June 8, 2022

SpaceX Launches Egyptian Satellite on First Florida Mission of June (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX boosted an Egyptian communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Wednesday, delivering the hefty spacecraft to orbit and kicking off the Space Coast's June launch manifest. At 5:04 p.m. EDT, a 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Launch Complex 40 on the commercial mission and then successfully landed on a drone ship just shy of 10 minutes later. The NileSat-301 satellite, weighing some 10,000 pounds, separated from the rocket's second stage 33 minutes after liftoff.

It marked SpaceX's 116th successful landing to date, 99th mission flying a used booster, and the Space Coast's 23rd launch of the year. If the current cadence holds, the unofficial target of 50 launches before the end of the year is likely to stay within reach. (6/8)

US Space Force Selects ASU as Newest University Partner (Source: ASU)
The U.S. Space Force and Arizona State University signed an agreement Tuesday making ASU the newest member of the service's University Partnership Program. Home to the School of Earth and Space Exploration and named U.S. News & World Report’s most innovative university in the nation for seven consecutive years, ASU will now assemble partnerships and models to collaborate with the Space Force on research and education. (6/7)

France Signs Artemis Accords on Future Lunar Exploration (Source: RFI)
France’s space agency, the CNES, has signed a US-led multilateral agreement for future exploration of the Moon. CEO Philippe Baptiste inked the so-called Artemis Accords in Washington DC on Tuesday, the 60th anniversary of the CNES. France is the 20th country to join the initiative, which hopes to send astronauts back to the Moon around 2025 – more than 50 years after Apollo 11's historic moon landing. (6/8)

Joint US-UK Experimental Satellites Will Launch This Summer From Cornwall (Source: Breaking Defense)
The historic first space launch from British territory slated for this summer will carry two experimental satellites built jointly by the Naval Research Laboratory and the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the Navy announced today.

The Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction CubeSat Experiment (CIRCE) mission was designed by the two labs to study the Earth’s ionosphere and the particle radiation environment. The ionosphere occupies a region around 85 km to more than 600 km in altitude, where solar radiation ionizes the atmosphere, creating charged plasma that interacts with the Earth’s ambient electric and magnetic fields. As a result, the ionosphere can transmit, refract and reflect radio waves. (6/7)

Lawmakers Call For Space Force To Hike Common Launch Integration (Source: Aviation Week)
With the U.S. Space Force expected to increase the number of launches—especially with the Space Development Agency gearing up to launch its Tranche 1 and 2 programs—a House panel is calling for the service to increase the use of a common launch integrator to drive down costs. (6/8)

‘The Best of California:’ Newsom has High Praise for Alameda Rocket Company Astra (Source: San Francisco Business Journal)
Gov. Gavin Newsom visited and praised Astra Space Inc. in Alameda last week, highlighting the state’s interest in supporting the aerospace industry. Astra has been based in the island city since 2017. Danielle Gomes, Astra's director of real estate development, said Newsom was “extremely engaged” with Astra employees, interacting with co-founder Adam London, technicians, machinists, and other individuals doing hands-on work on rockets.

Gomes added that Astra's success in California will be assisted through ongoing collaborations and partnerships with the state, specifically the GO-Biz office, to help the state’s initiative of supporting the commercial space industry, while also bolstering Astra’s competitiveness. Astra has grown its Alameda footprint over the last year from 100,000 to 225,000 square feet, as we reported last month — and told investors that it plans to take it to 350,000 square feet. The company employs over 324 full-time California employees, contributing $50 million to Alameda’s gross domestic product annually, according to a press release from Newsom’s office.

The company is recruiting both within and outside the state for specialized talent, with a headcount increase of 258% over the past 12 months, Gomes added. Astra is also working toward increasing manufacturing production to a rocket a week. Gomes highlighted major benefits of having their base of operations in California including access to “amazing” talent from Silicon Valley, NASA, SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other aerospace companies. “California has helped us achieve fantastic milestones in a very short period of time and we’ve been able to source and hire amazing talent and get where we are today,” Gomes said. (6/7)

Redwire, MDA, to Produce Tactical Communications Antennas for military Satellites (Source: Space News)
Redwire and MDA announced June 7 they have won contracts to each produce 42 tactical communications antennas for U.S. military satellites in low Earth orbit. The  antennas will be installed on satellites that will be part of the Link 16 tactical data network. The Link 16 standard is used by the U.S. military and NATO allies to exchange data between ships, aircraft and troops on land.

Jacksonville, Florida-based Redwire, a space infrastructure company, said it’s under contract to deliver 42 high-gain Link 16 antennas over the next 18 months for an undisclosed customer. Ontario, Canada-based MDA, a space technology provider, said it received a contract from Lockheed Martin for 42 antennas for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer. (6/7)

South Korea Cancels Apophis Probe (Source: Space News)
South Korea — Citing a “lack of technical capabilities,” South Korea has dropped the plan of developing a robotic spacecraft to escort asteroid Apophis during its 2029 close encounter with Earth. The science ministry, which manages state-funded space programs, recently ruled the mission “unfeasible” and decided not to request the $307.7 million budget it initially sought for the mission. The mission involved launching a robotic spacecraft between July 2026 and January 2027 to accompany Apophis as it whips by Earth in April 2029. (6/7)