May 10, 2023

UK's Orbex Offers Few Details on Spaceport/Launch Readiness (Source: Space News)
U.K. launch vehicle developer Orbex says its started construction on a Scottish launch site, but won't say when it be ready to launch from there. The company announced last week that it had broken ground on Sutherland Spaceport in northern Scotland, intended to host launches by its Prime small launch vehicle. Orbex, though, declined to say when the spaceport would be complete or when it planned to conduct its first launch there. The company has provided few details about the development of Prime in recent months and its CEO resigned last month. (5/10)

Australia Halts Program to Support Spaceport Development (Source: Sydney Morning Herald)
The Australian government is canceling a program to support development of spaceports in the country. The initiative, which had planned to spend more than $20 million to co-invest in launch sites, was one of three programs to support Australian space technology development that was cut in a budget proposal released by the government Tuesday. The cut dismayed many in the Australian space industry, who had been arguing that Australia should be investing more in space capabilities to remain competitive internationally. (5/10)

Philippines and US Agree on Space Situational Awareness (Source: Space News)
The U.S. will cooperate with the Philippines on space situational awareness. The two countries announced last week plans to work together on space situational awareness and space-based maritime domain awareness as part of a broader set of security, economic, technological and educational cooperation agreements. The two countries also agreed to hold the first U.S.-Philippines Civil Space Dialogue this year to boost bilateral space cooperation. The announcements are part of efforts by the U.S. to strengthen ties with Asia-Pacific countries to counter China. (5/10)

NASA STMD's Reuter Retiring (Source: NASA)
The head of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is retiring. NASA announced Tuesday that Jim Reuter will retire from the agency at the end of June after serving as associate administrator for space technology since 2018. Reuter has spent 40 years at NASA, including working on the shuttle, Constellation and International Space Station programs before becoming a deputy associate administrator in STMD in 2015. NASA said it will conduct an open competition to select his successor. (5/10)

Orbital Outpost X Raises $5 Million for Commercial Space Station Components (Source: Space News)
A startup with long-term ambitions to build space stations has raised $5 million. Orbital Outpost X, a Silicon Valley space technology startup formerly called Space Villages, said it received a $5 million convertible note from Space Infrastructures Ventures of the Netherlands that will become an equity investment in its future Series A round. The funding will allow the startup to continue to develop components, systems and subsystems for commercial space stations. Space Infrastructure Ventures is investing in U.S. and European startups like Orbital Outpost X as part of its goal to deploy a commercial space station by the end of decade. (5/10)

VAST Announces the Haven-1 and VAST-1 Space Station Missions (Source: VAST)
Vast, a pioneer in space habitation technologies, announced plans to launch the world’s first commercial space station, called Haven-1. Scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit no earlier than August 2025, Haven-1 will initially act as an independent crewed space station prior to being connected as a module to a larger Vast space station currently in development. The mission will be quickly followed by Vast-1, the first human spaceflight mission to Haven-1 on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The vehicle and its four-person crew will dock with Haven-1 for up to 30 days while orbiting Earth. Vast also secured an option with SpaceX for an additional human spaceflight mission to Haven-1. (5/10)

Rocket Lab Completes Custom-Built Photon Spacecraft for Varda Space Industries (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has completed and shipped a custom Photon spacecraft developed for Varda Space Industries ("Varda"), a leading in-space manufacturing and hypersonic re-entry logistics company. The Rocket Lab-designed and built Photon spacecraft will provide power, communications, propulsion, and attitude control to Varda's 120kg capsule that will produce pharmaceutical products in microgravity and return them to Earth. In addition to providing support during the in-space manufacturing phase of Varda's mission, the Photon will place Varda's hypersonic re-entry capsule (carrying finished pharmaceuticals on board) on a return trajectory to Earth. (5/10)

Rocket Lab to Launch Small Satellite Swarm for NASA (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has signed a deal to launch NASA's Starling mission, a multi-CubeSat mission to test and demonstrate autonomous swarm technologies, as well as automated space traffic management for groups of spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. The four Starling small satellites have been manifested on an Electron commercial rideshare mission scheduled for lift-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand in Q3 this year. Rocket Lab will deliver the satellites to space within three months of the contract signing. (5/10)

NASA Launches SBIR Ignite Catalyst Program for Founders and Entrepreneurs (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has launched a new program aimed at helping space entrepreneurs and startups prepare to apply for SBIR Ignite funding. The SBIR Ignite Catalyst Program will provide founders with an opportunity to learn more about the SBIR Ignite program, build their NASA networks and knowledge, and strengthen their startup ecosystem connections.

The program includes two key pillars: a Space Startup Ecosystem Digital Community and NASA Networking Events. From now until May 15, founders at any stage can apply to join the program and gain access to these resources. All applicants, whether attending events in person or virtually, can participate in general admission sessions, which include expert panel discussions and networking events. (5/10)

Japan Okays GPS Tracking for Bail After Ghosn Case (Source: Space Daily)
Japan on Wednesday enacted a law authorising courts to use GPS for tracking defendants on bail, a measure pushed for after the dramatic 2019 escape of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn. The revised criminal proceedings law approved Wednesday will enable courts to order the placement of GPS devices on defendants to prevent them from fleeing Japan. (5/10)

Rocket Lab Has Little Competition for Electron-Class Launches (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab believes it's not facing much competition in the small launch vehicle market for its Electron rocket. The company said in an earnings call Tuesday that it is seeing an increase in demand for Electron from customers facing delays or uncertainty from other small launchers, including those that have suffered recent launch failures. Rocket Lab announced Tuesday it will launch a set of NASA cubesats later this year that had been previously scheduled to fly on Firefly Aerospace's Alpha.

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said he believed it would be tough for new companies to enter the market. The company is forecasting 15 Electron launches this year, which include those of a suborbital version called HASTE for hypersonics testing. The company reported a net loss of $45.6 million in the quarter on $54.9 million in revenue. (5/10)

Virgin Galactic Expects Strong Business for New Spaceplanes (Source: Space News)
Virgin Galactic argues there is a strong business case for its next generation of suborbital spaceplanes as it prepares to return SpaceShipTwo to flight. In an earnings call Tuesday, the company confirmed it plans to make the first powered SpaceShipTwo flight in nearly two years in late May, followed by the first commercial flight, a research mission for the Italian Air Force, in late June. In the call, executives said its "driver of revenue growth and profitability" will be the Delta class of suborbital spaceplanes it is developing, which promise high profit margins.

Those vehicles will not enter service until 2026, though, and the company said it is managing its expenditures to support that. Those efforts include delaying work on the new aircraft that will serve as motherships for the Delta-class vehicles, as the company says its current VMS Eve airplane can be used for Delta-class test flights as well as SpaceShipTwo commercial flights. Virgin Galactic reported a net loss of $159 million in the quarter and has $874 million in reserves. (5/10)

Viasat and Inmarsat Face US and European Hurdles to Acquisition Deal (Source: Space News)
While Viasat and Inmarsat won approval from a U.K. regulator for their deal, they are still awaiting approvals in the United States and Europe. The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority concluded Tuesday that Viasat's proposed acquisition of Inmarsat will not reduce competition for in-flight connectivity, giving the deal an unconditional approval. That bodes well for a similar review that is ongoing by the European Commission and scheduled to be completed by late June. The companies are also waiting for FCC approval of the $7.3 billion acquisition. (5/10)

Former HASC Chairman Thornberry Joins CesiumAstro Board (Source: Space News)
The former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is now an adviser for satellite antenna developer CesiumAstro. The company said Tuesday it added William "Mac" Thornberry to its board of advisers to help it work with defense and intelligence customers. CesiumAstro is seeking to add more government customers for its active phased array communications terminals. Thornberry, a Texas Republican who retired from Congress after the 2020 elections, spent four years as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and two years as its ranking member. (5/10)

NOAA Developing Next-Gen Weather Satellites (Source: Space News)
NOAA is starting work on a new generation of low Earth orbit weather satellites. The Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) program will serve as a successor to the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), overlapping with that current system in the 2030s. NEON will start with a spacecraft called QuickSounder that will launch a refurbished microwave sounder on a commercial satellite later this decade. NOAA plans to fly many smaller satellites for NEON rather than a few large ones, as is the case with JPSS. (5/10)

Florida's Brightline Train Picks Starlink for Customer Wireless (Source: Space News)
Florida's Brightline train system is the first passenger rail network to adopt Starlink. Brightline is offering Starlink at no charge to customers on trains operating between Miami and West Palm Beach and plans to extend it to trains going to Orlando. The announcement came as JSX, the semi-private charter company that was the first airline to sign up for Starlink, said it had now installed the service on its entire fleet of 40 jets. (5/10)

Commercial Satellite Imagery Services Included in New $1.2B Ukraine Security Assistance Package (Source: DefenseScoop)
The latest U.S. security assistance tranche for Ukraine, valued at $1.2 billion, includes funding for commercial satellite imagery services as well as a slew of air-defense capabilities. The package was announced by the Pentagon on Tuesday. The list of capabilities put out by DoD did not specify which company or companies would provide the satellite imagery services, or how much of the funding would be allotted for that. The capabilities included in the new package will be procured from industry using Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds — not drawn from existing DOD stocks. (5/9)

Commercial Space Office's Kniseley Keeps Focus on Industry Engagement (Source: C4ISRnet)
The Space Force has a new office tasked with helping the service better integrate commercial space capabilities across its portfolio. The Commercial Space Office, led by Col. Richard Kniseley, will replace the Commercial Services Office, which was established just a year ago. The organization will bring together several other initiatives, including SpaceWERX — the service’s technology hub — and Space Systems Command’s Front Door, an online portal companies can use to connect with the acquisition community. (5/8)

Chinese Startup Aims to Debut New Reusable Rocket Next Year (Source: Space.com)
A Chinese launch startup is making moves toward launching its small Falcon 9-like rocket. Galactic Energy was established in 2018 and is already working toward a test launch of its Pallas 1 rocket. Powered by the company's own Cangqiong kerosene-liquid oxygen engines, Pallas 1 will be capable of carrying 11,000 pounds (5,000 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit. The startup has already made a name for itself by successfully developing and launching a light-lift solid-fueled rocket named Ceres 1. Each of the five Ceres 1 launches so far, starting in November 2020, have been successful, marking an impressive start for the company. (5/8)

Five Reasons The Missile Defense Agency Should Be Merged Into The Space Force (Source: Forbes)
The simple fact is that we lack a reliable ability to predict when and how a nuclear exchange might occur—as the misguided act of a deluded foreign dictator, as an escalation of a regional conflict, as a breakdown in the nuclear command system, or as the result of other easily imaginable events. The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, although ostensibly the overseer of strategic defense efforts, exercises little influence. Its annual budget of $10 billion allocates about one percent of defense spending to what should be a top military priority—and most of that does not go to defense of the homeland.

Missile defense of the American homeland demands a more powerful advocate within the federal bureaucracy. The obvious candidate to fill that role is the Space Force—the world’s only independent space force. Click here. (4/25)

How the Space Force Will Manage Surging Launch Demand (Source: C4ISRnet)
The rise of proliferated satellite constellations creates a need for more rockets, and in the last few years, a number of new entrants have ventured into the launch scene — including Firefly Aerospace, Relativity Space and ABL Space Systems — and more established companies like SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman have revealed plans to upgrade or build new launch vehicles. Underpinning the swell of commercial and military activity in orbit and the demand for rockets to support it is a launch range infrastructure that is largely managed by the Space Force.

The Space Force’s launch enterprise has been anticipating this kind of growth, and the resulting congestion, for several years. In 2017, when the service was still part of the Air Force, it launched a campaign called “Drive to 48″ that set a goal of preparing its ranges to support 48 launches a year by the early 2020s. It hit that target for the first time last year with 57 missions. In 2018, then-commander of Air Force Space Command Gen. Jay Raymond convened a task force to study what a “Range of the Future” might look like for the service. No longer just a collection of instrumentation and telemetry, the Space Force wants to run its ranges more like airports (or spaceports) that provide a service to its customers.

Under a spaceport model, the Space Force units, or deltas, that manage launch ranges would function as airport authorities, providing a suite of services that companies can draw from based on their needs. The service is still trying to close the gap between perceiving its ranges as spaceports and actually operating them that way, and is looking to the fiscal 2024 legislative cycle as a chance to address some of the policy and funding challenges. Click here. Editor's Note: Asking the Space Force to operate a multi-user spaceport is like asking the FAA to operate a major airport. It's possible but they don't have the same priorities and incentives that dedicated spaceport/airport authorities would have to make it efficient. (5/9)