November 17, 2023

Redwire’s ‘Lab-in-a-Box’ Aims to Leverage the ISS National Lab to Help Improve Drug Manufacturing (Source: CASIS)
Approximately 90 percent of all small molecule medications for common ailments, like aspirin and antihistamines, are formed as crystals. The structure and purity of these crystals are crucial and can have an impact on how the drug is administered to a patient. To optimize and improve treatment options for patients affected by diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even chronic pain, pharmaceutical companies are turning to the ISS National Laboratory to leverage its unique environment to grow new crystal forms and more homogenous crystals. (11/16)

Funding Battles Rage in Congress But Support for Space Remains Steady (Source: NewSpace Global)
Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown last night with the passage of a pair of continuing resolutions. Budgetary brinksmanship has become the norm in Washington leading to uncertainty within the NewSpace Economy. The 2024 election cycle is adding to that uncertainly with question over who will control the purse strings of the single largest contributor to the NewSpace economy.

While the news cycle plays up the budgetary drama in Washington, our analysis is clear; funding for space is likely to remain consistent as congressional support for space initiatives are largely positive. In the near term, both President Biden and former President Trump (the likely Republican nominee in 2024) have shown support for space funding and while some aspects of policy remain open to debate as a whole we expect funding for U.S. Space programs to remain consistent. (11/16)

SpaceX Delays Launch of its Giant Starship Rocket to Saturday to Swap Out a Part (Source: Ars Technica)
The launch of SpaceX's second full-size Starship rocket from South Texas is now scheduled for Saturday, a day later than previously planned. There is a 20-minute launch window on Saturday, opening at 7 am CST. This 24-hour delay will allow time for SpaceX technicians to replace a component on the rocket's Super Heavy booster. "We need to replace a grid fin actuator, so launch is postponed to Saturday," Musk posted.

What's impressive, assuming SpaceX pulls off the repair in time for a launch attempt, is this would be another example of the speed of progress at Starbase. Within a few hours of making the decision to replace the part near the top of the Super Heavy booster stage, SpaceX's ground crew detached the bullet-shaped Starship vehicle, itself some 15 stories tall, from the top of the rocket below. SpaceX needed to remove the Starship upper stage, numbered "Ship 25" in SpaceX parlance, to give technicians access to the part that needs replacing on the Super Heavy booster, designated "Booster 9." (11/16)

Sierra Space Lays Off Hundreds in Push Toward First Dream Chaser Spaceplane Launch (Source: CNBC)
Sierra Space, one of the sector’s most valuable private companies, laid off several hundred employees and contractors this week. A Sierra Space spokesperson confirmed the company let go of about 165 employees on Thursday, but declined to specify the number of contractors affected. The laid-off employees received two weeks of paid non-working notice, plus four weeks of severance pay and health care benefits through the end of the year. Sierra Space had about 2,000 employees before reducing its workforce, the spokesperson said. The Colorado-based company, which was recently valued at more than $5 billion, is pushing hard to fly the long-awaited first mission of its Dream Chaser spaceplane. (11/17)

Space Force Eyes a Future of Speed and Agility in Orbit (Source: Space News)
For its latest Hyperspace Challenge accelerator, the U.S. Space Force selected three startups specializing in satellite propulsion, picks reflecting the military’s growing interest in nimble satellites that can maneuver to outplay adversaries. This marks a shift for the Pentagon, which traditionally has launched satellites into orbit and restricted their movements to conserve fuel. But with rivals fielding maneuverable spacecraft, U.S. officials are calling for a shift to “dynamic space operations,” enabled by autonomous refueling and other in-orbit services. (11/17)

Amazon Moves Toward Full-Scale Kuiper Satellite Production (Source: Space News)
Amazon says it is ready to move into full-scale production of its Project Kuiper satellites after completing in-orbit tests of two prototypes. KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 successfully demonstrated fiber-like speeds after launching to low Earth orbit last month, an Amazon executive said in an interview. Those tests were limited to contact windows lasting 30 to 120 seconds as the two satellites passed over a test site in McAllen, Texas. The company will continue to test the satellites over the next several months to see how their performance changes over time, then deorbit them within a year. Amazon expects to start launching the first of more than 3,200 production satellites in the first half of 2024, enabling beta services later that year with early partners that include Vodafone and Verizon. (11/17)

Norway's Telenor Selling Space Division to Space Norway (Source: Space News)
Norwegian state-run telecommunications company Telenor is selling its space division to Space Norway, part of the country's space agency. The $216 million deal, announced Thursday, is intended to help consolidate the country's space interests. Telenor Satellite owns and operates three geostationary spacecraft and leases capacity on a fourth. Space Norway was established a decade ago to procure spacecraft for the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission using spacecraft in highly elliptical orbits, and also operates maritime surveillance satellites. (11/17)

China Launches Ocean Observation Satellites (Source: Space News)
China launched the first in a new line of ocean observation satellites Wednesday night. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off at 10:55 p.m. Eastern and placed the Haiyang-3 (01) into a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit. The spacecraft will provide all-weather ocean observation using an X-band SAR payload over a planned mission lifetime of eight years, complementing the older Haiyang-2 series of satellites. (11/17)

Lockheed Martin Plans 5G LEO Satellite (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin will launch a payload next year to test 5G networking from space. Lockheed completed a successful lab simulation of a 5G payload last month and is moving forward with plans to launch a satellite to low Earth orbit in 2024 for a space demonstration. The technology is intended to support an "all-domain network," or a seamless communications web between space assets, aircraft, ships and ground forces. It is part of a project called 5G.MIL that the company started in 2020 in response to military demand for high-speed wireless communications. (11/17)

Germany's OHB Going Private (Source: Space News)
The CEO of German space company OHB says the company is going private because public markets undervalue small space companies. OHB announced a deal with investment company KKR in August where KKR would buy the shares of OHB on the open market. Last week, OHB said that more than three-fourths of those shares have been acquired, with 94% of OHB shares now owned by the company or KKR. At Space Tech Expo Europe this week, Marco Fuchs said he wanted to take OHB private because companies like his are "structurally undervalued" on public markets, and going private will help make OHB more agile. (11/17)

Emerging Tech Makes Hyperspectral Imagery More Useful (Source: Space News)
Companies are overcoming challenges to make better use of hyperspectral imagery. Such imagery, which collects data in dozens or hundreds of bands simultaneously, has long shown potential for many Earth observation applications but had a reputation for being difficult to use. In a panel at Space Tech Expo Europe, companies said emerging technologies like cloud computing, onboard data processing and AI make it easier to handle and use hyperspectral imagery. They see new applications for such imagery in global environmental monitoring, resource management and sustainable development, as well as in defense. (11/17)

Chinese Rocket Stage Likely Created Lunar Crater (Source: Space.com)
An object that crashed into the moon and left a double crater was likely a Chinese rocket stage. The object, which hit the moon last March, was once linked to a Falcon 9 launch but later thought to be the upper stage from a Long March 3C rocket that launched the Chang'e-5 T1 demonstration mission in 2014. New analysis of observations of that object confirm that it was that Chinese rocket stage. The double crater, astronomers said, likely came from a counterweight at the other end of the stage from the engine compartment, which also contributed to its behavior in space, tumbling stably end over end. (11/17)

Deep Learning Speeds Up Galactic Calculations (Source: Space Daily)
For the first time, a team of researchers, including those from The University of Tokyo, apply deep learning to the problem of supernova simulation. Their approach can speed up the simulation of supernovae, and therefore of galaxy formation and evolution as well. These simulations include the evolution of the chemistry which led to life. (11/17)

NASA Telescope Data Becomes Music You Can Play (Source: Space Daily)
For millennia, musicians have looked to the heavens for inspiration. Now a new collaboration is enabling actual data from NASA telescopes to be used as the basis for original music that can be played by humans. Since 2020, the "sonification" project at NASA's Chandra X-ray Center has translated the digital data taken by telescopes into notes and sounds. This process allows the listener to experience the data through the sense of hearing instead of seeing it as images, a more common way to present astronomical data. (11/16)

Construction on NASA SPHEREx Mission to Map 450 Million Galaxies is Under Way (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope is beginning to look much like it will when it arrives in Earth orbit and starts mapping the entire sky. Short for Specto-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, SPHEREx resembles a bullhorn, albeit one that will stand almost 8.5 feet tall and stretch nearly 10.5 feet wide. Giving the observatory its distinctive shape are its cone-shaped photon shields, which are being assembled in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. (11/10)

What's Thanksgiving Like in Space? Here's a Happy Thanksgiving from NASA (Source: Florida Today)
Thanksgiving in space? We've been celebrating in orbit for longer than you might think, starting with the Skylab 4 crew in 1973! Click here. (11/13)

Small Satellite Builder GomSpace: We’re On Track for Cash-Flow Positive in Late 2024; US Market a Priority (Source: Space Intel Report)
Small satellite builder GomSpace said it’s on track to become free-cash-flow positive by late 2024 and reported a 33% increase in revenue for the nine months ending Sep. 30. The company said it had completed much of the cost-saving measures it implemented to get to profitability, including a 36% reduction in head count in the past year, to 132 as of Sep. 30. (11/16)

NASA's Latest Snake Robot Aims for Space, Brain Behind it is an Indian (Source: NDTV)
The US space agency is testing a futuristic robot that resembles a snake and can autonomously explore unexplored areas on Moon and Mars. Its design emerges from the shape and working of the Indian python and is conceptualised by an Indian-origin engineer. Rohan Thakker, who studied in Nagpur and now works in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, is the brain behind this new snake-shaped robot, named EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor). (11/15)

Local Business Expected to Boost Ahead of SpaceX Starship Texas Launch (Source: ValleyCentral)
The much anticipated SpaceX test launch is set for the weekend and several businesses in Brownsville are expected to see an influx of visitors. Families and visitors from all over with make their way to the Rio Grande Valley and particularly in Cameron County. “We’re ready, Brownsville is ready, whenever we welcome all of these tourists,” Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau Manager Malinalli Montesam said. The Brownsville Convention & Visitors bureau says lodging is almost at capacity and those numbers are expected to increase. (11/15)

Closures in Cameron County for SpaceX Launch Attempt (Source: KRGV)
Cameron County previously announced a closure is scheduled for Highway 4 and Boca Chica Beach from midnight to 2 p.m. that same day. The FAA restricted the airspace around Boca Chica for Friday, Nov. 17 between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9:39 a.m. A notice from the Cameron County Parks & Recreation department is warning the public of modified hours at the Isla Blanca County Park in preparation of the launch. Visitors are being asked to leave that park on Thursday, Nov. 16 by 9 p.m. The park will reopen to the public the following day at 5 a.m. The boat ramp facility at the park will also be closed on Friday, Nov. 17. (11/15)

Deterring a Looming Space Pearl Harbor Through Better Public Discourse (Source: Space News)
Better unclassified dialogue and collaboration may well be sufficient for the Pentagon to attain timely preparedness for a Space Pearl Harbor and assure the public of its safety, provided that these efforts start as soon as possible. While there are informative wargames relevant to a Space Pearl Harbor that happens as early as 2026, they should be supplemented by frequent interactions and collaboration with individuals who publish openly on issues pertaining to a timely solution to counter such an attack.

These activities include on-the-record discussions with these analysts with openly accessible transcripts. Editor's Note: In addition to discourse within the US, President Biden announced after a summit with China' President Xi Jinping that the US and China will restore high-level military dialog, at least for maritime and aviation incident avoidance. One would hope this offers an opportunity to expand that dialog to include space. (11/15)

Starlink’s Overzealous Fraud Detection Locked Users Out of Their Accounts (Source: Ars Technica)
The Starlink bug that locked some users out of their accounts last week was caused by overzealous fraud detection that falsely flagged legitimate accounts as fraudulent. Affected users yesterday received an email titled "False Positive Fraud Account Correction," but not everyone has been able to get back into their accounts yet. (11/15)

Lucy Explores Three Asteroids for the Price of One (Source: America Space)
On Nov. 1, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew by the small asteroid Dinkinesh. The spacecraft’s initial images of this diminutive 0.4-mile-wide world have already illustrated the capabilities of its instrument suite. High-resolution images reveal that Dinkinesh’s surface is strewn with boulders and that it is orbited by a small moon. Dinkinesh’s companion, in turn, is a contact binary comprised of two asteroids which were fused together during a gentle collision.

 The encounter was a major milestone in its own right, as every asteroid which we explore with a spacecraft has the potential to teach us more about the ingredients which formed the planets. However, this initial flyby was just a foretaste of the data which the Lucy spacecraft will return over the coming decade. Including Dinkinesh, Lucy will investigate eleven different planetesimals over the course of its mission. (11/15)

ULA Chief on the Vulcan Rocket: “The Path to Flight One is Clear” (Source: Ars Technica)
ULA is closing in on the debut flight of the Vulcan rocket, and it remains on track to fly the vehicle for the first time on Dec. 24. ULA CEO Tory Bruno said “the path to flight one is clear" for Vulcan. The last major piece of hardware for the rocket, the Centaur V upper stage, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on Monday. All of the qualification testing necessary for the first flight, including for the upper stage, is complete. Editor's Note: I would guess that any decision or announcement on ULA's rumored sale will await a successful debut for Vulcan. (11/15)