June 1, 2022

Cubesats to the Moon (Source: Space Review)
In mid-June, NASA will launch a cubesat mission to test the stability of the halo orbit around the Moon it plans to use for the Artemis program. Jeff Foust explains how the mission, and others planned for launch this year, are also validations of the growing capabilities of cubesats. Click here. (3/31)
 
National Reconnaissance Program Crisis Photography Concepts, Part 1: A Six-Pack of Corona (Source: Space Review)
In the 1960s, the NRO was caught off-guard by events like the Cuban Missile Crisis where its imaging satellites could provide little assistance. Joseph T. Page II examines one concept studied in response to such events that could have provided more responsive reconnaissance. Click here. (3/31)
 
How Ukraine Could Help Europe Boost its Space Sector (Source: Space Review)
Ukrainian space companies are continuing work more than three months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Viktor Serbin, CEO of a Ukrainian space startup, discusses how companies like his can boost Europe’s space ambitions. Click here. (3/31)
 
Boeing’s Commercial Crew Vehicle is Finally (Almost) Ready for Crew (Source: Space Review)
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft landed in New Mexico last week, wrapping up it second uncrewed test flight. Jeff Foust reports that NASA and Boeing both feel confident that, after years of delays, the commercial crew vehicle is now just about ready to carry astronauts. Click here. (3/31)

ILC Dover Becomes a Provider of Spacesuits for Boeing's Starliner (Source: Space Daily)
ILC Dover, the leading provider of spacesuits since the Apollo era, has announced that it was selected to be one of two providers of Boeing's Ascent/Entry Suit (AES) for the company's Commercial Crew Program and has developed a bespoke AES spacesuit for CST-100 Starliner crews.

The Boeing AES is based off ILC Dover's commercial Launch, Entry, and Abort suit, SOL. ILC Dover worked with Boeing to tailor SOL for the Starliner spacecraft to provide protection for astronauts during the most critical phases of spaceflight, including launch, docking, re-entry and landing. With over 50 years of spacesuit experience, the AES suit was designed to provide maximum mobility to operate, enter and exit the spacecraft, as well as provide protection for astronauts in case of an emergency. (5/31)

Bipartisan Push for DoD Responsive Launch (Source: Space News)
A bipartisan group of House members is seeking a big increase in funding for the Defense Department's responsive launch program. In a letter last month, a bipartisan group of 25 House lawmakers asked the leaders of the defense appropriations subcommittee to consider tripling the funding for "tactically responsive launch" in the Pentagon's fiscal year 2023 budget to $150 million.

The lawmakers said Russia's ASAT test last November demonstrated the need to be able to rapidly launch new satellites to replace those lost in a conflict. The funding would support additional Tactically Responsive Launch missions managed by the Space Systems Command and other efforts to rapidly develop and launch spacecraft. (5/31)

UN Talks on Space Norms Surprisingly Collegial, but Fireworks to Come (Source:  Breaking Defense)
Diplomats and experts at the first formal meeting of the UN working group attempting to forge new international norms to guide military activities in space were expecting the worst — that the week-long meeting would start and end in finger-pointing acrimony — only to be surprised by what key players say was for the most part a productive launch.

“Everybody said: This is no going to work, so why waste your time,” said one non-US negotiator at the May 9-13 meeting in Geneva of the UN Open Ended Working Group on Reducing Space Threats. “The fact that the meeting actually took place and we had a discussion, that is already by itself a good thing.” (5/31)

Space Force Offers Scant Details on Latest Launch Buy (Source: Space News)
The Space Force offered few schedule and cost details about a new round of launches awarded to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. Space Systems Command announced last week it awarded task orders for five launches of ULA's Vulcan Centaur and three of SpaceX's Falcon 9 for missions projected to launch over the next two years. However, the command did not give schedules for the individual missions or their costs. The five launches funded in fiscal year 2022 average $159 million each. The three launches funded in fiscal year 2023 average $181 million each. (5/31)

To Appease DoD and IC, ICEYE Boosts ‘Parallel’ US-Only Radar-Sat Constellation (Source: Breaking Defense)
The US arm of Finnish startup ICEYE intends to build, license and orbit a constellation of somewhere around 18 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites separate from the parent company’s other satellites — a plan initiated to assuage national security concerns voiced by the Pentagon and Intelligence Community about relying on foreign providers, a senior company official told Breaking Defense.

SAR capability is increasingly popular around the world, especially with militaries, due to its ability to “see” through clouds and bad weather, as well as at night. This US constellation will be “completely disconnected systems wise” from those built in Finland, said Jerry Welsh, CEO of ICEYE US, noting that the number of satellites isn’t set in stone and will depend on customer demand as much as anything else. (5/31)

June 19 Set for SLS Artemis Launch Rehearsal (Source: Space News)
The next countdown rehearsal for NASA's Space Launch System is scheduled for no earlier than June 19. NASA officials said Friday they are wrapping up work on the rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building and plan to roll it back out to the pad early June 6. That would allow a wet dress rehearsal, where the rocket is loaded with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants and goes through a practice countdown, as soon as June 19. A successful test would set up a launch of SLS on the Artemis 1 mission no earlier than August. (5/31)

FAA’s SpaceX Starship Environmental Report Coming in 2 Weeks (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The FAA announced one more delay for the release of its environmental assessment of the SpaceX plans to launch its new Starship with Super Heavy rocket on an orbital test flight from Texas. In a release Tuesday, the FAA said it was planning to release its final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) on June 13, two weeks later than its last target of May 31.

The FAA originally planned on releasing its Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) of the proposed flight at the end of 2021, but has issued of a series of delays for the report after getting thousands of responses to the plan during a public comment period last year. The latest delay cites ongoing interagency consultation. Previous delays cited the sheer amount of public input. (5/31)

Momentus Vigoride Space Tug Working Through Anomaly (Source: Momentus)
Momentus said its Vigoride space tug has suffered some "initial anomalies" after launch last week. In a statement late Friday, the company said the Vigoride-3 tug launched Wednesday on the Transporter-5 rideshare mission had encountered problems but did not elaborate. Momentus said it obtained a special temporary authority from the FCC to use an "unplanned frequency" to communicate with the spacecraft as it tried to resolve the problems. Vigoride-3 is the company's first spacecraft, and is primarily a technology demonstration mission. (5/31)
 
Vacuum Soak for Satellite Brain (Source: Space Daily)
A spacecraft computer is not much use if it cannot keep on running in space conditions - so this qualification model of QinetiQ Space's new onboard computer design has just spent two weeks in a thermal vacuum chamber in ESA's Mechanical Systems Laboratory at ESTEC in the Netherlands, exposed to the equivalent hard vacuum and temperature extremes of Earth orbit and deep space.

This same onboard computer design is already planned for use by various ESA missions currently in development, including the Hera mission for planetary defence, QKDSat to test quantum key distribution from orbit, and Altius to map ozone and other trace gas profiles in Earth's atmosphere, as well as aboard the carrier platform for an in-orbit technology demonstration mission from the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Program. (5/31)

More Countries Approve Starlink Service (Source: Space News)
Three more countries have approved Starlink services. The Philippines' National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) approved Thursday the registration of a SpaceX subsidiary in the country seeking to offer Starlink broadband services. Starlink is expected to cover villages in urban and suburban areas and rural regions that remain unserved or underserved with internet access services. SpaceX announced Friday that Nigeria and Mozambique gave their approvals for Starlink services in those countries. Those countries are the first in Africa to award licenses for Starlink. (5/31)

NASA Takes Fresh Look at Space-Based Solar Power (Source: Space News)
NASA is taking a new look at the feasibility of space-based solar power. At the International Space Development Conference Friday, a NASA official said that the agency's Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy has started a study to examine how changes in technology and economics could make solar power from space competitive with terrestrial energy sources. The study, scheduled to be completed in September, will primarily update existing architectures for space-based solar power to incorporate technology improvements and lower launch costs, as well as examine policy issues and public perception. (5/31)

NASA and Congress at Odds Over NEO Surveyor Mission Delay (Source: Space News)
Members of the House Science Committee questioned a proposal by NASA to delay a space telescope that will look for near-Earth objects. NASA's fiscal year 2023 budget request sought a two-year delay in NEO Surveyor, a mission intended to look for potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. However, the planetary science decadal survey released in April recommended a "timely launch" of the mission. The co-chairs of the decadal survey reiterated that recommendation at a hearing by the committee last week, where members asked if Congress should maintain funding for the mission. (5/31)

Artificial Intelligence Helps in the Identification of Astronomical Objects (Source: Space Daily)
Classifying celestial objects is a long standing problem. With sources at near unimaginable distances, sometimes it's difficult for researchers to distinguish, for example, between stars, galaxies, quasars1 or supernovae2.

Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco's (IA3) researchers Pedro Cunha and Andrew Humphrey tried to solve this classical problem by creating SHEEP, a machine learning algorithm, which determines the nature of astronomical sources. (5/31)

Strange Neutron Star Spinning Every 76 Seconds is Discovered in Stellar Graveyard (Source: Space Daily)
An international team of scientists have discovered a strange radio emitting neutron star, which rotates extremely slowly, completing one rotation every 76 seconds. The team says it is a unique discovery as it resides in the neutron star graveyard where they do not expect to see any radio emission at all. The discovery was made using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

The source was initially found from a single flash, or pulse, by the MeerTRAP instrument whilst piggybacking on imaging observations being led by a different team, ThunderKAT. MeerTRAP and ThunderKAT then worked closely together to puzzle out its origin. Combining the data from the two teams, it was then possible to confirm the pulsations and get an accurate position for the source, enabling detailed and more sensitive follow up observations. (5/31)

China Plans Ambitious Lunar Pole Mission (Source: Space News)
China is looking to land spacecraft near permanently shadowed regions at the south pole of the moon to look for resources trapped in craters. A recent paper suggests that China's Chang'e-7 mission will attempt a highly accurate landing at an illuminated area, such as a crater rim near the lunar south pole. That would allow access to nearby permanently shadowed regions that could be studied to look for water ice or other volatiles.

The Chang'e-7 mission, expected to launch in 2024 or 2025, will consist of multiple spacecraft, including an orbiter, relay satellite, lander, rover and "mini flying detector" able to hop across the surface and look for ice in those shadowed regions. (5/31)

Russia Delays Lunar Lander Mission (Source: TASS)
The launch of Russia's Luna-25 lunar lander mission has slipped to September. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, said Monday that the lunar lander mission is now expected to launch in late September, versus some time in the summer as previously planned. The mission, which has suffered years of delays, will attempt a landing near the south pole of the moon. (5/31)
 
UK's Open Cosmos Secures ESA Funding for Weather Constellation (Source: Space News)
British small satellite startup Open Cosmos said Friday it secured ESA funding to develop plans for a space weather monitoring constellation. The $5.6 million contract would support initial work on the proposed three-satellite NanoMagSat network to improve measurements of the Earth's magnetic field. NanoMagSat would have additional sensors and provide better spatial and temporal coverage than ESA's Swarm satellites, which have been monitoring Earth's magnetic field and ionosphere since 2013. ESA is considering NanoMagSat for its Scout line of low-cost Earth science missions. (5/31)

Ball and Raytheon to Develop NOAA Ocean Monitoring Instruments (Source: Space News)
Ball Aerospace and Raytheon Intelligence & Space won NOAA contracts to begin work on ocean color instruments for future geostationary weather satellites. Each company will receive approximately $5.2 million to perform a definition-phase study of a passive imaging radiometer to provide frequent observations of ocean biology, chemistry and ecology. NOAA plans to add the instruments to its GeoXO series of weather satellites that will begin launching in the early 2030s. (5/31)

Astrocast Acquires Hiber, Accelerates OEM Strategy (Source: Space Daily)
Astrocast, a leading global nanosatellite IoT network operator, has announced the signature of an agreement to acquire Hiber, a Netherlands-based, IoT-as-a-Service provider. Under the agreement, Astrocast agreed to acquire all of Hiber's shares in exchange for the issuance of new Astrocast shares, representing 16.5% of Astrocast's share capital, calculated prior to its previously announced public offering on Euronext Growth Paris. Hiber's shareholders also agreed to invest euro 10.45 million in Astrocast's public offering. (5/31)