Tuberville: Colorado A ‘Sore Loser’ in
Space Command’s Huntsville Move (Source: AL.com)
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said in a statement Thursday that
Colorado politicians are suffering from “sore loser syndrome” over
evaluations that have made Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal the
“preferred” choice to be the permanent home of U.S. Space Command
headquarters.
Tuberville called on leaders to “embrace” the Air Force’s decision and
that energy moving forward should focus on the relocation of Space
Command from its startup home in Colorado Springs. “At this point, the
biggest thing standing in the way of SPACECOM is political inertia and
sore loser syndrome, each a detriment to U.S. military effectiveness,”
Tuberville said. (5/19)
New Space Force Service Component
Targets China Threat (Source: National Defense)
In response to China’s growing military capabilities, the U.S. Space
Force will stand up its first service component outside of Space
Command in Indo-Pacific Command, said a service official May 19. Though
making the service components official is still “pre-decisional,”
China’s pacing threat necessitated the first service component in the
Indo-Pacific region, said Lt. Gen. Chance Saltzman, deputy chief for
operations, nuclear and cyber. (5/19)
Boeing and ULA Launch Starliner to ISS
From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner is on its way to the International Space
Station after a launch Thursday evening. An Atlas 5 lifted off at 6:54
p.m. Eastern, carrying Starliner on the OFT-2 uncrewed test flight. At
a postlaunch briefing, NASA and Boeing said the spacecraft was
performing well despite suffering the failure of 2 of 12 thrusters
during the spacecraft's orbital insertion burn a half-hour after
liftoff.
Engineers are investigating the failure, but officials said they don't
expect it to affect the spacecraft's approach to the station. Starliner
is projected to dock with the station around 7:10 p.m. Eastern today,
remaining there for several days of tests before returning to Earth.
(5/20)
Space Force Focuses on Satellite
Cybersecurity (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is emphasizing the need to protect satellite ground
systems from cyberattacks. Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, deputy chief of
space operations for nuclear and cyber, said Thursday that Russia's
invasion of Ukraine demonstrated that cyber threats to space systems
are not limited to satellites themselves, noting the attack on Viasat's
KA-SAT network that targeted user terminals, not the satellite.
Saltzman said more time would be needed to evaluate the events in
Ukraine as the conflict grinds on. (5/20)
China's Orienspace Raises $60 Million
for Launch Vehicle Development (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch vehicle developer Orienspace has raised $59.9 million in
a Series A funding round. The company says the funding will support
work on its Gravity-1 medium-class launch vehicle, slated for a test
flight as soon as mid-2023. With a payload capacity of up to 6,500
kilograms, it would be the largest-capacity launcher in China's nascent
commercial space sector. The company will also use the funding to work
on a reusable engine capable of producing 100 tons of thrust for its
future Gravity-2 rocket. (5/20)
Telesat Demonstrates Connectivity for
Lightspeed Constellation (Source: Space News)
Telesat demonstrated high-speed connectivity in India last month using
a four-year-old prototype satellite. The Phase 1 satellite, launched in
2018 to assist in development of Telesat's Lightspeed constellation,
carried out tests with an Indian teleport operated by Nelco in late
April, demonstrating "fiber-like" connectivity. Telesat announced plans
to partner with Nelco in September 2020. Other satellite operators have
since made similar alliances with other Indian companies as the country
looks to ease protectionist measures to encourage foreign investments.
(5/20)
Inmarsat Tests Mesh Network for
Maritime Vessels (Source: Space News)
Inmarsat successfully tested a mesh network that enables ships to
switch from satellite to terrestrial connectivity by using other
vessels as stepping stones to land-based signal towers. The company
plans to use the technology to offload its satellite capacity to
terrestrial networks at ports and other congested areas, even if a ship
is not close enough to connect directly to the shore.
The maritime mesh network is part of the multi-orbit Orchestra
constellation strategy that Inmarsat announced last year, which
includes using low Earth orbit satellites starting in 2026 for
addressing areas of high bandwidth demand that can't be offloaded
terrestrially. (5/20)
NASA Seeks Ideas for Exploration
Strategy (Source: Space News)
NASA is seeking public input on a set of objectives that will guide its
long-term exploration strategy. The agency released this week 50
objectives grouped in four areas: transportation and habitation, lunar
and Martian infrastructure, operations and science. NASA is seeking
comments on those objectives through the end of the month and plans two
stakeholder meetings this summer to discuss the feedback. The
objectives are intended to guide long-term plans for human missions to
the moon and Mars, including a "gap analysis" to compare those
objectives with existing and planned programs. (5/20)
SpaceX Paid Off Flight Attendant for
Musk Sexual Harassment (Source: Insider)
SpaceX paid $250,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim against Elon
Musk. A person who worked as a flight attendant on a SpaceX corporate
jet alleged that Musk harassed her in 2016. After the person filed a
complaint about the incident with SpaceX's human resources department
in 2018, the company paid her $250,000 in a severance package that
included a nondisclosure agreement and promise not to sue. Musk, who
did not originally respond to the story before publication, called the
accusations "utterly untrue" in a series of tweets overnight, alleging
they were politically motivated. (5/20)
Russia Launches Reconnaissance
Satellite (Sources: NasaSpaceFlight.com, TASS)
Russia launched a reconnaissance satellite Thursday. A Soyuz-2.1a
rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 4:03 a.m. Eastern and
placed the Bars-M reconnaissance satellite, designated Cosmos 2556,
into a sun-synchronous orbit. Russian media, meanwhile, acknowledged
that Cosmos 2555, a military satellite launched on an Angara 1.2 rocket
April 29, reentered this week. The spacecraft suffered some kind of
technical malfunction that kept it from raising its orbit. (5/20)
Russia Calculating Sanctions in
Decision for ISS Crew Swaps (Source: TASS)
Russia now expects to make a decision on ISS crew swaps next month.
Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, said Thursday he expects a Russian
government decision on swapping Soyuz and commercial crew seats to be
made in the first 10 days of June. He said the decision will depend in
part on "NASA's position on sanctions against Russia" but did not
elaborate. NASA officials reiterated this week that they need to
finalize by late June the crew assignments for the Crew-5 Crew Dragon
mission to the ISS launching in September. (5/20)
Space Perspective Raises $17 Million
to Accelerate Florida Balloon Tourism Plans (Source: Space News)
Stratospheric ballooning company Space Perspective has raised an
additional $17 million. The funding from a new group of investors will
allow the company to accelerate its growth, it announced Thursday. The
company is developing Spaceship Neptune, a vehicle carrying eight
passengers that will go up to an altitude of 30 kilometers, providing
views of the Earth like those from space for several hours. Commercial
flights are scheduled to begin in late 2024. (5/20)
India Plans Abort Tests for Crewed
Capsule System (Source: Indian Express)
India's space agency is preparing for two abort tests of its Gaganyaan
crewed spaceflight this year. The head of ISRO, S. Somanath, said one
test in September will demonstrate the capsule's abort system from an
altitude of 15 kilometers, while a second test in December will be
conducted at a higher altitude. The Gaganyaan program originally had a
goal of flying Indian astronauts this year to mark the 75th anniversary
of India's independence, but it has been delayed at least in part
because of the pandemic. (5/20)
China's Mars Rover Ready to Hibernate
(Source: Xinhua)
China's Zhurong Mars rover is going into hibernation for the Martian
winter. The China National Space Administration said that dust storms
are decreasing the amount of sunlight reaching the solar-powered rover.
Spacecraft controllers put the rover into a dormant mode on Wednesday
and don't plan to revive it until December, when they expect conditions
to improve. (5/20)
Impulse Space Propulsion Raises $20M
to Bring Last-Mile Delivery to Space (Source: LA TechWatch)
Impulse Space Propulsion is focused on in-space transportation services
for the inner solar system to complement the ever-increasing number of
launches. While costs per payload have significantly decreased,
by extending “last-mile” capabilities, orbital missions can be grouped
together resulting in more efficiency and accessibility – essentially
building a hub-spoke model for space. The company is initially
focused on Low Orbit Earth to handle a wide array of uses beyond launch
like payload delivery, servicing, deorbiting, and space station
realignment.
Tom Mueller is the founder of the Company and he has always been
interested in in-space transport as well as from Earth. His work
on space vehicle designs after leaving SpaceX led to the creation of
Impulse Space Propulsion. Offering a competitive, efficient and
effective solution to deliver payloads to their destinations is the
goal of the Company. With existing launch vehicles needing
partners and future launch vehicles further reducing the cost to orbit,
there will be more missions to deliver space capability. As such,
providing a price competitive solution is going to be key. (5/20)
Printed Rocket May Launch June 1 From
Florida (Source: Long Beach Business Journal)
While many rocket manufacturers use 3D-printing technology to create
components for spacecraft, the first entirely printed rocket may take
flight as early as June 1. That was announced by Long Beach, CA-based
Relativity Space. The company successfully completed a 60-second
full-duration mission duty cycle test for stage two of its rocket, the
Terran 1, at Stennis Space Center in April.
The test marks the first time a 3D-printed stage has undergone
acceptance testing. Relativity also completed acceptance testing for
all nine Aeon 1 engines for stage one of the rocket. The company
completed its first full-duration mission duty cycle of the Aeon, which
ran for 310 seconds, in January. Both stages will now be shipped to
Relativity’s launch pad, LC-16, at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (5/18)
Pollution From SpaceX, Blue Origin,
Virgin Galactic's Rockets May Harm Human Health, Climate
(Source: Business Insider)
The pollution from rockets built by SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin
Galactic could damage human health and hurt the Earth's climate, a new
study shows. "Atmospheric pollution from rockets," published on Tuesday
in the journal Physics of Fluids, digitally modelled the exhaust gases
coming from a standard rocket, similar to one of SpaceX's reusable
Falcon 9s, at various altitudes.
The increase in rocket launches by commercial space companies such as
Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, and Richard Branson's
Virgin Galactic "could have a significant cumulative effect on
climate," the study said. This is because of the amount of carbon gases
and nitrogen oxides being produced with each launch. The study found
that the concentration of nitrogen oxides, which an ascending rocket
releases into two cubic kilometers of atmospheric air, was considered
"hazardous to human health" under the World Health Organization's (WHO)
standards. (5/19)
NASA Pushing Prize Competitions with
New Awards (Source: Washington Technology)
A couple of winners already made their announcements, but NASA has now
released the full slate of 13 companies that have joined its Open
Innovation Services 2 vehicle through an on-ramp process. NASA uses
that vehicle to run challenges, where companies are tasked with solving
some of the agency's hardest technical problems. On top of adding that
group of 13, NASA also raised the vehicle’s ceiling from $24.9 million
to $175 million. (5/19)
Don’t Be Dazzled by Russia’s Laser
Weapons Claims (Source: Breaking Defense)
Claims by a top Russian official that Moscow has unveiled a powerful
new laser weapon prototype to attack drones and satellites being used
in Ukraine should be taken with a boulder of salt, experts say. “As
with some many things that comes from the Russians, it’s hard to
separate fact from fiction,” said Mark Lewis, head of the National
Defense Industrial Agency’s Emerging Technologies Institute.
Laura Grego, an astrophysicist at MIT with expertise in
directed-energy, summed up: “There’s not a lot of detail, but from what
there is, there’s no need to hyperventilate.” Speculation about the new
weapon began on Wednesday after statements to Russian state television
by Yury Borisov, Russia’s deputy prime minister in charge of military
development, claimed that a prototype of a drone-killing laser weapon
had already been tested and is being used in Ukraine. (5/19)
Pentagon Has Quietly Growing Doubts
About Boeing's Direction (Source: The Air Current)
The Pentagon has a significant stake in the company's long-term health
as Boeing's single biggest customer. The Pentagon's top leaders,
including the Secretary of the Air Force, recently sought internal and
third-party analyses and recommendations on the future of the company.
Boeing's top leadership has sought to allay concerns about the
company's performance and direction, as it concentrates resources on
solving certification, design and manufacturing challenges across its
business. "We're on the verge of turning the corner," said chief
financial officer Brian West last week. Yet the scene now unfolding at
Boeing in May 2022 has distinct echoes of an earlier run-up to
leadership changes at Boeing in the fall of 2019. (5/18)
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