October 5, 2023

New Center Will Lay Groundwork for Better Space Weather Forecasts (Source: Space Daily)
A new center led by CU Boulder will undertake research to make the region of space between Earth and the moon a little safer-potentially helping satellites navigate through this tumultuous and sometimes hazardous environment. This summer, NASA announced that it had selected four Space Weather Centers of Excellence, including the Space Weather Operational Readiness Development (SWORD) center at CU Boulder.

As its name suggests, the nearly $10 million center will offer some powerful protection for the planet: SWORD research will seek to help scientists develop more accurate and timely conditions of the "space weather" hundreds of miles above the surface of Earth-where impacts from solar storms can increase the risk of satellite collisions and interfere with communications and navigation. (10/4)

Orbit Fab Appoints Chief Engineer, Advances Refueling System Test Capabilities (Source: Space Daily)
Orbit Fab, the leading provider of on-orbit refueling services, has named industry veteran Kevin Smith as the company's Chief Engineer, who will lead the Systems, Electrical, Fluids, and Mechanical engineering teams and internal development, testing and overall readiness of RAFTI and GRIP in-space fueling systems.

Fresh off his most recent stint as Senior Propulsion Engineer at Astrobotic, where he supported Peregrine and Griffin lunar lander programs, and previously space fluids products with Moog, Smith brings years of propulsion and valve expertise to Orbit Fab's plan to have RAFTI refueling ports approved for customer mission integration next year. (10/5)

New Zealand Political Party Outlines Space Policy (Source: National Party)
A major New Zealand political party has outlined its space policy. The National Party, the current opposition party, said that, if it comes to power, it will appoint a space minister and establish two new testing zones for space and other aerospace activities in the country. It will also offer fast-track visas for skilled workers and a prize for the country's best student in aerospace studies. The announcement, made at Rocket Lab's facilities in Auckland, comes ahead of elections later this month. (10/5)

Northrop Grumman Shifts Space Station Effort Toward Partnership with Voyager (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman will end work on its proposed commercial space station and instead partner with Voyager Space. The companies announced Wednesday that Voyager will work with Northrop on a version of the Cygnus cargo spacecraft that can autonomously dock with Voyager's Starlab station, a partnership that could extend to Northrop providing engineering support for Starlab.

Northrop and Voyager had separate NASA awards to advance designs of commercial stations that could succeed the ISS. NASA said that Northrop will withdraw from its NASA agreement, with the agency reallocating $89 million not yet spent on Northrop's agreement to other partners. NASA called the partnership a "positive development" in the evolving market for commercial space stations. (10/5)

China Plans TSS Expansion (Source: Space News)
China plans to expand its Tiangong space station. In a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) Wednesday, Chinese officials said they will grow the station from its current three modules to six, likely in the next four years. That work will also include adding expansion interfaces to the current Tianhe and Wentian modules for external payloads, as well as new inflatable modules. An expanded Tiangong would be just over a third of the mass of the roughly 450-metric-ton International Space Station. (10/5)

Booz Allen Wins $630 Million Space Force Contract for Satellite Systems Support (Source: Space News)
Booz Allen Hamilton won a $630 million Space Force contract for satellite systems support. The seven-year contract, announced Wednesday, covers systems engineering and integration of satellite systems used for missile warning, environmental monitoring and surveillance. Booz Allen will be responsible for the integration of different elements of major space sensing programs, a key role in programs where there are different contractors working on the satellites and the ground systems. The company originally won the Space Sensing Systems Engineering and Integration contract in 2022 but the award was put on hold due to protests. (10/5)

Japan's Lunar Lander Readies for Descent (Source: Space News)
Japan’s SLIM spacecraft has completed a flyby of the moon ahead of a landing in the coming months. The spacecraft, formally known as Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, flew a little less than 5,000 kilometers from the lunar surface early Wednesday. SLIM, launched a month ago, is flying a low-energy trajectory that will bring it back to the moon late this year, allowing it to go into orbit ahead of a landing attempt in January to test precision landing technologies. (10/5)

SRI, Leidos, Scout Space Collaborate on IC-Funded Space Debris Project (Source: Space News)
SRI International said it will work with Leidos and Scout Space on a debris-tracking project funded by the U.S. intelligence community. SRI is one of four companies that won contracts from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity to attempt to track tiny debris objects in orbit that currently are undetectable by ground-based sensors. SRI will experiment with new approaches to analyze radar data in order to hone in on the smallest debris objects in low Earth orbit. Scout Space, a startup, will augment that with data from space-based sensors, while Leidos will contribute plasma modeling expertise that could also be used to identify debris. (10/5)

Rocket Lab Dedicates California Rocket Lab (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab formally dedicated a new engine development facility in the former headquarters of Virgin Orbit. The company held a ceremony Wednesday to mark the opening of the Long Beach, California, facility located just a few blocks from its headquarters. Rocket Lab acquired the building and its contents in May in Virgin Orbit's bankruptcy auction. It will host production of Rutherford and Archimedes engines used on Rocket Lab's Electron and Neutron rockets, respectively. (10/5)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Satellites From Cape Canaveral Spaceport, Recovers Booster (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites Thursday morning. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 1:36 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral and placed 22 Starlink V2 mini satellites into orbit. The launch was scheduled for earlier in the evening but was delayed by weather. The launch was the 70th this year for the Falcon series of rockets. (10/5)

China Launches Reconnaissance Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China continued its surge in launches of reconnaissance satellites Wednesday. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 8:24 p.m. Eastern and placed a Yaogan-39 payload into orbit. China previously launched trios of Yaogan-39 satellites, thought to be reconnaissance satellites with optical and radar sensors, in August and September. (10/5)

Six Startups Join AFRL Accelerator (Source: Space News)
Six startups based in four countries are joining an accelerator run by the Air Force Research Lab. The 2023 Hyperspace Challenge cohort includes U.S. companies Lexset.ai, Phase Four and TRL11, plus Australia’s High Earth Orbit Robotics, England-based Magdrive and Dawn Aerospace of the Netherlands. The accelerator, run by AFRL and CNM Ingenuity with support from the U.S. Space Force Space Rapid Capabilities Office, will give participating companies insight into the types of products and services government space agencies need over the course of the six-week program. (10/5)

NASA Wants a 'Lunar Freezer' for its Artemis Moon Missions (Source: Space.com)
NASA has issued a request for "lunar freezer" designs that can safely store materials taken from the moon during planned Artemis missions. According to a request for information (RFI) posted to the federal contracting website SAM.gov, the freezer's primary use will be transporting scientific and geological samples from the moon to Earth. These samples, the post specifies, will be ones collected during the Artemis program.

However, the post also states that the lunar freezer could be used to store and transport "human biological/physiological samples collected during the missions," presumably for analyzing how spaceflight to the moon affects astronauts. In the RFI, NASA writes that it wants the lunar freezer ready by the end of 2027, to be launched aboard its planned Artemis 5 mission. (10/4)

Scientists Confirm What's Inside The Moon (Source: Science Alert)
A thorough investigation published back in May has found that the inner core of the Moon is, in fact, a solid ball with a density similar to that of iron. This, researchers hope, will help settle a long debate about whether the Moon's inner heart is solid or molten, and lead to a more accurate understanding of the Moon's history – and, by extension, that of the Solar System. (10/5)

Lasers in Space (Source: Quartz)
Militaries, of course, are interested in lasers as a way to blind satellite sensors or even damage them permanently—the US has tested such systems, and intelligence analysts say China is developing them at a secret facility. But a laser that can damage something requires a good deal of power, much more than can be efficiently generated in space. Lasers used to transmit data don’t need that much juice—and they can carry information as many as 100 times faster than radio signals used most often today.

SpaceX just launched a set of Starlink satellites that use a new generation of optical links. The US military’s Space Development Agency announced a $14 million project to demonstrate laser communications in space. And early next month, NASA will send an optical communications terminal to the International Space Station, where its designers expect it to transmit data down to Earth at a rate of 1.2 gigabits per second. (10/5)

ISS National Lab Research Announcement Seeking Tissue Engineering and Biomanufacturing Proposals Opens (Source: CASIS)
A new research announcement to leverage the unique environment of the International Space Station (ISS) to advance tissue engineering and biomanufacturing is now open. The ISS National Laboratory is soliciting concepts for applied research and technology development for regenerative medicine applications seeking to demonstrate space-based manufacturing and production activities for terrestrial applications. Through this research announcement, multiple projects will be awarded funding to support project costs, hardware and integration costs, and flight allocation to the orbiting laboratory.

Through in-space production and manufacturing efforts, the ISS National Lab seeks to enable new business models that can grow capital investment and develop a robust market in low Earth orbit (LEO). Both NASA and the ISS National Lab have prioritized utilization of the space station for in-space production applications and manufacturing opportunities, and this research announcement reflects a desire to build on this growing area of emphasis. (10/4)

Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs) Power Our National Defense Launch Systems. Why? (Source: Northrop Grumman)
Readiness: SRMs require very little preparation before being launched. Rapid launch readiness enables speed and agility to meet national defense objectives. They are reliable and repeatable. Over six decades, our strategic propulsion maintains 100% operational success. High propellant density means SRMs store lots of energy in relatively little space, delivering large amounts of thrust with less mass. And they feature a long shelf life and storability: SRMs can be safely stored for decades before flight, with no impact to performance or quality. (10/4)

Firefly Aerospace Completes Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Structure Ahead of Moon Landing for NASA (Source: Firefly)
Firefly Aerospace announced it completed the development and assembly of its Blue Ghost lander structure and fluid systems, a critical milestone for Firefly’s first lunar mission slated to land on the Moon in 2024 as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. This mission is one of three task orders Firefly has won under NASA CLPS, accounting for more than $230 million in awards. (10/4)

Interview: Impulse Space CEO Tom Mueller (Source: Space.com)
In late 2020, TomMueller left SpaceX to form Impulse Space, a California-based venture created to provide precise orbital maneuvering vehicles for last-mile payload delivery in low Earth orbit (LEO). The company's state-of-the-art Mira spacecraft and propulsion systems are proficient in delivering multiple payloads to unique orbits from a single launch by moving beyond drop-off orbits and allowing for customized placements using preferred choices of altitude, inclination, and plane.

When you take a hundred tons, especially if it's a whole bunch of smaller payloads, to a certain orbit on a starship, most of them are going to want to be in a different orbit from where they end up. There are an infinite number of orbits if you think about it. It's truly 3D space. There are different altitudes, different planes, different eccentricities, and different timing to be over a certain spot on the Earth at a certain time. Everybody wants to be in their spot and we're there to take them. Click here. (10/4)