July 30, 2023

Congress Leaves for Summer Break with Long To-Do List When They Return (Source: Space Policy Online)
The House and Senate left town Thursday, a day earlier than planned, eager to begin their summer break. The Senate is gone for five weeks, the House for six. While both succeeded in passing their FY2024 defense authorization bills and getting the defense appropriations bills through committee, they will return in September with a hefty to-do list before FY2024 begins on October 1.

Congress did make progress on several space-related fronts in the first half of the year, but there’s a long way to go and not much time. Here’s a quick recap of where four top issues stand, three of which need to be resolved by September 30.  The Senate returns on September 5, the House on September 12. Click here. (7/29)

Space Florida Supports Development of Leonardo Helicopter Support Center Near Pensacola (Source: Pensacola News Journal)
On a day in which the close ties forged through a public-private partnership that united the naval base, the county and the state of Florida were on full display at a groundbreaking ceremony for Leonardo Helicopters, State Senator Doug Broxson said the community was "sending a message to the Pentagon... We're saying we're committed to this base and to the military," he said.

In association with Space Florida, Leonardo Helicopters has committed to investing over $65 million in the construction of a 113,000-square-foot facility. The new facility will provide major component repair and overhaul, transmission testing and repair along with new tooling, a full-sized paint booth, and a spacious warehouse for spare parts. (7/29)

Moon Mining Gains Momentum as Private Companies Plan for a Lunar Economy (Source: Space.com)
The pace is quickening for using Earth's moon as a near-term, go-to location to land on, live and explore. As NASA's Artemis Program moves forward, so too do long-term plans by small and large firms, academia, along with international space agencies.

That was in evidence at the twenty-third meeting of the Space Resources Roundtable, held here last month at the Colorado School of Mines. A record attendance of some 250 participants spoke on lunar economic models, results of in-the-lab tests, and legal and policy issues. A number of entrepreneurial groups shared their strategies to turn the moon into a hustle and bustle world of marketable services.

The key glue that anchors future moon use is labeled in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU. ISRU involves the extraction of oxygen, water and other available materials for cranking out rocket fuel and to "gas up" life-support systems. Then there's pulling out metals on the moon, say to fabricate lunar housing, landing pads, along with other structures and products. (7/30)

Rocket Carrying 7 Singaporean Satellites Lifts Off From Sriharikota (Source: NDTV)
The Indian High Commission in Singapore on Sunday said the launch of 7 satellites by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) marks another milestone in the Space partnership between the two countries. ISRO on Sunday launched PSLV-C56 carrying seven satellites, including the primary satellite DS-SAR and six co-passenger satellites, from Satish Dhawan Space Center. The launch vehicle lifted off from Sriharikota at 6.30 am on Sunday. (7/30)

Soyuz-5 Launch Vehicle To Be Ready for Start by 2025 Year-End (Source: TASS)
The Soyuz-5 perspective launch vehicle will be ready for a start from the Baikonur launch site in late 2025, deputy CEO of the Progress Space Rocket Center Daniil Subbotin told TASS on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit. (7/30)

Bartolomeo – The Easy Way of Bringing Payloads to the ISS (Source: Airbus)
“When we first started thinking about Bartolomeo, we soon saw that while payload space on the ISS was available and well-used especially for agency-backed research, we were not exploiting the station’s full potential,” says Christian Steimle, now Head of the Bartolomeo Programme at Airbus Space. “So we started looking at how we could establish both additional infrastructure and a commercial service, which would enable more flexibility, a faster time-to-orbit, greater affordability and simpler processes.” (7/24)

China Tests Advanced Hydrogen-Oxygen Rocket Engine (Source: CGTN)
China's space program has entered a new stage of deep space exploration, and Chinese engineers have overcome various of  technical challenges by using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuel to power the rocket engines. China's self-developed 3.35-meter-diameter general-purpose hydrogen-oxygen engine has completed a comprehensive test run for a 10-tonne hydrogen-oxygen engine, marking a milestone of the country's technological leap forward in the high-end aerospace sector. (7/30)

UK Spaceport Unearths a Bronze Age Surprise Ahead of 1st Rocket Launches This Year (Source: Space.com)
Space age, meet Bronze Age. Shiny quartz, giant granite stones and a possible cremation came to light during a dig at the new SaxaVord Spaceport readying for rocket launches on the United Kingdom's northernmost island. Shetland's SaxaVord plans to host its first space liftoff later this year, pending readiness of its license and the companies planning to send small rockets to space from Unst, in the far north of Scotland.

Company AOC Archaeology was on site at SaxaVord to document a scheduled (protected) radar station for the Second World War; it's standard practice to do this kind of thing while building new things in the U.K., given how dense the archaeological record is below ground. While carefully digging, AOC found the Bronze Age artifacts by accident as there were no other known ones in the immediate area. (7/30)

Investor Community Calls for Indian Regulatory Certainty and Predictable Spectrum Strategy (Source: GSOA)
Following a successful roundtable discussion on “Space Policy and Spectrum Issues: Investors’ Perspective” held on 24 July, the investor community expressed enthusiastic support for enhancing the investor climate in India’s space industry, recognizing its significance in the current landscape. The virtual event brought together prominent industry representatives and key members from various organizations. The primary purpose was to collaboratively shape future policies and regulations that would facilitate investment and growth in India’s space sector. (7/24)

Iridium Launches Iridium Certus for Aviation Service, Revolutionizing Aircraft Connectivity (Source: Iridium)
Iridium Communications announced the introduction of its Iridium Certus aviation commercial service, providing a secure cockpit domain with reliable voice and data capabilities. This milestone achievement marks the availability and certification of Iridium Connected® aviation solutions for commercial transport aircraft, business aviation, helicopters, private aircraft, and Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) that offer more compact, cost-effective equipment with superior coverage compared to alternative systems.

Using L-band satellite frequencies that are superior for cockpit communications, Iridium Certus for aviation is an ideal complement to commercial transport passenger cabin connectivity Ka/Ku band services and can be a primary service for small-to-mid-size business jet cabins. It would also be preferred to HF/VHF for electronic flight bag (EFB), flight critical data, and passenger communications during oceanic flights. (7/24)

Momentus Deploys All Payloads from Vigoride-6 Mission (Source: Momentus)
Momentus has deployed all customer payloads from its Vigoride-6 Orbital Service Vehicle launched in April 2023 aboard the SpaceX Transporter-7 mission. To date, Momentus has deployed a total of 15 customer satellites over three missions conducted over the past year and has also placed three Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicles (OSVs) into orbit. While these initial three missions were demonstration missions focused on testing the performance of the Vigoride OSV, Momentus is proud to have orbited a number of customer satellites in the missions. (7/28)

British-Built Satellite Aeolus Deliberately Crashed Into Atlantic in World First (Source: Sky News)
A British-built weather-monitoring satellite has been deliberately crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. It is the first time a satellite has been guided to perform an assisted crash on Earth, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. Aeolus has been providing data to weather centres across Europe since 2018, and was the first satellite mission to acquire profiles of Earth's wind on a global scale. (7/29)

ULA CEO Says Vulcan Rocket Will Still Fly This Year After Engine Explosion, as Launch Competition Heats Up (Source: CNBC)
United Launch Alliance still plans to fly its heavy-lift Vulcan rocket by late 2023 — despite suffering a mishap earlier this year after an engine exploded during testing. CNBC previously reported that one of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines, ordered for ULA’s second Vulcan rocket launch, detonated last month. ULA CEO Tory Bruno said in an interview for CNBC’s “Manifest Space” podcast that the engine faced setbacks during its acceptance phase, but that such occurrences are not uncommon. (7/28)

Public Comment Period Open for Renewal of Alaska Spaceport’s Land Agreement (Source: KMXT)
Alaska Aerospace, which owns and operates the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak’s Narrow Cape, wants to renew its land agreement in the area for another 30 years. The land management agreement allows the company to launch rockets and conduct other testing from the Pasagshak area – near the end of the island’s road system. Kodiak’s Spaceport is one of the only facilities in the country that can launch rockets and their satellites into polar orbit. The agreement was first approved three decades ago and is set to expire next year.

 The state’s Department of Natural Resources is currently reviewing Alaska Aerospace’s renewal application – with public comment open until August 14. Amber-Lynn Taber, a natural resource specialist with the department, says the application is largely the same as the existing agreement. “It’s not an expansion upon the footprint they have currently authorized,” she said. “They are seeking that exact same footprint both in their sort of core launch facility area as well as their two safety zones.” (7/28)

NASA Grant Will Bring More Space Programs to Michigan Science Center (Source: Detroit Free Press)
Christian Greer, president and CEO of the Michigan Science Center in Detroit, is proud to say he’s all three and has been infatuated with space since he can remember. It explains why when he was in Orlando for a conference last fall and saw on TV that the Artemis I rocket launch, which NASA had postponed earlier that day not far from the hotel he was staying at, would take place later that night, headed for the door and hailed an Uber to take him to Titusville, Florida’s Space View Park, a monument to America's astronauts, to watch the liftoff.

Greer's hoping to bring that kind of enthusiasm for space to youths at the science center, with some help from NASA. The federal agency announced grant awards on June 22 to 21 museums, science centers and educational facilities across the country, with the Michigan Science Center receiving nearly $800,000 over three years to create a new program to highlight space and STEM. It’s part of NASA's Next Generation STEM initiative, called NASA’s TEAM II Program, which is intended to bring the excitement of space science to communities. (7/29)

GHGSat Takes Part in White House Methane Summit (Source: SpaceQ)
GHGSat was invited to take part in the White House Methane Summit held this past Wednesday which is yet another indication on the progress they’ve made in providing useful emissions data from space. According to GHGSat “the Methane Summit was the first White House event to bring together stakeholders from federal, state, and local levels involved in programs targeting methane emissions.” Reuters reported that other companies participating included Honeywell, Teledyne and CarbonMapper. (7/28)

Researchers Successfully Train a Machine Learning Model in Outer Space for the First Time (Source: U of Oxford)
Data collected by remote-sensing satellites is fundamental for many key activities, including aerial mapping, weather prediction, and monitoring deforestation. Currently, most satellites can only passively collect data, since they are not equipped to make decisions or detect changes. Instead, data has to be relayed to Earth to be processed, which typically takes several hours or even days. This limits the ability to identify and respond to rapidly emerging events, such as a natural disaster.

To overcome these restrictions, a group of researchers took on the challenge of training the first machine learning program in outer space. During 2022, the team successfully pitched their idea to the Dashing through the Stars mission, which had issued an open call for project proposals to be carried out on board the ION SCV004 satellite, launched in January 2022. During the autumn of 2022, the team uplinked the code for the program to the satellite already in orbit. (7/28)

Falcon Heavy Rocket Launches Massive EchoStar Internet Satellite From Florida (Source: CBS News)
With an ever-increasing demand for internet access, EchoStar launched a powerful new communications satellite late Friday atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket that will deliver broadband service across nearly 80% of North and South America. Running two days later after a last-minute scrub Wednesday, the Falcon Heavy's first stage, made up of three strapped-together Falcon 9 boosters, roared to life with a sky-lighting burst of flaming exhaust at 11:04 p.m. Eastern time.

An instant later, with its 27 engine generating more than five million pounds of thrust, the rocket majestically climbed away from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, putting on a spectacular overnight show for area residents and tourists as it arced away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean. (7/29)

Qinghai's Lenghu Observatory Signs New Astronomical Telescope Projects (Source: Xinhua)
Contracts for the construction of several new astronomical telescope projects were signed recently in northwest China's Qinghai Province, to be established at the province's state-of-the-art observatory site of Lenghu. With these new contracts, the Lenghu site now has 12 optical astronomical telescope projects and 43 astronomical telescopes, with a combined investment of about 2.7 billion yuan (about 378.48 million U.S. dollars), according to the Lenghu industrial park. (7/28)

Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars (Source: New York Times)
The tech billionaire has become the dominant power in satellite internet technology. The ways he is wielding that influence are raising global alarms. On March 17, US Gen. Mark Milley and Ukraine's Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi dialed into a call to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over the secure line, the two military leaders conferred on air defense systems, real-time battlefield assessments and shared intelligence on Russia’s military losses. They also talked about Elon Musk.

General Zaluzhnyi raised the topic of Starlink, the satellite internet technology made by Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX. Ukraine’s battlefield decisions depended on the continued use of Starlink for communications, General Zaluzhnyi said, and his country wanted to ensure access and discuss how to cover the cost of the service. General Zaluzhnyi also asked if the United States had an assessment of Mr. Musk, who has sprawling business interests and murky politics — to which American officials gave no answer.

Mr. Musk, who leads SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter, has become the most dominant player in space as he has steadily amassed power over the strategically significant field of satellite internet. Yet faced with little regulation and oversight, his erratic and personality-driven style has increasingly worried militaries and political leaders around the world, with the tech billionaire sometimes wielding his authority in unpredictable ways. (7/28)

NASA Plus is the Latest Streaming Competitor (Source: The Verge)
NASA is about to voyage into the streaming-verse. The federal space agency is announcing a new “NASA Plus” streaming service that will bring the on-demand non-sci-fi space content you crave to TVs and mobile devices everywhere. And best of all, NASA says it will be “ad-free, no cost, and family-friendly”. You’ll be able to watch live coverage of future launches, documentaries, and brand-new original series the agency is producing exclusively for NASA Plus. (7/29)