August 22, 2023

The Road to Jupiter: Two Decades of Trajectory Optimization (Source: Space Daily)
The intricate multi-body dynamic environment stemming from Jupiter and its four prominent Galilean moons complicates trajectory design and optimization. Coupled with the formidable radiation surrounding Jupiter and spacecraft's limited fuel, these challenges necessitate advanced and intricate design solutions. Click here. (8/21)

From Rice to Quantum Gas: China's Targets Pioneering Space Research (Source: Space Daily)
China's orbiting Tiangong space station is now fully operational and has embarked on a mission that aims to achieve groundbreaking scientific discoveries, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). This marks a significant step forward as the station enters an application and development phase that is anticipated to last for over a decade. Click here. (8/21)

Overview Of China’s Tiangong Space Station (Source: SpaceRef)
As a manned spacecraft operating in orbit for a long time, a space station embodies a country’s scientific and technological strength comprehensively. China’s manned space project was approved in 1992 with a 3-step strategic plan, and building a space station is the final goal of this plan. In September 2010, China’s manned space station project was officially established. After 11 years of unremitting efforts, on 2021 April 29, the Tianhe core module was successfully launched into orbit by the carrier rocket Long March-5B at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan. Click here. (8/21)

Space Development Agency Awards Contracts to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman for 72 Satellites (Source: Space News)
The Space Development Agency announced Aug. 21 it awarded contracts worth $1.5 billion to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to build and operate 72 satellites. SDA is building a mesh network of military satellites in low Earth orbit. The 72 satellites will make up a portion of SDA’s network known as Tranche 2 Transport Layer. SDA is building a large constellation called the proliferated warfighter space architecture that includes a Transport Layer of interconnected communications satellites and a Tracking Layer of missile-detection and warning sensor satellites. (8/21)

The Failure of Luna 25 Cements Putin’s Role as a Disastrous Space Leader (Source: Ars Technica)
The Soyuz spacecraft, as well as a lot of the country's other satellites, launches into orbit on the Soyuz rocket. This vehicle dates back even a bit further, to 1966. Russian engineers have modified and modernized both the spacecraft and rocket over time, but they remain essentially the same space vehicles. There's nothing wrong with aging technology that works. However, there have been some issues of late with leaks and other problems that have raised serious questions about quality control and the ability of the Russians to manufacture these vehicles.

The bigger problem is that there is precious little new hardware in the pipeline. A modern replacement for the Soyuz spacecraft, "Orel," is perpetually five to seven years away from flight, which essentially means never. A replacement space station, ROSS, remains in the vaporware stage of development. And then there is the Soyuz-5 rocket, a three-stage rocket powered by RD-171 engines that will burn kerosene fuel and compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on price. This vehicle, too, has a future launch date that keeps slipping.

Before the launch of Luna 25, Putin made it clear that this mission was important for Russia as a signal that the country was returning to great power status. He met with the current head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, on June 30 before the launch to hear more about the lunar mission. Critically, Luna 25 was to mark the reopening of Russia's interests on the Moon. It was a relatively modest mission, with a mass of about 1 metric ton, and far smaller than the Luna missions the Soviets sent to the Moon half a century ago. But it was the nation's first trip back to the Moon in 46 years and would at least allow Putin to credibly claim that Russia was back. (8/21)

Despite the Luna-25 Failure, Russia is Not a Declining Space Power (Source: Space Review)
Russia’s first mission to the Moon in nearly half a century crashed over the weekend, days before its scheduled landing, prompting a new wave of commentary abut the state of Russia’s space program. Daniel Duchaine cautions that, even with the failure of Luna-25, other, more worrisome aspects of its space activities continue to grow. Click here. (8/21)
 
For Smallsats, Two Ways to Orbit (Source: Space Review)
In some respects, it’s never been easier to get smallsats into orbit, even though the options for doing so are limited. Jeff Foust reports that, for most smallsat operators today, it’s a choice between hitching a ride with SpaceX or buying a launch from Rocket Lab. Click here. (8/21)
 
The Fault in our Mars Settlement Plans (Source: Space Review)
Some in the space community say we’re ready to send humans to Mars now. Isabella Cisneros argues it’s time for a Red Planet reality check because of serious, often overlooked technical, societal, and other challenges such efforts face. Click here. (8/21)
 
1569 and 2023 (Source: Space Review)
Space advocates have used a wide range of historical analogies over the years to justify their support for space development. Bob Werb offers a new one to explain what the public needs to know to better appreciate and support space activities. Click here. (8/21)

Sidus Space Acquires Exo-Space (Source: Sidus Space)
Space Coast-based Sidus Space announces its strategic acquisition of Exo-Space, a cutting-edge California-based firm specializing in Edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) software and hardware for space applications. This transaction signals Sidus's determination to tap into the growing AI sector and expand its offerings in the Earth and Space Observations services market.

Sidus has acquired Exo-Space's assets in a combination of cash, stock options, and performance bonus incentives in alignment with Sidus’ growth into an AI-enabled space services company. Exo-Space brings a current revenue stream of commercial and government contracts extending through 2025, as well as a pipeline of potential clients.  (8/22)

NASA Has Helped Hush Aircraft Engine Noise for Decades (Source: NASA)
Modern jet engines are loud, but they used to be much louder. NASA’s Glenn Research Center has been at the forefront of the nation’s efforts to reduce aircraft engine noise for over 70 years. During this time, the center has built an array of test facilities to carry out this work, culminating in the Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory (AAPL), a world-class noise-reduction research facility.

The AAPL, referred to as “the dome,” contains multiple test rigs enclosed in a large, echo-free chamber. The unique 130-foot diameter and 65-foot-high hemispherical structure stands out on Glenn’s campus. Its triangular sections make it appear like a golf ball rising from the ground. The interior is covered in spiky, fiberglass sound-dampening wedges and an overhead array of microphones that capture engine noise data. (8/21)

Blue Origin Rocket Tests in Texas are Emitting So Much Methane You Can See it From Space (Source: Fortune)
Controlling methane is such an urgent priority that President Joe Biden recently hosted a “Methane Summit” at the White House. Most of the problem stems from just a few kinds of places: natural gas wells and pipelines, cattle feedlots, coal mines, rice paddies, and landfills. But occasionally, the scientists who hunt for large methane releases find them in surprising spots. Such was the case on June 4, when a plume of the gas was detected at the sprawling ranch in West Texas where billionaire Jeff Bezos tests space rockets.

It turns out that Bezos’s space company, Blue Origin LLC, routinely emits the stuff because it’s developing a rocket that runs on liquefied natural gas, which is almost pure methane. The June release was detected by an instrument on board the International Space Station, which happened to be zooming past that day. (8/21)

Science in Space: Week of Aug. 18, 2023 - The Space Diet (Source: NASA)
Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted a variety of scientific investigations during the week ending Aug. 18, 2023, including tracking food intake and collecting biological samples for Food Physiology. Spaceflight is known to affect the immune system, which could increase health risks for astronauts on future missions. This ongoing investigation began in March 2019 and characterizes how an enhanced spaceflight diet affects immune function, the gut microbiome, and nutritional status. Click here. (8/21)

Ukrainians Describe 'Chaos' of Musk's Starlink Battlefield Outages (Source: Daily Beast)
Outages of Elon Musk’s Starlink communication devices have plunged Ukrainian troops who rely on the technology into “chaos,” according to a new report. A soldier in Ukraine’s signal corps who had responsibility for maintaining access to the Starlink system told the New Yorker that, at one point, forces advancing into contested areas in the south of the country suddenly found their communication had dropped out close to the front line. “Communications became dead, units were isolated,” the soldier, identified only as Mykola, said. (8/21)

North Korea Could Launch Satellite Soon (Source: NK News)
North Korea appears to be preparing for another satellite launch. Japanese officials said they were notified by the North Korean government of a planned launch between Aug. 24 and 31. The launch attempt appears similar to one in May by a Chollima-1 rocket from the Sohae Satellite Launching Grounds. That launch failed and its satellite payload fell into the ocean. South Korea said it recovered the satellite and concluded it had "no efficacy for military use," but did not elaborate. (8/22)

SDA Awards Tranche 1 Satellite Contracts to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman (Source: Space News)
The Space Force's Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded contracts Monday to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman for a new set of communications satellites. The SDA selected the two companies to each build 36 satellites for the "Beta" portion of the Tranche 2 Transport Layer network. Lockheed's contract is valued at $816 million and Northrop's at $733 million. The Beta variant of the Tranche 2 Transport Layer vehicles are similar to the 126 Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites that SDA ordered last year from Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and York Space. SDA plans to acquire an additional 100 "Alpha" satellites for the Tranche 2 Transport Layer. (8/22)

Eutelsat Clears Regulatory Hurdles for OneWeb Acquisition (Source: Space News)
Eutelsat says it has secured all the regulatory approvals needed for its acquisition of OneWeb. Eutelsat announced Monday that the remaining step in the deal is a shareholder vote scheduled for Sept. 28. Unlike Viasat's recent acquisition of British operator Inmarsat, which took a year and a half to complete, European regulators did not hold up the OneWeb deal to investigate concerns it could lead to higher prices for satellite services and reduced quality. The all-stock deal, announced a year ago, values OneWeb at $3.4 billion. (8/22)

This Student-Built Rover Is Aiming for the Moon (Source: Bloomberg)
Students at Carnegie Mellon University, led by a 28-year-old ex-NASA pro turned PhD student, have crafted the nimble Iris rover. Iris is setting its sights on moondust close-ups, but by challenging industry norms with limited resources, the project's success could turbocharge independent space research. Click here. (8/21)

Roscosmos: Luna Thrusters Fired Too Long (Source: AP)
The head of Roscosmos said the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed when its thrusters fired for longer than planned. Yuri Borisov said Monday that the thrusters on Luna-25 were scheduled to fire for 84 seconds during a maneuver Saturday to set up the landing attempt, but instead fired for 127 seconds. That caused the spacecraft to crash into the surface of the moon. Borisov attributed the failure to decades of inactivity in Russian space exploration that caused the program to lose experience built up in the early years of the space age, and vowed to press ahead with future missions to the moon. (8/22)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From California (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites early this morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 5:37 a.m. Eastern and deployed 22 Starlink satellites into their intended orbit. The launch was scheduled for last week but was delayed first by an undisclosed issue and then by the effects of Hurricane Hilary. The launch was the 100th by SpaceX whose primary mission was deploying Starlink satellites. (8/22)

SpaceX Reveals Starship Hot Stage Ring (Source: Teslarati)
SpaceX recently installed the new hot staging ring atop Booster 9 that will attempt this new stage separation method. The hot staging ring has gone through its own test campaign, including being connected to the “can crusher,” which simulates stresses on the rocket during liftoff and, having passed that test, was then installed.

Hot staging is when the 2nd stage, in this case, Starship, ignites its engines while still connected to then pull away from Booster 9, which will also still be firing some of its own engines but with those throttled down. The hot staging method isn’t a new idea, as it has been used by Russian rockets for years now and also by older American rockets such as the Titan II. (8/21)

JWST Confirms and Worsens 'Hubble Tension' Expansion Quandary (Source: Big Think)
The two major methods for measuring the cosmic expansion rate are fundamentally incompatible, with the early relic method yielding 67 km/s/Mpc and the distance ladder method revealing 73 km/s/Mpc. Many had hoped, with a new observatory and unprecedented data, that JWST would reveal errors in the distance ladder method, relieving this so-called "Hubble tension." But now that the JWST data is in, it just confirms earlier results to even greater precision and with smaller errors. The "Hubble tension" problem has just gotten worse. (8/21)

New Horizons Seeks Help for Uranus and Neptune Observations (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
NASA’s New Horizons mission is seeking assistance from amateur astronomers in observations of ice giants Uranus and Neptune, which will be conducted in September. At the same time the spacecraft looks back on the two ice giants, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope will observe them from Earth using its color camera. Mission scientists hope the three-way observations will shed light on the way heat is transferred from these planets’ rocky cores to their gaseous surfaces. (8/21)

China Unleashes Dozens Of Low-Orbit Satellites To Spy On India-US-Japan-Australia Malabar Naval Drills (Source: EurAsian Times)
While warships from India, Japan, Australia, and the US are engaged in high-end warfare training in Australia as part of the Malabar Exercise 2023, hundreds of Chinese satellites are reportedly collecting valuable intelligence on the ongoing military drills. Amid the ongoing 31st iteration of the Malabar multinational exercise, a report claimed that China has taken a proactive step to monitor and gather data on the Malabar drills. Many of China’s low-orbit satellites (LEOs) are strategically positioned over Australia, systematically acquiring information about military training operations. (8/19)

Chinese Firm Launches Satellite with AI-Powered ‘Brain’ (Source: South China Morning Post)
A Chinese company has launched a satellite that has powerful artificial intelligence at its core, with the final aim of creating a self-controlled spaceship. The WonderJourney-1A, or WJ-1A, which blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Inner Mongolia earlier this month, has an onboard intelligent processing unit known as the String Edge AI Platform. (8/20)

Space Perspective Balloon-Building Plant to be Dedicated on Space Coast (Source: Florida Today)
Tuesday morning, a host of officials conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Space Perspective's balloon-manufacturing facility — a 700-foot-long building — at Space Coast Regional Airport. Jane Poynter labeled the building "the world's only high-volume space balloon manufacturing facility," and she described its size and scale as "a little mind-boggling." At high altitude, the hydrogen-filled polyethylene balloons will expand into a teardrop shape measuring 350 feet in diameter. That's wider than the length of a football field.

Space Perspective was founded in 2019. Poynter said more than 130 employees now work at the Titusville balloon plant and at a Melbourne manufacturing facility, where workers are crafting the exterior structure of the company's Neptune pressurized capsule. Each capsule will house seating for eight passengers and a pilot. Test flights should begin by year's end out at sea from the deck of Marine Spaceport Voyager, a 294-foot-long vessel undergoing modifications at Conrad Shipyard in Morgan City, Louisiana. (8/21)

Space Force Boosts Resilience with Capella Federal's Satellite Services Contract (Source: Space Daily)
The satellite realm experienced a significant development as Capella Federal, a prominent subsidiary of Capella Space, secured a contract for Proliferated Low Earth Orbit Satellite-Based Services (PLEO) via the U.S. Space Systems Command (SSC). This landmark contract facilitates a faster collaboration process between Capella, SSC, and the U.S. Space Force, aiming to widen the availability of round-the-clock, all-condition global imagery vital for various missions.

A highlight of this deal is its positioning of Capella Federal as a pioneer among the commercial earth observation enterprises. The reason being its collaboration within an emerging governmental framework for commercial satellite services. This novel procurement model is designed with a vision - to capitalize on cutting-edge commercial space technologies to bolster the U.S. Space Force's capabilities and resilience. (8/20)