February 28, 2023

Journey to a Cold and Curious Moon (Source: Space Review)
Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, is one of the most intriguing worlds in the solar system and might even be able to support life below its icy surface. Dwayne Day examines a proposed mission that would have flown by Triton, one that ultimately was not selected by NASA. Click here. (2/28)
 
New Rockets Spring to Life (Source: Space Review)
Springtime is for lovers… of new rockets, that is. Jeff Foust reports on impending first flights of several new launch vehicles, some reaching the pad after years of delays. Click here. (2/28)
 
Three Rules for Peace in Orbit in the New Space Era (Source: Space Review)
There are various proposals for space traffic management regimes and rules of the road for space behavior. Brian Chow and Brandon Kelley describe three tenets they believe are critical to establishing such systems so they do not undermine space security. Click here. (2/28)
 
Assessing NASA Advisory Activities: What Makes Advice Effective (Source: Space Review)
NASA gets plenty of internal and external advice about its activities, but what makes that advice effective? Joseph K. Alexander discusses the key features of effective agency advice based on experience from several efforts over the years that had a major impact on the agency’s work. Click here. (2/28)

SpaceX Falcon Rocket Aces 100th Consecutive Rocket Landing (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX has successfully launched its first batch of next-generation Starlink V2 satellites, likely kicking off a new era of affordability for the constellation.

Simultaneously, demonstrating just how far SpaceX is ahead of its competitors and the rest of the spacefaring world, the Starlink 6-1 launch culminated in the 100th consecutively successful landing of a Falcon rocket booster. As a result, SpaceX’s landing reliability now rivals the launch reliability of some of the most reliable rockets ever flown. That extraordinary feat bodes well for SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket, which is designed to propulsively land humans on the Earth, Moon, Mars, and beyond. (2/27)

Virgin Galactic’s VMS Eve Mothership Completes Second Test Flight (Source: SpaceRef)
According to Virgin Galactic, their mothership, VMS Eve, successfully completed a test flight – its second successful test flight of late.

“VMS Eve’s pilots performed a series of functional checks in Mojave, CA airspace before flying to Spaceport America, NM. These checks are designed to validate the performance of the vehicle following recent modifications including the enhancements, that were made last year to increase Eve’s flight rate capability, included a new launch pylon, new horizontal stabilizers, as well as upgraded avionics and mechanical systems.

Up next, VMS Eve will continue functional test and pilot proficiency flights from Spaceport along with ground-based testing with VSS Unity mated to the mothership. Following that, VMS Eve will take a validation glide flight and rocket-powered spaceflight that will run the vehicles through all final system and operational checks ahead of commercial service!” (2/27)

Democrats Step Up Pressure on Biden to Reverse Trump’s Decision on Space HQ (Source: Politico)
At first blush it looks like a standard case of home-state parochial politics: One state’s congressional delegation lobbying the administration not to relocate a government facility to another state. But Colorado’s last-ditch bid to stop U.S. Space Command from moving to Alabama is anything but typical. It’s pitting Joe Biden against Donald Trump, and an emerging blue state against a solidly red one where Trump’s political career took off in 2016. On top of that, it’s become the latest front in the culture war over abortion.

Colorado lawmakers are pressing the Biden administration to keep the command in their backyard, where it’s been housed temporarily since the headquarters was reestablished in 2019. In recent weeks the state’s senators have aired the issue on the Senate floor, voted against an uncontroversial Pentagon nominee and threatened to hold up even more picks to secure a meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the matter.

And one of the state’s senators is even seizing on the politics surrounding abortion and LGBTQ issues, arguing that sending the command from a blue state to a red one takes away the rights of service members. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) “has raised the issue of reproductive health care access in his conversations about the Space Command basing decision,” said one congressional aide, who asked for anonymity to discuss private conversations between Bennet and the Pentagon. The senator, the aide added, “has serious concerns about the impact that abortion ban laws have on readiness and our national security.” (2/28)

Why the Space Force is Testing Out Tech for Small, High-Flying Satellites (Source: Popular Science)
On February 14, geostationary communications satellite company Astranis announced that it had been awarded a contract with the US Space Force worth over $10 million. The contract is to first demonstrate a secure comms technique on the satellite hardware in a terrestrial test setting, and also includes the possibility of testing it in space.

Space remains a useful place for countries to place sensors that look down on other nations. Many of these satellites reside in low Earth orbit, or about 1,200 miles above the surface, which is easier for satellites to reach and lets satellites circle the globe rapidly. Geostationary orbit, which is 22,200 miles above ground, is harder to get to. Plus, satellites at all altitudes risk having signals jammed, or being disrupted by other objects in orbit, which has led the US military to pursue satellite constellations, or formations of smaller satellites, as a way to ensure that some functionality persists in the event of attack or disaster. (2/27)

Eyeing a New Lunar Economy, Japan's ispace Plans to Land on the Moon at the End of April (Source: Tech Crunch)
Tokyo-based ispace said Monday that its Hakuto-R lunar lander is on track to reach the moon at the end of April. Ispace launched the lander on board a Falcon 9 in December; since then, the spacecraft has traveled around 1,376 million kilometers, the farthest a privately funded, commercial operating spacecraft has ever journeyed into deep space. The company anticipates completing all deep space orbital maneuvers by mid-March, followed by insertion into lunar orbit in late-March. (2/27)

ESA Invites Space Firms to Create Lunar Services (Source: ESA)
ESA is inviting private space companies in Europe and Canada to create a shared commercial telecommunication and navigation service for lunar missions by putting a constellation of satellites around the Moon. Some 250 missions to the Moon are due to launch over the next decade alone, according to market analysists Northern Sky Research, which the company predicts will activate a €100 billion lunar economy, creating jobs and prosperity on Earth.

ESA will either lead or be an international partner in many of these lunar missions – robotic and crewed – including those that envisage a permanent lunar presence. Creating a shared telecommunications and navigation service for these missions would reduce design complexity and make them lighter and more cost efficient. Under its Moonlight programme, ESA is inviting space companies to create these lunar services.

By acting as an anchor customer, ESA is enabling space companies involved in Moonlight to create a telecommunication and navigation service for the agency, while being free to sell lunar services and solutions to other agencies and commercial ventures. Once Moonlight is in place, companies could create new applications in areas such as education, media and entertainment – as well as inspiring young people to study science, technology, engineering and maths, which creates a highly qualified future workforce. (2/27)

Space Force, Air Force Partner to Establish New Space Test Course (Source: USAF)
The U.S. Air and Space Forces have partnered to create the new Space Test Course, which will instruct Guardians on test and evaluation processes, to conduct robust and methodical system testing on space-flight equipment at the Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin signed a memorandum of agreement Feb. 23, establishing the new course.

“Ensuring our Guardians can effectively test and validate space-flight equipment is crucial to mission success and protecting the space domain for the Joint Force,” Thompson said. This agreement marks the culmination of a multi-year effort that began in 2018 when the then Air Force Space Command stood up a test and evaluation directorate. (2/27)

China Focus: Two-Photon Microscope Captures Cell Images of Astronauts in Orbit (Source: Xinhua)
The in-orbit Chinese astronauts of the Shenzhou-15 crew successfully obtained the three-dimensional structural images of their skin cells with the country's self-developed two-photon microscope, its developer announced Monday. The event, the first of its kind worldwide, marked the success of the in-orbit verification experiments of the two-photon microscope, providing a promising tool for future health monitoring of astronauts in orbit.

Designed for astronauts on China's space station, the portable two-photon microscope was developed by a joint research team of scientists from Chinese universities, institutions, and enterprises, including Peking University, the Astronaut Center of China, and Beihang University, based on the support from the China Manned Space Agency. (2/27)

Public Work Begins on UK's Largest Commercial Satellite Control Center (Source: Space Daily)
Work has started on Inmarsat's new eight-floor headquarters, which will host the company's Satellite, Network and Cyber Operations Center and feature advanced workspaces for employees - alongside games areas, a gym, a relaxation area, and a rooftop bar. The company has been developing plans for the new space since 2019, with the lease at its current headquarters finishing next year. It will vastly upgrade its facilities and provide ultra-modern infrastructure for Inmarsat's technical teams, including satellite and network operations, analysts and engineers. (2/28)

Jacobs Wins $3.2 Billion NASA Contract for Kennedy Space Center Operations (Source: Space Daily)
NASA announced Thursday that it will award a new $3.2 billion contract to Jacobs Technologies to manage launch infrastructure and maintain ground systems at Kennedy Space Center. The Consolidated Operations, Management, Engineering and Test contract from NASA secures engineering, launch, landing and recovery services and more for the agency and commercial partners using the space center in Florida.

Jacobs Technologies Inc., based in Tullahoma, Tenn., previously fulfilled a $1.37 billion Test and Operations Support Contract for NASA that it was awarded in 2012. Under the TOSC contract, Jacobs provided similar services along with servicing and testing flight hardware. The base of the contract is for three years and five months beginning on May 1. There are additional optional years that can be added to the end of the contract, bringing its "potential" value to $3.2 billion, according to a press release from NASA. (2/27)

Sidus Space to Integrate Edge Artificial Intelligence (Edge AI) Technology in Planned Satellite Constellation (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space announces integration of edge AI capabilities into its planned satellite constellation. Under an expanded agreement with Exo-Space, Sidus will leverage the FeatherEdge AI platform to provide near real-time intelligence derived from Earth Observation data. This includes opportunities to identify and intervene against environmental emergencies. It can detect unregistered vessels contributing to illegal fishing, track natural disasters such as floods or wildfires in real-time, and provide early warnings for events including oil spills or methane leaks. (2/28)

NASA Names Nicky Fox as New Head of Science Mission Directorate (Source: Space Policy Online)
NASA announced today that Nicky Fox is the new head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Like her predecessor, Thomas Zurbuchen, she is a heliophysicist who studies the Sun and its influence on the solar system. Zurbuchen brought her into NASA to head SMD’s heliophysics division in 2018. She is only the second woman to lead SMD.

Nicola (Nicky) Fox joined NASA from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) where she was the chief scientist and project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe. Her accomplishments include serving as deputy scientist for the Van Allen Probes and operations scientist for the International Solar Terrestrial Physics program. (2/27)

NASA to Launch More Ginormous Research Balloons (Source: Cosmos)
NASA’s giant stadium-sized balloons known as pumpkins are expected to return to Wanaka, New Zealand this year after a 2022 launch was aborted. The super pressure, ultra-long distance balloons are so immense, NASA says a football stadium could fit inside the balloon when fully inflated (the equivalent of 532,379 m3). The colossal, gourd-like balloons are shaped like a slightly squashed sphere. They are made from polyethylene, a thin plastic film, filled with helium gas. The pumpkins can carry around a tonne of scientific equipment. (2/27)

Are We Finally on the Cusp of Asteroid Mining? (Source: Sky & Telescope)
Asteroid mining is back in the news. In January, California-based startup AstroForge announced that in 2023 it will lay the foundations to become the first commercial company to mine an asteroid and bring the materials back to Earth. Two missions launching in April and October 2023, both on SpaceX rockets, will test technology and survey a target asteroid.

It’s an exciting proposition, but haven’t we heard all of this before? Over the years, similarly ambitious companies have claimed to be on the cusp of the impossible, among them Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, neither of whom could ultimately finance their plans. What makes AstroForge different? Click here. (2/27)

U.S. Army Extends Maxar’s Contract for 3D Geospatial Data (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Army has extended its contract with Maxar Technologies to provide 3D geospatial data used to create immersive digital environments, the company announced Feb. 27. Maxar was awarded Phase 3b of the U.S. Army’s One World Terrain (OWT) contract originally awarded in 2019 to Vricon, a company Maxar acquired in 2020. Vricon uses data from Maxar’s imaging satellites to make 3D mapping products. The three phases of the One World Terrain prototype project are worth $94.7 million. (2/27)

Commercial Space: NASA Has an App for That (Source: Space Daily)
Research balloons, satellites, and planetary landers may have little in common, but NASA has written a program that can help operate all these craft and more. This open-source software framework, called core Flight System (cFS), is similar to a smartphone operating system in that it serves as the foundation for apps developed to perform spaceflight functions. Now, Red Canyon Software Inc. is building those apps using cFS to help commercial space companies get into low-Earth orbit and beyond as quickly as possible.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center developed cFS to meet the needs of diverse missions ranging from high-altitude balloons to lunar-orbiting spacecraft. Agency engineers collaborated to identify the most common requirements for NASA flights, according to David McComas, former Software Engineering Division senior flight systems engineer. Now retired, he's still involved with the user groups developing and maintaining cFS code and standards. (2/28)

Gilmour Space and Atomos Space Sign MoU for Launch and In-Space Transfers (Source: Space Daily)
Gilmour Space Technologies and Atomos Space have agreed to explore a multi-year contract for Gilmour and Atomos to mutually purchase services for launch and in-space transportation. The partnership will see Atomos contract Gilmour for launch services on its Eris and upcoming orbital launch vehicles. In addition, Atomos' Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTVs) will provide in-space transportation services to customers and launch aggregation services of multiple customer spacecraft for launch on Gilmour vehicles.

While the barrier to entry for satellites to get to space is decreasing significantly, some applications require access into difficult-to-reach orbits. Atomos Space solves this problem by providing in-space transportation and orbit-raising services to satellites. Atomos has a unique approach where, unlike similar systems under development, their OTVs reside in space and rendezvous with client satellites on-orbit. This allows the full launch mass and volume to be reserved for the payload, reducing costs to the customer and allowing launch vehicles, such as Eris, to be used for a wider range of missions. (2/28)

Air Force Navigation Satellite to Launch on Vulcan’s First national Security Mission (Source: Space News)
A U.S. Space Force mission carrying a navigation satellite to geostationary Earth orbit has been confirmed as the first national security launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. USSF-106 will carry the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), an experiment funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and billed as the future GPS.  NTS-3, made by L3Harris, will broadcast positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) signals from geostationary Earth orbit. It will seek to demonstrate next-generation PNT technologies for the U.S. military and provide an alternative to GPS. (2/27)

UK Companies to Provide Services for Future Moon Missions (Source: UK Space)
The UK Space Agency has announced over £50 million for UK companies to develop communication and navigation services for missions to the Moon. The new funding is part of the European Space Agency’s Moonlight programme, which aims to launch a constellation of satellites into orbit around the Moon, from 2028. This will allow future astronauts, rovers, science experiments and other equipment to communicate, share large amounts of data including high-definition video, and navigate safely across the lunar surface.

The UK is one of the two leading international investors in the programme, alongside Italy, placing the UK space sector at the heart of this new frontier. Independent research suggests more than 250 missions to the Moon are due to launch over the next decade alone, generating almost £90 billion in global economic returns and thousands of new jobs. The UK space and satellite sector currently employs 47,000 people across the country and is set to grow further, with increased government support. (2/27)

Mitsubishi Electric and Astroscale to Develop and Produce Satellite Buses (Source: Astroscale)
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a leading defense and space company, and Astroscale Holdings Inc., the market leader in satellite servicing and long-term sustainability across all orbits, announced today that Mitsubishi Electric has invested U.S. $25 million in Astroscale's Series G funding round. Separate from the investment, the companies have agreed to collaborate in the joint development and manufacturing of sustainably designed satellite buses for Japanese national security constellations.

The satellite buses will be equipped with an Astroscale docking plate, similar to a car tow hook, with a standardized interface. This allows other spacecraft to dock with and move or remove satellites if they are unable to deorbit themselves at the end of their operational lives. Preparing satellites in this sustainable manner minimizes costs and maximizes safety for future on-orbit servicing. (2/26)

Yusaku Maezawa, Entrepreneur and First Private Japanese Citizen to Visit the ISS, Invests U.S. $23 Million in Astroscale (Source: Astroscale)
Astroscale has received an investment of U.S. $23 million from Yusaku Maezawa, the first private Japanese citizen to visit the ISS. Maezawa is the first Japanese civilian to visit the ISS, where he spent 12 days in December 2021. This groundbreaking visit was only his first step into space. He is now preparing for the historic dearMoon mission, in which he will lead a crew of nine on the first civilian mission to fly around the Moon on a SpaceX Starship. (2/26)

China-Russia Space Alliance Stumbles in Bid to Surpass US (Source: Bloomberg)
China’s state-run media frequently touts the country’s major achievements and grand ambitions in outer space, including its space station and planned research outpost on the moon. But there’s one thing it tends not to mention: Russia, its closest partner in space. When Beijing and Moscow announced plans in 2021 for a joint lunar project, it looked like a powerful alliance, matching China’s technological prowess with deep Russian experience in space, dating back to the original moon race.

Yet even before Russia’s war in Ukraine, there were doubts about what Moscow could offer Beijing. China has since downplayed talk of a Beijing-Moscow space axis, even while its diplomats say relations between the two nations are solid. Chinese representatives at September’s International Astronautical Congress in Paris didn’t talk about Russia when discussing the lunar project, and Russia is often left out of Chinese media reports about Beijing’s space program.

A possible visit by Yury Borisov, head of Russia’s space program, to China as soon as this week is unlikely to change that trajectory. Borisov declared that the nations had a new space agreement — a statement Chinese authorities haven’t confirmed — but Beijing has shown it can achieve many of its goals, including an orbiting space station, on its own. China’s space program “has mostly caught up with, if not surpassed, Russia,” said He Qisong, a professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai. “For cooperation, such as the one in the joint lunar research station, the symbolism is greater than the practical value.” (2/26)

SpaceX Unveils Next-Gen Starlink V2 Mini Satellites (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX has released official specifications and photos of its next-generation Starlink V2 Mini satellites, which were launched for the first time on Feb. 27. The launch carried the first 21 Starlink V2 satellites into low Earth orbit, operating under SpaceX’s Starlink Gen2 FCC license, which currently allows the company to launch up to 7,500 of a nominal 29,998 satellites. The new satellites are the future of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, and the information the company revealed helps demonstrate why.

At the same time as it continues to fill out its smaller 4,408-satellite Starlink Gen1 constellation with smaller V1.5 satellites, SpaceX has already begun launching the same smaller V1.5 satellites under the Gen2 license. Eventually, those smaller and less capable satellites will likely be replaced with larger V2 satellites, but SpaceX appears to have decided that quickly adding suboptimal capacity is better than waiting for an optimal solution. In theory, that optimal solution is larger Starlink V2 satellites.

As discussed in a previous FCC filing, SpaceX intends to operate up to three different types of Starlink satellites in its Starlink Gen2 constellation. The first variant is likely identical to the roughly 305-kilogram Starlink V1.5 satellites that make up most of its Starlink Gen1 constellation. Meanwhile, SpaceX has already built and delivered dozens of full-size Starlink V2 satellites to Starbase, Texas. Those more optimal spacecraft reportedly weigh anywhere from 1.25-2 tons each, offer almost 10 times more bandwidth than V1.5 satellites, and are so large and ungainly that they can only be launched by SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket. (2/26)

Why Space Companies Want to Make Solar Cells From Lunar Dirt (Source: The Hill)
We rarely ask, with regard to humans returning to the moon, how they will develop its resources. Two companies are creating the technology to do just that. Blue Origin is developing a technology that would make living on the moon easier and, perhaps in the fullness of time, make a moon base a profitable concern. Recently, Blue Origin processed some simulated lunar soil that could be used to create solar panels and transmission lines as well as a glass cover to protect the panels from the harsh conditions of the lunar surface.

The process uses molten regolith electrolysis by passing an electric current through regolith that had been heated to 1,600 degrees Celsius (2912 degrees Fahrenheit). Iron, aluminum and silicon separate out with oxygen as a useful byproduct. The silicon is 99.99 percent pure, a requirement for making solar panels. A Houston-based company called Lunar Resources is also delving into technology to extract useful materials from lunar soil. The company is working on additive manufacturing technology to build things from material extracted from lunar soil, including solar panels. The company has received a NASA grant to study a pipeline to transport oxygen on the moon. The pipeline would be built of lunar materials.

Beyond supporting a lunar base, mining the moon for its resources will be the basis of a space-based industrial revolution. Space-based solar power could be one product of this revolution. Lunar resources could also provide the raw materials for industrial facilities that use micro-gravity and hard vacuum to produce products that cannot be manufactured on Earth. Commercial development of space has been a decades-long dream. Now, companies like Blue Origin and Lunar Resources are starting to make that dream a reality. (2/26)

Musk is the Richest Person in the World Again (Source: CNN)
Elon Musk has reclaimed the title of the richest person in the world, per Bloomberg’s tally. The Tesla CEO was unseated from the top spot by Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury brand LVMH (LVMHF), in December of last year, making Musk No. 2 on the list for more than two months. As of Monday, however, Bloomberg reports that a rally in Tesla stock has lifted Musk back to the top of its real-time Billionaires Index. Musk’s net worth was some $187.1 billion as of Monday after markets closed, according to Bloomberg, just topping the $185.3 billion fortune of Arnault. (2/27)