August 7, 2023

NASA and Partners Aim to Maximize Use of ISS Until Commercial Options Arrive (Source: Space News)
NASA and its International Space Station partners said they plan to make full use of the station through the end of the decade. At a conference last week, officials said they would be going "full steam" on the station through 2030, a date agreed to by the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. Russia has agreed to ISS operations only through 2028, a date set by the four-year planning cycles at Roscosmos. Officials left open the door of continuing ISS beyond 2030, the scheduled retirement date for the station, if needed.

Plans to transition from the ISS to commercial stations are still a work in progress. Officials said at that conference that they are working on details on how to move research currently done on the ISS to those commercial stations whose development NASA is supporting. NASA will release a request for information in the coming months seeking input on a draft set of requirements for those stations. Industry executives said that effort is going well so far, but are looking for more clarity on topics like how to host research being done on the ISS and how international partners will participate on those stations. (8/7)

Xenesis Plans Laser Comms Demo on ISS (Source: Space News)
Optical communications company Xenesis plans to demonstrate laser communications on the ISS. The company said it will install an optical communications hub for customers of Bartolomeo, an external platform on the station operated by Airbus. The system will go to the station on a commercial cargo vehicle and be operational by mid-2025. Earth observation customers of Bartolomeo will be able to use it for high-speed downlinks. (8/7)

LeoStella Super-Sizes its Platform for Small Satellites as it Takes Aim at New Markets (Source: GeekWire)
LeoStella is unveiling its latest, greatest platform for small satellites, which should hit a sweet spot for future manufacturing contracts. LeoStella, which is a joint venture co-owned by European satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space and a geospatial data analysis company called BlackSky, started out in 2018 building Earth observation satellites for BlackSky’s Global constellation. LeoStella’s LS-100 spacecraft platform, which is known in the space industry as a bus, was right-sized for those 120-pound (55-kilogram) satellites. But that was about as much mass as the LS-100 bus could accommodate. (8/6)

Falcon 9 Chalks Up New Launch Pad Turnaround Record on Starlink Launch (Source: Spaceflight Now)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Sunday carrying 22 more second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit, breaking a launch pad turnaround record. The booster, making its fourth flight, lifted off from LC-40 at 10:41 p.m. EDT. It was three days 21 hours and 41 minutes since the launch of Intelsat’s Galaxy 37 mission from LC-40. The previous record of 4 days 3 hours and 11 minutes was set less than two weeks ago between Starlink missions 6-6 and 6-7. (8/6)

Colorado Spaceport Continues Upgrades for the Future of Passenger Space Travel (Source: Brighton Standard Blade)
Expect to see extensive capital upgrades around Colorado Air and Spaceport as it works to bring in new operators and continue with its expansion. The spaceport will install a fence around the airport perimeter with a control access gate and security cameras. That will be designed to prevent wildlife crossings that interfere with air operations and provide a secure airfield for new operators that did not use the airport due to insufficient security of the airfields and wildlife crossings.

"With anticipation, I would say by the end of the year, we're planning for the fence and the security project to be completed," Jeff Kloska, Colorado Air and Spaceport Director, said. One of the runaways was recently upgraded by applying a fog seal material to limit deterioration and repainting markings for identification on the ground and from the air on runway 17/35, which runs north and south on the east side of the airport.

The plan for the future is a larger project to mill over the runaway, which would grind down the top layer and pave a new layer. According to officials, that work should cost about $300,000, paid by grant-funded partnership with the State of Colorado Aeronautics Division. The state would provide $270,000, with Adams County, which owns and operates the spaceport, paying $30,000. (8/3)

Maine Space Conference Planned for Nov. 5-7 (Source: Maine Space Grant Consortium)
The Portland-based conference is part of Maine Space 2030, a new public campaign designed to raise awareness of Maine’s research, education, and commercial assets in the NewSpace economy and realize its considerable economic potential for the people and the future of Maine. Click here. (8/6)

Lockheed Martin Opens New Colorado Factory Focused on Small Satellites (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin, a company that for decades has built schoolbus-sized spacecraft for the U.S. government, opened a new facility to assemble small satellites, which are now in higher demand. Lockheed Martin’s 20,000-square-foot factory is located at the company’s Waterton campus near Denver, Colorado. It has six parallel assembly lines and capacity to manufacture 180 small satellites per year. (8/6)

New Mexico/Colorado "Space Valley" Effort a Finalist for $160 Million Federal Grant (Source: Los Alamos Daily Post)
The U.S. National Science Foundation announced the Space Valley Coalition as a finalist of its first-ever Regional Innovation Engines Competition. The NSF Engines program is anticipated to be transformational for the nation, ensuring the U.S. remains globally competitive in key technology areas for decades to come. Each NSF Engine could receive up to $160 million over 10 years.

Space Valley is one of 16 finalists narrowed down from 188 applications. Its proposal, titled “Space for Earth, Space for All, Space Valley’s Role in Securing America’s Economic and Political Future,” seeks to leverage New Mexico and Colorado’s existing space assets to build a world-leading regional space innovation hub. In addition to being an increasingly important geopolitical issue, space, as an industry, is expected to exceed $3 trillion by 2040 by some estimates. The New Mexico Trade Alliance is serving as the lead on the NSF proposal on behalf of the Space Valley Coalition. (8/3)

NASA Rocket Hardware Prepped for Shipment to Space Coast (Source: NASA)
With Artemis teammates and media watching, ULA crews guided the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) for NASA’s SLS rocket for Artemis III to the loading dock at ULA’s facility in Decatur, Alabama, July 31. ULA’s R/S RocketShip will transport the flight hardware to ULA’s sister facility in Florida, where it will undergo final checkouts. The ICPS and its single RL10 engine provides in-space propulsion during Artemis III, firing to send astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft on a precise trajectory to the Moon. This ICPS for Artemis III is the last of its kind as SLS transitions to its next, more powerful Block 1B configuration with an upgraded upper stage beginning with Artemis IV. (8/4)

NASA Can Save the Mars Sample Return Mission by Going Commercial (Source: The Hill)
NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is starting to experience the kinds of cost overruns that have plagued previous high-profile space projects such as the Space Launch System and the James Webb Space Telescope. The chances of NASA getting the costs of the Mars Sample Return mission under control would seem to be remote. Unlike the SLS and the JWST, Congress seems to be unwilling to just cover the extra costs. The mission is in danger of being canceled and the unspent funds being transferred to other programs.

Clearly, it is time for NASA to try a different approach. Instead of attempting to get the Mars Sample Return mission under control, the space agency should allocate the extra $4 billion that it’s been told it can spend to a Mars Sample Return prize. Any private entity that can retrieve the samples from the Martian surface and return them to Earth gets the $4 billion.

The advantage of this approach to NASA is obvious. The fixed price of $4 billion would not increase. Also, the space agency would not pay out the money until the winner of the prize competition delivers the Mars samples intact. How would such a commercial mission work? By a strange coincidence, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is working on a giant rocket called Starship which, among other things, is intended to transport people and cargo between the Earth and Mars. Starship would seem to be the perfect vehicle to go to Mars, collect Mars samples and return them to Earth. (8/6)

We Can't Leave Outer Space to the Capitalists (Source: Jacobin)
The world’s most irritating oligarchs all want to be astronauts, from Bezos to Musk and Branson. When SpaceX’s April rocket launch ended in a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” schadenfreude was inevitable. After all, these men are taking wealth ripped from their exploited workforces and siphoned from the public through state subsidies and launching it into space. They’re basically conscripting warehouse workers, delivery drivers, and beneficiaries of tax-funded programs into the role of Atlas, eternally struggling to hold up the sky. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking, under these circumstances, that humanity is better off remaining earthbound. Click here. (8/6)

Russia to Launch First Lunar Lander Mission in Half Century, In Race with India (Source: Reuters)
Russia will launch its first lunar landing spacecraft in 47 years on Friday in a race with India to the south pole of the moon, a potential source of water to support a future human presence there. The launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow, will take place four weeks after India sent up its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander, due to touch down at the pole on Aug. 23. (8/7)

Dude, What Are Those Humongous Plasma Waves in Jupiter’s Atmosphere? (Source: Ars Technica)
There are waves on Jupiter, but not exactly the kind surfers can ride. These plasma waves are much more intense than anything that crashes onto a beach. NASA’s Juno spacecraft keeps coming across humongous plasma waves as it orbits Jupiter. These waves are actually known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHIs), and they occur when plasma from the solar wind interacts with the magnetopause of a planet, the outer level of its magnetic field. The difference in velocity between the magnetopause and solar wind creates a furiously swirling wave—a vortex. (8/4)

Meet America's Most Experienced Astronaut: Dr. Peggy Whitson (Source: Forbes)
In 2023, Dr. Peggy Whitson became the first woman to command a private space mission when she led the Axiom Mission 2 on a ten-day trip to the International Space Station. With the Axiom mission, Whitson has logged 675 days in space, more than any other woman alive. She is also the first woman to have ever commanded the ISS. Forbes Senior Editor Maggie McGrath sat down with Whitson to talk about her life, career, and what's next for the astronaut. Click here. (8/6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doKuZB_Hg4s

NASA is Helping Private Companies Build a Business on the Moon (Source: Business Insider)
With its Artemis missions, the US space agency aims to lay the foundations for the first human settlements beyond Earth and pave the way for extraplanetary colonization. And business is at the core of its strategy. "It's not theoretical at this point — it's happening," Brendan Rosseau, a teaching fellow at Harvard Business School who focuses on the space economy, told Insider.

The agency is tagging private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Nokia, Lockheed Martin, and General Motors, to develop solutions for its lunar missions such as space-worthy rides, moon streaming, lunar GPS, and more. This new market — worth over $100 billion— could be game-changing for humanity. This creates a lot of opportunities for commercial development along the way, and NASA is aware of that. "We want to leave behind a wake of commercial activity and commerce and more routine living and working in space," said Steve Creech. (8/6)

DLR Harnesses 3D Printing for Efficient Production of Spaceflight Components (Source: Space Daily)
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is looking into ways to make space propulsion systems more cost-effective and reusable. The emphasis of their investigation lies in the 3D Printing for Low-Cost Space Components (3D-LoCoS) project. This project seeks to enhance the techniques of metal-based additive manufacturing, essentially 3D printing processes. This advancement will allow for the swifter, more budget-friendly production of technology demonstrators for new space components. (8/6)