April 22, 2023

Permanent Spaceport in South Australia Funded (Source: Journal of Space Commerce)
Southern Launch and the Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corp. will begin work on a permanent spaceport after the Australian Federal Government awarded almost $4.5 million in funding to the Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corp. The Koonibba Test Range is jointly operated and is one of the largest commercial rocket testing facilities in the world. The range is Australia’s first licensed space launch facility and has a long list of local and international customers ready to use the range to launch and accept re-entries of ground-breaking space technology. (4/21)

NASA Ground System Team at KSC Applying SLS Launch Lessons (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program is now collecting, analyzing, and applying lessons learned during the long Artemis I launch processing flow to streamline future launch campaigns. The first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted off from KSC on Nov. 16, 2022. Once Artemis I cleared its Flight Readiness Review in August, it took three attempts to get to liftoff. One of the goals of the lessons learned effort is to reduce the number of attempts necessary to launch, increase the chances of liftoff on a given launch day, and improve the overall “launch availability” of the Orion/SLS vehicle. (4/21)

Meet LOOP: Airbus' New Space Station Includes Centrifuge (Source: Interesting Engineering)
European aerospace giant Airbus has just revealed a new concept space habitat called LOOP. The 8 meter wide multi-purpose orbital module will feature three customizable decks, all of which will be connected by a tunnel overlooking a space greenhouse. Airbus said its new space station design could accommodate up to eight crew members, and it could be deployed to orbit, in only one launch, by the early 2030s. LOOP was designed to fit into the fairing of SpaceX's Starship. (4/21)

Cocoa Beach Club Hosts Four Italian Students for ‘Youth in Space Project’ (Source: Space Coast Daily)
Four high school students from Sansepolcro, Italy, arrived on the Space Coast to begin a 10-day visit to learn about the U.S. Space Program. The Space Coast is now seen by the world as the center place for U.S. Space activities within the ever-expanding U.S. Space exploration projects. The Rotary Club is currently participating in a bilateral exchange project between the Rotary Club of Cocoa Beach and the Rotary Club of Sansepolcro, Italy.

During this inaugural year, the intention is to promote aerospace culture to four high school seniors from Sansepolcro High School Città di Piero Thanks to donations of both time and funding from organizations such as NASA, KSC, Vaya Space, Titusville Space Museum, ETA Space, and Groundswell, these students will learn about space culture, technology, and real-life operations. (4/22)

Spaceport Slated for Australia's Cape York Attracts Global Interest (Source: Central Western Daily)
Imagine a major international airport with rockets and satellites instead of planes and a commute 10 hours from the nearest major city. That's the vision put forward by Space Center Australia's James Palmer as representatives from NASA and the Australian Space Agency gather in far north Queensland. Planning is under way for Australia's next spaceport at a site near the mining town of Weipa, about 800 kilometers north of Cairns on the Cape York Peninsula. (4/21)

China’s Spaceport Dream Is a Legal Nightmare (Source: Foreign Policy)
In January, Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group, a Chinese company, signed an agreement with the government of Djibouti to build a spaceport there. If completed, it would mark the first instance of a launch facility funded by China or a private Chinese company in foreign territory. Building a spaceport is a difficult endeavor, and building such a facility on foreign soil is even more complicated. While challenges may ultimately stall or scupper the arrangement, the potential site in Obock serves an important case study for how China or other actors could expand their geopolitical playbook to circumvent the international space governance regime.

China regularly exports space-related applications as tools of global influence, and the potential investment in Obock fits into Beijing’s broader efforts to project power on the African continent. The burgeoning space industry there offers huge potential for investment, job creation, and economic growth. However, given the limited strategic utility of a single launch facility in the Horn of Africa, it seems that China may have ulterior motives for its interest in foreign spaceports.

Specifically, because Djibouti is a nonparty to the major treaties governing outer space behavior, China may see this new partnership as an opportunity to enable a potentially rogue actor and reshape global expectations of responsible behavior in space. Worryingly, should Beijing follow this model, there’s not much the United States or likeminded states could do to rectify the situation—if not in Djibouti today, then potentially elsewhere in Africa, Central America, South America, and beyond. (4/21)

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C55 Successfully Launches 2 Singapore Satellites (Source: Times of India)
ISRO's PSLV-C55 has successfully placed two Singapore satellites into its orbit. The mission is not only important for foreign customers, but also significant for desi space startups as the NSIL’s dedicated commercial rocket carried the two Singapore satellites as main payloads and seven non-separating payloads belonging to Isro, Indian Institute of Astrophysics and startups Bellatrix and Dhruva Space. (4/22)

Canadian Organizations Eligible for New UK Space Agency International Partnerships Fund (Source: SpaceQ)
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) announced they’re launching a £20 million fund, called the “International Bilateral Fund” (IBF), in order to build and strengthen the UK’s space-focused international partnerships. The fund is intended to “harness the UK’s national strengths, support new space capabilities and catalyse investment.”

The UKSA Guidance on the Fund elaborated that they have three main objectives for the IBF: a) build stronger relationships with priority countries and become a trusted space partner of choice; b) increase UK space sector inward investment and exports; and c) develop UK capabilities in collaboration with our international partners. (4/22)

Buzz Aldrin to be Promoted to Air Force General (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The second man on the moon is getting a promotion. Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Buzz Aldrin, who joined Neil Armstrong as the first two men to step foot on the lunar surface during 1969′s Apollo 11 mission, will receive an honorary appointment to brigadier general during a ceremony on May 5 at Los Angeles Air Force Base, according to a press release from the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command. (4/21)

How to Think About SpaceX's Launch Failure (Source: SPACErePORT)
NASA and its contractors spend countless hours (and dollars) theorizing everything that might go wrong with a rocket's design before they build and fly it. SpaceX also designs rockets to avoid failure, but they embrace failures as learning opportunities. If the Starship test had flown successfully, they might never identify design flaws that could doom future flights. The anomalies to be identified after Thursday's test will likely point to fixable flaws and result in a much more robust vehicle design. In addition, the failed test gave SpaceX's workforce valuable experience for future launch operations, while NASA's drawn-out process gives them much less operational experience. (4/21)

Kicked Up a Dust Cloud, Leaving Texans With a Mess (Source: New York Times)
The liftoff rocked the earth and kicked up a billowing cloud of dust and debris, shaking homes and raining down brown grime for miles. In Port Isabel, a city about six miles northwest where at least one window shattered, residents were alarmed. During previous launches, Ms. Almaguer said she had experienced some shaking inside the brick house, but “this was on a completely different level.” The residents of Port Isabel, known for its towering lighthouse and less than 10 miles from the border with Mexico, were left to deal with the mess.

Virtually everywhere in the city “ended up with a covering of a rather thick, granular, sand grain that just landed on everything,” said Valerie Bates. Images posted to social media showed residents’ cars covered in brown debris. Closer to the launch site, large pieces of debris were recorded flying through the air and smashing into an unoccupied car. Louis Balderas said that while it was common to see some debris, smoke and dust, the impact of Thursday’s liftoff was unlike anything he had ever seen. “There were bowling ball-sized pieces of concrete that came flying out of the launchpad area.”

Eric Roesch said he believed the dust and debris came largely from a giant crater formed during the rocket’s liftoff. Normally, major launch sites are engineered with a trench or water system that helps to divert the rocket’s flame away from the ground and to dampen the impact, he said. “They didn’t do that,” he said. Editor's Note: I imagine this will be of concern at LC-39A, where NASA is concerned about protecting its human-rated Falcon-9 launch capability, very close to the Super Heavy/Starship launch tower. (4/21)

Space Systems Command’s Enigma Project is No Secret (Source: FNN)
The Space Systems Command is turning government-industry collaboration on its head. Instead of contractors coming to government systems to share information or feedback, the Space Systems Command is testing out the opposite approach. Col. Jennifer Krolikowski, the chief information officer of the Space Systems Command, said their new project, called Enigma, is a contractor-owned and operated integrated digital backbone to address long-time challenges to share information.

Space Systems Command, through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), managed by National Security Technology Accelerator, awarded General Dynamics IT a one-year effort under an Other Transaction Agreement worth $18 million to create Enigma. The accelerator said in a release from March that through the Enigma project, GDIT will create a collaborative network and a contractor operated digital environment that provides a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) capability and application on-boarding and integration support services for any government approved third-party applications from other contracts/vendors supporting operations. (4/20)