August 3, 2023

UAE's Asteroid Mission Will Expand Nation's Space Capabilities (Source: Space News)
The United Arab Emirates sees its new asteroid mission as a way to develop broader space capabilities. In an interview, Hoor Al Mazmi, director of the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt, or EMA, said the goal of the mission is to develop space science and engineering expertise and to allow private companies in the UAE demonstrate their own space capabilities. EMA, scheduled for launch in 2028, will fly by six asteroids before arriving at a seventh, Justitia, where it will deploy a lander developed by two Emirati space startups. (8/3)

Black Hole Jet Surprises Scientists with 'Peculiar' Radio Signal (Source: Space.com)
Astronomers have spotted mysterious changes in a jet of highly magnetic plasma blasted out by a small black hole that is gorging on gas and dust. The feature takes the form of periodic changes in the jet  occurring within a fraction of a second that have been detected by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China.

Astronomers know that the strange blinking object, called GRS 1915+105, consists of a regular star orbiting a stellar black hole, a black hole that was born after a massive star had died. As the star orbits the black hole, some of its material gets sucked into the cosmic monster, which fails to swallow all of the material and instead accelerates some of it into the jet that appears to squirt from its poles. The team behind the observation thinks that the measured changes in the jet's energy could be due to the fact that the black hole's rotation isn't aligned with its accretion disk. (8/2)

Rocket Lab Again Delays Electron Launch (Source: Rocket Lab)
Weather has further delayed Rocket Lab's next launch. The company has delayed the Electron launch of a Capella Space radar imaging satellite to 1 a.m. Eastern Sunday, a two-day delay that Rocket Lab blamed on high winds at its Launch Complex 1 spaceport. Rocket Lab aborted the first launch attempt last weekend because of an issue with one engine in the rocket's first stage detected at ignition. (8/3)

Ariane 6 Testing Proceeding Slowly (Source: Ars Technica)
Testing of Europe's new Ariane 6 launch vehicle is proceeding slowly. ESA said it conducted a countdown test last month using a prototype of the Ariane 6 on the launch pad in French Guiana, but stopped the countdown short of a planned four-second hot fire because they ran out of time that day. ESA says it's still studying whether to do that test again, this time with the engine ignition, or move ahead to a test in September with an even longer burn of the rocket's Vulcain 2.1 engine. ESA said that, in either case, it does not plan to webcast the static-fire test. (8/3)

Starship Launch Debris Tested (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Sand-like material deposited more than 10 kilometers from the launch pad by April's Starship launch turns out to be… sand. Researchers from the University of Central Florida and Rice University studied the material to see if it was sand or pulverized concrete from the launch pad itself, which was heavily damaged by the launch. The tests concluded that the material was sand from Boca Chica Beach, although they are still examining how the material was thrown so far. Both the composition of the sand and the size of the particles do not pose health hazards, researchers concluded. (8/3)

SpaceX Launches Intelsat Satellite From Florida (Source: CBS)
SpaceX launched an Intelsat communications satellite overnight. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 1 a.m. Eastern and deployed the Galaxy 37 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit 32 minutes later. The satellite is the last spacecraft of Intelsat's update of its fleet providing C-band services to North America, freeing up some C-band spectrum for terrestrial services. The Maxar-built satellite also hosts a Ku-band payload jointly owned by Intelsat and Japanese operator JSAT. (8/3)

IARPA Picks Vendors for Small Orbital Debris Tracking (Source: Space News)
An intelligence agency has selected four vendors to develop technologies and new approaches for tracking small debris objects in space. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) said this week it awarded contracts to A-Tech, Advanced Space, SRI International and West Virginia University Research Corporation to develop technologies and methods to detect, track and characterize miniature space debris. The value of the four-year contracts was not disclosed. The IARPA program, called Space Debris Identification and Tracking, is intended to fill gaps in current space debris monitoring systems that can track debris no smaller than about 10 centimeters across. (8/3)

iRocket Gains Access to Air Force Testing Facility (Source: Space News)
Launch vehicle startup iRocket has signed an agreement to use an Air Force testing facility. The New York company, formally known as Innovative Rocket Technologies, signed a four-year cooperative research and development agreement, or CRADA, with the Air Force Research Lab's Rocket Propulsion Division. That will allow iRocket to perform engine tests at an AFRL facility at Edwards Air Force Base. The company said in June it won a U.S. Space Force contract to demonstrate a reusable rocket engine for small launch vehicles. (8/3)

Northrop Grumman Plans Stretched Version of Cygnus (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman is planning upgrades to its decade-old Cygnus spacecraft to support the International Space Station and future commercial stations. Company officials said at a conference Wednesday they are working on a stretched version of Cygnus that will increase its payload capacity from 3,750 to 5,000 kilograms, with a first flight projected for mid-2025. The company is also studying ways to allow Cygnus to dock with stations rather than be berthed by a robotic arm. Northrop has a NASA contract to transport cargo to and from the station, and company officials said they are in discussions with companies planning commercial space stations to offer similar cargo services. (8/3)

China Launches Weather Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China launched a weather satellite late Wednesday. A Long March 4C rocket launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:48 p.m. Eastern and placed the Fengyun-3 06 spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft, also known as Fengyun-3F, is the latest in China's fleet of polar-orbiting weather satellites. (8/3)

Space Business: Superconducted (Source: Quartz)
Is the hot new potentially superconducting material out of South Korea actually a hot new superconducting material? We’ll know in a week, according to Michael Norman, a physicist and distinguished fellow at the Argonne National Laboratory. That’s roughly how long it will take researchers around the world to replicate the material, dubbed LK-99, and assess whether it is actually a superconductor or simply has unusual magnetic capabilities; his own lab is working on it as we speak.

What makes this particularly scientific race more exciting than most is that LK-99 relies on relatively cheap and easy to access precursor materials, and it can by synthesized with techniques that are accessible to many laboratories and companies. One of the first US organizations to create LK-99 is likely to be Varda Space Industries, a startup building spacecraft that will autonomously manufacture pharmaceuticals in orbit.

Andrew McCalip, Varda’s head of research, is an engineer with a long interest in material science. When he read the papers that lit up the physics world, he realized that most of the equipment needed to make LK-99 was already in his lab, since Varda has been exploring how to synthesize exotic materials in orbit. (8/3)

Huntsville Hosts Space Convention Days After Space Command HQ Loss (Source: AL.com)
The Huntsville Madison County Chamber of Commerce says its leaders and members are “looking ahead” after losing the competition to be the permanent home of U.S. Space Command headquarters. Huntsville’s looking ahead starts next week when hundreds of people arrive for the 2023 Space and Missile Defense Symposium, chamber Marketing and Communications Vice President Claire Aiello said. That annual event featuring missile hardware displays and briefings by top military leaders draws hundreds of attendees, vendors and military officers each year. (8/2)

Space Command HQ Decision Not Tied to Senator or Abortion, White House Says (Source: Investing.com)
President Joe Biden's decision to nix his predecessor Donald Trump's plan to move the headquarters of the U.S. military's Space Command from Colorado to Alabama is unrelated to a dispute with Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville or concern over Alabama's abortion restrictions, the White House said. "The deciding factor for President Biden [...] was operational readiness, pure and simple," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

The Space Command headquarters decision had "nothing to do with Senator Tuberville's holds, had nothing to do with partisan politics," Kirby said. Alabama, which now prohibits nearly all abortions, has threatened to prosecute residents who travel out of state for abortions. "Alabama's restrictive reproductive care laws were not a factor in this decision," a White House official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. (8/1)

Space Command Decision Brings Economic Growth Potential (Source: KOAA)
The political back and forth on the future home of space command finally decided. It stays in Colorado Springs. “We're excited to bring a decision that's been years in the making to a conclusion,” said Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC Chief Operating Officer, Jim Lovewell. The decision to keep Space Command in Colorado Springs should be a boost to local economic growth. (8/2)

Biden Served as Tie-Breaker in Space Command Decision (Source: Politico)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had a tough call to make. Two senior Defense Department leaders were at odds over where to locate the permanent headquarters of U.S. Space Command, a decision at the center of a drawn-out and bitter fight on Capitol Hill laced with parochial politics. Gen. James Dickinson, the four-star chief of Space Command, recommended keeping the headquarters at its temporary location at Colorado’s Peterson Air Force Base, to avoid disrupting the schedule for the command to become fully operational in August.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, on the other hand, wanted to move the facility to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., in line with an 11th-hour decision during the Trump administration that was based on the service’s review of six sites. Austin brought both arguments to President Joe Biden’s desk and asked the commander in chief to settle the debate. (8/1)

Northrop Grumman Reassessing Fixed-Price Contracts After Loss on HALO (Source: Space Policy Online)
Northrop Grumman is reconsidering when to sign fixed price contracts with the government after experiencing a $36 million loss on NASA’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost. Company head Kathy Warden said she will be ensuring fixed price contracts are used for commercial and production programs with stable requirements in the future. HALO is the centerpiece of NASA’s Gateway space station that will serve as a hub in lunar orbit for operations on and around the Moon as part of the Artemis program. HALO and MAXAR’s Power and Propulsion Module (PPE) are scheduled to launch together on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy at the end of 2024. (8/2)

AI is Helping Scientists Reveal Star Ages. Here's How (Source: Space.com)
A new machine-learning algorithm aims to provide improved measurements of stellar ages, allowing astronomers to better model how stars evolve. The algorithm is an AI version of a project called EAGLES, which stands for Estimating Ages from Lithium Equivalent Widths. EAGLES uses the lithium abundance of stars to determine their age. Previously, this work had been done by fitting data to graphs. With surveys producing more and more data, this task has grown time-consuming and complex, so an AI has been written to take on the job. (8/2)

Blue Origin is Tightening its Return-to-Office Policy: 'Blue is a Work-From-Work Company' (Source: Business Insider)
Blue Origin is telling many employees to be in the office 5 days a week as it transitions from a more flexible remote work policy. Company executives recently shared a reminder of the new return-to-office policy, according to a companywide email obtained by Insider. It said employees with assigned desks in 5 of its remote offices, across California, Arizona and Virginia, must adhere to this policy because their "desk occupancy rates need to improve." Offices in the Seattle area, Florida, Texas, and Huntsville, Alabama, are "at capacity," or "managing current space or parking constraints," the email stated. (8/2)

Union Objects to the FAA’s Return-to-Office Order (Source: FNN)
The FAA’s order for employees to return to the office didn’t sit well with one of its unions. They call the order a clear violation of their collective bargaining agreement. "We represent over 11,000 employees at the FAA," said Dave Spero of the PASS union. "We have to be [at] an air traffic control facility or in some capacity on the job because that’s where the work is. But that’s not always the case with our aviation safety inspectors. They could be living in New York and overseeing the commercial operators in California. (8/1)