July 12, 2023

'Uncharted Territory' With High Water Temps Around Florida (Source: New York Times)
Florida’s coral reefs are facing what could be an unprecedented threat from a marine heat wave that is warming the Gulf of Mexico, pushing water temperatures into the 90s Fahrenheit. The biggest concern for coral isn’t just the current sea surface temperatures in the Florida Keys, even though they are the hottest on record. The daily average surface temperature off the Keys on Monday was just over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or 32.4 Celsius, according to NOAA. The real worry, scientists say, is that it’s only July. Corals typically experience the most heat stress in August and September.

“We’re entering uncharted territories,” Derek Manzello, an ecologist and the coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program, said. Oceans have absorbed some 90 percent of the additional heat caused by humans as we burn fossil fuels and destroy forests. When sea temperatures rise too high, corals bleach, expelling the algae they need for sustenance. If waters don’t cool quickly enough, or if bleaching events happen in close succession, the corals die. For decades, scientists have been warning that climate change is an existential threat to coral reefs. Already, the world has lost a huge proportion of its coral reefs, perhaps half since 1950. (7/12)

Artemis 4 and Artemis 5 Moon Missions Will Include European Astronauts (Source: Space.com)
We now know when Europeans will land on the moon alongside NASA astronauts. Both the Artemis 4 and Artemis 5 moon-landing missions, which are slated to launch in 2028 and 2029, respectively, will feature one European Space Agency astronaut, ESA Director Josef Aschbacher told Space.com. Another ESA astronaut is guaranteed to fly on a future Artemis moon mission, but which one is not decided yet. (7/12)

SDA Plans Procurement of Fire Control System for Missile Tracking Constellation (Source: GovCon Daily)
The Space Development Agency is seeking industry feedback on a draft solicitation for a procurement effort to build the fire-control segment of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture system. A notice posted Friday on SAM.gov states that the Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter program will comprise eight prototype satellites equipped with electro-optical/infrared sensors. (7/11)

NASA Accepts New Astrovans for Artemis Missions (Source: CollectSpace)
NASA has taken delivery of next-generation "astrovans" for future Artemis missions. The agency received three electric vans from Canoo Technologies that will be used to take astronauts to the launch pad for Artemis missions. Canoo won the contract to provide the vehicles, based on an existing commercial design, in 2022. They replace larger vans that had been used by Apollo and shuttle crews. The Apollo and space shuttle-era vans are now on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, in the Apollo/Saturn V Center and Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit, respectively. (7/12)

JWST Celebrates First Year (Source: NASA)
NASA is marking the first anniversary of the first public science images from the James Webb Space Telescope with another image. NASA released this morning a colorful image of a star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to the Earth at a distance of 390 light-years. Some of the stars visible in the cloud show dark regions that are likely protoplanetary disks, or solar systems in the process of formation. (7/12)

China Launches Methane-Fueled Zhuque-2 Rocket to Orbit (Source: Space News)
A Chinese company became the first to reach space with a methane-fueled rocket late Tuesday. The company's second Zhuque-2 rocket lifted off at 9 p.m. Eastern from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket reached orbit, although it carried no payloads. Zhuque-2 is the first rocket that uses methane and liquid oxygen propellants to reach orbit, beating Western vehicles like Relativity Space's Terran 1 and SpaceX's Starship that suffered launch failures in the spring. The successful launch also makes Landspace the second private Chinese launch firm to reach orbit with a liquid propellant rocket after Space Pioneer and its Tianlong-2 rocket in April. (7/12)

Here Come the Moon Landing Missions (Probably) (Source: Ars Technica)
There have been three primary drivers of renewed interest in the Moon. The first was the discovery and confirmation in the 1990s and early 2000s that water ice is likely to exist at the lunar poles in permanently shadowed craters. The presence of abundant water, providing oxygen and hydrogen resources, has given space agencies a new reason to explore the poles. A second factor has been the rise of China's space program, which has sent a series of ambitious robotic missions to the Moon that have both landed on the far side and returned samples from the lunar surface.

Finally, there has been some interest from private companies in the commercial development of the lunar surface, both to exploit resources there but also for other purposes. This has stimulated investment in private companies to provide transportation to the lunar surface, including ispace, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, and Firefly. The end result of all of this is that we are about to see a flurry of missions that will attempt to land on the Moon. During the last decade, dating to China's Chang'e 3 lander in 2013, there have been six attempts to land on the Moon; all were successful. Three other attempts, one backed by Israel, another by India, and a third by a private Japanese company, ispace, have failed to softly touch down on the Moon.

Now, in the next six months, as many as six more landing attempts may come. Here's a rundown of what to expect, and when to expect it. (7/11)

Russia’s Luna-25 Lunar Lander Arrives At Vostochny Spaceport (Source: Aviation Week)
Russia is approaching the launch of its Luna-25 mission to the Moon—the country’s first lunar exploration effort in almost 50 years. The long-delayed 3,860-lb. spacecraft was finally delivered on July 11 to Vostochny spaceport in the country’s Far East, according to Roscosmos Space Corp. Before traveling there, it completed acceptance and predelivery tests. At the spaceport, the lander will undergo final preflight and ground checks and be mated with a Fregat booster before lifting off atop the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle on Aug 11.

Russia will be competing with India to obtain samples of water ice on the Moon, Russian space expert Vitaly Yegorov said. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to launch its Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon to explore lunar soil and rocks one month earlier–on July 14. But the Russian spacecraft has a chance to reach the Moon’s surface before the Indian spacecraft, which will travel along a longer trajectory and is expected to land on Aug. 23 or 24. Luna-25 is expected to be followed by at least two other Russian missions to the Moon: the Luna-26 orbiter and the heavier Luna-27 lander. (7/12)

Japan to Launch Lunar Lander in August (Source: NHK)
Japan's space agency says its lunar lander will be launched on an H2A rocket next month. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, on Tuesday announced the launch of the probe called the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM. The SLIM project is seeking to be Japan's first lunar landing. It will test pinpoint landing technology as well as examining moon rocks. The H2A is to lift off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan on August 26 at 9:34 a.m., local time. The launch vehicle will also carry a new X-ray astronomical satellite, XRISM, jointly developed with US space agency NASA and others. (7/11)

Israel's SpaceIL Wrestles With Costs for Lunar Mission (Source: Space News)
A second attempt by an Israeli organization to land a spacecraft on the moon has an uncertain future. SpaceIL has been working on Beresheet 2, which will feature two small landers and an orbiter and had been scheduled for launch in 2025. However, donors who had been backing the mission announced in May they would not provide any additional money beyond the $45 million provided to date, less than half the mission's projected cost. The chairman of the Israel Space Agency said at a recent conference that work on the mission is continuing but noted that they are still working on the funding problem. The original Beresheet mission, also philanthropically funded, crashed attempting to land on the moon in 2019. (7/12)

India Shoots for the Moon with Latest Rocket Launch (Source: Space Daily)
India on Friday launches its latest attempt at an unmanned moon landing, the next frontier of a burgeoning, cut-price aerospace programme rapidly closing in on the milestones set by global superpowers. If successful, the mission would make the world's most populous nation only the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to achieve a controlled landing on the lunar surface.

The latest iteration of the Chandrayaan ("Mooncraft") programme comes four years after an earlier attempt ended in failure, with ground crew losing contact moments before landing. This time around, there is optimism that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will succeed, as it sets its sights on a future manned lunar mission. (7/12)

ESA Unveils its New Events Venue in the UK (Source: ESA)
A state-of-the-art conference centre that will support the thriving UK space industry has opened at Harwell campus in Oxfordshire. Part of ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT), the facility will serve as a rallying point for the UK space community, reinforcing existing ties and fostering new partnerships within Europe and beyond. It was opened as part of an event that showcased ESA’s growing footprint in the UK and the strong cooperation between the UK and the agency. (7/11)

NASA Decides Not to Launch Two Already-Built Asteroid Probes (Source: Ars Technica)
Two small spacecraft should have now been cruising through the Solar System, on their way to study unexplored asteroids, but after several years of development and nearly $50 million, NASA announced the probes will remain locked inside a Lockheed Martin factory in Colorado. That’s because the mission, called Janus, was supposed to launch last year as a piggyback payload on the same rocket with NASA’s much larger Psyche spacecraft, which will fly to a 140-mile-wide metal-rich asteroid—also named Psyche. Problems with software testing on the Psyche spacecraft prompted NASA managers to delay the launch by more than a year.

An independent review board identified issues with the spacecraft’s software and weaknesses in the plan to test the software before Psyche’s launch. Digging deeper, the review panel determined that NASA’s JPL, which manages the Psyche mission, was encumbered by staffing and workforce problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Psyche is now back on track for liftoff in October on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, but Janus won’t be aboard.

While the Psyche mission can still reach its asteroid destination and accomplish its science mission with a launch this year, the asteroids targeted by Janus will have changed positions in the Solar System by too much since last year. They are no longer accessible to the two Janus spacecraft without flying too far from the Sun for their solar arrays to generate sufficient power. Scientists considered other uses for the suitcase-size Janus spacecraft, which were already built and were weeks away from shipment to Florida to begin final launch preparations when NASA decided to delay the launch of Psyche. (7/11)

Alabama Lawmaker Holds Up DoD Funding Over Space Command (Source: The Gazette)
The Air Force is suspending some bonuses and putting some base reassignments on hold, after an Alabama lawmaker blocked a routine request from the Department of Defense to reallocate funds. U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) called out U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, for blocking a routine request for reallocation of funds across the Department of Defense to force a decision on the permanent home for Space Command. The delay that has already caused problems for the Air Force is "dangerous and harmful," Hickenlooper said. (7/12)

U.S. Sharpens Plan for Military Space Race (Source: Space News)
The latest U.S. military budget goes all-in on the notion that resilience will be a core feature of space programs. As evidence, the term surpasses 300 mentions in the Space Force’s 2024 budget documents. The emphasis on resilience — or adaptability in the face of attacks — reflects the priorities set by the new chief of space operations Gen. Chance Saltzman. The running theme in the budget is the need to ensure U.S. access to space and shore up capabilities to compete with space powers like China and Russia. (7/11)

National Guard in Space? White House Says No Thanks (Source: Space.com)
The office of United States President Joe Biden has voiced opposition to the creation of a Space National Guard. Currently, the Army and the Air Force have National Guard reserve components, but the U.S. Space Force does not. Several lawmakers in Congress have previously proposed the idea of creating a Space National Guard to provide part-time forces to bolster Space Force personnel numbers. But the push has yet to receive enough support to make it into law.

Now the White House has voiced its opposition. On Monday (July 10), the Executive Office of the President of the United States issued a statement that argues against the creation of a Space Force element of the National Guard. "The Administration continues to strongly oppose the creation of a Space National Guard," the White House's statement reads, urging Congress "not to create a new bureaucracy with far-reaching and enduring implications and expense."  (7/11)

Will Aerojet/L3Harris Deal Mean More Stingers, Javelins for Ukraine? (Source: Wall Street Journal)
How big is too big in defense? Lawmakers are wrestling with this question as they consider whether a decadeslong wave of consolidation has left the sector incapable of producing weapons fast enough to keep up with demand stemming from the war in Ukraine. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and three other lawmakers have asked the Pentagon to block L3Harris Technologies' proposed $4.7 billion purchase of Aerojet, but L3Harris claims the deal will speed the delivery of critical weapons to Ukraine during its conflict with Russia. (7/11)

Guam Seeking to Expand Airport Activities, Eyeing Space Flights (Source: Marianas Variety)
Seeking to tap economic opportunities in the aerospace industry, Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio will make a push for Guam as a prime spot for expanded aviation operations, including space flights. Tenorio will make a pitch at the 2023 Aerospace States Association (ASA) Annual Meeting and Policy Summit, which opens today in Boulder, Colorado.

In 2019, Guam banked on the Virgin Orbit’s announcement that the island's civilian airport would be used as a launch site for the company’s LauncherOne service. The plan, however, fell through as the rocket company filed for bankruptcy this year. This time, the administration is pinning its hopes on the proposed establishment of a Space Force National Guard. Space Force units are being proposed for seven states — Colorado, California, Hawaii, Alaska, New York, Ohio, Florida — and Guam. (7/11)

As One Long Beach Space Firm Implodes, Another Seizes an Opportunity (Source: Long Beach Business Journal)
With the metaphorical ashes of Virgin Orbit’s collapse still smoking, Rocket Lab has stepped up to further solidify its position as Long Beach’s preeminent space company, buying up millions of dollars in assets from the now-defunct firm that will allow for an expedited expansion. Virgin Orbit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April, days after announcing it would lay off 675 employees because it failed to secure additional funding. Most of those employees had already been on unpaid leave for weeks. In late May, Virgin sold off over $35 million in assets to various space firms up and down the West Coast, including Rocket Lab and Vast here in Long Beach. (7/11)

Houston Spaceport Companies Land NASA Contracts for Upcoming Artemis Mission (Source: Houston Business Journal)
Ahead of NASA’s return to the moon, two space companies with a Houston presence landed contracts from the space agency. Houston-based Axiom Space secured an initial $5 million commitment that could grow to $142 million over four years to modify its Artemis III lunar spacesuit design for spacewalking from the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, North Carolina-based Collins Aerospace, a division of Virginia-based Raytheon Technologies, landed a $5 million contract to modify its own spacesuit design for operating on the moon. Collins opened its 120,000-square-foot Houston Spaceport facility in late 2022. In addition to spacesuit-testing services, the building also includes a 10,000-square-foot incubator space that the company said would mainly be controlled by the city of Houston for collaboration opportunities between universities and tech startups. (7/11)

The Tantalizing, Lonely Search for Alien Life (Source: New Republic)
Jaime Green is drawn to aliens because they represent the point at which science and ordinary human imagination meet. For Green, the most interesting question to ask about aliens isn’t where or whether or not but what if? This question is at the heart of scientific inquiry just as much as it’s at the heart of our dreams and nightmares. Because of that, the search for aliens in outer space is, at the same time, a tour through alien stories, from classic fictions like Sagan’s to the more contemporary envisionings. In her telling, novels, short stories, films, and TV shows about extraterrestrials resemble folktales: They give us myths and archetypes that explain an unexplainable world to the people who live in it. (7/11)

NASA's Starling Mission Sending Swarm of Satellites Into Orbit (Source: Space Daily)
This July, NASA is sending a team of four six-unit (6U)-sized CubeSats into orbit around Earth to see if they're able to cooperate on their own, without real-time updates from mission control. While that kind of autonomous cooperation may not sound too difficult for humans, this team will be robotic - composed of small satellites to test out key technologies for the future of deep space missions, where more complex and autonomous spacecraft will be essential.

Once launched, the four CubeSats will fly in two different formations to test several technologies paving the way towards a future where swarms of satellites can cooperate to do science in deep space. This mission, called Starling, will last at least six months, positioning the spacecraft about 355 miles above Earth and spaced about 40 miles apart. (7/12)

China Aerospace Foundation and Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization Sign Cooperation MOU (Source: Space Daily)
The China Aerospace Foundation and the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization have solidified their commitment to collaboration by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the headquarters of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization. Li Guoping expressed the intention to collaborate on scholarships and other initiatives, aiming to create branded aerospace public welfare activities and infuse new vitality into the healthy development of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization. (7/12)

ESO's Extremely Large Telescope is Now Half Completed (Source: Space Daily)
The European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope (ESO's ELT) is a revolutionary ground-based telescope that will have a 39-metre main mirror and will be the largest telescope in the world for visible and infrared light: the world's biggest eye on the sky. Construction of this technically complex project is advancing at a good pace, with the ELT now surpassing the 50% complete milestone. The telescope is located atop Cerro Armazones in Chile's Atacama Desert, where engineers and construction workers are currently assembling the structure of the telescope dome at a staggering pace. Visibly changing each day, the steel structure will soon acquire the familiar round shape typical of telescope domes. (7/12)

Defunct Wind Satellite Set for Unprecedented 'Assisted' Reentry (Source: Gizmodo)
A mighty wind satellite has been losing altitude at a steady pace of nearly one kilometer per day. ESA will attempt to guide the Aeolus satellite on its way down to minimize risk of damage as its pieces hit the ground. ESA will attempt a first-of-its-kind assisted reentry. Once Aeolus reaches an altitude of 280 kilometers, the team will send a series of commands to the satellite over a six-day period, using its remaining fuel to guide it towards an optimal position for atmospheric reentry. (7/11)

Astranis Offers GEO Broadband Satellite for Philippines (Source: Space Intel Report)
Astranis will provide micro-GEO satellite to the Philippines to cover 4,000-5,000 sites in a services contract with Orbits Corp. and Filipino ISP HTechCorp. The satellite will be launched in 2024. Philippines is an enormous potential market for satcom connectivity but it hasn't moved as fast as Indonesia. (7/11)

Help ESA Research Key Space-Based Solar Power Challenges (Source: ESA)
Space-based solar power could provide Earth with clean and reliable energy, 24 hours a day. As part of its SOLARIS initiative, ESA is inviting researchers to help advance our knowledge of key aspects of collecting solar power in space and wirelessly transmitting it to Earth. Click here. (7/11)

Florida-Based Redwire to Expand in Indiana (Source: Redwire)
Jacksonville-based Redwire Corp. plans to open a new state-of-the-art microgravity payload development facility with a mission operations center at the Novaparke Innovation & Technology Campus in Floyd County, Indiana, as the company looks to increase production of critical technologies enabling human spaceflight missions and commercial microgravity research and development in low-Earth orbit (LEO).

The new 30,000 square foot facility will support increased demand from commercial companies and academic researchers focused on improving pharmaceutical drug development, optimizing disease treatments, and enabling technologies essential for sustainable human spaceflight in LEO and beyond. Construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year. (7/11)

Blue Origin Rocket Engine Explodes During Testing (Source: CNBC)
A Blue Origin rocket engine exploded during testing last month, CNBC has learned, a destructive setback with potential ramifications for the company’s customers as well as its own rocket. During a firing on June 30 at a West Texas facility of Jeff Bezos’ space company, a BE-4 engine detonated about 10 seconds into the test, according to several people familiar with the matter. Those people described having seen video of a dramatic explosion that destroyed the engine and heavily damaged the test stand infrastructure.

The people spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters. The engine that exploded was expected to finish testing in July. It was then scheduled to ship to Blue Origin’s customer United Launch Alliance for use on ULA’s second Vulcan rocket launch, those people said. A Blue Origin spokesperson, in a statement to CNBC on Tuesday, confirmed that the company “ran into an issue while testing Vulcan’s Flight Engine 3.” (7/11)

Muon Wins Option to Monitor Ionosphere for Space Force (Source: Space News)
Muon Space will deliver space weather data to the U.S. Space Force under a $400,000 contract option announced July 11. Under the original $2.8 million contract with Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Weather Systems Branch and the Defense Innovation Unit awarded in 2022, Muon will deliver terrestrial weather products to the Air Force 557th Weather Wing from a space-based prototype microwave sensor. The option directs Muon to also monitor the ionosphere for the U.S. Space Force through September 2024. (7/11)

Space Force Juggles Roles as Warrior and Protector of Space Environment (Source: Space News)
In an era of great power competition and increasing global reliance on space-based assets, the U.S. military is trying to harmonize seemingly competing demands for security and sustainability. As a branch of the U.S. military, the Space Force is tasked with preparing for potential conflicts. But its leaders frequently remind audiences that a shooting war in space must be avoided in order to ensure the sustainability of the domain.

U.S. Space Command is the Pentagon’s combatant command responsible for space operations. “Space security is our problem, but it’s your problem, too. It is everyone’s concern today,” the command’s deputy chief, Lt. Gen. John Shaw, said. The U.S. faces threats to its assets in orbit and needs to defend them, Shaw said, but space sustainability is now a front-burner issue when planning military operations. Shaw acknowledged that, for decades, the U.S. military conducted space activities with little regard for how they polluted orbits with debris that posed threats to existing and future space-based assets. (7/10)

Why Africans Must Go to Space (Source: Gadget)
Africa’s first woman in space has called for regional and global efforts to enable more Africans to participate in space exploration as part of efforts to advance the continent’s socioeconomic transformation. Sara Sabry, a young Egyptian astronaut and founder of the Deep Space Initiative made the call last week during a panel discussion at the Africa50 Infra Forum meeting held in Togo’s capital Lomé. The topic of the panel was A Different View: Africa’s future reimagined. (7/11)

Former NASA Astronaut to Advise Vast on Commercial Space Station Efforts (Source: Space News)
Vast Space has brought in a former NASA astronaut and SpaceX official to serve as an adviser for its plans to develop commercial space stations. Vast announced July 11 that it has appointed Garrett Reisman as a human spaceflight adviser. He will assist the company, which announced plans in May to develop a single-module station called Haven-1 as a precursor for future, larger space stations.

Reisman joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 1998 and spent three months on the International Space Station in 2008 as part of the Expedition 16 and 17 crews, and another 12 days on the STS-132 shuttle mission to the ISS in 2010. He retired from the astronaut corps in 2011 and worked for SpaceX for several years in various capacities, including director of space operations. He is currently a professor of astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California. (7/11)

Why Military Space Matters (Source: Joint Force Quarterly)
Militaries fight wars and, in times of peace, prepare for the next war. How they prepare matters. Preparing for war can help prevent war from breaking out. At the same time, militaries that prepare to fight the last war often fail in the next. Over the past two-plus decades of military operations, our nation’s ability to use outer space has not been consequentially challenged or contested. An unintended byproduct of that circumstance is we have unintentionally conditioned strategists and national security professionals to assume the space advantage is our birthright. Click here. (7/11)

India’s Renewed Effort Toward Space Preeminence (Source: Space News)
India’s recent technical and political activities have boosted the state’s climb to space preeminence. In parallel to several successful launches that showcase the state’s capabilities and flexibility, political initiatives focus the bureaucracy and exhibit a strong vision for India’s future in space. India’s domestic success empowers the state to join and meaningfully participate in elite civil and commercial partnerships, notably signing the Artemis Accords during last month’s state visit to the United States.

The administration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi can reap the maximum benefits from these and future partnerships by expanding this approach to the space security sector, beginning by conveying its vision for governing the intersection of commercial and military space applications. Earlier this year, India issued its first national space policy. This approach supports private capital’s access to the space sector and simultaneously frees state institutions to focus on work that is not financially attractive endeavors for most industry players, like basic science and deep space exploration. This guidance has been sorely lacking for India’s commercial space sector, which has suffered from the government’s ill-defined regulatory framework. (7/11)