May 31, 2023

‘All Systems Are Go’ (With the ‘Peanuts’ Gang) at Kennedy Space Center (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
“All Systems Are Go,” a new stage show at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, presents a modern-day story using big puppets and characters from the “Peanuts” comic strip. The gang is up to familiar high jinks: Charlie Brown seeks answers, Lucy complains about the color of spacesuits, Schroeder is on keyboard, and Snoopy and Woodstock are on a high-flying adventure.

Their antics are interspersed with Artemis facts and an on-screen appearance by Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female launch director. “We didn’t want to do a typical on-screen show,” said Therrin Protze, chief operating officer of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. “So incorporating the augmented reality in the beginning and then projection mapping … I just thought it was an intriguing way to try to get that excitement and inspire that next generation.” (3/24)

USSF Eyes Virtual Training Environment for Countering Adversarial Space Activities (Source: Executive Gov)
Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force, said the service branch is building a virtual environment to train guardians on countering adversaries’ attempts to undermine U.S. space missions. Saltzman said U.S. adversaries like China have been working to jeopardize the U.S. military’s missile warning, satellite communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in space.

“The Space Force has been stood up to protect those capabilities, and also protect the joint force from an emerging set of capabilities that the adversary is putting on orbit to threaten and target our joint forces on air, land, and sea,” Saltzman said. The official previously announced that the Space Force’s budget proposal for 2024 will include approximately $340 million for creating an operational testing and training infrastructure. The OTTI will include ranges and simulators, testing equipment and digital engineering efforts.

Editor's Note: This is a great reason to base the Space Force's Space Training and Readiness Command in Central Florida, near DoD's multi-service center for simulation and training in Orlando. (3/29)

University of Colorado Boulder to Manage NASA Snow & Ice Distributed Active Archive Center Under $68M Contract (Source: Executive Gov)
The University of Colorado Boulder has landed a potential $68.2 million contract to help NASA manage and operate a data center that distributes and archives data on snow and ice processes. The cost-no-fee completion contract has a one-year base period of performance that will run from April 1 through March 31, 2024, and includes options to extend work until May 31, 2028, NASA said Thursday.

Contract work will occur at NASA’s National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. The NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center is responsible for disseminating cryosphere and climate-related products from a variety of sensors from NASA’s Earth Observing System, including the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS and the Airborne Snow Observatory. (3/30)

Here's Every Rocket Launch Happening from Florida Through the Summer (Source: FOX35)
This summer will be a great time to have your eyes on the skies! Florida's Space Coast has already been busy in 2023 with rocket launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station going up nearly every week! If you've never watched a launch live and in person, here's a compiled list of upcoming Space Coast launches. (3/28)

China Conducts Two Launches Within 24 Hours (Source: Space News)
China conducted two launches within 24 hours. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 6:50 a.m. Eastern Thursday and placed into orbit four PIESAT-1 constellation satellites. The four satellites will operate as a group to produce X-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar data. The satellites were developed by private satellite developer GalaxySpace for Piesat Information Technology Co. Ltd.  A Long March 4C rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 2:27 a.m. Eastern Friday and placed the Yaogan-34 (04) satellite into orbit. the satellite is believed to be the latest in a series of reconnaissance satellites. (3/31)

Maxar Looks at Non-Earth Imaging (Source: Space News)
Earth imaging company Maxar is looking to build a new business imaging objects in space. The company is in discussions with the U.S. Space Force and other agencies that could use this data to identify potential threats and monitor suspicious activity in space. The company received a modification to its commercial remote sensing license last year for "non-Earth imaging" of other space objects. Maxar is providing non-Earth imaging to the NRO as part of a contract awarded last year and now the company is seeking to add DoD customers. (3/31)

Momentus Tests Vigoride Tug's Thruster in Orbit (Source: Space News)
Momentus says it has successfully tested the thruster on its Vigoride-5 tug in orbit. The company said Friday that it completed an initial test sequence of the Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET) on the spacecraft, which uses microwaves to turn water into plasma to generate thrust. That thruster will later be used to circularize Vigoride's orbit for the release of a cubesat payload. The same MET design is used on its Vigoride-6 tug scheduled to launch in April. (3/31)

ArianeGroup CEO Stepping Down (Source: Reuters)
The CEO of ArianeGroup is expected to resign soon. A French newspaper reported that Andre-Hubert Roussel will step down as head of ArianeGroup as soon as next week, but did not give a reason for his departure. ArianeGroup is responsible for the production of the Ariane 5 and new Ariane 6 launch vehicles. (3/31)

Astra Developing Rocket 4 (Source: Space News)
Astra says development of its Rocket 4 vehicle remains on schedule to support a first launch late this year. The company reported in an earnings call Thursday that it is making steady progress on the vehicle to enable a first launch before the end of the year. Astra accelerated work on Rocket 4, capable of placing up to 600 kilograms into orbit, after retiring the failure-prone Rocket 3.3 last August. The company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $173.9 million in 2022 and said that it would "continue to evaluate various sources of capital" as its cash balance declines. (3/31)

CASC Official: China Needs Unified Plan for Earth-Moon Infrastructure (Source: Space News)
A Chinese official wants the country to speed up its plans to develop lunar infrastructure. Yang Mengfei of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said it was time to develop "Earth-moon space infrastructure" as it had a chance to lead such development before the United States and allies progress on their Artemis plans. He criticized China for not having a "unified plan" for developing such infrastructure, noting weaknesses in top-level planning, resources and developing the nation's aerospace industry. (3/31)

Landsat Pioneer Passes (Source: Washington Post)
The engineer and manager dubbed the "mother of Landsat" has died. Virginia Norwood died earlier this month at her California home at the age of 96. At Hughes, she led development of a multispectral scanner instrument for the first Landsat satellite, which revolutionized the study of the Earth from space a half-century ago. She said she didn't mind the "mother of Landsat" moniker: "I created it, I birthed it, and I fought for it." (3/31)

New Insights Into How Cells Respond to Altered Gravity Experienced in Space (Source: Space Daily)
A new study has revealed insights into how cells sense and respond to the weightlessness experienced in space. The information could be useful for keeping astronauts healthy on future space missions. The gravity conditions in space, known as microgravity, trigger a unique set of cellular stress responses. In the new work, researchers found that the protein modifier SUMO plays a key role in cellular adaptation to simulated microgravity.

SUMO can interact with proteins via two types of chemical bonds: a covalent attachment to a target lysine or noncovalent interactions with a binding partner. The researchers looked at both types of interactions in yeast cells, a model organism commonly used to study cellular processes. They analyzed cells that had undergone six cellular divisions in either normal Earth gravity or microgravity simulated using a specialized cell culture vessel developed by NASA.

In the cells experiencing microgravity, the researchers identified 37 proteins that physically interacted with SUMO and showed expression levels that differed from that of the Earth gravity cells by more than 50%. These 37 proteins included ones that are important for DNA damage repair, which is notable because radiation damage is a serious risk in space. Other proteins were involved in energy and protein production as well as maintaining cell shape, cell division and protein trafficking inside cells. (3/29)

Maritime Launch Introduces Strategic Advisory Board (Source: Business Wire)
Maritime Launch Services, developer of Canada’s first commercial spaceport, Spaceport Nova Scotia, introduces members of its strategic Advisory Board. The Advisory Board is comprised of individuals with unique leadership experience that will help guide the Company’s success throughout construction and operations of Spaceport Nova Scotia. Click here. (3/30)

New NASA Quantum Sensing Institute Features UT Professors (Source: Daily Texan)
NASA announced the creation of the Quantum Pathways Institute, a collaboration between various institutions across the nation, focused on building quantum-sensing technologies and instruments to advance climate research. Four UT researchers were selected to work on the project. The members from UT include professors Seth Bank and Dan Wasserman from the department of electrical and computer engineering and professors Srinivas Bettadpur and Ufuk Topcu from the department of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics. (3/29)

Space Canada Wanted a National Space Council, Industry Investments in Federal Budget (Source: SpaceQ)
Space Canada, a prominent voice of this country’s space industry, wanted two things from the federal budget: A National Space Council and more federal investment in the industry. They got some new investment but no National Space Council.

To be specific, “Space Canada strongly recommends that the Government of Canada create a National Space Council chaired by the Prime Minister to enhance space policies, investments, and initiatives, and to facilitate the level of collaboration required for Canada to be a global leader in space,” says the pre-budget submission delivered to the Trudeau government in February, 2023. As well, “Space Canada recommends that the Government of Canada prioritize the space sector through investment, regulatory and the advancement of space related policies.” (3/29)

Space Tourism Arrives in Middle East (Source: Oman Observer)
US-based international space tourism agency SpaceVIP is launching operations in the Middle East – a move that will also have beneficial implications for the Sultanate of Oman in light of the Omani government’s plans to kickstart the development of a domestic space industry. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Transport Communications and Information Technology unveiled an ambitious executive space policy and industry program with a heavy emphasis on space tourism in Oman. (3/29)

South Korea Needs to Join Inner Club of Space Powerhouses (Source: The Investor)
South Korea needs to join the “inner club of global space powerhouses” by developing unmatched space technology and becoming an attractive partner within the club, according to the first vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT. “There are areas where we need to stand on our own in terms of technology. But we can’t do everything by ourselves. For instance, we can’t do space exploration alone,” said First Vice Minister Oh Tae-seog in a recent interview with The Korea Herald.

Noting that global space leaders have already collected unimaginable amounts of data about space since the 1960s, Oh acknowledged that no matter how much more Korea decides to spend on the space sector, it would be unrealistic to expect spending to match the absolute funding size in the US or other space leaders. (3/30)

How Space Exploration is Fueling the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Source: Brookings)
Discoveries in space are rapidly accelerating, creating an exciting new paradigm for space that includes new players, trends, opportunities, and challenges, all propped up by the convergence of advanced technologies that are a part of the ongoing, broader Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The 4IR, characterized by the fusion of technologies that integrate the biological, physical, and technological spheres, is transforming economic, political, and social systems.

Similar to previous industrial revolutions, the 4IR’s disruptive effects on these systems have the potential to improve the quality of life for populations across the globe, including fostering economic growth and structural transformation; fighting poverty and inequality; reinventing labor, skills, and production; increasing financial services and investment; modernizing agriculture and agro-industries; and improving health care and human capital.

The paradigm shifts within the space industry specifically, because of the developments in 4IR technologies, have immense potential to further drive more inclusive global prosperity. The 4IR and space have a positive, mutually reinforcing relationship: Scientific advancements and the convergence of technologies are leading to advances in space exploration, while advances in space are leading to the creation of new technologies and applications. Click here. (3/28)

New Program Office Leads NASA’s Path Forward for Moon, Mars (Source: NASA)
NASA has established the new Moon to Mars Program Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington to carry out the agency’s human exploration activities at the Moon and Mars for the benefit of humanity. Amit Kshatriya will serve as the agency’s first head of the office, effective immediately. This new office resides within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, reporting to its Associate Administrator Jim Free. (3/30)

Frank Rubio’s First Spaceflight Will Turn Into the Longest Mission by a US Astronaut (Source: CNN)
Astronaut Frank Rubio traveled to the International Space Station on Sep. 21, 2022, for what he thought would be a six-month mission. But he’ll wind up staying in space for over a year — breaking the record for the longest mission conducted by a US astronaut. Rubio will return to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft no earlier than Sep. 27, NASA officials said Wednesday, meaning he will have logged a total of at least 371 days in orbit. That tour of duty will beat the previous record of 355 days set by US astronaut Mark Vande Hei in 2022.

Rubio’s return trip had been slated for this spring. But the spacecraft that carried Rubio and two Russian colleagues — cosmonauts Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin — sprang a coolant leak in December. Officials at Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, later deemed the spacecraft was not safe enough to carry the astronauts back home. Instead, the Soyuz MS-22 capsule returned to Earth without a crew on March 28. Roscosmos launched a replacement spacecraft, MS-23, that docked with the space station on Feb. 23. (3/29)

Princeton Satellite Systems Developing Fusion Power/Propulsion System for Space Travel (Source: Spaced Ventures)
Power and propulsion limitations of current rocket engines inhibit interplanetary travel. Fusion propulsion and power in one device will transform deep space missions with half the trip time, 10x the payload and 200x the available power. The Princeton Field-Reversed Configuration (PFRC) system is a compact, linear fusion reactor that doubles as a fusion rocket for in-space applications. (3/30)

Virgin Orbit To Shut Down After Failing To Find A Financial Lifeline (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Richard Branson’s cash strapped launch company Virgin Orbit announced on Thursday that it will shut down and lay off 675 of its 775 employees after failing to secure “meaningful funding” over the past two weeks. CEO Dan Hart made the announcement during an employee all-hands meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Virgin Orbit will have approximately $15 million in layoff costs, including $8.8 million in employee severance payments and benefits and $6.5 million on outplacement services and other expenses, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Layoffs are expected to be “substantially complete” by April 3. Virgin Orbit operates a production facility in Long Beach, California and tests LauncherOne booster engines at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California’s high desert. Launches using the company’s Boeing 747 “Cosmic Girl” have originated from Mojave and Spaceport Cornwall in England. (3/30)

Telesat Still Bullish on Lightspeed Despite Funding Uncertainty (Source: Space News)
Telesat remains committed to developing its Lightspeed low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband constellation despite ongoing delays to cover the project’s rising costs, CEO Dan Goldberg said March 29. The Canadian company, an operator of more than a dozen geostationary satellites, had hoped to know where it stood with investors and France’s export credit agency for fully financing Lightspeed before the end of 2022. (3/30)