August 12, 2023

How the Space Force is Preparing its Ground Systems for 'Dynamic' Ops (Source: C4ISRnet)
As U.S. Space Command eyes a future where satellites are designed to maneuver in space, the Space Force’s rapid acquisition team is working to ensure the service’s ground infrastructure is ready to operate those systems. Led by the Space Rapid Capabilities Office — a Space Force acquisition organization created to deliver high-need capabilities on fast timelines ― the Rapid Resilient Command and Control program, or R2C2, aims to develop and integrate a modernized suite of tools to operate those more mobile satellites. (8/11)

Virgin Galactic Just Flew Again, But is the Company Going Anywhere? (Source: Ars Technica)
More than 1,000 people have bought tickets for the Virgin Galactic experience, which includes a few minutes of weightlessness after a one-minute rocket ride to the top of the world. The first several hundred paid $250,000 for their tickets more than 15 years ago, with the expectation of starting flights around 2010. One of them was on board the space plane Thursday. This was Jon Goodwin, a British businessman who recently turned 80 years old. Goodwin purchased his ticket all the way back in 2005. He was just the fourth person to do so. But he has Parkinson's' disease and is running out of time. He knows it.

He was joined on the flight by Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, a Caribbean mother-daughter duo whose tickets were purchased by the nonprofit Space for Humanity in order to broaden access to space. So with this single mission, Virgin Galactic really did, at long last, start to fulfill its goals of broadening access to space. It was a moment. But will it be a fleeting moment? What does Thursday's successful flight actually mean? Does Virgin Galactic have a successful future? I came to New Mexico to find out. Click here. (8/11)

FAA Spaceport Spotlight: Mojave (Source: FAA)
What's a spaceport? It's where rockets are launched, tested and much more! The Mojave Air & Space Port is one of 14 FAA-licensed spaceports. Read all about it as part of the new Spaceport Spotlight series at https://bit.ly/45pINVX. (8/11)

New Evidence Suggests the World's Largest Known Asteroid Impact Structure is Buried Deep in Southeast Australia (Source: The Conversation)
In recent research published by myself and my colleague Tony Yeates in the journal Tectonophysics, we investigate what we believe – based on many years of experience in asteroid impact research – is the world’s largest known impact structure, buried deep in the earth in southern New South Wales. The Deniliquin structure, yet to be further tested by drilling, spans up to 520 kilometres in diameter. This exceeds the size of the near-300km-wide Vredefort impact structure in South Africa, which to date has been considered the world’s largest. Click here. (8/10)

Shoebox-Sized Gadget to Help Astronauts Breathe Safely on NASA's Artemis Missions (Source: Space.com)
Much like the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors arming your home, a shoebox-sized device will constantly monitor the air astronauts breathe during NASA's crewed Artemis missions to the moon. The machine's purpose is to provide real-time data about concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor in the Orion spacecraft, which is the agency's vehicle of choice for its Artemis program. The air quality detector is also equipped with a pressure sensor that alerts astronauts before air pressure within the capsule spikes to dangerous levels. This can be caused by anomalies such as gas leaks. Click here. (8/11)

Two Space Capsules Made Headlines in Florida This Week, for Vastly Different Reasons (Source: The Capitolist)
Lockheed Martin’s Orion capsule and Boeing’s Starliner: both represent significant national investments in the next generation of space exploration and both hold vast economic potential for Florida, but their journeys have diverged markedly in recent months. This week, Kennedy Space Center played host to the astronauts of the Artemis II mission, the ambitious endeavor aiming to circumnavigate the moon using Orion in late November 2024. While the Orion capsule awaits further tests, including an integration with a colossal European service module for life support and propulsion, the road ahead – or at least the public relations effort behind it – looks promising.

Contrast that with the relatively bad media coverage surrounding Boeing’s Starliner. While Orion is designed to go to the moon and beyond, Starliner’s mission is supposed to be – at least in theory – a bit simpler. Starliner is Boeing’s low-earth orbit capsule, designed to get astronauts and cargo up to the International Space Station, and back again. But the project confronts an uncertain timeline. Recent concerns have prompted yet another postponed Starliner launch last month. Since then, two primary issues have emerged: a major parachute defect and a discovery that protective tape wrapped around the vehicle’s wiring is flammable. (8/10)

Vast Appoints Max Haot as CEO and Alex Hudson as First CTO (Source: Vast)
Vast, a pioneer in space habitation technologies, is pleased to announce that Jed McCaleb, Vast’s Founder, has appointed Max Haot (currently President) to succeed him in the role of Chief Executive Officer. McCaleb will move into the role of Founder, Board Chair & Tech Fellow. Also announced today, Alex Hudson will join the company as its first Chief Technology Officer. (8/11)

Telesat's Lightspeed is Now Fully Funded, MDA to Build Constellation (Source: Satellite Today)
It is all systems go for Canadian operator Telesat and its Lightspeed LEO satellite constellation. In a surprise announcement on Friday, the company confirmed that the long-awaited constellation is now fully funded and that it has contracted to MDA to build the 198 satellites needed for the system. Lightspeed satellite launches are now scheduled to commence in mid-2026 and polar and global services scheduled to begin in late 2027.

Gaining funding for such an ambitious program has been a challenge for the operator. Thales Alenia Space was originally contracted to build the satellites, but extended negotiations over financing delayed delivery of proposals to the operator. Original plans for the constellation included nearly 300 satellites, but Telesat decreased the size by 100 satellites after it encountered financing issues. (8/11)

Ad Astra’s NASA-Backed Plasma Rocket Development Continues (Source: Aviation Week)
Working under two recent NASA contracts, Houston-based Ad Astra Rocket Company is moving ahead with efforts to raise the technology readiness level (TRL) of its long-in-development Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) for a future in-space demonstration. (8/11)

U.S. Government Lets Hackers Break Into Satellite in Space (Source: Politico)
Hackers in a desert in the Southwest are lobbing a barrage of cyberattacks at a U.S. government satellite on Friday — and it’s exactly what the Pentagon wanted to happen. The U.S. Air Force and Space Force are hoping the effort, the first-ever attempt to use hackers to break into a live, orbiting satellite, will help them build more secure space systems and identify security gaps that could be exploited by China or other adversaries. (8/11)

Space Billionaires Are Excited About Nuclear Rockets But Haven’t Built One Yet (Source: Observer)
NASA has been researching the viability of nuclear-powered rockets for decades, and private space entrepreneurs, including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, seem universally bullish on the technology. There are a handful of public and commercial efforts developing nuclear thermal engines aiming to launch the first nuclear-powered rocket into space before the end of this decade. Click here. (8/11)

Sen. Cruz Visits SpaceX's Starbase in Texas (Source: Sen. Ted Cruz)
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ranking Member on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, today visited SpaceX’s Starbase, a spaceport and production facility for the company’s rockets. Sen. Cruz met with SpaceX leaders to discuss their operations, missions, and needs in the commercial space sector. (8/11)

India Embraces America’s Vision for Outer Space (Source: The Hill)
Ties between India and the U.S., boosted in recent years by common geopolitical interests in the Indo-Pacific, have blossomed in outer space. In June, India became the 27th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, an American-led set of principles for the 21st century aimed at peaceful exploration of and cooperation in space. While India’s accession is certainly cause for celebration, long-term space policy alignment is not guaranteed by signing nonbinding principles. (8/11)

What’s Next for Spaceport America? (Source: KOB4)
Virgin Galactic is the largest tenant at Spaceport America, which has had hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars supporting it. Scott McLaughlin, Spaceport America’s executive director, says the facility is eyeing lots of expansion. Right now, there are six groups paying for space and doing regular tests and operations. McLaughlin says they hope to have a few more by early next year. There are 850 jobs directly or indirectly tied to the Spaceport. Many of those workers live in Las Cruces.

More Virgin Galactic flights will add to that, and McLaughlin says he hopes to get that number into the thousands in the next five years. “What we’re really focused on is something we’re calling Space Valley,” he said. “Creating an entire aerospace ecosystem from Los Alamos to El Paso, which has design, research, operations, tests.” The Spaceport is also working on a master plan to cover goals for the next 10 to 15 years. That will include everything from construction and roads to jobs and the types of spaceflights they have. (8/11)

NASA Fakery – How the Space Agency Responds to Misleading Space Images (Source: SpaceRef)
The internet is full of manipulated, outright faked, or otherwise misleading images of the cosmos. Sometimes, these images are so deliberately fantastic that they’re harmless, but others, such as simulations of killer asteroids striking the Earth, could be used to mislead, fearmonger, or otherwise leave people with an inaccurate understanding of how space looks and acts. Given these potential outcomes, how does NASA handle this sort of fakery as it pervades the web? Usually, officials said, it doesn’t get involved.

“We correct the record if something is really going viral and is factually inaccurate,” Andrew Good of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory told SpaceRef. “But if you go looking for manipulated images, you’ll find plenty of them — and there’s so much out there that we can’t possibly respond to every factual inaccuracy online.” (8/11)

NASA Chief Warns Moon’s South Pole May Become ‘Another South China Sea’ (Source: South China Morning Post)
Bill Nelson has suggested China might occupy the moon’s south pole if its astronauts get there first, using the dispute over the Spratly Islands to back his claim of a new space race. “You see the actions of the Chinese government on Earth. They go out and claim some international islands in the South China Sea as theirs, and build military runways on them,” he said. “Naturally, I don’t want China to get to the south pole first with humans and then say ‘this is ours, stay out’, like they’ve done with the Spratly Islands.” (8/11)

17 years After Launch, NASA Spacecraft Could Offer Better Image of Sun's Mysteries (Source: UPI)
On Saturday, NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft will pass between the Earth and the sun for the first time since it was launched 17 years ago. The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft was launched in 2006, along with a sister satellite called STEREO-B, with the goal of creating three dimensional images of the sun. The two satellites were able to create the first stereoscopic view of the sun while following an orbit around the sun that was similar to the Earth's orbital path. (8/11)

Ancient Mud Cracks on Mars Suggest Red Planet May Have Been More Habitable Than Thought (Source: Space.com)
Hexagon-tiled rock newly uncovered on Mars suggests that the Red Planet underwent a repeated cycle of wet and dry spells for up to millions of years that could have supported the emergence of life, a new study finds. Although Mars is now cold and dry, researchers have for decades found evidence suggesting that the planet's surface was once covered with rivers, streams, ponds, lakes and perhaps even seas and oceans. Since there is life virtually everywhere on Earth where there is water, these ancient signs of water on the Red Planet raise the possibility that Mars was once home to life — and might host it still. (8/11)

Russia Launches Lunar Lander (Source: AP)
Russia launched its first mission to the moon in nearly half a century on Thursday. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off at 7:10 p.m. Eastern from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East and successfully deployed the Luna-25 spacecraft into a translunar trajectory. The spacecraft will enter lunar orbit in about five days and set up for a landing attempt near the lunar south pole as soon as Aug. 21. Luna-25 is the first mission to the moon by Russia or the former Soviet Union since the Luna-24 sample return mission in 1976, and had suffered extensive delays in its development. (8/11)

Russia Hopes to Be First Country to Extract Water From the Moon (Source: El Pais)
In the midst of a war with Ukraine, as it faces off against the West, Russia is going to try to make history by becoming the first country to successfully land on the south pole of the Moon, the new promised land of space exploration. Russia's Luna-25 is a robotic probe which intends to land near the Boguslawsky crater, a depression 60.3 miles in diameter. Landing a spacecraft on the south pole of the Moon presents many challenges, as the area is riddled with craters. But it also may be home to extremely valuable ice reserves. (8/10)

Viasat Explores L-Band for Direct-to-Device (Source: Space News)
Viasat is in the early stages of exploring how to use L-band spectrum from newly acquired Inmarsat to connect consumer devices directly from space. A Viasat executive said Thursday the company considers it an "important priority" to see how it can use that L-band spectrum for direct-to-device services. That could include the use of smallsats in low Earth orbit along with existing GEO satellites. The company hasn't set a schedule for offering such services but Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg said in an earnings call this week that the direct-to-device market is "going to play out over several years." (8/11)

SDA Shakes Up Satellite Procurement (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency (SDA) is shaking up how the military procures satellites. The four-year-old SDA is working to break the mold with an ambitious plan to build a low Earth orbit constellation by relying on a broad base of suppliers for commercially produced small satellites and laser communications terminals. The SDA has awarded contracts to seven companies, some of whom are partnering with others for spacecraft. One industry analyst said that major defense prime contractors are getting involved in the SDA's programs because, if the SDA is successful, its programs could cannibalize business from traditional military satellite programs. (8/11)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From Florida, Recovers Booster (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
SpaceX launched another set of Starlink satellites overnight. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral's LC-40 at 1:17 a.m. Eastern Friday and deployed 22 Starlink v2 mini satellites. The launch was the fourth by SpaceX in a little more than eight days, three of which were Starlink missions. (8/11)

China Offers Flight Opportunities for Space Science Payloads (Source: Space.com)
Chinese organizations are planning to provide launch opportunities for space science payloads. The "Innovation X Scientific Flight" program plans to launch seven small satellites a year that can carry a variety of science instruments. The program is an effort by  the Innovation Academy of Microsatellite (IAMCAS) and Zhongke Aerospace Exploration Technology Company, aka CAS Space. Both are affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (8/11)

If You Did Space Ops, You Could Become a ‘Legacy Guardian’ (Source: Air & Space Forces Magazine)
Before the Space Force was founded in December 2019, Airmen ruled the heavens, at least as far as most military space activities were concerned. For decades tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Airmen controlled and acquired satellites, managed communications and intelligence, and performed other space missions. Air Force Space Command claimed more than 26,000 personnel at one point.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are close to giving some of those Airmen a chance to claim at least an honorary part of the newest military service. The “Space Force Legacy Guardian Recognition Act” is included in the House version of the National Defense Authorization bill, but not the Senate version. The measure would allow the Secretary of the Air Force to establish a process for veteran space professionals to be designated as honorary members of the Space Force. They would be called “Legacy Guardians.” (8/10)

UK Space Tourism Launches ‘Unlikely to Align’ with Ambitions to Cut Carbon Emissions (Source: The Telegraph)
Matt Archer, the launch director of UKSA, said although similar Virgin Galactic trips were possible from Spaceport Cornwall, they were unlikely to “align” with UK ambitions to cut carbon emissions. “There are debates that probably need to be had on whether space tourism is aligned to environmental agendas,” he said. “These are not insubstantial amounts of carbon you’re putting in the atmosphere for the sake of a few minutes in a space environment. We need to be really conscious that the environmental impact for the benefit is really high." (8/10)

Proposed Nevada Spaceport Chooses Former Astronaut to Advise STEM Academy (Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)
The organization that is working to develop a spaceport on desert land between Las Vegas and Pahrump has appointed a former NASA astronaut to lead its Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Academy. Jose Hernandez, 61, president and CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering LLC, has joined the Las Vegas Spaceport as a senior adviser and is expected to coordinate the organization’s STEM Academy to train students to become engineers. Hernandez is a former astronaut who served as flight engineer on STS-128. (8/10)

Center Approves Establishment of New Indian Spaceport for Launching SSLVs (Source: Hindu Business Line)
The Center has approved the establishment of a new spaceport in Kulasekarapattinam, Tamil Nadu, for carrying out the launches of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLV) developed by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said. The Indian Space Policy 2023 has the provision for utilization of a spaceport for carrying out launch activities by Non-Government Entities (NGEs), subject to technical feasibility and range safety constraints. (8/11)

How NASA Nearly Lost the Voyager 2 Spacecraft Forever (Source: WIRED)
Here’s what happened: Suzanne Dodd’s team at NASA JPL had actually spotted an error in a routine command and corrected it—but then mistakenly sent out the flawed version. “It felt awful. It was a moment of panic, because we were 2 degrees off point, which was substantial,” says Dodd, the project manager of the Voyager interstellar mission. The team settled on a solution: Blast a “shout” command in the probe’s direction, telling it to adjust the antenna back toward Earth. If the signal was strong enough, the craft could still receive it, even though its antenna was offset. (8/11)

Meet Jane Rigby, Senior Project Scientist for JWST and Advocate for LGBTQ+ Astronomers (Source: Science News)
One of a telescope operator’s primary jobs is to keep any stray light out of the instrument. Earthly and other unwelcome photons can swamp the cosmic light from distant stars and galaxies. During more than a decade as a project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, Jane Rigby obsessed over minimizing light leaks — with extraordinary success. The sky looks darker to JWST than most anyone had hoped. Rigby herself, now the senior project scientist for JWST, is a source of light.

She has also lit a path for queer astronomers, as well as others who are historically underrepresented in astronomy. Rigby has been out as part of the LGBTQ+ community since 2000, when she met her now-wife when they were both astronomy graduate students at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She has devoted much of her career to holding the door open for others. “I didn’t grow up with any queer role models,” she says. “I hope I’m the last generation for which that’s true.” (8/10)