August 5, 2023

Capella’s Earth-Imaging Satellites are Deorbiting Faster Than Expected (Source: Tech Crunch)
Capella Space’s synthetic aperture radar satellites are falling back to Earth much sooner than the three years they were anticipated to operate, according to publicly available satellite data. The startup has launched a total of ten small satellites to low Earth orbit since 2018, including eight in its family of “Whitney”-class spacecraft. Five of these satellites have reentered the atmosphere since the end of January of this year, including three of the Whitneys.

Those Whitney sats were in orbit for less than two-and-a-half years; one, Capella-5, was in orbit for less than two years. That leaves five of the constellation in orbit, including the Capella-9 and Capella-10 launched on March 16, which are operating at an altitude of around 584 km and 588 km, respectively. Capella CEO Payam Banazadeh confirmed the situation: “due to the combination of increased drag due to much higher solar activity than predicted by NOAA and less than expected performance from our 3rd party propulsion system... We have upgraded our propulsion system on all future satellites to account for these facts, including the launch of our next generation satellite Acadia-1. (8/4)

Firefly Aerospace Names Former Blue Origin Executive and NASA Advisor Bretton Alexander as Chief Revenue Officer (Source: Firefly)
Firefly Aerospace, Inc., an end-to-end space transportation company, today announced it named Bretton “Brett” Alexander as its Chief Revenue Officer to accelerate growth and foster new and existing customers across Firefly’s launch, lunar, and on-orbit services. Alexander has more than 30 years of civil, national security, and commercial experience in the aerospace industry, most recently serving as Blue Origin’s Vice President of Government Sales. (8/4)

One to 196 in 11 Years: Indian Space Sector Seeing a Start-Up Boom (Source: The New Indian Express)
India's private space sector is on an upward trajectory. From one start-up company in 2012, there are now 196 start-ups in the space sector registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry. "As per the Economic Survey of India, in 2019, there was an investment of around $6 million in the space sector. This figure went up to over $110 million in 2022 which is the highest ever investment in start-ups till date," said Dr. Vinod Kumar. (8/4)

DoD Sees Benefit in Space Cooperation with South America (Source: DoD)
An increasing interest in space by partner nations in South America may prove beneficial to the U.S. Southern Command mission there, said its commander. Recently, Army Gen. Laura Richardson, Southcom's commander, spent time with Bill Nelson, NASA's administrator, during his trip though South America. According to NASA, Nelson visited Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. (8/4)

Canadian Space Agency Preparing for Another Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program RFP (Source: SpaceQ)
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is preparing to post another Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program request for proposals. This years budget included some significant new funding including for the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program. Specifically the budget stated that “Budget 2023 proposes to provide $150 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, to the Canadian Space Agency for the next phase of the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program to support the Canada’s world-class space industry and help accelerate the development of new technologies.” (8/4)

India Transfers Satellite Bus Technology to Private Firm (Source: The Tribune India)
ISRO on Saturday said it has transferred the IMS-1 Satellite Bus Technology to Alpha Design Technologies Pvt. Ltd in a step towards enhancing private industry participation in the country’s space sector. NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO, facilitated the technology transfer through an agreement signed during an event held at the NSIL headquarters on August 2, the space agency said on its website. (8/5)

Space Force Intel Focus: 50% on China; 25% on Russia (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force is concentrating fully half of its intelligence-gathering activities on China to keep tabs on Beijing’s rapid evolution as a space power to reckon with, according to the service’s senior intelligence officer. “From an intelligence perspective … about half of what we do is focused on China. About 25 percent of what we do is focused on Russia, and a lot of that has to do because of the current conflict,” said Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon. (8/4)

China to Launch “Innovation X Scientific Flight” Program, Payload Open for Application Worldwide (Source: CAS)
“Innovation X Scientific Flight” program, a new paradigm for low-cost space science and new technology experiments, was launched on July 27, 2023 and opens call for new payloads and products that require in-orbit verification worldwide. Utilizing the launch opportunities of the "Lijian-1" rocket, the “Innovation X Scientific Flight” program plans to launch four scientific nano satellites weighing 50kg, two micro-satellites weighing 100kg, and one scientific experimental satellite weighing 600kg every year. (8/4)

Jeanette Epps Will Finally Go to Space Six Years After Being Pulled From Flight (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA confirmed on Friday that Jeanette Epps, a former CIA technology intelligence officer selected as an astronaut in 2009, will finally launch into space in early 2024 on a SpaceX flight to the International Space Station. The crew assignment comes six years after NASA pulled Epps from what would have been her first spaceflight, just months before her scheduled launch to the space station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The removal of Epps from the Soyuz mission in 2018 raised a lot of questions. It's not the first time NASA has pulled an astronaut off of space missions soon before launch, but it's usually for medical reasons, like an illness or an injury. That wasn't the case for Epps, who was replaced by a backup crew member on the Soyuz flight in 2018. NASA never publicly stated a reason for the crew change. Some people outside the agency theorized Epps might have been removed from her flight for political or racial reasons—she would have become the first Black astronaut to fly a long-duration stint on the space station. (8/4)

Astra Announces Layoffs, Reorganizes Workforce to Support Engine Business (Sources: Astra, Space News)
Astra Space announced a strategic reallocation of its workforce from its Launch Services organization to its Astra Spacecraft Engines business to support its growing customer base and order backlog of its spacecraft engines. Astra says it has laid off 25% of its staff. The company last announced 278 cumulative committed orders of the Astra Spacecraft Engine through March 30, 2023, representing approximately $77 million of contract value. A substantial majority of these orders are expected to be delivered through the end of 2024. The company says that will delay work on its Rocket 4 launch vehicle. Astra also projects remaining cash to be below earlier forecasts. (8/4)

Sierra Space Hosts Comprehensive Dream Chaser Training for Three NASA Astronauts (Source: Sierra Space)
Sierra Space hosted its third official training of NASA astronauts to learn the innerworkings of Dream Chaser, the world’s first commercial spaceplane. The three astronauts – Mike Barratt, Matt Dominick and Jeanette Epps – are members of the upcoming NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station, which is currently slated to launch no earlier than February 2024. During their planned six-month stay, Dream Chaser is scheduled to make its maiden voyage to deliver cargo to the ISS as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) contract. (8/4)

Space Station Assignments Out for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 Mission (Source: NASA)
Four crew members now are assigned to launch on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission for a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Commander Matthew Dominick, Pilot Michael Barratt, and Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Alexander Grebenkin, will join Expedition 70 and 71 crew members aboard the station in early 2024 to conduct a wide-ranging set of operational and research activities. (8/4)

ISS Partners Seek to Maximize Use of Station Through 2030 (Source: Space News)
While the partners in the International Space Station have agreed to operate the station through at least the late 2020s, the extended use of the station still faces technical and budgetary challenges. Representatives of NASA and its three Western partners — Canada, Europe and Japan — hailed the confirmation of plans to extend space station operations through 2030. Canada was the last of the four to confirm that extension, doing so in March.

The message that space agency officials and others at the conference was that the ISS was hitting its stride as a research platform. Frank De Winne, ISS program manager at the European Space Agency, said on the panel that a major step in enabling that usage was adding a fourth crew member to the U.S. operating segment, which includes Canada, Europe and Japan. That was possible once SpaceX’s Crew Dragon started crew rotation missions in 2020, ending reliance on Soyuz. (8/4)

Enormous Structure Found Hiding Under The Surface Of The Moon (Source: IFL Science)
The Moon has one of the largest preserved craters in the Solar System, the South Pole-Aitken Basin, located on the far side of our satellite. The area is central to many investigations, with India's first lunar lander aiming for the region, Artemis 3 hoping to land humans at the South Pole, and perhaps most curiously, the mass anomaly astronomers found hiding under its surface in 2019.

Planetary scientists discovered a structure that weighs approximately 2.18 billion billion kilograms, and stretches for more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) in depth. They suspect it may contain metal from the asteroid that formed the crater. "Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That's roughly how much unexpected mass we detected," lead author Peter B. James from Baylor University said at the time. (8/3)

Northrop Opens Hypersonic Propulsion Manufacturing Facility (Source: C4ISRnet)
Northrop Grumman opened the doors to a new hypersonics manufacturing facility, designed to meet U.S. Department of Defense needs for high-speed propulsion systems. The company broke ground on its Hypersonics Capability Center in 2021 and announced the opening of the Elkton, Maryland, facility Aug. 3. Chris Haynes, senior director for strategy and business development within Northrop’s missile portfolio, said the 60,000 square foot space will help the company and the department transition hypersonic systems from the development phase to production. (8/4)

Astronomers Spotted Inexplicably Bright Light Coming From the Sun (Source: New Scientist)
Extraordinarily high-energy gamma rays have been found emanating from the sun, and none of our theoretical models can explain why there are so many of them. Astronomers have detected gamma rays coming from the sun that are more energetic than any we have seen before, and there are more of them than any of our models of the sun can account for. Many of the gamma rays we see coming from the sun are produced by cosmic rays, which are charged particles that hurtle through space at incredible speeds. When cosmic rays hit protons in the sun, the collision creates gamma rays.  …

In the 1990s, scientists predicted that the sun could produce gamma rays when high-energy cosmic rays -- particles accelerated by a cosmic powerhouse like a black hole or supernova -- smash into protons in the sun. But, based on what was known about cosmic rays and the sun, the researchers also hypothesized it would be rare to see these gamma rays reach Earth. Researchers have shown that the energies of the sun's rays extend into the TeV range, up to nearly 10 TeV. (8/3)

Destroying Space Command (Source: Washington Times)
In disregard of basic military strategy and national security, President Biden overturned a major Air Force basing decision this week. Just as he did in Afghanistan by picking a withdrawal date based on public relations rather than his top generals’ best military advice, the president’s wrongheaded political calculations will once again leave our military in chaos. (8/3)

Biden, Finally, Makes the Right Call on Space Command (Source: Washington Examiner)
After months of bipartisan pressure from Colorado’s congressional delegation, President Joe Biden finally decided this week to keep Space Command in Colorado Springs, a decision that provides much-needed stability and continuity to a mission facing imminent threats from China and Russia. (8/4)

Fight for a Space National Guard Moves to Next Round (Source: Air and Space Forces)
When the Senate overwhelmingly passed its version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization bill in a bipartisan 86-11 vote, the differences between that measure and the House version were left to a panel of conferees to resolve. The House version passed largely on party lines, but the two versions must be reconciled and approved by both chambers. For the Space Force, the biggest single issue is how to solve the fact that units in the Air National Guard perform all their work for the Space Force, but are not statutorily connected to the new service.

Proponents of forming a Space National Guard see it as the simplest solution. They say Air National Guard units with space missions are currently “orphaned” with no corresponding units in the Active-Duty Air Force. A Space National Guard can be put in effect inexpensively, they argue, with mostly cosmetic changes such as names on signs. The new organization would allow space professionals in the Air Guard to continue to serve both the Space Force and traditional Guard missions like natural disaster relief.

Critics counter that a Space National Guard adds unnecessary bureaucracy and would ultimately add millions of dollars in cost. They also say states have no specific missions for which military space forces are necessary, and that the Space Force should embrace a more innovative approach to personnel management. (8/3)

Apple-Backed Globalstar’s Revenue Jump Underlines IoT Opportunity (Source: Space News)
Globalstar, the operator behind Apple’s satellite-enabled SOS app, posted a 50% year-on-year jump in quarterly sales Aug. 3 amid promising growth in its business for connecting remote Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Nearly half the $55 million Globalstar made in the three months ended June 30 came from wholesale capacity service revenues driven by Apple, which has been using its satellites for iPhone emergency messaging since November. (8/4)