August 2, 2021

First Test of Europe's New Space Brain (Source: Space Daily)
ESA has successfully operated a spacecraft with Europe's next-generation mission control system for the first time. The powerful software, named the 'European Ground System - Common Core' (EGS-CC), will be the 'brain' of all European spaceflight operations in the years to come, and promises new possibilities for how future missions will fly. On 26 June 2021, ESA's OPS-SAT space lab became the first spacecraft to be monitored and controlled using the EGS-CC - proving that this software of the future is ready to be extended across current and future missions flown from Europe. (7/30)

U.S. Strengthening Space Domain Awareness (Source: National Defense)
Just a couple of years ago, the military was tracking 22,000 objects. That number has now risen to 30,000. “Of those objects, only about 1,500 were actually satellites and everything else was debris,” Gen. John Raymond said in June. “If you look now, there are significantly more satellites that are on orbit. In fact, one commercial company has well over 1,600 satellites.” Barriers to launch have been reduced and increasingly more and more countries, companies and even students are sending items into space, he noted.

The service is currently pursuing a deep-space advanced radar concept program, also known as DARC. According to the service, the platform is a ground-based radar system designed to detect, track and maintain custody of deep space objects 24/7. It will primarily track objects at geosynchronous-Earth orbit, though it could also track objects in low-Earth orbit, according to officials. President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget request included $123 million for research, development, testing and evaluation for the program. (7/30)

Space Force Views Chinese Satellite's Robotic Arm as a Weapon (Sources: National Defense, Nikkei Asia)
Threats in space are increasing, said Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno, staff director at Space Force headquarters. She cited China’s Shijian 17 — an experimental satellite with a robotic arm that Beijing says will be used to repair spacecraft — as a major concern. “If you’re going to repair something it needs to be repairable. If it’s going to be refueled it needs to have a fuel port,” she said. “This is not the case with their satellites.” The Space Force views the Shijian 17 as a weapon, she said. Such a system could collide or tamper with a U.S. satellite.

China has said the Shijian-17, or SJ-17, is an experimental satellite used to run communication and broadcast services as well as observing space debris. However, some Western organizations, including the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, have noted its "unusual behavior" while in orbit.

Meanwhile, Russia is also a concern with its Nudol ground-based missile anti-satellite system, she said. There are also worries about a new platform that many are likening to a Russian nesting doll. It’s “a satellite within a satellite within a satellite,” Armagno explained. The ability to take down an U.S. satellite is significant because it is widely believed that the next major war could be decided in the opening minutes of the first day, as each side attempts to disable the enemy's communication tools, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). (7/30)

China's Deep Blue Aerospace Tests Powered Rocket Landing (Source: Space News)
A Chinese launch startup performed a vertical launch and landing of a small rocket. Deep Blue Aerospace fired up the Nebula-M VTVL test stage late last month, flying the vehicle to an altitude of almost 10 meters before descending to a powered landing. The test was part of the development of the Nebula-1 orbital launcher, designed to launch 500 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit with a reusable first stage. (8/2)

Nauka Module’s Near Miss Raises Concerns About Future of Space Station (Source: Ars Technica)
About three hours after linking to the station, Nauka began firing its propulsion thrusters, throwing the space station off kilter. This led NASA Mission Control to initiate "loss of attitude control" procedures, a contingency astronauts and flight controllers train for. Then, in concert with flight controllers in Moscow, the teams commanded the station to fire its thrusters on the Russian segment of the space station, as well as a Progress supply vehicle attached to the laboratory. These actions prevented the station from tumbling too violently until Nauka exhausted its primary fuel supply.

A senior official in Roscosmos said: "Due to a short-term software failure, a direct command was mistakenly implemented to turn on the module's engines for withdrawal, which led to some modification of the orientation of the complex as a whole." This makes the problem sound like a software error. But later, Dmitry Rogozin acknowledged that someone on the ground could have made a mistake. "Everything was going well, but there was a human factor," he said. "There was some euphoria (after the successful docking), everybody got relaxed."

Now that the immediate danger has passed, the most pressing concerns are that this happened at all and what it may mean for ongoing Russian participation in the International Space Station program. This could be at least the third major problem in less than three years resulting from shoddy Russian work. The question for NASA becomes, then, how long it is willing to rely on a partner that is clearly having technical issues with its workforce, is always asking for more money, and making noises about wanting to exit the space station partnership that has existed for about three decades now. (8/2)

Rhea Space Wins Space Force Contract for Solar Thermal Propulsion Study (Source: Space News)
 A startup has a Space Force contract to study the use of solar thermal propulsion. Rhea Space Activity won a Small Business Innovation Research contract from the Space Force to design a spacecraft with a solar thermal propulsion system. The company envisions a spacecraft that, once launched into space, will deploy an origami-like solar reflector panel. The concentrated sunlight will provide both thermal and electric propulsion using water as the propellant. The company envisions using the technology to enable in-space maneuvers and other operations in cislunar space. (8/2)

NRO Proposes "Civil Reserve" Program for Satellite Imagery (Source: Breaking Defense)
The NRO is proposing a "civil reserve" of commercial imaging satellites that it could call up in an emergency. A draft request for proposals released by the NRO for obtaining commercial imagery discusses the creation of a "Civil Reserve Space Fleet" modeled after the Air Force's Civil Reserve Air Fleet of commercial aircraft. The concept would give the NRO the ability to take all images by the spacecraft of selected regions and prevent the satellite's operator from selling that imagery to others, a concept known as "shutter control" in the industry. Shutter control has long been controversial in the industry, but some believe it may now be obsolete given the proliferation of commercial imaging satellites worldwide. (8/2)

Wildfire Monitoring Satellite Program Set to Expire (Source: LA Times)
A program that uses military satellite and other data to help fight wildfires is in danger of expiring. The FireGuard program allows firefighters access to data, including from missile tracking satellites, to help pinpoint wildfires. That program, though, is set to expire in September unless reauthorized by Congress. Members of California's congressional delegation are pushing to permanently authorize FireGuard, although Pentagon officials are reportedly opposed to that since the program falls outside of their conventional national security mission. (8/2)

Rogozin Invites Musk to Russia (Source: TASS)
The head of Roscosmos invited Elon Musk to Russia. Dmitry Rogozin said in a radio interview Friday that he invited Musk to come to Russia for a meeting since sanctions prohibit Rogozin from coming to the United States. Rogozin also said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was welcome to come to Russia. (8/2)

SpaceLink Selected to Fly Demo on International Space Station (Source: SpaceLink)
SpaceLink, a company that is building the communications superhighway for the space economy, announced that it was selected by CASIS, manager of the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, for a funded demonstration of its end-to-end relay service which provides secure, continuous, high capacity communications between spacecraft and the ground. The demonstration will validate the use of a 10 Gigabit per second optical terminal, for real-time voice, video, and data exchange between ISS crew, onboard systems, experiments, and terrestrial users. (8/2)

Parikh Named Executive Secretary of National Space Council (Source: Space News)
The White House has named a former director of space policy at the National Security Council as the new executive secretary of the National Space Council. Chirag Parikh will be executive secretary of the council, responsible for its day-to-day activities. The council is chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris. Parikh was NSC's director of space policy from 2010 to 2016, a time when the space council was inactive. He joined the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in 2016, serving positions such as deputy director for counterproliferation. (8/2)

Bulova Marks Apollo 15 Anniversary with Gold Watch (Source: CollectSpace)
Fifty years to the day after its chronograph became the first and only "unauthorized timepiece" to be worn by an astronaut on the surface of the moon, Bulova is launching a golden replica of its infamous watch. Bulova's 50th Anniversary Lunar Pilot is styled after the prototype chronograph that Apollo 15 commander David Scott secretly flew and wore for his third and final moonwalk on Aug. 2, 1971. The design of the original watch was never put into production, but a replica was introduced in 2016, after Scott sold his moon-flown artifact for $1.6 million at auction. (8/2)

World's First Commercial Re-Programmable Satellite Blasts Into Space (Source: Space Daily)
The world's first commercial fully re-programmable satellite lifted off from French Guiana on Friday on board an Ariane 5 rocket, ushering in a new era of more flexible communications. Unlike conventional models that are designed and "hard-wired" on Earth and cannot be repurposed once in orbit, the Eutelsat Quantum allows users to tailor the communications to their needs -- almost in real-time. The satellite will be placed in orbit some 36 minutes after the launch. (7/30)