September 8, 2023

Teraphysics Corp. Announces NASA Agreement for RF Device Testing (Source: SpaceRef)
Teraphysics Corp., a privately held, Cleveland, Ohio-based R&D company has executed a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Glenn Research Facility in Cleveland. Teraphysics entered this agreement for the purpose of performing radio frequency (RF) characterization of its patented, micro-fabricated E-band helical traveling wave tube amplifier and to ascertain its suitability for space-to-earth RF telecommunication link. (9/7)

SpaceX Broke its Record for Number of Launches in a Year (Source: Ars Technica)
It probably seems like SpaceX is launching almost every day, and that's not far from the case. It also might seem like SpaceX is regularly breaking one of its records, whether it's in the number of launches, turnaround time, or reusing Falcon 9 boosters. It's also true. SpaceX blew past one of those records over Labor Day weekend when the company launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. This mission was SpaceX's 62nd launch of the year using its Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket, or 63rd if you count the test flight of the Starship mega-rocket in April. SpaceX has launched 83 Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy missions over the past 12 months. (9/7)

Mars Society Unveils its Plan to Establish Technology Institute, Perhaps in Seattle (Source: GeekWire)
The nonprofit Mars Society is getting set to take the next giant leap in its mission to support Red Planet exploration and settlement, by establishing a Mars Technology Institute to develop the tools and processes those settlers will need. Robert Zubrin, the Mars Society’s founder and president, outlined the plan today during the advocacy group’s Red Planet Live podcast.

Many of the details in that plan still have to be fleshed out — including sources of funding, the precise structure of the organization, and where the institute will be headquartered. But the Pacific Northwest is one of the top prospects for the institute’s center, along with Colorado, the longtime home of the Mars Society. (9/6)

On the Road to Spotting Alien Life (Source: Space Daily)
In early August, scientists and engineers gathered in a small auditorium at Caltech to discuss how to build the first space telescope capable of detecting life on planets like Earth. The proposed mission concept, called the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), would be the next powerful astrophysics observatory after NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It would have the ability to study stars, galaxies, and a host of other cosmic objects, including planets outside our solar system, which are known as exoplanets. Though finding life on exoplanets maybe be a long shot, the Caltech workshop aimed to assess the state of technology needed by HWO to search for life elsewhere. (9/8)

Camera Hack Lets Solar Orbiter Peer Deeper Into Sun's Atmosphere (Source: Space Daily)
Scientists have used Solar Orbiter's EUI camera in a new mode of operation to record part of the Sun's atmosphere at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths that has been almost impossible to image until now. This new mode of operation was made possible with a last-minute 'hack' to the camera and will almost certainly influence new solar instruments for future missions.

Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) returns high-resolution images of the structures in the Sun's atmosphere. Scientists call this region the corona. During EUI's construction, a last-minute modification to the safety door on the front of the instrument has allowed it to see deeper into its target region than originally specified. (9/8)

NASA's Completes Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE (Source: Space Daily)
Riding with the Perseverance rover, the instrument has proved to be a viable technology for astronauts on Mars to produce oxygen for fuel and breathing. When the first astronauts land on Mars, they may have the descendants of a microwave-oven-size device to thank for the air they breathe and the rocket propellant that gets them home. That device, called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), has generated oxygen for the 16th and final time aboard NASA's Perseverance rover. After the instrument proved far more successful than its creators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) expected, its operations are concluding. (9/8)

Psyche On Track for Florida Liftoff Next Month (Source: Space Daily)
Bound for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche mission is targeting Oct. 5 to launch from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The spacecraft's solar arrays are folded like an envelope into their stowed position. Xenon gas - fuel for the journey to the asteroid belt - is loaded. All four thrusters have passed their final tests. Engineers have confirmed the massive high-gain antenna is set to transmit data. The software is tested and ready. The science instruments - a multispectral imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer - that will investigate the asteroid Psyche are poised for action.

Psyche's launch period runs from Thursday, Oct. 5 through Wednesday, Oct. 25. Editor's Note: Pay attention to the looming politically driven Government Shutdown and whether NASA launch preparations for Psyche at Kennedy Space Center might be impacted. (9/8)

Gravity Doesn't Happen Instantly (Source: Big Think)
When Newton first formulated his theory of gravity, he imagined masses attracting one another, instantaneously, from any great distance across the Universe. But it turns out that no signals, not even gravity, can travel faster than the speed of light: the cosmic speed limit for any and all particles and/or forces. It took an Einsteinian revolution to restore cosmic order to gravity, and recent observations have confirmed that the speed of gravity really is equal to the speed of light. Here's how we know. (9/7)

NASA's Swift Learns a New Trick, Spots a Snacking Black Hole (Source: NASA)
Using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which launched in 2004, scientists have discovered a black hole in a distant galaxy repeatedly nibbling on a Sun-like star. The object heralds a new era of Swift science made possible by a novel method for analyzing data from the satellite’s X-ray Telescope (XRT). (9/7)

Momentus Announces $5.0 Million Registered Direct Offering (Source: Momentus)
Momentus announced that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement with a single institutional investor for the purchase and sale of 672,948 shares of stock at a purchase price of $7.43 per share pursuant to a registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules, resulting in total gross proceeds of approximately $5.0 million before deducting placement agent commissions and other estimated offering expenses. (9/7)

New Cosmological Constraints on the Nature of Dark Matter (Source: Phys.org)
New research has revealed the distribution of dark matter in never-before-seen detail, down to a scale of 30,000 light-years. The observed distribution fluctuations provide better constraints on the nature of dark matter. Mysterious dark matter accounts for most of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is invisible and makes itself know only through its gravitational effects. Dark matter has never been isolated in a laboratory, so researchers must rely on "natural experiments" to study it.

One type of natural experiment is a gravitational lens. Sometimes by random chance, two objects at different distances in the universe will lie along the same line-of-sight when seen from Earth. When this happens, the spatial curvature caused by the matter around the foreground object acts like a lens, bending the path of light from the background object and making a lensed image. However, it is difficult to achieve the high resolution to detect clumps of dark matter that are less massive than galaxies in natural experiments, so the exact nature of dark matter has been poorly constrained. (9/7)

After Idalia Delay, ULA is Set for an Atlas V Launch (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
United Launch Alliance has only launched one rocket in 2023 and Hurricane Idalia put a hold on what it planned to be No. 2. Plans are back now, though, for an 8:51 a.m. liftoff on Saturday of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Spaceport Launch Complex 41 on the joint SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 mission for National Reconnaissance Office and Space Force. (9/8)

US Military Scrubs Hypersonic Missile Test Launch From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space.com)
A planned test launch of a new hypersonic missile system was scrubbed Wednesday (Sep. 6). Navigational warnings announcing the closure of Atlantic Ocean airspace east of the Cape Canaveral Spaceport appeared earlier in the week that suggested a test launch would take place between Sep. 6 and Sep. 8. On Wednesday DoD gave a statement to Florida Today confirming the planned test was, in fact, canceled. No reason for the cancellation was given. (9/7)

FAA Closes SpaceX Starship Mishap Investigation (Source: FAA)
The FAA has closed the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy mishap investigation. The final report cites multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023, mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence. Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices.  

The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica. SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that impact public safety and apply for and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements prior to the next Starship launch. (9/8)

Report Recommends Space Force Overhaul of SatComm Service Procurement (Source: Space News)
A RAND report recommends the Space Force overhaul its current approach to procuring commercial satellite communications services. The report, commissioned by the Space Force, concluded that existing methods for procuring commercial satcom services inhibit the government from harnessing the full potential of commercial innovations. Those existing methods include many short-term contracts that can create inefficiencies. The report also points out that military users mostly lack the necessary ground equipment to take advantage of diverse commercial services. (9/8)

UK and EU Agree on UK Copernicus Role (Source: Space News)
The United Kingdom has reached an agreement with the European Union to fully rejoin the Copernicus Earth observation program. In a joint statement Thursday, the governments said that the UK will rejoin Copernicus and the Horizon Europe research funding program, effective Jan. 1. The UK had been locked out of those programs since it exited the EU in 2020. The UK had been involved in the ESA portion of Copernicus, but under the deal it can now have full access to Copernicus services and bid on satellite contracts. The agreement also gives the UK access to the EU's space situational awareness service. (9/8)

Virgin Galactic Launches Low Key Tourist Mission at Spaceport America (Source: Space.com)
Virgin Galactic launched another suborbital spaceflight today, but under a veil of some secrecy. The company carried out its Galactic 03 mission from Spaceport America, with three company crewmembers and three private astronauts. The company did not name the three private astronauts, although one is likely Ken Baxter, a Las Vegas real estate investor who was an early customer of the company. (9/8)

Senate Confirms Gomez to FCC (Source: Ars Technica)
The Senate confirmed Anna Gomez as an FCC commissioner, filling an open seat. The Senate voted 55-43 Thursday to confirm Gomez, nominated by the Biden administration earlier this year after the previous nominee, Gigi Sohn, withdrew. The confirmation gives the Democrats a 3-2 majority on the FCC and an opportunity to advance priorities like restoration of net neutrality. The Satellite Industry Association said in a statement it applauded the confirmation, noting Gomez's expertise in telecommunications and international satellite spectrum management. (9/8)

Nelson to Open Invictus Games in Germany (Source: White House)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will lead the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremony of Invictus Games in Germany. The White House said this week that Nelson will lead the delegation, which includes Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and other White House and State Department officials, at the opening ceremony of the games Saturday in Düsseldorf, Germany. The Invictus Games features events for wounded servicemembers from 21 nations. Neither the White House nor NASA said if Nelson will have other meetings while in Germany. (9/8)

Illinois Airport Considers Pursuit of Spaceport Designation (Source: WQAD)
A Midwestern airport is the latest to show an interest in becoming a spaceport. The Quad Cities International Airport is a public airport in Rock Island County, Illinois, which serves the four Quad Cities that straddle the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois. The airport authority will start a study to examine the feasibility of becoming a commercial spaceport. The airport said there is no timetable for completing the study, and did not identify any companies that expressed an interest in launching from that commercial airport. (9/8)

Space Coast Company Gets Piece of $1.93 Billion NASA Contract (Source: Orlando Inno)
Craig Technologies is proud to announce its continuing role in supporting human spaceflight operations at Johnson Space Flight Center, TX, as a subcontractor to KBR. KBR was awarded the follow-on Integrated Mission Operations Contract (IMOC III) and will provide flight crew operations, analyst training, mission preparation, and execution support to the International Space Station and future human spaceflight programs under NASA's potential nine-year, $1.93 billion contract. (9/6)

SpinLaunch at Spaceport America: New Tech Puts a New Spin on Space Travel (Source: CBS)
A new form of technology is trying to send items into space with an innovative new method. The SpinLaunch aims to reduce the carbon footprint of space travel by using vacuum chamber to launch objects. Click here. (9/2)

Embark on an Astronaut-Led Space Mission From Texas' Midland Air & Space Port (Source: Space Nation)
Join a 3-day on-site simulated space mission with former NASA astronaut Gregory H. Johnson, the last pilot of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, as your Chief Instructor in Midland, Texas. The mission will be held from October 27-29, 2023. Space Nation, the first space travel company to become a member of the UNWTO and an official partner of NASA, will lead you on this otherworldly adventure testing your leadership, communication, and teamwork skills. Click here. (9/6)

North American Properties Leads Development of New High-Tech Aerospace & Defense Campus on Space Coast (Source: SpaceRef)
North American Properties (NAP) has announced that it will be serving as the development partner for Draper’s new, six acre high-tech aerospace and defense campus in Titusville, Florida. In this role, NAP will lead the development, permitting and construction for the state-of-the-art facility, which will house an advanced centrifuge as well as engineering and testing services for the Strategic Enhanced Ground Test Facility. Draper’s recently acquired six-acre parcel is located adjacent to NAP’s high-tech development area within Riverfront Center. (8/29)

Debra Facktor, Head of U.S. Space Systems at Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, is the 2023 Mentor of the Year (Source: SSPI)
Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) today announced that it will present its 2023 Mentor of the Year Award to Debra Facktor, Head of U.S. Space Systems at Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, Inc. Debra will be honored on October 18 at SSPI’s 18th Annual Future Leaders Celebration for the attention, support, wisdom and guidance she has provided to young professionals and colleagues throughout her career in the industry. (9/7)

South Africa Joins China’s Moon Base Project (Source: Space News)
South Africa has formally joined the China-led ILRS project to establish a permanent moon base. Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong, on behalf of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), and Humbulani Mudau, CEO of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), signed Sept. 1 the Memorandum of Understanding between CNSA and SANSA on the International Lunar Research Station Cooperation (ILRS). (9/7)

2 New Eclipse Projects Receive NASA Funding (Source: NASA)
Ahead of the total solar eclipse crossing North America on April 8, 2024, NASA has funded two more proposals that will use the eclipse to advance science while engaging the public. The new projects were awarded via NASA’s Heliophysics Innovation in Technology and Science (HITS) program. They are: SunSketcher 2024: An Eclipse Movie Across America; and GeoCollaborate: Sharing Eclipse Data for Broadcasters and Educators. (9/6)

Solstar Space Awarded Over $1.2 Million Phase II SBIR Contract for Deke Space Communicator (Source: Solstar)
Solstar Space will continue development of its Critical Data Relay Spacecraft Operational Status (CritDR-SOS), also known as the Deke Space Communicator, under a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract valued at $1,249,269. Solstar's small form-factor Deke integrates with a spacecraft's Telemetry, Tracking and Commanding (TT&C) system to provide bi-directional, continuous, internet-based monitoring of the spacecraft's bus, payload, and environment. (9/6)

Space Force Eyes Partnerships for Tactical Satellite Communications (Source: C4ISRnet)
As part of the Space Force’s effort to modernize its tactical satellite communications infrastructure, the service is considering how to ensure that international partners can benefit from and contribute to those capabilities. That next-generation suite of more resilient communication satellites and ground capabilities is known as the Protected Anti-Jam Tactical Satellite Communications family of systems, or PATS. Leveraging partnerships with allies is a top priority for the effort, according to Charlotte Gerhart. (9/7)

SpinLaunch Gains Sumitomo Partnership (Source: SpinLaunch)
SpinLaunch and the Sumitomo Corp. of Japan have formed a strategic partnership to expand the global market for affordable and sustainable space services. Sumitomo has also made an investment in SpinLaunch. Through the partnership agreement, Sumitomo obtains the right to represent SpinLaunch’s mass accelerator launch services and related hardware products in Japan. Sumitomo plans to leverage SpinLaunch's capabilities to accelerate the accessibility of space, both for national security and private sector use in Japan. (9/7)

GAO: Cost Transparency Needed to Monitor SLS Program Affordability (Source: GAO)
Last year, NASA launched its Artemis I flight test using a Space Launch System rocket, or SLS. NASA plans to spend billions of dollars to produce more rockets. It also needs to build progressively stronger versions of these rockets for use on Artemis missions into the 2030s. Original SLS cost baselines, or committed costs, were tied to the launch of Artemis I. Without a baseline to track these production costs for upcoming missions, future program costs are less transparent and harder for NASA and Congress to monitor. NASA should act on our prior recommendations to improve transparency and monitoring of this program. Click here. (9/7)

The Pakistan-India Space Race That Wasn’t (Source: The Juggernaut)
Abdus Salam, Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate and the first Muslim to win the prize, had a vision. The year was 1961. Pakistan was in its infancy; the country had won independence from the British only 14 years prior, and resources were scarce. But the theoretical physicist convinced the country’s second president Ayub Khan of the importance of getting to space, and the two launched the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in 1961, eight years before India would begin a space program. Pakistan sent rockets into space 200 times between 1962 and 1972, all under Salam’s leadership. Click here. (9/6)

Rare Round of Layoffs at Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin (Source: GeekWire)
Several employees at Blue Origin are reporting that they’ve been laid off, marking a rare turnabout in the rapid growth of Jeff Bezos’ space venture. The reduction-in-force appears to be focused in the areas of human resources and talent acquisition, based on employees’ postings to LinkedIn. The company’s workforce tally was less than 1,000 as recently as 2018. Two years ago, that count was reported at nearly 4,000 employees, and the figure rose to 6,000 by July 2022. Blue Origin’s current number of employees — including workers in Kent as well as in Alabama, California, Florida, Texas, the Washington, D.C., area and other locales — is said to have hit nearly 11,000. (9/6)

Saving Lives on Earth and Beyond: Space Station Flame Research Sheds Light on Fire Safety (Source: CASIS)
A tragic high-rise fire inspired breakthrough research leveraging the ISS to reveal startling insights into the behavior of flames in confined spaces. The results have the potential to improve fire safety models and prevent future tragedies. The research that followed onboard the space station utilized state-of-the-art hardware in microgravity to address this gap in knowledge, providing crucial insights into flame propagation and interactions with surrounding walls. (9/7)

Draper's New $50M High-Tech Titusville Campus Will Test Nuclear Deterrence Systems (Source: Orlando Inno)
Research and development nonprofit Draper will develop simulated environments at its future $50 million Titusville campus to test nuclear deterrence systems such as hypersonic missiles and Trident II D5 missiles. That's according to Vice President and General Manager of Navy Strategic Systems Robert Bacon. The company chose Titusville after looking at many sites and finding that Riverfront Center was most ready for a quick build-out, he said.

The new campus will replace a Draper centrifuge facility in Bedford, Massachusetts, which is nearing the end of its life. A groundbreaking ceremony for the strategic enhanced ground testing facility for missiles happened at Riverfront Center in Titusville on Aug. 29. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Draper has Florida footprints already, with its U.S. Navy Trident Guidance Program Technical Support Facility in Cape Canaveral and Rapid Prototyping Center in St. Petersburg. Further growing its presence in Florida was not a stretch, said Bacon. Site readiness, a strong workforce and existing Navy strategic systems programs in the area made it a natural fit.

We purchased the property for $2.2 million in June. Draper always was going to make a long-term commitment, so if we had leased, it would have been a 30-year lease. We decided to buy it. We explored options with Space Florida and others, and when we found that site that really fit, we had our first introduction in North American Properties. They helped us put out RFPs. We’ve gotten to know them better as we’ve worked through the acquisition and learned how to leverage them and their expertise as our primary developer. We’re going with Rush Construction. (9/7)

Musk Secretly Used Starlink to Foil Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Ships (Source: Daily Beast)
Elon Musk secretly ordered SpaceX engineers to switch off the Starlink satellite communications network near the coast of occupied Crimea in order to thwart a Ukrainian surprise attack on Russia’s naval fleet, according to a report. With the comms down, the Ukrainian submarine drones packed with explosives “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes. Musk was reportedly motivated to foil the attack out of concern that a strike on Crimea would constitute a “mini-Pearl Harbor” and lead to Russia retaliating with nuclear weapons. (9/7)

Relativity Space Expands Presence at NASA’s Stennis Space Center (Source: Space News)
Launch vehicle company Relativity Space is growing its footprint at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi by leasing an Apollo-era test stand to support development of its Terran R rocket. The company announced Sept. 7 that it signed an agreement with Stennis to lease the A-2 test stand at the center. Relativity will pay $2.76 million to lease the test stand for seven years, with an option to extend the lease an additional 10 years. (9/7)