March 4, 2023

Unbeatable Location for Aerospace, Space Florida Partners with Florida First Capital Finance Corp. to Increase Access to Capital (Source: Space Florida)
Florida First Capital Finance Corporation (FFC) and Space Florida announced a strategic partnership to help develop and grow Florida’s vital space/aerospace supply chain businesses. The partnership will help increase access to capital opportunities and assist supply chain businesses in securing financial resources to achieve their business growth goals.

Over the past 15 years Space Florida alone had an economic impact on the state of $5.9 billion, with an expected annual impact of $1.1 billion over the next 5 years. While Space Florida’s economic impact is distributed throughout a variety of the state’s top industries, the largest impacted sector was within knowledge-based services (44%), followed by manufacturing (21%), construction (20%), and wholesale trade and transportation (7%). It’s projected that over the next 5 years, manufacturing (37%) will surpass knowledge-based services (23%) as the sector most benefitting from Space Florida, making this partnership timely. (3/1)

European Space Agency: Core of JUICE's Ariane 5 Rocket Prepared for Launch (Source: ESA)
Ariane 5 parts are coming together in the launch vehicle integration building at Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana in preparation for the launch of ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. In this picture, the rocket’s central core is being hoisted onto the launch table. The launch table is used to transport the Ariane 5 to the launch pad. (3/2)

Native American Contractor Wins $217 Million Bid for NASA Communications Services at KSC, JSC, MSFC, HQ (Source: AL.com)
NASA has awarded all communication support services contracts for the space agency to an Alabama media company owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the space agency announced today. The potential value of the contract is $217.6 million, NASA said. The deal with PCI Productions LLC of Huntsville includes all NASA centers, such as the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA Washington headquarters and NASA’s four science mission directorates, the announcement said. PCI could not be reached after the announcement Friday afternoon for comment. (3/3)

SpaceX’s Acquisition of Swarm is Paying Off with New Starlink Thrusters (Source: Tech Crunch)
Earlier this week, SpaceX released more information about the new argon Hall thrusters that will power the Starlink V2 mini satellites, an innovation that likely has much to do with the company’s acquisition of Swarm Technologies in 2021. The deal, which closed in July 2021, was an extremely rare move for SpaceX. Swarm — which manufactures and operates ultra-small satellites for IoT devices — remains the company’s only acquisition in its 21-year history.

The real innovation is in the propellant: argon. Argon is many times cheaper than xenon (the most common, and expensive, propellant used in Hall thrusters) and krypton (the propellant SpaceX used in Starlink V1 and V1.5 satellites), in part because it’s more plentiful. Swarm’s two co-founders were installed as senior directors of satellite engineering at SpaceX. Both are part of Starlink’s direct to cell team — which is aiming to leverage the Starlink constellation to bring satellite connectivity to smartphones around the world. (3/3)

Not Just Optical. Radio Interference From Satellites is Threatening Astronomy (Source: Ars Technica)
Visible light is just one part of the electromagnetic spectrum that astronomers use to study the Universe. The James Webb Space Telescope was built to see infrared light, other space telescopes capture X-ray images, and observatories like the Green Bank Telescope, the Very Large Array, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and dozens of other observatories around the world work at radio wavelengths.

Radio telescopes are facing a problem. All satellites, whatever their function, use radio waves to transmit information to the surface of the Earth. Just as light pollution can hide a starry night sky, radio transmissions can swamp out the radio waves astronomers use to learn about black holes, newly forming stars, and the evolution of galaxies. (3/3)

OneWeb Bags Veon Emerging Markets Deal (Source: Telecoms)
Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite provider OneWeb has secured yet another connectivity deal. This one appears to be particularly significant because it is with Veon, which operates in no fewer than seven markets with a combined population of around 510 million, and serves around 200 million customers. Under the deal, which was announced at Mobile World Congress this week, OneWeb’s constellation  will provide extended mobile Internet connectivity and digital services in Veon’s emerging-market footprint. (3/3)

Man Arrested After Wandering Onto SpaceX Property (Source: ValleyCentral)
A man was arrested for allegedly trespassing onto SpaceX property, authorities said. Matthew Warren Grimm, 30, was arrested on charges of criminal trespassing after a Wednesday incident. Grimm told deputies he spoke with a SpaceX security guard and was allowed onto the property. Upon making contact with SpaceX security, deputies learned that they denied making any contact with Grimm and only allowed approved personnel onto the property, the release stated. (3/3)

SpaceX Launches From Vandenberg, Pushes Starlink Count North of 4,000 (Source: AmericaSpace)
Barely a day since the Space Coast bade farewell to Dragon Endeavour, a second mission rose to orbit on Friday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in SpaceX’s fourth launch of the year from the West Coast. Aftr delivering 51 satellites to orbit, the booster landed successfully on a droneship downrange. (3/3)

What Will Ethical Space Exploration Look Like? (Source: WIRED)
According to some visionaries, within a couple of decades we’ll have orbiting hotels and lunar mining colonies, and the first human visitors will be en route to the Red Planet. But astrophysicist Erika Nesvold argues that the shape of tomorrow’s space expeditions and conflicts could depend on ethical choices people make today. Nesvold is a cofounder of JustSpace Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for a more inclusive and ethical future in space, and a developer for Universe Sandbox, a physics-based space simulator.

Nesvold points out that so far humanity doesn’t have the best track record in space, and current challenges mirror Earthly ones. Space junk litters low-Earth orbit, launch vehicles create their own carbon emissions, light pollution is transforming the night sky, and space industry leaders SpaceX and Blue Origin have been accused of labor rights abuses. There’s plenty of work to do to make future exploration egalitarian and environmentally sustainable. Click here. (3/3)