September 29, 2023

With Spaceport Disruption, Space Launch Could Falter…Big Time (Source: Payload)
It’s time for the space launch industry to get a second opinion on resiliency. When a medical diagnosis does not align with our symptoms, we seek a second opinion from a doctor. Similarly, the imminent threats to space launch—including a high operations tempo, a scarcity of expertise, a myriad of dependencies networked into outdated government infrastructure, and a finite timeline—call for a reevaluation.

The Space Force has already begun reshaping the context around launch operations by using new software, boosting automation, and putting forward concepts such as Range of the Future, which is intended to prepare ranges at the Cape and Vandenberg for the expected surge in launch tempo. Yet some questions remain unanswered, namely: What happens if the largest US-based launch centers are indefinitely disrupted? Click here. (9/29)

China Plans Lunar Sample Return (Source: Space News)
China plans to conduct a sample return mission from the far side of the moon next year. The Chang'e-6 mission will launch on a Long March 5 rocket and land at the South Pole-Aitken Basin. The lander will collect up to two kilograms of samples from the landing site for return to Earth. The lander will also carry scientific payloads from France, Sweden and Italy. Chang'e-6 is a repurposed backup of China's first lunar sample return mission, Chang'e-5, that successfully returned samples from the near side of the moon in 2020. (9/29)

Psyche Launch Delayed to Oct. 12 (Source: Space News)
NASA is delaying the launch of the Psyche asteroid mission by a week. NASA said late Thursday that delaying the launch to Oct. 12 will give engineers more time to properly configure nitrogen cold-gas thrusters used to orient the spacecraft, after concluding those thrusters would operate at higher temperatures than originally planned. There are instantaneous launch windows for the mission daily through Oct. 25. Psyche will travel the the metallic main belt asteroid of the same name, arriving in 2029. (9/29)

Astroscale Readies Debris Removal Mission (Source: Space News)
Astroscale says a mission to inspect a piece of space debris is ready for launch. The company said Thursday its Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, or ADRAS-J, spacecraft is complete and ready for its mission to rendezvous with and inspect an upper stage of an H-2A rocket. The mission will test out several key steps on approaching and inspecting the upper stage as a prelude to a later mission to remove the stage from orbit. ADRAS-J was slated to launch in November on a Rocket Lab Electron, but Astroscale said that launch will slip because of an Electron launch failure earlier this month. (9/29)

ispace Revises Lunar Lander (Source: Space News)
The U.S. subsidiary of Japanese company ispace has revised the design of a lunar lander for a NASA mission. The APEX 1.0 lander is an updated lander designed by ispace U.S. that will be used on a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission led by Draper. The company said it redesigned the lander to better accommodate the payloads it will carry. The redesign means the mission's launch to the lunar farside will slip from 2025 to 2026. The new design was announced at the opening of the new ispace U.S. headquarters in the Denver suburbs designed to accommodate a growing staff and to support production of future landers. (9/29)

SpaceX Settles Labor Law Suit with NLRB (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX has settled a claim filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that it tried to silence an employee. The NLRB concluded that SpaceX had violated federal labor law when it directed an unnamed employee not to talk to co-workers about working conditions, including "opposition to offensive racial comments in the workplace." SpaceX agreed to post a notice about workers' rights and distribute it to employees at a facility in Redmond, Washington, where it manufactures Starlink satellites. (9/29)

Blue Origin and Sierra Space Waver on Orbital Reef (Source: CNBC)
Blue Origin and Sierra Space are reportedly reconsidering their partnership on the Orbital Reef commercial space station project. The two companies joined forced in 2021 on the project, and Blue Origin soon won a NASA award through the agency's Commercial LEO Destinations program to support development. Other projects, though, have become higher priorities at both companies, putting the future of Orbital Reef in question. (9/29)

Saturn's Rings Formed by Moon Collision? (Source: Space.com)
Saturn's rings may have formed from the collision of two of its moons. Scientists have developed models to explain the existence of the rings through a relatively recent collision of two large icy moons. That collision, taking place just a few million years ago, would explain the relatively pristine appearance of icy fragments in the rings seen by the Cassini mission. The rocky cores of those moons would have coalesced into new moons. (9/29)

Alabama Lawmaker Intends to Withhold Funds for Permanent Space Command HQ in Colorado (Source: Washington Examiner)
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, will work to withhold funding for Space Command's permanent base in Colorado. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall; Gen. James Dickinson, the head of Space Command; and Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations of the Space Force, appeared in front of Rogers and his committee on Thursday in what ultimately became a contentious hearing. (9/28)

Astra Cures Bid Price Deficiency and Regains Compliance with Nasdaq Listing Standards (Source: Astra)
Astra Space, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASTR) today announced it has received notice from the Nasdaq Capital Market on September 28, 2023, that the Company has regained compliance with Nasdaq’s minimum bid price requirement. (9/28)

The Economic Future of the Region's Commercial Space Industry (Source: KRWG)
KRWG explores the viability and economic impact of Spaceport America. Jonny Coker speaks with Executive Director of Spaceport America, Scott McLaughlin about issues surrounding the spaceport, including taxpayer investment, tenants of the spaceport, and the future of New Mexico as a spaceflight destination. Click here. (9/28)

Enterprise Florida Officially Board Dissolved, Functions Moved to Commerce Department (Source: SPACErePORT)
Everything old is new again. I served in the Florida Department of Commerce and had moved to the Spaceport Florida Authority (now Space Florida) when the state decided to eliminate Commerce in the early 1990s in favor of a new Enterprise Florida public/private agency. This year, the state decided to eliminate Enterprise Florida in favor of a reconstituted Department of Commerce. This week the Enterprise Florida board was officially dissolved and Commerce has assumed, among many other things, some oversight responsibilities for Space Florida. (9/29)

Vatican Astronomer Supported NASA OSIRIS-Rex Mission (Source: Aleteia)
Next time you hear someone question the compatibility of faith and science, you can point them in the direction of Jesuit Brother Bob Macke. His work as a Vatican astronomer is playing a key role in space exploration. In fact, he designed a custom device for studying asteroid samples, lending a hand to a NASA mission when it was most in need. (9/28)

Heating and Cooling Space Habitats Isn't Easy (Source: Space Daily)
A big part of creating a habitable base is making sure the heating and cooling systems work. That's especially true because the ambient temperature of potential places for a base can vary widely. Lunar equatorial temperatures can range from minus 208 to 250 degrees Farenheit - and similarly, from minus 225 F to 70 F on Mars.

Liquid-vapor systems - or two-phase systems - involve the simultaneous flow of liquid and vapor within a heating or cooling system. While many commercial air conditioners and refrigeration systems on Earth use two-phase systems, most systems used in spacecraft and on the ISS are purely liquid systems - or one-phase systems. But liquid-vapor systems could transfer heat more effectively than these one-phase systems, and they're much smaller and lighter than purely liquid systems.

With the grant from NASA, I designed an experimental program called the "Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment." My team built a fluid management system for the experiment and two test modules: one that helped us test flow boiling and one that helped us test flow condensation. (9/27)

How Tiny Spacecraft Could ‘Sail’ to Mars Surprisingly Quickly (Source: Popular Science)
Solar sails that leverage the sun’s photonic rays for “wind” are no longer the stuff of science fiction. And while countless projects continue to explore what solar sails could hold for the future of space travel, a new study demonstrates just how promising the technology could be for excursions to Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor, and beyond.

According to a paper recently submitted to the journal Acta Astronautica, detailed computer simulations show tiny, incredibly lightweight solar sails made with aerographite could travel to Mars in just 26 days—compare that to conventional rocketry time estimates of between 7-to-9 months. Meanwhile, a journey to the heliopause (the demarcation line for interstellar space where the sun’s magnetic forces cease to influence objects) could take between 4.2 and 5.3 years. For comparison, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes took a respective 35 and 41 years to reach the same boundary. (9/28)

Space Force Faces Disproportionate Impact From a Shutdown or CR (Source: Breaking Defense)
No single service is likely to be hurt by a government shutdown as much as the Space Force. Yes, the Pentagon has learned from painful experience to plan for a CR in the first part of the fiscal year, often pushing major contract awards to the third and fourth quarters. But as the newest service, one with plans to expand significantly every year, losing even a few months of work could set the entire effort back in the long term. Extend this dysfunction across months, even a year, and the Space Force could be looking at billions of buying power ceded. (9/28)

Bezos Says Blue Origin’s Next CEO Will Be Bringing a Sense of Urgency to Rocketry (Source: GeekWire)
Jeff Bezos’ selection of Amazon devices chief Dave Limp as Blue Origin's next CEO could well mark the start of a speed-up in the company’s tortoise-like pace. For years, Bezos has sent out vibes that it might be OK to take it slow in the space race with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. He’d probably deny that’s the case, but it’s a fact that Blue Origin’s mascot is the tortoise rather than the hare, and that the company’s motto is “Gradatim Ferociter” — Latin for “Step by Step, Ferociously.” When it comes to space development, Bezos’ favorite sayings include “Slow Is Smooth, and Smooth Is Fast” and “We Don’t Skip Steps.”

Some in the space business would argue that going slow has put Blue Origin so far behind SpaceX that it’ll be difficult if not impossible to catch up. SpaceX has been successfully putting commercial payloads in orbit since 2009, started sending NASA astronauts to the ISS in 2020, and is gearing up for a milestone orbital test flight of its Starship and Super Heavy launch system. Meanwhile, Blue Origin’s orbital-class New Glenn rocket hasn’t yet gotten off the ground, seven years after Bezos unveiled the design for the rocket and said it would be flying by 2020.

Critics have suggested that Blue Origin’s pace may reflect the mindset of the company’s outgoing CEO, Bob Smith, whose decades of aerospace experience were spent mostly at traditional “old-space” companies including Honeywell, ULA and The Aerospace Corp. But Bezos also hinted that Blue Origin won’t be playing the role of the tortoise when Dave Limp takes charge on Dec. 4. “Dave [Limp] has an outstanding sense of urgency, brings energy to everything, and helps teams move very fast,” Bezos wrote. “Through this transition, I know we’ll remain focused on our customer commitments, production schedules, and executing with speed and operational excellence.” (9/26)

Launch of Alabama Space Roundtable Highlights Future of Space Careers (Source: Alabama News Center)
A new initiative aimed at making Alabama a national nexus for space career exploration, training and employment launched this week at a gathering in Huntsville. The Alabama Space Roundtable held its inaugural meeting at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center’s Space Camp Operations Center. The meeting was hosted by North AlabamaWorks, part of the statewide workforce services provider AlabamaWorks.

Responding to industry needs and the National Space Council’s call for a skilled workforce, the Alabama Space Roundtable is charged with ensuring a strong workforce pipeline for the space industry. The mission of the Roundtable is to drive the future of space talent, inspiring, training and employing students and workers to address the shortage of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills needed to ensure the industry’s growth, said Stephanie McCullough, executive director of North AlabamaWorks. (9/27)

Getting Insurance in Space Should Not Have to be Rocket Science (Source: Irish Times)
This is not a great year to be in the business of insuring satellites and rockets. In recent months, the California-based Viasat has announced malfunctions in two of its most eagerly anticipated satellites: Viasat-3 and Inmarsat-6 F2. Then last week, Rocket Lab’s two-year record of flawless launches ended with the failure of its Electron rocket and the loss of the satellite it was carrying.

When all the mishaps are added up, claims could total roughly $1 billion this year, say industry sources, against premium income of roughly $600 million. Not since 2019 has the space insurance sector had such a bad year. Then, insurance rates doubled almost overnight. This time round that could be the best case. “You can expect a larger and longer correction from the insurance market [this time],” said Denis Bensoussan. Already several insurance providers have quit the market. (9/28)

Deterrence in Space Requires More Than SilentBarker’s Eyes (Source: Defense News)
To have a deterrent effect requires three major components: credibility of a threat, capability (i.e., weapons) the threat is based upon combined with the determination to use them, and communicating the will to use that capability to prevent an attack on critical space infrastructure. It is important to understand all of these are required both physically and psychologically to ensure our Space Force provides a true deterrent of aggression upon U.S. interests in space. (9/28)

Iran: Satellite Launch Another Sign of Sanctions’ Failure (Source: Islamic Republic News Agency)
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has congratulated the nation on the successful launch of the Nour 3 imaging satellite into the space, describing the achievement as another sign of the failure of the sanctions and threats by the enemies of the Islamic Republic. (9/27)

Iran Plans to Launch Two More Satellites (Source: Islamic Republic News Agency)
A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps announced that Iran will launch two more satellites into space before the end of March 2024. Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Division, made the announcement following the successful launch of Nour-3, an imaging satellite. (9/27)

How Lockheed Martin Designed the X-59, the World's Quietest Supersonic Jet (Source: Fast Company)
The Lockheed Martin X-59 is probably the strangest airplane ever designed. Its razor-sharp nose takes half of the airplane’s length; there’s no cockpit in sight; the wings are tiny compared to the entire fuselage; and its oversized tail engine looks like a weird hump about to fall off. Of course, there’s a method to this madness. The design is the secret sauce that has produced a true unicorn: a supersonic jet that doesn’t boom the hell out of people and buildings on the ground. Click here. (9/27)

Top Chinese Scientist Claims India Moon Landing Nowhere Near South Pole (Source: Bloomberg)
The rivalry between Asia’s two biggest countries has extended into outer space. After India’s landing of its Chandrayaan-3 rover on the moon last month — becoming the first country to put a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and breaking China’s record for the southernmost lunar landing – a top Chinese scientist has said claims about the accomplishment are overstated.

Ouyang Ziyuan, lauded as the father of China’s lunar exploration program, told the Chinese-language Science Times newspaper that the Chandrayaan-3 landing site, at 69 degrees south latitude, was nowhere close to the pole, defined as between 88.5 and 90 degrees. On Earth, 69 degrees south would be within the Antarctic Circle, but the lunar version of the circle is much closer to the pole. “It’s wrong!” he said of claims for an Indian polar landing. (9/28)

Commercial Spaceflight Research Needs a Code of Ethics, Scientists Say (Source: Space.com)
As commercial spaceflight operations ramp up and potentially thousands of passengers take to space in the coming decades, there will be ample opportunity for these passengers to participate in research programs and scientific studies. However, there are currently limited ethical guidelines around such research, and a team of experts are expressing urgency in laying the groundwork for such rules now.

Prospective space voyagers present a golden opportunity to advance research essential for ensuring the safety of future space operations and addressing vital health issues that may occur in orbit and back on the ground as a result of exposure to microgravity. However, a panel assembled by the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, argues that the challenge lies in the nascent stage of ethical frameworks specific to research in commercial space flights. (9/28)

Georgia Tech Student Designs New Rocket Engine as an Intern for NASA (Source: WXIA)
The future of space travel just got a boost thanks to one Georgia Tech undergraduate student. Dalton Luedke is a third-year aerospace engineering student at Tech, and also part of the NASA Pathways Internship Program. This summer during his internship at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, he accomplished a feat that one day could be "out of this world."

He designed a new rocket engine. MARLEN, which stands for Maturation of Additive Really Little Engine -- is the new, small version of Luedke's new detonation engine design. "I thought the name was funny, because Marlen is a big fish," Luedke chuckled. (9/28)

Doomed Star's Massive Weight Loss Hid its Supernova Flash (Source: Space.com)
A massive star that exploded in the Pinwheel Galaxy in May appears to have unexpectedly lost approximately one sun's worth of ejected mass during the final years of its life before going supernova, new observations have shown. This discovery reveals more about the enigmatic end days of massive stars. Normally, a type II supernova experiences what astronomers call a 'shock breakout' very early in the supernova's evolution, as the blast wave expands outwards from the interior of the star and breaks through the star's surface.

Yet a bump in the light curve from the usual flash of light stemming from this shock breakout was missing. It  didn’t turn up for several days. Was this a supernova in slow motion, or was something else afoot? "The delayed shock breakout is direct evidence for the presence of dense material from recent mass loss," said Hiramatsu. "Our new observations revealed a significant and unexpected amount of mass loss — close to the mass of the sun — in the final year prior to explosion." (9/28)

NASA to Address Concerns About Mars Sample Return Mission's 'Unrealistic Budget' (Source: Space.com)
NASA is forming a response team after an independent review board examined the agency’s ongoing plans and objectives for its upcoming mission to retrieve samples from Mars. The Mars Sample Return, an operation in collaboration with ESA, would involve the first-ever launch into space from another planet and the first-ever rendezvous in orbit around another planet.

Earlier this month, the review board submitted a report to NASA underscoring  important scientific objectives of the mission but also pointed out potential budgetary issues, among other concerns. Having examined the mission for two months, the review board's report specifically included 20 observations and 59 suggestions regarding the proposed mission. (9/28)

Vega's Fuel-Free CubeSats to Keep Formation with Wings (Source: ESA)
Spain’s trio of ANSER CubeSats, due to fly on Europe’s next Vega launcher, will fly like a flock of birds in orbit – in more ways than one. Keeping in formation by following their leader, the three shoebox-sized satellites will image Iberian waters as if they are a single standard-sized mission. And they will unfurl wing-like flaps to maintain their relative positions, surfing on the scanty airflow at the top of Earth’s atmosphere. (9/28)

Forever Chemicals at Former NASA Lab are Leaking Into LA River (Source: The Guardian)
Two highly toxic chemicals polluting a former NASA research site are also probably contaminating the Los Angeles River and aquifer from which the region’s agricultural growers draw their water, watchdog groups and a whistleblower charge. The Santa Susana field laboratory about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles is already notorious for its radioactive waste, but the site, which is owned by the federal government and Boeing, is also now suspected of leaching polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals” into the water. (9/28)

New JWST Images Suggest Our Understanding of the Cosmos is Flawed (Source: Science News)
The greatest puzzle in cosmology just got even more puzzling. Images from the James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed that the universe appears to be expanding significantly faster than it should be, researchers report in a study accepted in the Astrophysical Journal. The observation is in conflict with an esteemed theory, the standard model of cosmology, that describes how the universe has evolved since the first moments after the Big Bang. (9/28)

The Future of Exoplanet Research (Source: Universe Today)
What's the best way to use telescope time to search for exoplanets? How many will we be able to find in a best-case scenario? What future missions will help us with that? Answering all these questions and more with Dr Ben Hord from NASA Goddard. Click here. (9/27)

Kennedy Space Center Hosts Third Annual Taste of Space: Fall Bites (Source: Florida Today)
KSC Visitor Complex executive sous chef Israel Arroyo talks about some of the fall flavors that will be available at Taste of Space: Fall Bites. Click here. (9/28)

House Committee Finds Air Force Secretary Preferred Redstone for Space Command HQ (Source: WHNT)
The House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday morning on the basing decision for Space Command included several revelations about the decision to select Colorado Springs over Huntsville for the command headquarters. U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, the committee chairman, said the committee’s investigation determined that the justification of concerns about “operational readiness” as the basis for leaving the headquarters in Colorado is “just fabricated.” (9/28)

Mynaric Optical Terminals Selected for Northrop Grumman Satellites Pass Key Tests (Source: Space News)
Mynaric’s laser communications terminals passed key ground tests required to be deployed on Space Development Agency satellites, the company announced Sep. 28. The company’s CONDOR Mk3 terminal was selected by Northrop Grumman, one of several manufacturers under contract to produce satellites for the Space Development Agency. (9/28)