August 15, 2023

Intelsat Completes C-Band Clearance (Source: Space News)
Intelsat said Monday it has met all the conditions to receive $3.7 billion in C-band clearing payments. The company earlier this month launched the seventh and final satellite as part of its efforts to clear a portion of C-band satellite spectrum for terrestrial services. Intelsat said Monday it had achieved certification for work to move broadcast customers into a narrower swath of the spectrum. The company earlier received $1.2 billion after hitting an interim 2021 clearing milestone under the FCC’s transition plan, meaning the operator will receive nearly $5 billion in total incentive clearing payments. Intelsat CEO Dave Wajsgras said half the proceeds will go toward paying down debt, which stood at $7 billion after the operator emerged from bankruptcy early last year. (8/15)

Intuitive Machines Plans November 2023 Lunar Lander Launch (Source: Space News)
Intuitive Machines has set a mid-November launch date for its first lunar lander mission. The company said in an earnings announcement Monday that its IM-1 mission is scheduled to launch Nov. 15 on a Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center, at the start of a six-day launch window, with a backup launch window in December. The lander is complete and will be shipped to Florida for launch preparations in September. IM-1 is the first of three lander missions under contract currently through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The company reported an operating loss of $13.1 million on $18 million in revenue in the second quarter, and withdrew previous guidance for revenue for the year citing delays in government contracts and "U.S. federal budget uncertainty." (8/15)

AST SpaceMobile Raises $115 Million to Fully Fund First Satellites (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile has fully funded its first five commercial satellites after raising $115 million in debt. The company said Monday that the debt financing, along with $64 million in sales of stock, will fund the five satellites slated to launch early next year by SpaceX. Those satellites will be sufficient to provide intermittent connectivity that AST SpaceMobile said would suit government and commercial device- monitoring applications. However, the company added that its initial service with five satellites would not bring in enough revenues to fund future spacecraft or turn a profit. Executives said in an earnings call that AST SpaceMobile has received multiple indications of interest from strategic investors that could help fund more of the satellites it is building in-house. (8/15)

Space Force Seeks Corporate Support for Situational Awareness (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is asking companies for assistance in tracking activities in outer space. Matt Fetrow, director of strategic communication for the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, said the service is encouraging companies that can contribute innovations in threat identification, space awareness, on-orbit mobility and other areas related to space protection to participate in the next Hyperspace Challenge this fall. That is an accelerator funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the SpaceWERX office, with a focus in its next round on "existing, mature technologies" related to space domain awareness. (8/15)

NASA Picks Rocket Lab to Launch Cubesats (Source: Space News)
NASA selected Rocket Lab to launch a pair of Earth science cubesats next year. NASA said Monday it awarded a task order through its Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract to the company for the launch of two 6U cubesats for the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) mission. The satellites will be launched individually on two Electron launches in May 2024 from New Zealand. Neither NASA nor Rocket Lab disclosed the value of the award, but the company has previously announced a target price of $7.5 million for an Electron launch. The PREFIRE cubesats will measure infrared emissions, particularly from polar regions, to monitor climate change. (8/15)

Bigger Satellites Promise Bigger Payoff for Imagery Operators (Source: Space News)
For Earth observation companies, bigger satellites are better. Companies that entered the market with cubesats or other smallsats are increasingly moving to larger satellites to improve performance and lifetime. Radar imaging company Capella Space's new Acadia satellites are 50% heavier than its earlier Whitney series. It noted that change did not increase launch costs since it was buying dedicated Electron launches for both classes of satellites. Other companies said that changing cost and volume constraints are allowing them to move to larger satellites to provide improved performance. (8/14)

Amazon's Kuiper Chief Retiring (Source: Wall Street Journal)
The Amazon executive overseeing the company's Project Kuiper broadband constellation is retiring. Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services, will leave the company by the end of the year after 13 years at Amazon. His division is best known for devices like the Echo smart speaker, but is also leading development of the Kuiper satellite system. He did not disclose the reason for leaving the company now. (8/15)

NASA Developing Adapter for SLS to Carry More Secondary Payloads (Source: Space News)
NASA is developing a larger secondary payload adapter for the Space Launch System. The new adapter, called the Nest, will include 15 payload mounting locations that can accommodate 6U, 12U or 27U cubesats, according to a presentation at last week's Small Satellite Conference. The adapter would be first flown on Artemis 5, the second launch of the more powerful SLS Block 1B planned for no earlier than the end of the decade. NASA flew 10 cubesats on the Artemis 1 launch last year, but has not yet decided if it will fly cubesats on future SLS launches before Artemis 5. (8/15)

US/Japan/South Korea to Discuss Space at Summit (Source: Breaking Defense)
Space will be on the agenda this week for a trilateral summit featuring Japan, South Korea and the United States. Leaders of the three countries will meet Friday at Camp David, and government sources said military, civil and commercial space cooperation will be included in those discussions. The U.S. has been individually strengthening bilateral space cooperation with Japan and South Korea in both military and civil realms. (8/15)

Russia Fails to Find Partners for Proposed Space Station (Source: TASS)
Russia has no takers so far to participate on its future space station. A Roscosmos official said Monday that it had not received any response from countries interested in cooperation on the Russian Orbital Station, the country's proposed successor to the International Space Station. Roscosmos had earlier offered to dedicate a module of the station for use by the "BRICS" countries of Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa, even though China has its own operational space station today. (8/15)

Dark Energy Could be Measured by Studying the Galaxy Next Door (Source: Space Daily)
Researchers have found a new way to measure dark energy - the mysterious force that makes up more than two-thirds of the universe and is responsible for its accelerating expansion - in our own cosmic backyard. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, found that it may be possible to detect and measure dark energy by studying Andromeda, our galactic next-door neighbour that is on a slow-motion collision course with the Milky Way. (8/15)

China's Kuaizhou-1A Rocket Launches Five New Satellites (Source: Space Daily)
China launched a Kuaizhou 1A carrier rocket on Monday afternoon at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, placing five communication satellites in space, according to the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. The mission marked the 22nd flight of the Kuaizhou 1A model and the rocket's fourth launch this year. Developed by Head Aerospace Technology, a private satellite maker in Beijing, the satellites are tasked with obtaining and transmitting data for shipping and other maritime industries. (8/15)

RTX Provides Blue Canyon Satellites for NASA Swarm Test Launch (Source: Space Daily)
RTX's small-satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT), announces successful launch and initial contact with CubeSats for the NASA Starling mission, a technology demonstration aimed at proving the success of cooperative groups of spacecraft operating in an autonomous, synchronous manner or "swarm." BCT provided four 6U CubeSats to NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology program which is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley for the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate. (8/15)

Planet Completes Acquisition of Sinergise; Set to Expand Planet's Earth Data Platform (Source: Space Daily)
Planet Labs has now completed its previously announced acquisition of the business of Holding Sinergise, a leading developer platform for Earth observation (EO) data. The purchase of the Sinergise business, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, accelerates the advancement of Planet's Earth Data Platform and ability to efficiently deliver EO data to customers. This is aligned with Planet's mission to enable easier access to geospatial data and the availability of Planetary Variables product line via Planet's data APIs. (8/15)

NASA is Sending Humans to an Asteroid: SpaceX Will Get Them There (Source: The Hill)
The idea of sending a SpaceX Starship to an Earth-approaching asteroid is far superior to the original Obama proposal. Starships can take 100 metric tons or more anywhere in the inner solar system. A version of the rocket will land the first Americans on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Elon Musk dreams of using a fleet of Starships to build his Mars settlement.

According to the NASA plan, a Starship would be launched into low Earth orbit in 2039. It would be refueled, after which a Dragon with a crew of three would launch and dock with the Starship, transferring the astronauts to the larger spacecraft. The Starship would blast out of Earth’s orbit and rendezvous with an asteroid called 2001 FR85, estimated to be 29 to 65 meters in size. The ship would fly in tandem with the asteroid, taking samples and leaving behind robots. Then it would fly back to Earth orbit, where the crew would transfer to another Dragon to return to Earth. (8/13)

The Space Industry is Starting a Green Revolution (Source: Tech Crunch)
In May 2022, two scientists from Cyprus sought to quantify the potential health and climate risks of space launches by blending rocket launch data with computer simulations. The conclusion they reached was that “pollution from rockets should not be underestimated as frequent future rocket launches could have a significant cumulative effect on climate,” and may also become “hazardous to human health.”

In the simulations, the scientists used data based on the standard rocket fuel RP-1. And therein lies one of the biggest problems that the space launch industry needs to tackle. RP-1, a highly refined form of kerosene, has been the standard rocket fuel used for decades. Unfortunately, RP-1 is not and never has been a clean-burning fuel. A launch using RP-1 or similar kerosene-based fuel creates many tons of CO2, as well as particulates in the atmosphere called black carbon, commonly known as soot.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. It is early days, admittedly, but it is safe to say there is a green revolution starting in the space launch industry. Positive signs are starting to appear across the global space industry and it appears to be gathering steam. It is starting with a rethink about the fuels that are being utilized. Three emerging rocket launch companies, two in Europe and one in the U.S., have decided to build their rockets around a very different, yet very familiar fuel — propane. Strange as it may seem, what most people think of as camping gas might be a saving grace for the global space launch industry. (8/14)

Everything is Coming Together for Launch of NASA’s Mission to a Metal Asteroid (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is running a year behind schedule before the beginning of its journey to explore a metal asteroid, but mission managers said Friday the probe is essentially ready for launch in less than two months. The spacecraft is heading for asteroid Psyche, the mission's namesake, about three times farther from the Sun than Earth. Psyche is the largest metal-rich asteroid in the Solar System, with an average diameter of around 140 miles. Observations from Earth indicate it's made mostly of nickel and iron.

The Psyche mission will be the first to explore a metal-rich asteroid, which may be the leftover core of a proto-planet that began forming in the early Solar System more than 4 billion years ago. The spacecraft is ready for fueling inside a clean room near the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Two large solar arrays are folded up like an accordion against the central body of the spacecraft, and technicians have finished installing blankets of thermal insulation to shield the probe from the harsh cold of deep space. (8/11)

Boeing, Southern University Win NASA Award For Partnership (Source: AvWeb)
Boeing and Southern University and A&M College have been awarded NASA’s 2022 Mentor-Protégé Agreement of the Year for their work on the agency’s space launch system (SLS) rocket. Boeing was nominated by the Marshall Space Flight Center for its mentorship of Southern University “while providing tactical business and technical support to the institution.” Louisiana-based Southern University provided alumni engineering skills to Boeing’s SLS program in New Orleans. (8/10)