September 20, 2023

India Plans Crucial Test in Crewed Space Mission by October (Source: Reuters)
India is set to conduct a key test in its ambitious crewed space mission Gaganyaan as early as next month, said project director R. Hutton. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is currently training four astronauts and looking to expand the cohort as it aims for more future manned missions, Hutton said. The Gaganyaan mission is aimed at developing a human-habitable space capsule that will carry a three-member crew into an orbit of 400 km (250 miles) for three days, before returning to safety in a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean. (9/15)

China, South Africa Space Ties Promise Wide Scope (Source: China Daily)
There is huge potential and there will be big opportunities in the field of space cooperation between China and South Africa as the two nations have recently decided to enhance their collaboration in this regard, observers said. Wang Yanan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, said that China wants to maintain and deepen its communications, exchanges and cooperation with other countries in space programs, while South Africa seems interested in space exploration and related expertise, which means the two sides can find common interests in joining hands in outer space. (9/19)

How the Advance of the Chinese Space Industry Can Bring Uruguay Closer to NASA (Source: Semanario Busqueda)
Throughout the month of July, Bill Nelson, the highest authority at NASA in the US, toured Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia to meet with the leaders of the space sector of each country. In Buenos Aires he managed to close Argentina's incorporation into the Artemis Accords. Colombia joined the program last year and Brazil has been part since 2021. The objective of the trip was to deepen bilateral aerospace cooperation with South America.

Although China maintains its space programs aim for scientific purposes, a US think tank believes China's expansion poses potential risks in other areas, warning that China probably carries out intelligence tasks through ground stations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Uruguay, which since 2020 has had its own aerospace agency, maintained exchanges with China through the Technological University (Utec) for the use of satellites that provide environmental and meteorological information. The greatest rapprochement has been with the US, which has worked directly with the Uruguayan Air Force.

In April, Mariana Garcia, space affairs legal advisor to the Air Force, participated in a project for nations to collaborate with US space programs. Air General Luis De Leon also held talks with the US Space Force to "develop space doctrines." The project to create a Uruguayan space agency was championed by De Leon and was signed in a bill submitted to Parliament in December 2022. Also, an Argentine company submitted a request to send satellites into space from Uruguay. Possible launch areas are being analyzed. (9/13)

Ada Limón's Poem for Europa, Jupiter's Smallest Galilean Moon (Source: Scientific American)
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón discusses her involvement in NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and the inspiration behind her poem, which will travel onboard the spacecraft. Click here. (9/18) 

DARPA Wants New Ideas for Space Weapons (Source: Space.com)
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants small companies to help it find new ways to project U.S. military power in space. DARPA issued a statement outlining how it wants private companies outside of the typical base of legacy defense contractors to submit ideas related to "space superiority." The U.S. Air Force defines space superiority as "the degree of control in space of one force over any others that permits the conduct of its operations at a given time and place without prohibitive interference from terrestrial or space-based threats." (9/20)

Third Subscale Booster for Future Artemis Missions Fires at Marshall (Source: NASA)
Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, conducted a hot fire of a 24-inch subscale solid rocket motor Sept. 14. The test, conducted in Marshall’s East Test Area, produced more than 82,000 pounds of thrust and was part of an ongoing series of developmental tests for an upgraded booster design for future configurations of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. (9/19)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From Florida, Sets Booster Reuse Record (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX set another booster reuse milestone with a launch last night. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:38 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral and placed 22 Starlink V2 mini satellites into orbit. The first stage of that rocket made its 17th flight, a record for the company, having been used for 11 other Starlink launches as well as five other missions. SpaceX says it has certified Falcon 9 boosters for at least 20 flights each. (9/20)

Rocket Lab Shares Fall After Electron Failure (Source: Reuters)
Shares in Rocket Lab fell sharply Tuesday after its Electron launch failure. Shares fell by more than 20% in pre-market trading a few hours after the failure, but rebounded somewhat during regular trading, closing down 7.5%. The company has not disclosed any additional details about the failure, which resulted in the loss of a Capella Space radar imaging satellite. (9/20)

Terran Orbital Shares Fall After Stock Sale Announcement (Source: Terran Orbital)
Shares in Terran Orbital suffered a steep drop Tuesday after the company announced plans to sell stock. The satellite manufacturer said it expected to raise $32.5 million by selling stock at $1.40 a share, using the money for general corporate purposes. Terran Orbital shares closed down nearly 20% Tuesday on the news. (9/20)

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Spacecraft Aims for Sunday Landing in Utah (Source: NASA)
NASA has made a final course correction for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft ahead of its return to Earth this weekend. The spacecraft fired its thrusters Sunday to adjust its speed by 7 millimeters per second, shifting its trajectory so that its return capsule will target the center of its 14-by-58-kilometer landing ellipse in Utah. The capsule, carrying samples from the asteroid Bennu, will reenter on Sunday morning, landing in the Utah Test and Training Range. The main spacecraft will fly by Earth and go on an extended mission to visit the asteroid Apophis in 2029. (9/20)

Ingenuity Helicopter Sets Mars Flight Altitude Record (Source: Space.com)
NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter set an altitude record on its latest flight. The helicopter flew to an altitude of 20 meters on the flight Saturday, two meters higher than the previous record. The 143-second flight was a hover test, with the helicopter going straight up and down without covering any horizontal distance. (9/20)

FAA Anticipates October Starship Readiness, Looks to FWS Review (Source: Space News)
An FAA official says his office hopes to wrap up in October a review needed for the next SpaceX Starship launch, but that a separate environmental review is a "wild card" to that schedule. In an interview this week, Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said his office is working with SpaceX to confirm that the company has carried out the corrective actions linked to public safety identified in the investigation into the April launch of the vehicle. That work will be done by mid to late October, he estimated.

However, before the FAA can then modify the Starship license to allow another launch, the Fish and Wildlife Service must conduct its own review of changes to the Starship pad, including its new water deluge system. That agency says that review could take up to 135 days, but Coleman expressed optimism that it could be wrapped up "somewhere in proximity to the safety review." (9/20)

AST SpaceMobile Makes 5G Satellite Relay Call (Source: Space News)
AST SpaceMobile announced Tuesday that its satellite relayed a phone call using 5G technologies for the first time. The company's BlueWalker 3 satellite allowed a person with an unmodified smartphone in a region of Hawaii without terrestrial service to talk with someone in Spain for two minutes. A separate test also achieved download speeds of 14 megabits per second, more than earlier tests using 4G protocols. BlueWalker 3 is a demonstrator for a network of satellites AST SpaceMobile plans to launch to provide connectivity for regions without terrestrial cellular service. (9/20)

Kayhan Raises $7 Million for Space Traffic Coordination System (Source: Space News)
Kayhan Space has raised $7 million to support its work developing space traffic coordination systems. The funding from Space Capital and EVE Atlas will allow Kayhan Space to expand its staff and open a Washington, D.C., office, as well as build out products and services. The company rolled out its Pathfinder 3.0 platform for space traffic coordination that allows users to coordinate and automate collision avoidance maneuvers. (9/20)

LeoLabs and SAIC Collaborate on Space Tracking Software (Source: Space News)
LeoLabs and SAIC are joining forces to develop their own space tracking software platform. SAIC and LeoLabs will build a space tracking tool on SAIC's Koverse data management platform, used by defense agencies and financial services firms because of its advanced zero-trust security features. It will leverage tracking data from LeoLab's network of radars as well as the Space Force's catalog. The system, an SAIC executive said, will support "unique government use cases and data access requirements" while leveraging commercial capabilities. (9/20)

CACI Optical Comms Terminal Passes Test for SDA (Source: Space News)
CACI International's optical communications terminal has passed initial ground tests required to compete for Space Development Agency (SDA) satellite contracts. CACI said its optical terminal successfully completed an interoperability test, a step towards meeting SDA technical requirements for use on its constellation of low Earth orbit satellites. All optical terminals riding on SDA satellites have to comply with a common standard to ensure spacecraft made by different manufacturers can transmit data in orbit across the entire network. (9/20)

OQ Technology Plans IoT Satellite Launches on Vega (Source: Space News)
OQ Technology will resume launches of satellites providing narrowband internet of things (IoT) services on a Vega rocket next month. The company said its Machine Satellite, or MACSAT, satellite will fly on a Vega rocket launching Oct. 4 after previously being manifested on a Vega C rocket that remains grounded. Like the five satellites OQ Technology already has in low Earth orbit, MACSAT is a 6U cubesat that would provide low bandwidth connectivity for off-the-grid tracking and monitoring devices. The company has four more cubesats scheduled to launch by early next year on SpaceX Transporter rideshare missions. (9/20)

Water-Watching Satellite Monitors Warming Ocean off California Coast (Source: NASA)
Warm ocean waters from the developing El Niño are shifting north along coastlines in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Along the coast of California, these warm waters are interacting with a persistent marine heat wave that recently influenced the development of Hurricane Hilary. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is able to spot the movement of these warm ocean waters in unprecedented detail.

A collaboration between NASA and the French space agency, CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), SWOT is measuring the height of nearly all water on Earth’s surface, providing one of the most detailed, comprehensive views yet of the planet’s oceans and fresh water lakes and rivers. The mission is able to measure ocean features, like El Niño, closer to a coastline than previous space-based missions. (9/19)

Viasat Identifies Likely Cause of Satellite Antenna Deployment Failure (Source: Space Intel Report)
Viasat Inc. said it has a “pretty good understanding” of why the 18-meter-diameter mesh antenna reflector on its Viasat-3 Americas satellite did not correctly deploy, and that its manufacturer expects to correct the problem on an identical antenna on the Viasat 3 EMEA satellite to launch in the coming months. Viasat Chief Executive Mark D. Dankberg said the EMEA satellite is still scheduled to launch before the third and last Viasat-3, covering the Asia-Pacific, which does not carry the same antenna. (9/18)

Chinese Taikonauts Harvest Space Vegetables Aboard TSS (Source: VideoFromSpace)
China's Shenzhou-16 crew have a "garden of vegetables in space. "The plants that grow in the garden are watered in the opposite direction from that on Earth," according to China Central Television. Click here. (9/19)

Airbus Taps Intelsat, Panasonic Avionics for Satellite Connectivity Services (Source: PaxEx)
The Airbus HBCplus program now has Ku-band service providers confirmed. Intelsat and Panasonic Avionics will participate in the program, offering connectivity services for aircraft fitted with the Airbus’ Ku-band ESA terminal. The hardware will be provided by GetSat, with integration from Safran Passenger Innovations. Starting with aircraft deliveries from the first half of 2026, airlines may select Airbus’ Ku-band ESA terminal as a line-fit solution. The antenna promises support for full-duplex connections to satellites in GEO as well as NGSO orbits (i.e. LEO constellations). (9/19)

NASA Spacecraft Flies Right Through Sun Explosion, Captures Footage (Source: Mashable)
A well-fortified NASA spacecraft flew through, and survived, an immense explosion from the sun. Scientists recently released rare footage of this solar event, called a coronal mass ejection, or CME, which is the eruption of a mass of super hot gas (plasma). "It's like scooping up a piece of the sun and ejecting it into space," Mark Miesch, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center, told Mashable earlier this year. (9/19)

Why the Square Kilometer Array is a Game-Changer for Astronomy (Source: ElectroPages)
When it comes to radio telescopes, being able to see such long wavelengths not only allows us to see through dust clouds but also helps us see the structure of the early universe. This is because light from the distant past becomes redshifted as it travels through expanding space. Simply put, the expanding universe “stretches” photons, which in turn shifts their frequency, so much so that visible light eventually becomes radio waves.

As these radio signals are incredibly weak, it is essential that radio telescopes are large enough to capture as much energy as possible, use amplifiers with a large gain, and reduce noise and interference as much as possible. While a radio telescope in space would be able to achieve much of this with ease, putting large telescopes into space is no small feat. Thus, most radio telescopes are found on the surface of Earth, where they can be extraordinarily large. Luckily, the Earth’s atmosphere is also mostly translucent to radio waves, meaning that researchers face little attenuation as radio waves hit the Earth.

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is being developed with the aim of answering some of the most perplexing questions about our universe. The SKA will be the most powerful radio telescope ever built, with scientific operations expected to begin in 2028–29. In Australia, it will consist of 131,072 low-frequency antennas, known as SKA-Low. These antennas will be able to detect radio waves emitted by objects in the most distant universe,  able to produce images with 10-100 times the fidelity of current instruments. (9/18)

How Important are India's Moon Mission Findings? (Source: BBC)
The first set of data collected from the lunar topsoil and up to the depth of 10cm (4 inches) below the surface from a probe onboard the Vikram lander showed a sharp difference in temperatures just above and below the surface. While the temperature on the surface was nearly 60C, it plummeted sharply below the surface, dropping to -10C at 80mm (around 3 inches) below the ground. It shows that Moon's soil - called lunar regolith - is a very good insulator.

But the most important of the findings, scientists say, relate to sulphur. The instrument's "first-ever in-situ - in the original space" measurement "unambiguously confirms" the presence of sulphur, ISRO said. Sulphur's presence on the Moon has been known from the 1970s, but scientists say the fact that the rover has measured sulphur on the lunar surface itself - and not inside a mineral or as part of a crystal - makes it "a tremendous accomplishment". (9/19)

NASA Moon Camera Mosaic Sheds Light on Lunar South Pole (Source: NASA)
A new mosaic of the Shackleton Crater showcases the power of two lunar orbiting cameras working together to reveal unprecedented detail of the lunar South Pole region. This mosaic was created with imagery acquired by  LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera), which has been operating since 2009, and from ShadowCam, a NASA instrument on board a KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) spacecraft called Danuri, which launched in Aug. 2022. ShadowCam was developed by Malin Space Science Systems and Arizona State University. (9/19)

Ukraine Places Trust in White House to Prevent Musk Pulling Plug on Starlink (Source: El Pais)
There are around 42,000 Starlink data transmission terminals in Ukraine. Nine months ago, there were 23,000, according to Mikhail Fedorov. Most are used by the military. “Starlink is indeed the blood of our entire communications infrastructure now” Fedorov said in July. The terminals are mostly purchased by private donors, but also by governments allied with Kyiv. There are forums on social networks that provide tutorials on how to use them and advice on where they can be acquired at the best price. If a terminal is purchased in Spain, for example, the owner can transfer the address to Ukraine.

SpaceX's Gwynne Shotwell stressed that Starlink “was never meant to be weaponized.” Responding to reports that the Ukrainian military was using Starlink to control drones, Shotwell said: “There are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that; there are things that we can do, and have done.” Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, did not mince his words during a September 9 conference in Kyiv: “Starlink has played an essential role, and will continue to play an essential role, particularly in drone communication.” (9/19)

Commerce Study Urges Space-Tracking Collaboration (Source: Breaking Defense)
A study combining tracking data from the Office of Space Commerce and the European Union Space Surveillance Tracking Consortium has found that international cooperation is essential for improving the accuracy of orbit predictions and avoiding collisions in increasingly congested space. The study also noted, however, that there remain several technical, bureaucratic, and security challenges to address. (9/19)

Very Large Telescope Surprisingly Finds Exoplanet Lurking in 3-Body Star System (Source: Space.com)
Astronomers made an unexpected discovery of this star when reanalyzing images taken by one of the world's largest telescopes. The Very Large Telescope in Chile has photographed a planet orbiting a star in a multi-star system located some 480 light-years from Earth. The exoplanet, 15 times more massive than our solar system's largest planet Jupiter, orbits a small star that itself orbits a larger star. (9/18)

Space Florida Approves $350,000 Employment Contract for New President and CEO Robert Long (Source: Florida Today)
Space Florida's board of directors has unanimously approved an employment contract offering a $350,000 annual salary to retired U.S. Space Force Col. Robert Long, who is slated to start work in two weeks as the organization's next president and CEO. Long will replace the retiring Frank DiBello, who has led Space Florida since May 2009. (9/19)

How Turkey is Using Starlink to Win a Tesla Factory (Source: Quartz)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked Elon Musk to build a Tesla factory in his country during a sit-down on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York City. But pictures of the meeting didn’t show Tesla executives in attendance. Instead, Musk was accompanied by Lauren Dreyer, who directs business operations for Starlink, the satellite internet network operated by Musk’s company SpaceX. Ryan Goodnight, the SpaceX executive in charge of opening up new markets for the internet service, and Omar Kunbargi, who sells SpaceX rockets, were also in the room with Erdoğan and his officials. (9/18)

Construction Begins on Chinese Multi-Purpose High-Precision Telescope (Source: China Daily)
The construction project for a 40-meter-aperture movable high-precision multi-purpose radio telescope has kicked off in Shigatse city of the Tibet autonomous region on Friday. Developed by the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the telescope project aims to provide support for the country's lunar and mars exploration as well as deep-space probe missions. (9/18)

Emirati Astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi’s Mission Will Boost UAE’s $6 Billion Space Sector (Source: Gulf News)
Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi’s groundbreaking 186-day mission on the International Space Station (ISS) marks a pivotal moment, heralding a ‘space renaissance’ in the UAE. And for UAE’s leading business leaders, especially those in the aeronautical and aerospace sectors, space exploration presents a new frontier.

The UAE’s investment in the space sector has already exceeded Dh22 billion (around$6 billion), including satellite communications, Earth and space exploration, data transmission, satellite broadcasting, and mobile satellite communications, among others. And according to UAE business leaders, the nation’s next step in achieving its space ambitions are poised to benefit industries such as meteorology, energy, telecommunications, transportation, maritime, aviation, and urban development. (9/18)

Engineered Compound Shows Promise in Preventing Bone Loss in Space (Source: UCLA)
A new study finds an engineered compound given to mice aboard the ISS largely prevented the bone loss associated with time spent in space. The study, led by a transdisciplinary team of professors at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, highlight a promising therapy to mitigate extreme bone loss from long-duration space travel as well as musculoskeletal degeneration on Earth. (9/18)

Space Force Starts Uniform Wear Testing at Eight Military Installations (Source: USSF)
The U.S. Space Force has begun its service dress prototype wear testing, which will continue for three months as Guardians evaluate and provide feedback on the durability, functionality and comfort of the new uniform design. The wear tests signify the final stage of uniform development prior to production and force-wide distribution.

More than 106 Guardians across the world have begun wear testing the Space Force service dress prototype. Testers will receive the most updated lightweight jackets, service dress coat, pants, skirts and shirts. They will also receive a guideline handbook for proper wear of the uniform, a wear-test log, uniform history and feedback survey link. (9/18)

Tactically Responsive Space Strengthens America (Source: Space News)
This key competency is not only critical for rapid space domain awareness and deterrence; it is the next step in utilizing commercial capability to augment national security space in a time of need – anytime, anywhere. Just as the DoD’s Transportation Command can call on commercial aircraft in the event of an emergency (Civil Reserve Air Fleet – CRAF), now U.S. Space Command can call on commercial launch and on-orbit operations in the event of an emergency (Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve – CASR). (9/18)

Latinx Women Pioneering the Future of Aerospace Engineering (Source: Yahoo!)
While representation of Hispanic women has plenty of room to grow, strides are certainly being made to increase representation in STEM. Aerospace engineering is one field where Latinx women are changing what representation in STEM looks like. To celebrate Hispanic Heritage month, we’re looking at how aerospace engineering has changed over the years. From the first Hispanic astronaut building the path for more Latinx women to break into the field, to the aerospace engineers continuing to demand space for diversity in their profession, STEM has come a long way - and it still has a long way to go. Click here. (9/14)