July 29, 2023

ULA Has Concerns About a Third Competitor in National Security Space Launch (Source: Space News)
United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said he has “a bunch of questions” about the latest changes announced by the Space Force for the procurement of national security space launch services. Bruno was asked to comment on the Space Force’s decision to add a third heavy-lift launch provider in the next round of contracts, known as National Security Space Launch Phase 3.

Bruno has warned that large rockets will be in short supply over the next several years due to commercial demand. In that vein, Brennan asked Bruno whether he thought the updated NSSL strategy was a “smart move” or whether it would create “too much potential future competition in that market.” The global launch market will experience “real scarcity,” Bruno said. “It is becoming tighter” as commercial players like Amazon buy up the available rockets. “In terms of a competitive landscape, it’s not competition if everybody wins,” he added. (7/28)

Space Rider Enters Phase D for Drop Tests (Source: ESA)
Space Rider is an uncrewed robotic laboratory about the size of two minivans that can stay in orbit for two months. It comes in two parts, the orbital module that supplies everything the spacecraft needs to fly around our planet and a reentry module that allows Space Rider and its experiments to return to Earth. The orbital module is an extension to the Vega-C launcher fourth stage that will guarantee power supply, orbital maneuvering, and attitude control.

The reentry module is the part of the vehicle that houses experiments and provides protection from the intensive heat that occurs entering Earth's atmosphere as well as the landing system. The review last month gives the final go-ahead for Space Rider program to build the elements of the spacecraft as well as start intensive tests to qualify how the spacecraft will fly, return to Earth, and land. Qualification models of several units and systems have been already delivered and upon successful test campaigns, flight models will be authorised for manufacturing. (7/28)

SpaceX Hasn’t Obtained Environmental Permits for Water Deluge System it’s Testing in Texas (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX ran a “full-pressure test” of a new “flame deflector” system at its Starship Super Heavy launch site in South Texas on Friday. However, CNBC has learned that the company never applied for the environmental permits that would allow it to discharge industrial process wastewater into the area surrounding the launchpad as normally required by the federal Clean Water Act.

The flame deflector, a cooling system, is meant to diffuse heat, sound and energy generated by orbital test flights and launches of the company’s largest ever rocket. SpaceX hasn’t disclosed how much water a system test consumes at the site, where that water will run off and what it contains. A spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the state’s environmental regulator, confirmed that as of July 28, SpaceX had not applied for a Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES) permit. The regulator said the SpaceX site has previously attained three stormwater permit authorizations.

Launch sites that feature “deluge” and other water-based cooling systems in the U.S. have a permit equivalent to a TPDES going back to the earliest days of the Space Shuttle. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, criminal enforcement actions can apply to people or companies who “negligently” or “knowingly” discharge pollutants from a “point source” into waters of the United States without a permit. Penalties can include prison time and fines amounting to $2,500 to $50,000 per day. (7/28)

Voyager 2 Communications Pause (Source: NASA)
A series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth. As a result, Voyager 2 is currently unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth. This change has interrupted communication between Voyager 2 and the ground antennas of the Deep Space Network (DSN). Data being sent by the spacecraft is no longer reaching the DSN, and the spacecraft is not receiving commands from ground controllers. After its next scheduled reset, the science team expects communications to resume. (7/28)

Sierra Space Wins Air Force Contract for Upper-Stage Engine Development (Source: Space News)
Sierra Space won an Air Force contract to continue development of an engine that could be used in the upper stage of future launch vehicles. Colorado-based Sierra Space received a $22.6 million contract from the Air Force Test Center July 25 to mature the design of its VR35K-A engine. The contract will allow continued work on the engine, such as development of “flight-weight engine component design,” according to a Defense Department procurement notice.

Sierra Space and its corporate parent, Sierra Nevada Corporation, have been working on the VR35K-A engine design for several years with support from the Air Force Research Laboratory. That included completing a critical design review for the engine in August 2022. The engine, using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, is designed to produce 35,000 pounds-force of thrust. “Compared with other upper-stage engines currently on the market, the VR35K-A provides more thrust and higher performance in a smaller package,” said Rusty Thomas. (7/28)

Is Virgin Galactic Holdings Weighed On By Its Debt Load? (Source: Simply Wall Street)
The latest balance sheet data shows that Virgin Galactic Holdings had liabilities of US$190.8m due within a year, and liabilities of US$475.9m falling due after that. On the other hand, it had cash of US$833.6m and US$2.70m worth of receivables due within a year. So it can boast US$169.6m more liquid assets than total liabilities. This excess liquidity suggests that Virgin Galactic Holdings is taking a careful approach to debt. Given it has easily adequate short term liquidity, we don't think it will have any issues with its lenders. Succinctly put, Virgin Galactic Holdings boasts net cash, so it's fair to say it does not have a heavy debt load! (7/26)

Measuring Helium in Distant Galaxies May Give Physicists Insight Into Why the Universe Exists (Source: Phys.org)
When theoretical physicists like myself say that we're studying why the universe exists, we sound like philosophers. But new data collected by researchers using Japan's Subaru telescope has revealed insights into that very question. The Big Bang kick-started the universe as we know it 13.8 billion years ago. Many theories in particle physics suggest that for all the matter created at the universe's conception, an equal amount of antimatter should have been created alongside it.

Antimatter, like matter, has mass and takes up space. However, antimatter particles exhibit the opposite properties of their corresponding matter particles. When pieces of matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other in a powerful explosion, leaving behind only energy. The puzzling thing about theories that predict the creation of an equal balance of matter and antimatter is that if they were true, the two would have totally annihilated each other, leaving the universe empty. (7/27)

China's Gigantic Telescope Adopts Intelligent Maintenance Robots (Source: Xinhua)
Five intelligent robot systems and platforms for the maintenance of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, have passed inspection and can be put into use, local authorities said. The intelligent robots will be mainly used in testing of the supporting cables and pulleys of FAST's feed, the automatic maintenance of its actuators and laser targets on the reflector, the disassembling and installation of feed receivers, the monitoring of radio interference, and the all-weather measurement of its 30-tonne feed cabin. (7/27)

Essential Ingredient for Life Found on Enceladus (Source: EOS)
Saturn’s moon Enceladus couldn’t look less Earth-like. Instead of an atmosphere and oceans warmed by the Sun, it has a thick shell of ice that covers a global sea, likely kept liquid by tidal squeezing from its host planet. And yet Enceladus is one of the likeliest candidates for life beyond Earth in the solar system, an intriguing status that has become even more possible thanks to a new discovery.

Using archival data from the Cassini mission, researchers uncovered evidence of phosphorus in the form of sodium phosphates in Enceladus’s subsurface ocean, the first time the chemical has been measured in a liquid environment beyond Earth. Sodium phosphates are a family of molecules that combine sodium (Na+) and phosphate ions (PO43−) with various other elements. (7/27)

Search for Ancient Martian Life: NASA's Perseverance Rover Sees Mars in a New Light (Source: SciTech Daily)
A cutting-edge instrument called SHERLOC, which hunts for molecules potentially related to ancient life, played a key role in a recent study. In its first 400 days on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover may have found a diverse collection of organics – carbon-based molecules considered the building blocks of life – thanks to SHERLOC, an innovative instrument on the rover’s robotic arm. Scientists with the mission, which is searching for evidence that the planet supported microbial life billions of years ago, aren’t sure whether biological or geological sources formed the molecules, but they’re intrigued. (7/26)

Experts Warn of Blurring Line Between Military, Commercial Satellites (Source: Air & Space Forces)
As the Pentagon and other government agencies become more reliant on information provided by commercial satellites, the line between military and civilian targets in space will become increasingly blurred in future conflicts. Executives pointed to the role that communications and imaging satellites owned by SpaceX and Maxar have played in Ukraine’s defense. Much of the U.S. military’s current communication system also runs through commercial satellite systems, they said. “I think we’re not spending enough time talking about the coupling between the commercial operators and the [DoD] in a conflict that extends into space,” said Even Rogers. (7/27)

SpaceX 'Superloads' Traveling Through Kansas Again (Source: KAKE)
The Kansas Department of Transportation says SpaceX "superloads" are making their way through Kansas again Thursday through next Tuesday. KDOT tweeted a map of the planned route, with the loads starting in the northeast and making their way southwest. "Be aware as you travel, as this could affect your travel time," the tweet said. The last time the loads came through the Sunflower State in late May, they were traveling at only 45 mph, and the giant structures took up the entire roadway. Traffic backups were several miles long at times. (7/27)

India Space Industry Poised for Growth (Source: Mint)
India has the potential to develop a $40-$100 billion space industry by 2040 on the back of rising space budget, increased number of launch services from the country, entry of private players and startups, and boom in India’s satellite internet market, consultancy firm Arthur D. Little said in its latest report. Currently, India’s space industry is valued at $8 billion with a 2% share in the global space economy. The government spending on space is around $2 billion and the country has launched 381 foreign satellites since 1999 for 34 countries clocking $279 million in revenues. (7/26)

New Manufacturing Equipment Could Be Used at Sea or in Deep Space (Source: UTA)
An industrial engineering researcher at The University of Texas at Arlington has earned a grant from the Department of Defense to purchase state-of-the-art hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing equipment. The project will improve manufacturing capabilities at UTA for printing a wide range of metals and alloys. (7/27)

Saturn May Have 'Failed' as a Gas Giant (Source: Space.com)
Saturn is truly massive — nearly 100 times beefier than Earth. Despite its impressive size, the ringed planet is a distant second to Jupiter, which is nearly three times more massive. In light of this, one astrophysicist suggests that we shouldn't consider Saturn a proper gas giant but rather a planet that tried, but tragically failed, to achieve greatness. (7/26)

China's FAST Telescope Approves Nearly 6,400 Observation Hours for Global Scientists (Source: Xinhua)
China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish and most sensitive radio telescope, has received applications from 16 countries and approved a total of nearly 6,400 hours for observation. The application items mainly involve fast radio bursts observation, pulsars observation and neutral hydrogen survey. (7/27)

Using Cosmic Weather to Study Which Worlds Could Support Life (Source: OSU)
As the next generation of giant, high-powered observatories begin to come online, a new study suggests that their instruments may offer scientists an unparalleled opportunity to discern what weather may be like on far-away exoplanets. Dubbed the extremely large telescopes (ELTs), these observatories, which include the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), will be some of the largest ground-based telescopes ever built, and their instruments are expected to exceed the capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Data collected with their powerful instruments will allow astronomers to use Doppler Imaging – a technique that can recreate 2D maps of an object’s surface – to make accurate measurements of the magnetism and chemistry of ultracool targets, or cosmic objects with temperatures less than 2700 K, such as brown dwarfs (BDs) or very low-mass stars (VLMs) –  and even some exoplanets. (7/27)