 a.m. Eastern, deploying the 60 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit 65 minutes later. The rocket's first stage completed its sixth flight with a landing on a drone ship. SpaceX now has 1,200 Starlink satellites in orbit, and launched 310 of them so far this year. The company announced this week it was extending a beta test of the Starlink service to Germany and New Zealand, and expanding coverage in the United Kingdom. (3/11)

Northrop Grumman's Life-Extension Satellite Prepares for Intelsat Docking (Source: Space News)
A satellite life extension spacecraft is preparing for a docking with an Intelsat communications satellite. Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) 2 spacecraft recently approached Intelsat 10-02 to calibrate and test systems before MEV-2 backed off, the company said this week. Northrop said it would provide an update after docking. MEV-2 is similar to MEV-1, which docked with the Intelsat-901 spacecraft last year in a graveyard orbit. The MEV-2 docking, though, will take place while Intelsat 10-02 is in operation in geostationary orbit. (3/11)

Ukraine's Kurs Orbital Plans Demonstration of In-Space Satellite Servicing (Source: Space News)
A Ukrainian company is seeking to enter the satellite servicing market. Kurs Orbital plans to use technology based on the Kurs rendezvous system developed by the former Soviet Union for human spaceflight, combined with a new rendezvous acquisition module that uses machine vision, radar and robotics. The company is raising funding for a demonstration mission it foresees launching as soon as 2023, with commercial satellite life extension services starting as early as 2025. (3/11)