March 1, 2023

Astra Concludes Launch Mishap Investigation (Source: Astra)
After over six months of rigorous testing and analysis, Astra has received a formal closure letter from the FAA concluding the TROPICS-1 mishap investigation. The TROPICS-1 mission launched on June 12, 2022 on Astra’s Rocket 3.3, serial number LV0010. The rocket completed a nominal first stage flight, stage separation, and upper stage ignition. Shortly after the ignition of the upper stage engine, the upper stage’s fuel consumption rate increased and remained anomalously high for the remainder of the flight.

About 250 seconds after upper stage ignition, the stage exhausted its fuel supply with approximately 20% of the liquid oxygen still remaining onboard. As a result, the upper stage was only able to obtain about 80% of the required orbital velocity. The stage was unable to deliver its payloads to orbit, and subsequently re-entered the atmosphere, ending the mission.

Our analysis showed that the anomalous fuel consumption during the upper stage flight was due to a combustion chamber wall burn-through that occurred 18 seconds into upper stage flight. Flight data showed that the burn-through was precipitated by a substantial blockage of the fuel injector. The mechanics of combustion and regenerative cooling are complex and this failure did not have an immediately apparent root cause, so extensive testing and analysis was required to recreate the failure mode and to understand both how the injector blockage was created and how it led to a burn-through. (3/1)

Sources Say United Launch Alliance is Up for Sale (Source: Ars Technica)
One of the world's most important rocket companies, United Launch Alliance, may be sold later this year. The potential sale has not been disclosed publicly, but three sources confirmed that potential buyers have been contacted about the opportunity. These sources said a deal is expected to be closed before the end of this year and that investment firm Morgan Stanley and consulting firm Bain & Company are managing the transaction.

The sale would mark the end of an era that has lasted for nearly two decades. ULA was officially formed in 2005 as part of a deal brokered by the US government, ensuring the military had access to both Atlas and Delta rockets to put national security satellites into space. To form ULA, Lockheed Martin and Boeing merged their launch businesses into a single company, each taking a 50 percent stake. This union was profitable for both parent companies. In return for 100 percent mission success, ULA received large launch contracts and an approximately $1 billion annual subsidy from DoD to maintain "launch readiness."

Neither Boeing nor Lockheed Martin would comment on "market rumors or speculation" about a rumored sale. The emergence of SpaceX in the early 2010s with the increasingly reliable Falcon 9 rocket started to disrupt this profitable arrangement. SpaceX sold the Falcon 9 rocket at a substantial discount to ULA's Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. The company also successfully sued the US government to allow the Falcon 9 rocket to compete for national security missions, and SpaceX launched its first one in 2017. (3/1)

Starlink: SpaceX’s New Internet Service Could Be a Gamechanger in Africa (Source: The Conversation)
It’s hard for many of us to imagine a world without instant, limitless internet access. Some have even argued that it should, alongside access to clean water and electricity, be considered a basic human right. But in fact only 64.4% of the global population as of January 2023 are internet users. Asia and Europe are home to most of the people who are connected.

Africa comes in third. However, accessibility varies wildly across the continent. About 66% of people in southern Africa are internet users. In east Africa the figure is 26%; it is just 24% in central Africa. People in rural areas have far less access than those in the continent’s urban areas. Internet access opens up the world in many ways. It can entertain, educate, enable payments and even bolster democracy.

That’s why advances in providing internet access to people in Africa are worth celebrating. In January 2023, the US company SpaceX, which manufactures and launches spacecraft and communication satellites, announced that its Starlink service was available in Nigeria. This was a first for the continent. It has also since become available in Rwanda. This could be an important way to fill Africa’s connectivity gaps. (3/1)

Black Leaders Help Push NASA’s Past, Present and Future of Exploration (Source: Spectrum News)
Throughout the fabric of space exploration chartered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), African Americans have and continue to help push America’s space agency towards new horizons of exploration and discovery, while at times surmounting their own struggles against adversity.

Bill Gary, a 40-year veteran of NASA, said he loved and cherished his time spanning from the post-Apollo through the Space Shuttle era, but said that time was not without its challenges. Through his experience as an electrical engineering major at Tennessee State University, Gary made his way to Florida’s Space Coast.

He arrived at a time when housing in Titusville was still very much segregated. He told Spectrum News that the home he lives in today is an area of town barred to Black residents at the time. Gary became a facilities engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and said he was one of just a small number at the time in the mid-70s. Click here. (2/28)

28-Year-Old Woman Picked to be Astronaut by Japan’s Space Agency (Source: Japan Times)
A 28-year-old female surgeon was unveiled as one of Japan’s new astronaut candidates by the space agency on Tuesday, putting her on a course to become the third Japanese woman to go into space after Chiaki Mukai and Naoko Yamazaki. Ayu Yoneda, the youngest candidate to be chosen by the agency, and Makoto Suwa, 46, were selected from over 4,000 applicants, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

Yoneda will be joining a crew that is currently all male — the average age is 53 and the required retirement age is 60. She and Suwa successfully passed the selection process after a series of exams that began in April 2022. They are JAXA’s first two new recruits in 13 years. Last year, JAXA dropped its university degree requirement for the first time in its history, resulting in a record 4,127 applicants in 2022 — four times the amount seen in the previous selection process, which ran in the fiscal year that began April 2008. (2/28)

Expansion at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility Campus (Source: Biz New Orleans)
On Jan. 28, Industrial Realty Group joined with economic development partners from the state, region and city to break ground on Propel Park, located within NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. Representatives from the project’s builder, Impetus, were also present. Construction of the new industrial and office development will now begin on the 50-acre campus. The project will generate over 1 million square feet of modernized industrial space.

Stakeholders hope the new regional asset will bolster business attraction efforts, providing a new location for companies in need of facilities for light assembly, manufacturing, distribution and office operations. The project’s first tenant, Textron Systems, has signed a 10-year lease to relocate from its existing space within an MAF building into a new, 97,025-square-foot distribution hub. It will occupy a portion of the first phase of the development, a 260,000-square-foot warehouse building. (2/28)

Rocket Lab Quarterly Revenue Stays Steady as Space Company Doubles Order Backlog (Source: CNBC)
Rocket Lab said Tuesday it has doubled its order backlog — from about $241 million in contracts at the end of 2021 to $503.6 million at the end of 2022 — and made progress on the Neutron rocket that it’s developing. The space company also reported fourth-quarter revenue of $51.8 million, up 88% from a year prior, with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $14.5 million – which was 75% wider than the fourth quarter a year ago. It had $484.3 million in cash on hand at the quarter’s end. (2/28)

Telecom Operator Veon Strikes Deal on Satellite Service with OneWeb (Source: Reuters)
Telecom operator Veon, which operates Ukraine’s largest mobile network, has struck a deal with British company OneWeb to integrate the firm’s satellite services with its terrestrial network, in one of the first cross-sector deals of its kind, according to sources familiar with the matter. Satellites can help secure telecom connections when normal networks are disrupted by wars or natural disasters. Three sources familiar with the matter said the partnership could see the companies launch connectivity services in parts of Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Ukraine. (2/28)

NASA Identifies Three Huge Asteroids Intersecting Near Earth Orbit (Source: Live Science)
On Feb. 27 an asteroid named 2012 DK31 sailed past our planet at a distance of about 3 million miles. The asteroid measures an estimated 450 feet across, or about as wide as a 40-story skyscraper is tall, and its orbit around the sun crosses Earth's orbit every few years. Although the space rock poses no imminent threat to Earth, NASA classifies it as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) – meaning the rock is large enough and orbits close enough to Earth that it could cause serious damage if its trajectory changed and a collision occurred.

Generally, any asteroid measuring greater than 450 feet wide and orbiting within 4.6 million miles of Earth is considered a PHA. (NASA has mapped this asteroid's trajectory for the next 200 years, and no collisions are predicted to occur). On Feb. 28 a second skyscraper-sized PHA, also measuring roughly 450 feet across, crossed our planet's orbit at a distance of about 2.2 million miles. Known as  2006 BE55, this chunky space rock's orbit crosses Earth's orbit every four or five years. Finally, on March 3 an asteroid measuring roughly 250 feet across will fly by at a distance of 3.3 million miles. The rock, named 2021 QW, isn't quite wide enough to qualify as a PHA, but still makes a relatively close approach to Earth every few years. (2/28)

Space Officials Want a Time Zone for the Moon (Source: Smithsonian)
With dozens of lunar missions planned worldwide over the next decade, the European Space Agency (ESA) has proposed establishing a new time zone on the moon to ease communication in a landscape that will be increasingly filled with spacecraft. Currently, each lunar mission uses the time zone of the nation that manages it, which are all linked to the Earth-based coordinated universal time (UTC). But this method is imprecise, and it means that spacecraft operated from different places are not in sync with one another.

The ESA announced efforts to standardize moon time on Monday night, though officials first raised the idea during a meeting of space leaders late last year. “We agreed on the importance and urgency of defining a common lunar reference time, which is internationally accepted and toward which all lunar systems and users may refer to,” ESA navigation system engineer Pietro Giordano says in a statement. “A joint international effort is now being launched toward achieving this.”

Having a standard lunar time would not only allow for easier communication, but it would also help astronauts navigate. Space agencies plan to install a global satellite navigation system (GNSS) on the moon starting around 2030, writes Nature’s Elizabeth Gibney. This would be similar to how GPS works on Earth, using atomic clock-carrying satellites to calculate locations. (2/28)

Rocket Lab Establishes Australian Subsidiary to Support Rapidly Growing National Space Sector (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab USA has established a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Rocket Lab Australia, to explore opportunities to support the expansion of Australia’s national space capabilities.

The Australian Government has set a goal to triple the size of the Australian space sector from an estimated AUD$4 billion in 2016 to AUD$12 billion and create an additional 20,000 jobs by 2030. To help facilitate this growth, the Australian Government has committed more than AUD$2 billion to the civil space sector since 2018 for programs spanning Earth Observation, satellite infrastructure, high-tech manufacturing, and support for NASA’s Moon to Mars Artemis Program. The Australian Government has also committed AUD$17 billion above and beyond this civil space investment for the development of Defence space capabilities.

The Five Eyes intelligence alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom is one such example of Australia’s global partnerships. With the establishment of Rocket Lab Australia, the Company now expands its support of the alliance with operations in all but one of the participating countries. (2/28)

Virgin Galactic Finishes Lengthy Spacecraft Upgrades, Plans Q2 Commercial Service (Sources: Reuters, Ars Technica)
Virgin Galactic has completed a lengthy upgrade period for its centerpiece tourist spacecraft, with commercial service on track to begin in the second quarter of 2023, the company said. The company had suspended flights of the spaceplane VSS Unity and its carrier plane in 2021 to make various spacecraft enhancements, delaying the company's debut customer mission to the edge of space.

This month, VSS Unity's twin-fuselage carrier plane VMS Eve made its first flight since 2021. The company is planning "two or three" verification flights before its first commercial mission, involving a research trip to the edge of space for the Italian Air Force, Colglazier said during an earnings call.

According to Eric Berger at Ars Technica: "Virgin Galactic lost half a billion dollars in 2022. That is roughly the equivalent of 160 commercial flights on VSS Unity." (2/28)

Meet the Space Billionaire Who is Interested in Something Other Than Rockets (Source: Ars Technica)
There's a new space billionaire, and this one is not interested in launching rockets. His name is Jed McCaleb, a US software developer who made his fortune in blockchain development and cryptocurrency. With an acquisition last week of a small space company named Launcher, McCaleb has shown he is serious about building a space station in low-Earth orbit.

McCaleb's space habitation company, Vast, emerged publicly last fall with a plan to build space stations that featured artificial gravity. This was significant because NASA and most other space agencies around the world have devoted little time to developing systems for artificial gravity in space, which may be important for long-term human habitation. Vast boasted three technical advisers who were major players in the success of SpaceX—Hans Koenigsmann, Will Heltsley, and Yang Li—but did not offer too much information about its plans.

Now it seems clear that McCaleb is genuinely interested in making a run at this. He is estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.5 billion and has vowed to invest at least $300 million into Vast Space as it seeks to develop space stations. The first iteration of Vast's space plans will exist in LEO, however. As NASA continues to fund the development of commercial LEO space stations—Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman are all competing there—Vast intends to go after some of this funding as well. (2/28)

Apple Funding Globalstar Constellation Expansion for iPhone Service (Source: Space News)
Apple is lending Globalstar $252 million to cover the costs of developing new satellites. Apple is providing the funds as a prepayment for using the network to upgrade satellite services launched last year for its latest iPhone. Globalstar picked MDA and Rocket Lab a year ago to supply an initial 17 satellites for launch by the end of 2025 in a contract worth $327 million. Globalstar said it will cover any difference between its expenses and the Apple funding. Apple has already agreed to reimburse Globalstar for 95% of the constellation but it previously required the satellite operator first to raise third-party financing to fund the manufacturing contract. (3/1)

Blue Origin Launch Anomaly Investigation Continues (Source: Space News)
Blue Origin continues to investigate an anomaly on a New Shepard suborbital flight nearly six months ago. The crew capsule on a payload-only mission last September fired its abort motor a minute after liftoff, safely landing under parachutes. Speaking at a conference Tuesday, a Blue Origin executive said the investigation is ongoing and the company had no timelines for a return to flight, but planned to resume launches "as soon as we are ready." Blue Origin has flown research payloads on a dozen New Shepard missions, and while future launches will be dominated by private astronaut flights, the company still expects to offer research flights at its previous rate while incorporating new services. (3/1)

UK Regulator Gives Provisional Approval for Viasat/Inmarsat Deal (Source: Space News)
A U.K. regulator has given provisional approval for Viasat's acquisition of Inmarsat. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Wednesday that after a thorough "Phase 2" review, it concluded that allowing the two companies to merge would not substantially reduce competition in the in-flight connectivity market, citing services provided by SpaceX's Starlink as well as Panasonic and Intelsat. The CMA said that it will consider responses to its findings over the next three weeks before issuing a final report by March 30. (3/1)

ISAC Creates Cislunar Threat Assessment Group (Source: Space News)
A new group will examine the security threats the United States could face in cislunar space. The Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or Space ISAC, announced Tuesday the creation of a "cislunar affinity group" where experts will identify challenges, recommend solutions and define the role of government. Cislunar space, which extends beyond Earth orbit to the vicinity of the moon, is the domain of space agencies planning lunar exploration but is also of interest to the Defense Department and the U.S. intelligence community as countries seek access to lunar resources and stake out areas of jurisdiction. (3/1)

China Plans TSS Expansion with New Module (Source: Space News)
China is planning to expand its Tiangong space station with a multi-functional module to enhance its capabilities. An official with the China Manned Space Engineering Office said on Chinese television last week that China was planning a multi-functional expansion module will host six docking ports and turn the T-shaped Tiangong into a cross-shaped configuration. Officials also said they are preparing for international visits to Tiangong, but did not disclose any specific nations planning to send their astronauts to the station. The move is part of China’s plans to use Tiangong to boost its international space cooperation and soft power. (3/1)

Lux Semiconductors Raises Funds for Space Microelectronics Process (Source: Space News)
Lux Semiconductors, a microelectronics startup that has won awards from the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, has raised a seed round. Ultratech Capital Partners led the $2.3 million seed round with several others, including Lockheed Martin Ventures, participating. The company is developing a “System-on-Foil” process for improving microelectronics performance. Lux Semiconductors has won two Small Business Innovation Research contracts from the Air Force and one from the Space Force. (3/1)

SPACECOM Expands Allied, Industy Cooperation (Source: Breaking Defense)
Space Command continues to expand cooperation with allies, international partners and industry, Army Gen. Jim Dickinson, who heads the command, said today. “Two years ago, we had 124 [space] situational awareness data sharing agreements. Today, we have 169: 33 with nations and IGOs; 129 with commercial partners; and seven with academic institutions,” he told the 3rd Annual SPACECOM Legal Conference in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“We will continue to rely on my law team’s expertise to formalize these new partnerships,” he added. “Maintaining the rule of law in outer space is vitally important. Adherence to international legal obligations and respecting the rights of all 16 spacefaring nations is a critical element of maintaining a safe and predictable environment.”

Under the SSA agreements, SPACECOM shares data on the whereabouts, trajectories and any potential threats from satellites, spacecraft and uncontrolled space junk with signatories — and also opens the door to receiving such information from those partner nations. These accords help “enhance the safety, stability, security and sustainability of space operations,” according to SPACECOM’s website. (2/28)

How Many Satellites Can We Safely Fit in Earth Orbit? (Source: Space.com)
Just 10 years ago, a mere thousand or so operational satellites may have orbited our planet, but there will be tens or even hundreds of thousands a decade  from now. Experts have been sounding alarm bells for years that Earth orbit is getting a bit too crowded. So how many satellites can we actually launch to space before it gets to be too much?

Jonathan McDowell is an astrophysicist and astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who studies super-energetic phenomena in the universe. He also tracks the growing number of satellite launches and the ballooning number of objects in Earth orbit. The project started with an ambition to "provide a pedantic historical record of the space age," but has, in a way, become a chronicle of the environmental destruction of the near Earth environment. In his frequent media appearances, McDowell has been vocal about his views on the future of the increasingly overcrowded near-Earth space.

"It's going to be like an interstate highway, at rush hour in a snowstorm with everyone driving much too fast," he told Space.com when asked what the situation in orbit will be like if existing plans for satellite megaconstellations such as SpaceX's Starlink, OneWeb and Amazon Kuiper come to fruition. "Except that there are multiple interstate highways crossing each other with no stoplights." (2/27)

NASA's SWOT Water Satellite Suffers Instrument Shutdown in Orbit (Source: Space.com)
A joint NASA-French satellite designed to map Earth's water in amazing detail is struggling to turn on an instrument during its setup in orbit. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite's main science instrument, called KARIN (Ka-band Radar Interferometer), "unexpectedly shut down" due to a problem with the high-power amplifier subsystem, agency officials wrote in a Feb. 23 blog post(opens in new tab).

There is no cause yet found for the issue, but "engineers are working systematically to understand the situation and to restore operations," NASA officials wrote. The team is aiming to rectify the issue, as the instrument is key to mapping surface water in two dimensions to see how climate change is affecting Earth's water levels. (2/27)

Japan Hires Two New Astronauts (Source: Space News)
The Japanese space agency JAXA has hired two new astronauts. JAXA announced Tuesday that  Makoto Suwa, a disaster prevention specialist at the World Bank, and Ayu Yoneda, a surgeon at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, will start two years of training April 1. Suwa, at the age of 46, was the oldest of the 10 final candidates while Yoneda, 28, was the youngest. More than 4,100 people applied in a selection process that started last April. (2/28)

Astronomers Stumble in Diplomatic Push to Protect the Night Sky (Source: Science)
An effort to establish a United Nations committee to study the effect of satellites on astronomy has run into "diplomatic bureaucracy." Astronomers had hoped to win approval at a meeting of a subcommittee of the U.N.'s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) this month to create an "expert group" to examine ways to address interference from satellites on astronomical observations.

The proposal had strong support from most countries, but failed to secure the consensus needed for approval when Russia objected, stating that the issue could instead be considered by the existing working group on long-term space sustainability. Backers of the new group say they will work to try to address that concern and secure approval at the full COPUOS meeting in June. (2/28)

WhiteKnightTwo Returns to New Mexico as Virgin Galactic Pitches Suborbital Flights to Researchers (Source: Parabolic Arc)
WhiteKnightTwo took to the air again on Monday morning. Virgin Galactic’s Eve mothership, named after company founder Richard Branson’s mum, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field in California. After flying in circles over the Mojave Desert, it headed east to New Mexico where it flew circle over Spaceport America before landing on the facility’s only runway after a flight of 5 hours 33 minutes.

It was only WhiteKnightTwo’s second flight in 16 months. The 14-year old proof-of-concept carrier plane, which its builder, Scaled Composites, had not intended to enter commercial service, had undergone a series of modifications for over a year to prepare it to do exactly that before returning to its operational base in New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic had originally planned to take Eve and the rocket plane it air launches, VSS Unity, out of service for only four months at the end of 2021. The vehicles would then enter commercial service in the first quarter of 2022. Commercial flights are now set to begin – if the current schedule doesn’t slip again – in the second quarter of 2023. (2/27)