March 30, 2023

White House Looks to Secure Space from Cyber Threats (Source: NextGov)
The Office of the National Cyber Director, the National Space Council and the private sector are looking to boost space cybersecurity efforts, according to discussions at a forum hosted by ONCD on Tuesday. The space-focused forum “was designed to facilitate robust discussion on this topic at the executive level and drive action to motivate critical cybersecurity investments across the space systems ecosystem,” the announcement said.

Government officials stressed the need to partner with the private sector to make sure the U.S. space ecosystem is resilient against cyber threats. Meanwhile, industry leaders discussed their views on existing space system cybersecurity practices, such as strategies to measure cyber risks, ways to address supply chain challenges, leveraging quantum resistant cryptographic algorithms and the need to improve secure open source libraries. (3/29)

NASA Leader Looks to Artemis II and Beyond for Agency’s Future (Source: NextGov)
While discussing what’s next for space, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized the importance of the Artemis programs, during an Axios event on Wednesday. Nelson noted the agency hopes to have people on Mars by 2040. He also stated that NASA will be making an announcement on Monday about the first crewed Artemis mission, which will have three Americans and one Canadian on it. Artemis II will fly astronauts around the moon and will be the “testing of the human support systems,” Nelson said.

Nelson reiterated the number of tests that must happen to check a variety of mission components. According to Nelson, an important test is the ability to come back into Earth’s atmosphere, which he deemed “critical” for Artemis I. He added that “the one test that you cannot replicate on Earth is the heat shield coming in on the fiery heat of reentry,” with the returning spacecraft coming in at a speed of Mach 32—or 32 times the speed of sound, the equivalent of approximately 24,000mph—and reaching 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. (3/29)

Nelson on NASA's Role in UAP Effort (Source: NextGov)
For unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, Nelson reiterated that NASA is looking for other life forms as part of its mission. He pointed to digging on Mars, where samples will be returned in 2031 to see if they can reveal signs of life. Nelson added that NASA is looking at UAP from a scientific perspective, adding that there are about 18 scientists monitoring NASA’s sensors—including its Earth observing sensors—to determine if they have picked up on anything. They plan to report on this effort sometime this summer. (3/29)

Light-Bending Gravity Reveals One of the Biggest Black Holes Ever Found (Source: Space Daily)
A team of astronomers has discovered one of the biggest black holes ever found, taking advantage of a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. The team, led by Durham University, UK, used gravitational lensing - where a foreground galaxy bends the light from a more distant object and magnifies it - and supercomputer simulations on the DiRAC HPC facility, which enabled the team to closely examine how light is bent by a black hole inside a galaxy hundreds of millions of light years from Earth.

They found an ultramassive black hole, an object over 30 billion times the mass of our Sun, in the foreground galaxy - a scale rarely seen by astronomers. This is the first black hole found using the technique, whereby the team simulates light travelling through the Universe hundreds of thousands of times. Each simulation includes a different mass black hole, changing light's journey to Earth. (3/29)

Rosotics Unveils 3D Printer for Rocket Tanks and Fairings (Source: Space News)
Rosotics will begin deliveries later this year of new type of 3D printer for large aerospace structures. Traditional 3D printers rely on high-power lasers to heat metal wire or feedstock. Rosotics heats the feedstock with a magnetic field in the 3D printer nozzle. Mesa, Arizona-based Rosotics plans to begin delivering the Mantis in the third quarter of 2023 to customers who place $95,000 deposits and sign hardware-as-a-service contracts. After delivery, Rosotics “will install, maintain and upgrade your hardware over time without any cost to you,” LaRosa said.

While the Mantis can be configured for various tasks, the starting point is a one printhead to additively manufacture aluminum or steel structures ranging in size from 1.5 to 8 meters in diameter. “Relativity has developed this capability of 3D printing a launch vehicle for Relativity,” LaRosa said. “We’ve been focused on creating a new form of metal additive that will reduce the difficulty in getting 3D printing implemented in a field like aerospace.” (3/29)

Russia Launches Classified Payload From Plesetsk on Soyuz-2.1v (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
On March 29 Russia’s Soyuz-2.1v rocket launched from Site 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, carrying an unknown payload designated Kosmos-2568 to a Sun-synchronous orbit. The identity of the payload is unknown, but it may be another inspector satellite, similar to one flown on a previous Soyuz-2.1v launch. If Kosmos-2568 is an inspector satellite, it may release a subsatellite later on, as previous inspector satellites have done. Kosmos-2542 was believed to have been an inspector satellite, although never confirmed by Russia, and later went on to release Kosmos-2543. (3/29)

Starliner Crewed Test Flight Delayed to July (Source: Space News)
NASA and Boeing have pushed back the first crewed launch of the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft with astronauts on board until at least late July because of certification paperwork that has taken longer than expected to complete. In a call with reporters March 29, officials said they had rescheduled the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission to no earlier than July 21. The announcement came six days after NASA said that CFT would not take place by the end of April, as previously scheduled, but offered few details why. (3/29)

SES in Talks to Merge with Intelsat (Source: Space News)
Satellite operator SES confirmed Wednesday it is in talks to merge with rival operator Intelsat. In a brief statement, SES confirmed reports it has been in discussions with Intelsat about a merger, but declined to discuss those talks further beyond cautioning that there was no guarantee that the discussions would result in a deal. Intelsat declined to comment about those talks. There has been long-running speculation that the two operators would merge, creating a company with more than $4 billion in annual revenue, but neither company had commented on those rumors until SES's statement. The potential deal comes amid a wave of consolidation in the industry, such as Viasat's acquisition of Inmarsat and Eutelsat's acquisition of OneWeb. (3/30)

Planet Acquiring Sinergise (Source: Space News)
Planet is acquiring Sinergise, a Slovenian company that provides cloud-based access to Earth imagery. Sinergise offers access to data from Europe's Sentinel satellites, U.S. Landsat satellites and other sources through APIs. Planet says acquiring Sinergise will help reduce both the complexity of image analysis and costs of data storage. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, which is set to close in the second quarter. (3/30)

NASA Unveils Draft Mars Robotic Exploration Strategy (Source: Space News)
NASA unveiled Wednesday a draft long-term strategy for robotic Mars exploration. The strategy, discussed at a meeting of two committees of the National Academies' Space Studies Board, outlined a plan for a regular cadence of low-cost missions starting around 2030, after the launch of the remaining elements of Mars Sample Return.

Those missions would be augmented by occasional larger missions, payloads flying on other missions and spacecraft designed to refresh the communications infrastructure supporting Mars exploration. The draft strategy doesn't have a budget linked with it, but NASA described the draft plan as offering a sustainable series of long-term missions that can support the search for life, assist future human Mars missions and conduct other science. (3/30)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From Florida, Recovers Booster (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Wednesday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 4:01 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and placed 56 Starlink satellites into orbit on the Group 5-10 mission. The satellites were launched into orbits authorized for its Gen2 second-generation constellation but are of an older design as the company continues to troubleshoot issues with the first "V2 Mini" satellites launched a month ago. (3/30)

Impact Observatory Raises $5.9 Million for AI Applications to Satellite Imagery (Source: Space News)
Impact Observatory, a company that applies artificial intelligence to satellite imagery for mapping and monitoring, raised $5.9 million in seed funding. The company is using the funding to introduce a commercial space-based monitoring service. Impact Observatory has previously produced annually updated global maps as freely available digital tools, which will continue. (3/30)

NASA Again Ranked Best Agency to Work For (Source: NASA)
NASA has once again won top honors as the best large agency to work for in the federal government. The rankings released Wednesday by the Partnership for Public Service had NASA on top among large agencies for the 11th year in a row. NASA's score of 84.3 in 2022 was down slightly from 85.1 in 2021, but well ahead of the second-place agency, the Department of Health and Human Services. (3/30)

Florida Bill Would Extend Liability Protections to Spaceflight Companies (Source: Florida Politics)
Florida lawmakers are considering legislation to provide more liability protections to commercial spaceflight companies. Bills in the Florida House and Senate would extend limited civil liability immunity to companies flying private astronauts in the state. The bills would protect companies from suits related to "the inherent risks of spaceflight activities" but exclude deliberate actions or gross negligence. Such protections currently exist in Florida law but would be extended to cover crew flying on commercial vehicles. (3/30)

Chinese Defense Contractor to Begin Launching VLEO Satellites (Source: Space News)
A major Chinese state-owned defense contractor is preparing to launch the first satellite for a very low Earth orbit constellation. The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) told Chinese state media in early March that its first satellite for a constellation of very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites will launch in September. VLEO satellites orbit at altitudes of between 150 to 300 kilometers, much lower than most satellites.

The first CASIC VLEO satellite will seek to demonstrate and verify key technologies including “ultra-low orbit flight technology”, high-resolution ground imaging technology, onboard intelligent processing and data transmission technology, according to the Chinese language Science and Technology Daily. Details such as the planned lifetime of the satellites, size of the constellation and launch cadence were not revealed. (3/30)

OneWeb Chairman: India's Rockets Can Seriously Compete with SpaceX (Source: Times of India)
Bharati Enterprises founder-chairman and OneWeb executive chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, while calling last week’s launch the most critical for the UK-based firm, said India’s GSLV-Mk3 or LVM3 is now the only serious competitor to SpaceX, now that Russia’s Soyuz has lost favor due to the Ukraine conflict, and delays in new rocket development by Arianespace. Mittal said: “India really stepped up when we needed them the most. We had a major setback after the Russia-Ukraine war with six launches that were fully paid for being taken out. Not only is OneWeb struggling to get the money back, but it also lost 36 satellites and and three very valuable dispensers.” (3/26)

Military Space Agency Created to Go Fast is About to Launch its First Satellites (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency, formed inside the Pentagon in 2019 to help accelerate the use of commercial space technology, is preparing to launch on March 30 its inaugural fleet of 10 satellites. The launch of SDA’s Tranche 0 satellites — scheduled to lift off Thursday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California — marks the beginning of the deployment of what the agency calls a “proliferated warfighter space architecture.”

SDA’s program director for Tranche 0 Mike Eppolito told reporters on Wednesday that getting to this point was challenging due to supply chain problems experienced across the entire space industry during the covid pandemic. What helped was that “our contracts office is incredibly fast,” he said. “Our finance office is incredibly fast at getting money out the door to solve problems.” Frank Calvelli, the Space Force’s top procurement official who oversees SDA, has championed the agency’s approach to buying small satellites under fixed-price contracts from multiple vendors. (3/29)