July 1, 2023

Dragon Returns to Earth with Valuable Research in Tow (Source: CASIS)
From testing the Zero G Kitchen Oven in space to research aimed at better understanding microgravity’s effects on telomere lengthening, multiple ISS National Lab sponsored payloads returned to Earth in June as part of SpaceX CRS-28. After 23 days docked to the ISS, the Dragon spacecraft supporting SpaceX’s 28th Commercial Resupply Services mission returned to Earth on June 30, splashing down off Florida's coast.

The cargo capsule was packed with a host of research investigations, many of which were sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory to improve lives on Earth and enable a robust economy in low Earth orbit. Click here.  (6/30)

Virgin Galactic Completes First Commercial Spaceflight (Source: Space News)
Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial suborbital spaceflight Thursday. The company's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane, VSS Unity, separated from its mothership aircraft at 11:29 a.m. Eastern and fired its hybrid engine for one minute, reaching a peak altitude of 85.1 kilometers before gliding back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

The flight, called Galactic 01, carried three Italian payload specialists conducting research as well as a Virgin Galactic employee in the cabin, along with two pilots. The company said the flight went as expected. Virgin Galactic plans to start monthly flights of Unity carrying private astronauts in August. Despite the successful flight, Virgin Galactic shares fell more than 10% in trading Thursday. (6/30)

Firefly to Launch Lockheed Martin Satellite (Source: Space News)
Firefly Aerospace will launch a Lockheed Martin smallsat. Firefly said Thursday it signed an agreement with Lockheed for the launch of a technology demonstration satellite on its Alpha rocket, but didn't disclose when the launch would take place.

Lockheed has a contract with ABL Space Systems for dozens of launches of that company's small launch vehicle, but the company said it signed a deal with Firefly because it has near-term launch needs as ABL works to return to flight after the failure of its inaugural launch. Firefly is under contract to launch a Space Force mission called "Victus Nox" sometime this summer, followed by a demonstration missions for NASA under the Venture Class Launch Services contract. (6/30)

China Helping Egypt with Satellite Development (Source: Space News)
China is helping Egypt develop its ability to assemble satellites. China delivered two satellite prototypes and one flight model to Egypt in March for final assembly and testing. The flight model, MisrSat II, is an imaging satellite with a resolution of two meters. While China has built and launched satellites for several countries, this is part of a new effort to transfer technology and expertise to countries within China's strategic Belt and Road Initiative. (6/30)

Astronomers Map Galaxy with Neutrinos (Source: Science News)
Astronomers have mapped the Milky Way for the first time using neutrinos. A detector called IceCube in Antarctica measured the nearly massless particles coming from the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. That map identified potential sources of high-energy neutrinos in the galaxy, which may be linked supernova remnants, but astronomers said more observations are required to confirm those concentrations. It's the first time the galaxy has been mapped with anything other than various wavelengths of light. (6/30)

Rigby to Lead JWST (Source: NASA)
NASA has named a new project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. The agency announced this week that Jane Rigby, an astronomer who was one of three commissioning scientists for the telescope and led the characterization of its science performance, will be the senior project scientist for the mission. She succeeds John Mather, the Nobel laureate astronomer who had held that position since 1995; he will become senior project scientist emeritus. (6/30)

Hopkins Retires From NASA (Source: NASA)
NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins has retired from the agency. Hopkins joined the astronaut corps in 2009 and flew to the International Space Station on a Soyuz spacecraft in 2014. He returned in late 2020 as commander of Crew-1, the first operational commercial crew mission, on a SpaceX Crew Dragon. Hopkins became the first astronaut to transfer from the Air Force to the Space Force during a ceremony as part of the Crew-1 mission. He spent 334 days in space and performed five spacewalks. (6/30)

SDA RFP Seeks Transport Layer Vendors (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency (SDA) has released a request for proposals for a 100-satelite constellation. The Alpha satellites will be part of a mesh network known as Transport Layer Tranche 2 to provide communications. They will be joined by 72 Beta satellites the SDA has already requested proposals for. Each Alpha satellite will have three or four optical communications terminals as well as Ka-band and Link 16 payloads. The 100 Alpha satellites will be split between two vendors, with proposals due July 28. (6/30)

North Korea's 1st Spy Satellite Has Been Pulled From the Sea After Launch Failure (Source: Space.com)
South Korean military authorities have salvaged North Korea's first spy satellite after its failed first launch last month. North Korea attempted to launch the satellite on May 31, but the rocket carrying it suffered an unknown failure and crashed into the sea shortly after liftoff. The satellite, known as Malligyong-1, is reported to be designed to take high-resolution images of Earth to provide intelligence for the reclusive country's military. (6/26)

Mars Rover Perseverance Sets New Record for Making Oxygen on Red Planet (Source: Space.com)
Tucked inside NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is a device known as MOXIE, short for Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization Experiment. MOXIE is the first experiment to suck in the planet's thin, carbon dioxide-laden air and transform that native resource into oxygen. The toaster-sized device, if built to a larger scale, can be used not just for astronaut expeditions to Mars for breathing, but also for rocket fuel.

Earlier this month, the experiment achieved a major milestone when researchers pushed MOXIE to a maximum production level — a factor of two higher than reached earlier. (6/28)

Raytheon to Develop USAF Satellite Terminals (Source: Space News)
Raytheon won a $625 million Air Force contract to produce nuclear-hardened satellite communications terminals. The 11-year contract from the U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center is for Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals, or FAB-T, designed to enable communications on aircraft with classified military satellites. The deal follows a $442.3 million contract the Air Force awarded Raytheon in 2020 to design and develop a FAB-T terminal for aircraft communications with the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) network of classified satellites. FAB-T program was recently identified as one of the service's most troubled procurements. (6/30)

SpaceX to Launch European Astronomy Mission (Source: Space News)
A European spacecraft is set to launch on a mission to help astronomers study dark energy. The European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft is will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on July 1 from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (6/29)

Vega Rocket Engine Suffers Test Fire Anomaly (Source: Space News)
The Vega C rocket suffered a setback in its return-to-flight plans. Avio, the prime contractor for Vega C, said Thursday that a static-fire test of a modified version of the Zefiro 40 motor suffered an unspecified anomaly, resulting in a loss of pressure.

That motor was blamed for a December 2022 launch failure, but Avio said the changes made in response to that failure don't appear to have caused this anomaly. ESA had hoped to return the Vega C to service by the end of the year, a timeline now in doubt. ESA separately said Thursday it decided to move an Earth science mission, EarthCARE, from Vega C to Falcon 9 in part because of last year's launch failure. (6/30)