April 3, 2023

National Reconnaissance Office Awards Contract Extension to Kleos (Source: Kleos)
Kleos Space has been awarded the Stage Two option on its current contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as part of the Strategic Commercial Enhancements Broad Agency Announcement. Under Stage Two of the contract, Kleos is demonstrating the accuracy of its radio frequency (RF) geolocation data over land and water and end-to-end latency of its overall architecture. The NRO builds and operates the U.S. Government’s space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites. (4/3)

Lockheed Wins Australia’s biggest Ever Space Contract, Worth Estimated $2.86 Billion (Source: Breaking Defense)
Lockheed Martin has won Australia’s largest-ever defense space contract, to build a satellite and ground station architecture for a program known as JP 9102. The previous government had planned to downselect from five to two companies at this stage, but the Defense Department here, in an unusual move, announced that Lockheed had been directly awarded the contract for what is expected to be a $4 billion AUD ($2.86 billon) commitment to Australia’s first sovereign military satellite program. (4/3)

Kenya to Launch First Operational Satellite (Source: AFP)
Kenya will launch its first operational satellite next week in a landmark achievement for the country's space program, the government said on Monday. Taifa-1, or Nation-1 in Swahili, is scheduled to be launched on April 10 aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base. The observation satellite is "fully designed and developed" by Kenyan engineers and will be used to provide data on agriculture and food security, among other areas. Testing and manufacturing of the parts were done in collaboration with a Bulgarian aerospace manufacturer. (4/3)

AST SpaceMobile Delays Direct-to-Device Satellite Launch to 2024 (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile says its first operational direct-to-handset satellites will not launch until 2024. The company had planned to launch the first five BlueBird satellites it is building in-house on a SpaceX Falcon 9 before the end of this year, but said last week these Block 1 satellites are now slated to launch in the first quarter of 2024. The Block 1 satellites are 50% smaller than originally planned to speed up development, making them about the same size as its BlueWalker-3 demo satellite launched last year. The company said costs had also increased, and it expects it will need to raise between $550 million and $650 million to develop, build, and launch 20 of its larger Block 2 satellites. (4/3)

One NZ Links with Starlink for Direct-to-Device Satellite Connectivity (Source: Newshub)
A New Zealand mobile operator announced a partnership with SpaceX to provide direct-to-device connectivity. One NZ, formerly Vodafone NZ, said Monday it signed a deal with SpaceX to provide services to its customers through Starlink satellites. Those services, scheduled to begin in late 2024, will start with providing emergency messaging services. A second operator in the country, 2degrees, said it will soon start testing similar services with satellite company Lynk. (4/3)

South Korea Allocates Record Amount to Space Program (Source: Space News)
South Korea's government will spend a record $674 million on space programs this year. Details of the budget, approved by the National Assembly in December, were announced following a meeting Friday of space experts presided over by the vice science minister. The budget is a 19.5% increase from last year. President Yoon Suk-yeol hinted at a sharp budget increase in a November speech in which he promised to double the government's space budget in the next five years and funnel at least $76.8 billion into the space sector by 2045. Nearly two-thirds of the budget will support development of new satellites, including a satellite navigation system, while much of the rest will fund work on a new rocket, the KSLV-3. (4/3)

NASA Policy Discourages Naming Missions After People (Source: Space News)
A new NASA policy makes it much less likely that future missions will be named after people. The policy, completed in December but not widely known until a discussion at an advisory committee meeting last week, says that missions should be named after people only in "extraordinary circumstances" and based on contributions "so extraordinary that any other form of recognition by the Agency would be considered inadequate."

The new policy comes after controversy about naming the James Webb Space Telescope after the former NASA administrator given allegations he fired LGBTQ+ employees at NASA and the State Department; a historical investigation found no evidence to support the claims. Many astrophysics missions had been named after astronomers. (4/3)

Moon Village Association: Humans Need to Cooperate, Not Create Barriers, in Space and Lunar Explorations (Source: Global Times)
The moon is the next giant leap of humanity and as such we need to cooperate, not create barriers, said senior space policy advisor Giuseppe Reibaldi, president and founder of the Moon Village Association (MVA). "The further we go from the Earth, the more the cooperation is required," he said, noting that China's contribution in promoting international collaboration in space exploration "will be very important," considering China's current and future major space infrastructures such as the China Space Station (CSS) Tiangong.

While the CSS welcomes international scientific research projects and positively embraces astronauts of various countries, some countries and organizations reportedly take a step back due to possible political pressures. Reibaldi believes the cooperation in space between China and Europe is in line with the volatility present in the current international relations landscape, which "will be difficult" if the international relations situation is not stabilized. (4/2)

Robotic Mars Exploration After Sample Return (Source: Space Review)
As NASA focuses on returning samples to Mars, it has virtually no other robotic missions planned to the Red Planet. Jeff Foust reports on the release last week of a draft strategy that offers a first glimpse of what kinds of missions NASA might fly after Mars Sample Return as it prepares for human exploration of the planet. Click here. (4/3)
 
Sustainability Lessons From Artemis: How SLS and Orion Succeeded (Source: Space Review)
NASA this week is announcing the astronauts who will go on the first crewed Artemis mission to the Moon. Frank Slazer examines the factors that enabled key elements of the effort, Orion and the Space Launch System, to survive various political changes. Click here. (4/3)
 
Exploitation Beyond Our Planet: the Risks of Forced Labor in Space Mining (Source: Space Review)
Throughout history, mining on Earth has involved the use of forced labor. Julia Muraszkiewicz argues that it’s worth thinking about how to prevent it from also happening in the future in space. Click here. (4/3)

Chinese Astronauts Conduct TSS Spacewalk (Source: Xinhua)
China conducted another stealthy spacewalk outside its space station. The latest spacewalk by astronauts Fei Junlong and Zhang Lu took place Thursday, but was not announced by Chinese media until Saturday. Those reports said they astronauts completed all their tasks on the spacewalk but did not provide further details. (4/3)

Perseverance Collects Mars Samples (Source: NASA)
The NASA Mars rover Perseverance has collected the first sample of a new campaign. The sample was taken by the rover from the top of the delta in Jezero Crater on Mars and stored in the rover. The sample is the first since the rover completed depositing a cache of 10 samples previously collected that will serve as a backup should Perseverance not be able to return samples to a future lander. The new samples collected by Perseverance will remain with the rover until it transfers them to that future lander. (4/3)

NASA’s 'Sky for All' Reimagines the Future Airspace (Source: FNN)
As autonomous and remotely piloted aircraft, along with personal air taxis, join traditional commercial aircraft in our skies, NASA — along with FAA — is working on a system of systems that will eventually replace current air traffic control. Click here. (4/3) https://federalnewsnetwork.com/podcast/tackling-government-challenges-through-science-and-technology-podcast/nasas-sky-for-all-reimagines-the-future-airspace/

NASA, Canada Assign Astronauts to Artemis 2 Moon Mission (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The Artemis 2 astronauts were announced in Houston, marking the first time in the 21st century a human crew has been assigned to fly a mission to the Moon. Artemis 2, set to launch atop a Space Launch System rocket as early as November 2024, will be a follow up test flight to the highly successful uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, which saw an Orion spacecraft fly around the Moon late last year.

The astronauts assigned to the flight are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman as commander, Victor Glover as pilot and Christina Koch as a mission specialist, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hanson as a mission specialist. Together, these four will be the first people since December 1972 to travel farther into space than just several hundred miles above Earth. Their mission will be a 10-day flight that will include an eight-day free-return trajectory around the Moon. (4/3)