February 16, 2023

Astronomers Marvel at 'Perfect Explosion,' a Spherical Cosmic Fireball (Source: Reuters)
Astronomers have observed what might be the "perfect explosion," a colossal and utterly spherical blast triggered by the merger of two very dense stellar remnants called neutron stars shortly before the combined entity collapsed to form a black hole. Researchers on Wednesday described for the first time the contours of the type of explosion, called a kilonova, that occurs when neutron stars merge. The rapidly expanding fireball of luminous matter they detailed defied their expectations.

The two neutron stars, with a combined mass about 2.7 times that of our sun, had orbited each other for billions of years before colliding at high speeds and exploding. This unfolded in a galaxy called NGC 4993, about 140-150 million light years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hydra. The researchers had expected the explosion to perhaps look like a flattened disk - a colossal luminous cosmic pancake, possibly with a jet of material streaming out of it.

The kilonova was studied using the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope. The two neutron stars began their lives as massive normal stars in a two-star system called a binary. Each exploded and collapsed after running out of fuel, leaving behind a small and dense core about 12 miles (20 km) in diameter but packing more mass than the sun. (2/15)

Europe Approves Proposed Satellite Constellation Plan (Source: Space News)
The European Parliament has approved a proposed satellite connectivity constellation. The parliament passed a regulation this week for the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite, or IRIS², constellation by a vote of 603-6. The vote clears the way for manufacturers to submit bids to build, launch and deploy the multi-orbit network by 2027, with a projected cost of 6 billion euros ($6.4 billion.)  IRIS² comes in response to U.S.-based Starlink's growing dominance in low Earth orbit communications, and a need to protect infrastructure against increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats. (2/16)

DoD to Release Unclassified Version of Space Strategy (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon will draft an unclassified version of a space strategy report describing how it will defend U.S. satellites in orbit. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb said this week that it is responding to congressional language in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act directing DoD and the director of national intelligence to "make publicly available a strategy regarding defending and protecting on-orbit satellites." The Pentagon has a classified version of that strategy. Plumb said the unclassified strategy will lay out the threats posed by Chinese and Russian anti-satellite weapons. (2/16)

Virgin Galactic's VMS Eve Flies Again Over Mojave (Source: Space News)
The aircraft used to carry Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceplane took to the skies Wednesday for the first time in more than a year. The plane, VMS Eve, flew for more than two and a half hours, taking off and landing back at Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The plane underwent extensive upgrades since arriving in Mojave in October 2021. Virgin Galactic officials previously said that after the test flight, VMS Eve would return to Spaceport America in New Mexico for tests with the company's SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, VSS Unity, ahead of starting long-delayed commercial flights in the second quarter. (2/16)

China's 'Space Pioneer' Preparing for First Launch (Source: Space News)
Chinese launch startup Space Pioneer is preparing for its first launch. The company, formally known as Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., said this week it raised Series "B+" and "Pre-C" rounds and had raised $438 million overall since its founding in 2018. Space Pioneer is gearing up for the inaugural flight of its Tianlong-2 kerosene-liquid oxygen medium-lift launcher from Jiuquan, scheduled for the first quarter. If successful, the launch would make Space Pioneer China's first privately-funded company to reach orbit with a liquid propellant rocket, following a failed launch attempt of Landspace's methane-liquid oxygen Zhuque-2 in December. (2/16)

Rocket Lab Deploys Booster-Recovery Helicopter for Humanitarian Mission (Source: New Zealand Herald)
A Rocket Lab helicopter used for mid-air recovery of rocket boosters is being pressed into service for a different kind of recovery work. The company says it will use its large Sikorsky S92 to deliver supplies to residents near its Mahia Peninsula launch site in New Zealand, cut off by Cyclone Gabrielle. The company said its launch site was not damaged by the storm, and all its staff are accounted for. (2/16)

Mons Mouton is the Landing Site for NASA's VIPER Lunar Rover (Source: NASA)
The landing site for a NASA lunar rover mission has a new name. NASA said the mesa-like mountain where its VIPER rover will land in late 2024 is now called Mons Mouton after NASA mathematician and computer programmer Melba Roy Mouton. She worked at NASA from 1959 to 1973, leading the team that developed computer programs to track orbiting spacecraft. Mons Mouton, about the size of Delaware, is believed to be significantly older than its surroundings and may harbor water ice deposits. (2/16)

Chelyabinsk Residents Not Worried About Future Meteor Impacts (Source: TASS)
A decade after a meteor exploded in the skies above the city of Chelyabinsk, Russians say they are not worried about the threat posed by asteroid impacts. A poll of Russian citizens found that 63% considered impact threats "virtually unrealistic" but were evenly split on whether impacts could be predicted and prepared for. The poll was released Wednesday on the tenth anniversary of the Chelyabinsk event, where a small asteroid exploded in the upper atmosphere, creating a blast wave that caused millions of dollars of damage in the city but no fatalities. (2/16)

Two Crews Set for Tiangong Station in '23 (Source: Space Daily)
China will launch two crews to work on its Tiangong space station this year, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The agency published schedules for the Shenzhou XVI and XVII mission crews on Wednesday, saying that the Shenzhou XVI team will leave for the Tiangong station in May while their counterparts in the Shenzhou XVII mission will fly to the massive orbiting outpost in October.

Both crews will consist of three astronauts and will be launched into space by Long March 2F carrier rockets from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. They are scheduled to work at the Tiangong station for six months, where they will conduct spacewalks, scientific and technological tasks, and educational lectures, according to the agency. (2/16)

Brain Changes in Fighter Pilots May Cast Light on Astronauts During Space Travel (Source: Space Daily)
One cannot explore the profound mysteries of space without being changed by it. This is the message underlying a new study in Frontiers in Physiology. The study examined the brains of F16 fighter pilots, which have a lot in common with those of astronauts in terms of adapting to altered gravity levels and rapidly processing conflicting sensory information. MRI scans revealed that pilots with more flight experience showed specific brain connectivity patterns in areas related to processing sensorimotor information.

They also showed differences in brain connectivity compared with non-pilots. The study will help us to understand the effects of space flight on the brain and may aid in providing better training programs for pilots or astronauts. esearchers recruited 10 fighter jet pilots from the Belgian Air Force, alongside a control group of 10 non-pilots, and performed MRI scans of their brains to establish the first ever study of functional brain connectivity in fighter pilots. Interestingly, the researchers found differences in brain connectivity between experienced and less experienced pilots, suggesting that brain changes occur with an increased number of flight hours.

These differences included less connectivity in certain areas of the brain processing sensorimotor information, which may indicate the brain adapting to cope with the extreme conditions experienced during flight. Experienced pilots also demonstrated increased connectivity in frontal areas of the brain that are likely involved in the cognitive demands of flying a complicated jet. When comparing pilots and non-pilots, the researchers found that areas of the brain processing vestibular and visual information were more connected in pilots. (2/16)

Team Aims To Find Earth 2.0 (Source: Space Daily)
Are there other Earth-like planets? Is there extraterrestrial life? In the quest to find planets that orbit stars other than the sun, "Earth 2.0" is the Holy Grail. Earth 2.0 is a planet similar enough to Earth to enable the existence of life as we know it. It would be the right temperature for liquid water, and it would orbit a star with a steady supply of light. Ideally, it would be close enough that we could imagine going there or at least sending a probe to explore it. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers are leading a team in pursuit of an idea that could make it possible to find nearby, habitable, Earth-like planets - or prove that they are unlikely to exist - thanks to a new grant from NASA. (2/15)

Four Classes of Planetary Systems (Source: Space Daily)
Astronomers have long been aware that planetary systems are not necessarily structured like our solar system. Researchers from the Universities of Bern and Geneva, as well as from the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS, have now shown for the first time that there are in fact four types of planetary systems.

In our solar system, everything seems to be in order: The smaller rocky planets, such as Venus, Earth or Mars, orbit relatively close to our star. The large gas and ice giants, such as Jupiter, Saturn or Neptune, on the other hand, move in wide orbits around the sun. In two studies published in the scientific journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, researchers from the Universities of Bern and Geneva and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS show that our planetary system is quite unique in this respect. (2/15)

CSIC Completes the First Network of Robotic Telescopes Present on the Five Continents (Source: Space Daily)
"BOOTES is the result of almost twenty-five years of continuous effort, since we installed the first station in 1998 at INTA (Arenosillo, Huelva), the institution that initially supported the project. The complete deployment represents a scientific milestone since it is the first robotic network with a presence on all continents," according to Alberto J. Castro-Tirado. The seven stations of the BOOTES Global Network are present now in the five continents. (2/15)

Phase II of China's Deep Space Observation Radar Facility Kicks Off Construction (Source: Space Daily)
The second phase of China's deep space observation radar facility, dubbed "China Compound Eye", started construction Tuesday in southwestern Chongqing, according to the Beijing Institute of Technology. Covering an area of more than 300 mu (20 hectares), the new phase will see the construction of 25 high-resolution radars, each with a diameter of 30 meters, and is expected to be completed in 2025. (2/15)

NASA Preps For X-59 With Shockwave Photo Equipment Upgrade (Source: AVweb)
In preparation for the first flight of its Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) research aircraft, NASA is testing upgraded camera technology designed to capture better images of shockwaves created by supersonic aircraft. In addition to the updated equipment, the agency noted that it is also continuing to refine its use of Schlieren photography, a process that captures density gradients in fluids. Additional flights to test the new camera are slated for late winter or early spring 2023 with the goal of studying image clarity by photographing an aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds from a plane 10,000 feet away. (2/13)

Florida Bill Would Protect Human Spaceflight Companies From Liability (Source: SPACErePORT)
Space Coast state legislator Tyler Sirois has filed HB-839 for consideration by the Florida Legislature. The "Spaceflight Entity Liability" bill "exempts spaceflight entity from liability for injury to or death of crew resulting from inherent risks of spaceflight activities; provides exceptions; requires spaceflight entity to have crew sign specified warning statement; revokes immunity privileges for noncompliant spaceflight entity." (2/15)

Texas-Led Space Tourism Boom Could Make Space Vacations Affordable Sooner Than You Might Think (Source: WFAA)
There were around 120 astronauts at NASA when Chris Cassidy was accepted into the program in 2004. By the time he retired after a final flight in 2020, only 40 remained. But, it turns out, that end meant the beginning of a new era. Texas is now home to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space program in Van Horn, as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX company in Boca Chica. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is located just across the border in Sierra County, New Mexico.

Joel Quintana is an associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at UTEP, which is conveniently located close to the headquarters for both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. Now, though, half of Blue Origin’s staff are UTEP grads. And the company has completed six crewed space missions ton this point. "All those companies are hurting, hurting for engineers," Quintana said. Both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which made it to space nine days before Bezos' brand did, are targeting a burgeoning space tourism industry.

A thousand people have paid the $450,000 fee to fly Virgin's shuttle, which has gone 53 miles up in the air. Meanwhile, Blue Origin -- which went to 66 miles up into space -- auctioned its first seat for $20 million. Since then, bidding has slowed some to around the $1 million to $3 million marks. There’s some speculation the bidding was a way to determine where future seats could be priced. (2/14)

Discover 5 Top SpaceTech Startups developing In-Orbit Services (Source: StartUs Insights)
Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the SpaceTech industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked startups developing in-orbit services. Click here. (2/15)

ESA Signs Cooperation Agreement with Mexico (Source: ESA
ESA and the Mexican space agency, Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM) signed a Cooperation Agreement on 14 February 2023. The objective of this agreement is to allow Mexico and ESA to create a framework for more-intensive cooperation in joint projects in the future. (2/15)