November 20, 2023

China Focus: Earth Bacteria Could Make Lunar Soil More Habitable for Plants (Source: Xinhua)
A series of planned crewed lunar missions worldwide have inspired a new wave of research in growing plants on the moon to sustain life. A new Chinese study found that bacteria on Earth soil could offer a solution. The study showed that three species of bacteria could increase the amount of phosphorus content, a vital element that can be taken up by plants, in the lunar soil simulant.

Researchers from China Agricultural University tested five species of bacteria and found three of them more than doubled the amount of phosphorus content within a period of 10 to 21 days. In the next phase of the study, the researchers grew a model plant, commonly used in bioresearch, in simulated lunar soil treated with the three species of bacteria for 18 days. They observed that the plants had longer stems and roots after six days of growth, and heavier and wider clusters of leaves after 24 days of growth, compared with those grown without the bacteria.

Besides, levels of chlorophyll, the pigment for harvesting energy from light, in plants with these live bacteria were about double those grown without bacteria in the simulant in another 24-day experiment, which confirmed the important role that these bacteria could play in making lunar soil more fertile. Lead researcher Sun Zhencai said using bacteria to improve lunar soil fertility would help create lunar greenhouses effectively, so that astronauts can make use of lunar resources to sustain life, instead of lugging huge amounts of soil or the entire cultivation system from Earth. (11/20)

Meet the Iranian-Born Billionaire Helping NASA Get Back to the Moon (Source: Forbes)
Kam Ghaffarian isn’t a household name. But unlike Musk and Bezos who made fortunes elsewhere first, Ghaffarian actually got rich by shooting for the stars. The list of companies Ghaffarian has founded reads like the pages of a science fiction novel: Axiom Space is building the world’s first commercial space station in partnership with NASA and also designed the next generation of astronaut spacesuits. Intuitive Machines builds lunar landers. Quantum Space is creating a space "superhighway" that will help spacecraft refuel and travel in the region between the Earth and the moon.

And back down on this planet, X-Energy is making small, advanced (and meltdown-proof) nuclear reactors. All the businesses have a common goal, according to Ghaffarian. "We need to be a multi-planetary species and also be able to go to other stars. But until then, we only have one home, right?” he says, adding, with a chuckle: “If you sort of summarize everything, [we need to] take care of our existing home and find a new home."

Uncle Sam isn’t the only game in town, of course. Ghaffarian already has a laundry list of commercial clients, including the Cedars-Sinai health system (for stem cell research in microgravity), champagne producer G.H. Mumm (bubbly designed to be tasted in space) and Japanese conglomerate Mitsui. That track record has helped him win over investors. No one is better than Kam Ghaffarian at winning, on a competitive basis, dollars from the U.S. government. (11/20)

Nova Space Announces Support to the Space Force and National Security Space Institute (Source: Pure Capital Solutions)
Pure Capital Solutions' wholly owned subsidiary Nova Space announced today that it has been awarded a contract to support training and education development at the National Security Space Institute. The National Security Space Institute (NSSI) is the U.S. Space Force's premier source for space continuing education, complementing existing space education programs at Air University, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. (11/16)

Ecuador is the Epicenter of a Future Space Center (Source: Expreso Ecuador)
Ecuador could become a gateway to space if “the dream” of the space industry expert from NASA, Rafael Kargren, comes true, of building a space center in the Andean country to launch and receive rockets. Ecuador - which has in its geography the Chimborazo volcano, the furthest point from the center of the Earth, and therefore, the closest to outer space - is crossed by the equatorial line , and that is one of the reasons why Ecuador is an aerospace potential, indicated Kargren.

Kargren highlighted the importance of political stability and legal security for investors, including those linked to the space industry. Investors “need to know that there is the right space, the opportunities, but also the regulatory framework,” he said. With this in place and with environmental studies, “the project could begin immediately,” he noted as he advanced that they are already carrying out preliminary investigations for an eventual land purchase, and have seen the coastal province of Guayas as one of the most attractive areas. (11/10)

Military Weather Monitoring Update Needed (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Mitchell Institute's Tim Ryan calls out the urgent need to update the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, crucial for military weather monitoring. The US Air Force and Space Force are addressing this by developing two new satellite constellations, the EO/IR Weather System and the Weather System Follow-on Microwave. (11/17)

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches 22 Starlink Satellites From California (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from the West Coast with another batch of 22 Starlink satellites at 2:30 a.m. PST Monday. On this 55th Starlink delivery mission of the year, the Falcon 9 headed in a south-easterly direction after lifting off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The first stage booster, making its 15th flight, landed on the drone ship ‘Of Course I still Love You’ stationed about 400 miles downrange in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California. (11/20)

Russia's Long-Duration Space Journey on Earth Put 6 People in Isolation for a Year (Source: Space.com)
Russia kicked off another of its Scientific International Research In Unique terrestrial Station (SIRIUS) project initiatives last week, this time a 360-day isolation of individuals to imitate flight conditions of a deep space journey. The mission is known as SIRIUS-23. The nearly year-long stint by the six-person crew is carried out under the auspices of the legendary Institute for Bio-Medical Problems (IBMP) under the Russian Academy of Sciences. Last month, IBMP celebrated 60 years of research since its establishment to investigate issues related to long-term human space exploration. (11/19)

Russia to Carry out 27 New Experiments Aboard ISS in Next Three Years (Source: TASS)
Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos intends to carry out 27 new scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in the next three years, Roscosmos Executive Director for Long-Term Programs and Science Alexander Bloshenko said on Monday. (11/20)

Russia Approves Design of Angara Rocket Adapted for Launch of National Orbiter’s Modules (Source: TASS)
The technical design of the Angara-A5M heavy carrier rocket modified for the launch of modules of the future Russian Orbital Station (ROS) has been approved by the customer, CEO of the Khrunichev Space Center (part of Roscosmos). The conceptual design of the adaptation of the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East and the Angara-A5M rocket for the launch of ROS modules has already passed an expert study at leading institutes of the space rocket industry. (11/20)

Rover McRoverface? Shortlist of Names for Aus Moon Rover Announced (Source: Cosmos)
Lunar exploration is a serious business. No room for humour. No Rover McRoverface name for Australia’s Moon rover. Nor Matilda, Skippy, Bluey, Walkabout or Wombat although these were all submitted. But despite all the no-goes, what to call Australia’s own Moon rover will soon be decided, after 8,000 people entered a competition run by the Australian Space Agency (ASA), to try to name it.

A four-name shortlist has been released today, with the final winner being chosen for a final vote next month. Over the next two weeks the public will be able to vote, with one final name being released to the public on December 6 next month. The shortlist: Coolamon; Kakirra; Mateship; and Roo-ver. (11/20)

Japan to Set Up $6.7bn JAXA Fund to Develop Space Industry (Source: Nikkei)
Japan's cabinet on Monday approved a bill to set up a 1 trillion yen ($6.7 billion) fund for JAXA, the country's space agency, as a way to catapult the country's private sector into the global race for new rocket and satellite technologies. The bill aims to create a trillion-yen endowment over the next 10 years that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency would dip into to provide long-term support to startups, other private-sector companies and universities. (11/20)

Space Breakthrough for Elon Musk but Jeff Bezos is in Hot Pursuit (Source: Sunday Times)
As his tech rival’s Starship soars to new heights, the Amazon founder has ground to make up, but his move to Florida will help. Having launched the first sub-orbital rocket rides for paying passengers aboard his New Shepard rocket in 2021, Bezos, now 59, is stepping up the development of New Glenn — a more powerful, orbital-class vehicle intended by Blue Origin to compete with SpaceX in the heavy-lift market. (11/19)

US Navy, Missile Defense Agency Lead Demo Event for Advanced Hypersonics (Source: Executive Gov)
The U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency jointly conducted a demonstration of advanced hypersonic technologies as part of the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed program. The test campaign, which took place on Wednesday at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, is expected to help improve MDA's hypersonic defensive capability as well as the Navy’s offensive Conventional Prompt Strike assets. (11/17)

STARCOM Unveils Space Domain Awareness Doctrine Publication (Source: Executive Gov)
Space Training and Readiness Command has provided the U.S. Space Force with a Space Doctrine Publication developed to present best practices and authoritative guidance regarding space domain awareness, or SDA. SDP 3-100, Space Domain Awareness, outlines how the Space Force could build and maintain SDA to ensure the U.S. has the freedom to operate in, from and to space. The first operational level doctrine publication outlines how the Space Force could build and maintain SDA to ensure the U.S. has the freedom to operate in, from and to space, Space Operations Command said Thursday. (11/17)

Musk: Next Starship Could Be Ready for Launch Before Year-End (Source: Space News)
Upgrades to the launch pad allowed it to survive the launch with minimal damage, unlike the April launch. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Sunday that the next Starship vehicle could be ready for launch within four weeks, although a mishap investigation overseen by the FAA will likely take longer to complete. (11/20)

Orion Heat Shield Performance Still Under Review After Artemis 1 (Source: Space News)
NASA is still studying the performance of the Orion heat shield on the Artemis 1 mission nearly a year after the spacecraft returned to Earth. At an advisory committee meeting Friday, NASA officials said that the higher-than-expected erosion of heat shield material on the spacecraft is the one open item still being reviewed from the mission. The agency expects to get to the root cause of that erosion by next spring. Artemis 2, the first crewed flight, remains on schedule for late 2024, and the agency said it is continuing Orion preparations to keep to that schedule while leaving open the possibility of having to go back and make changes to the heat shield. Those officials emphasized they will not launch Artemis 2 until they are fully confident in the performance of that heat shield. (11/20)

Astranis' Peruvian Satellite Now Going to Philippines (Source: Space News)
A company in the Philippines will get a small GEO communications satellite that Astranis had been building for Peru. The spacecraft, originally named Andesat-1, is part of four small GEO satellites in a group called Block 2 that will launch early next year. Astranis said last week that Orbits Corp, part of Philippine internet service provider HTechCorp, will instead get the satellite, in addition to one that is part of a group called Block 3, launching later next year. Andesat-1 will be moved to a later block of satellites, but neither Astranis nor Andesat disclosed details on the change. (11/20)

Ursa Major Plans Solid Rocket Motor Production (Source: Space News)
Ursa Major, a company that is developing liquid-propellant engines, is moving into the solid rocket motor market. Ursa Major announced Monday it plans to offer a line of solid motors using additive manufacturing technologies, which it argues can be produced more efficiently than traditional processes. The company plans to offer motors in a range of sizes for tactical weapons systems and has an undisclosed U.S. government customer for them. (11/20)

AI Tools Bring Potential Benefits and Probems for Satellite Data (Source: Space News)
Space companies are examining how generative artificial intelligence tools can help make better use of their data. Companies said at the Satellite Innovation conference last month that such AI tools could allow people to make natural-language queries of datasets, rather than develop programming tools. Those tools can also be used to link together datasets in ways that are difficult to do today with existing technologies. However, those AI tools will need "guardrails" to prevent users from accessing data they are not authorized to see as well as avoid "hallucinations" by AI tools that make up data. (11/20)

World View Calls Off SPAC Plans (Source: Space News)
Stratospheric ballooning company World View has called off plans to go public through a SPAC merger. The company announced Friday it reached a mutual agreement with Leo Holdings Corp. II, the SPAC, to terminate a merger agreement announced in January. When the deal was announced, it was expected to provide World View with up to $121 million and close in the second quarter.

The companies provided few updates on the progress of closing the deal in subsequent months, and Leo Holdings held a shareholder vote in October to give the SPAC an additional year to complete the deal. The companies did not provide specific details on why they were abandoning the merger, which will result in the liquidation of the SPAC. World View operates stratospheric balloons used for applications traditionally performed by satellites and has plans to use the balloons for tourist flights. (11/20)

Scottish Spaceport Work Stopped for Unpaid Bills (Source: The Daily Record)
Work on a Scottish spaceport has nearly stopped because of unpaid bills. One construction company working on the SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands has more than $1.25 million in unpaid bills, causing it to stop work on the facility. The spaceport said that work on the project remains "firmly on track" but did not comment on the claims of unpaid construction bills. Problems with spaceport construction reportedly caused one company to move a suborbital launch from that facility to Australia. (11/20)

Cubesats: How An Accidental Standard Launched A New Space Age (Source: Aviation Week)
Bob Twiggs was frustrated. His Stanford University graduate students started satellite-building projects but never finished them. The students came and went. Launch opportunities were lost. There was not enough time. “I had to do this in one year, because most of the students I worked with are master’s degree students,” says Twiggs, who has since retired after later teaching at Morehead State University.

Searching for a way to simplify the projects—and cut out build time—Twiggs thought, “What if we made [the satellite] a cube and put solar cells on all sides so no matter which way it rotated, it was going to get charged?” With some spare solar cells from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he went down to a local shop and found a 4 X 4 X 4-in. transparent box.

It was also around that time—in 1999—that an infamous error caught Twiggs’ attention. That year a mix-up between Imperial and metric units by a Lockheed Martin engineering team caused NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter to burn up in the red planet’s atmosphere, ending the mission early. Twiggs sent the 10 X 10 X 10-cm box idea to co-inventor Jordi Puig-Suari, an aerospace engineering professor at California Polytechnic State University, who thought he was onto something. Click here. (11/8)

Advanced Space's CAPSTONE Operates One Year at the Moon (Source: Space Daily)
Advanced Space announced their Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission has successfully operated on-orbit around the Moon for a full year. This milestone puts the company in an elite category logging over 365 days of continuous operations in the cislunar environment. As the first company to operate a commercial satellite at the Moon, Advanced Space has gained valuable insights around cislunar operations that can only come from hands-on experience. (11/20)

White House May Condemn Musk, but the Government Is Addicted to Him (Source: New York Times)
The White House denounced Elon Musk on Friday for “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate,” for his endorsement of what an administration spokesman called a “hideous lie” about Jews. All of which might make one think the Biden administration was going to try to pull back from doing business with the world’s richest person.

Except that, in recent weeks, the U.S. government has become more dependent on him than ever, agreeing to as much as $1.2 billion worth of SpaceX launches next year to put crucial Pentagon assets, including spy and command-and-control satellites, into space. And in September, the Pentagon agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars for “Starshield,” a new, secure communications system his company has set up for the nation’s defense and intelligence systems, relying on the same clusters of Starlink satellites that have proved vital to Ukraine’s military during the war with Russia. (11/19)

Northrop Grumman Pulls Out of Satellite Tender for UK Armed Forces (Source: Reuters)
Northrop Grumman has pulled out of a competition to supply narrowband military satellite communications for Britain's armed forces. Northrop had partnered with Airbus in its bid. The two companies last month agreed a strategic partnership to bid for the wideband component of Britain's SKYNET military satellite communications program, according to an Oct. 23 statement. Northrop's withdrawal from the narrowband part of the tender left a partnership between Thales Alenia Space and Thales UK as the only contender in the race. (11/17)

FAA to Oversee Investigation of SpaceX's Explosive 2nd Starship Flight (Source: Space.com)
The second-ever test flight of SpaceX's giant Starship rocket has spurred an investigation, just as the first one did. Saturday's flight ended just eight minutes in, with the "rapid unscheduled disassembly" of Starship's upper stage. The FAA deemed this outcome a mishap and will supervise an investigation into its cause. (11/18)

Astronaut Training Center Set to Open on Space Coast (Source: WFTV)
Orbite announced the launch of its comprehensive astronaut training programs, has opened pre-booking for its programs and unveiled an exclusive Founders Club. The construction of Orbite’s first Astronaut Training and Spaceflight Gateway Campus in Merritt Island is underway and is scheduled to open in 2026. “Our initial training programs reflect the available commercial spaceflight options”, said Brienna Rommes, Director of Astronaut Training at Orbite. “At the same time, we are working to design our curriculum and facilities to support the missions of tomorrow, which will include professional astronauts, mission specialists, and career astronauts working in Low Earth Orbit, on the Moon and potentially Mars.” (11/18)

Everything That Went Wrong During Starship’s Second Flight (That We Can See) (Source: Space Explored)
A couple minutes into Starship’s launch Saturday, the second stage vehicle experienced some sort of fault that required its flight termination system to be triggered automatically. The rocket’s booster also faced a dynamic event during boost back that caused it to be loss as well. Since both of these vehicles were high up in the atmosphere, their fuel and debris showed up on weather radars as they descended. As expected, Booster 9’s remnants were spread across the Gulf of Mexico while Ship 25’s debris was seen all the way out towards Puerto Rico’s East Coast. Click here. (11/18)

US Lawmakers Urge Scrutiny of SpaceX Worker Injuries After Reuters Report (Source: Reuters)
Three U.S. lawmakers are calling for greater scrutiny of worker safety at Elon Musk's SpaceX following a Reuters investigation that documented hundreds of injuries at the rocket company's U.S. manufacturing and launch sites. The Nov. 10 Reuters report detailed at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries since 2014 at SpaceX including crushed limbs, amputations, head injuries and one death.

The Reuters report found that injury rates at three major SpaceX industrial facilities in Texas and California far exceeded the average for the space industry. "It's clear that we need to take a closer look and further investigate the facts," said Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ), who has pursued inquiries into safety issues at Amazon warehouses, among other employers. Other Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern. The House is controlled by Republicans. (11/18)

NASA Plans to Build a Subdivision of Homes on the Moon, Maybe Sooner Than You Think (Source: Fox News)
NASA intends to build civilian housing on the lunar surface using 3D-printing robots within two decades, according to several of the organization's scientists. The agency is developing concepts for lunar rocket landing pads, 3D printers, concrete mixtures, construction robots and more to complete structures that would shelter humans on the moon by 2040, according to the New York Times. NASA plans to send a construction robot to the moon, which will use mineral fragments, dust and lunar concrete from the moon's surface to build the dwellings. (11/17)

Asia’s Space Race: Korean Rivalry, US Alliance Go Into Orbit with Militarization of New Frontier (Source: South China Morning Post)
Asia’s space race is intensifying with South Korea set to launch its first home-grown military satellite mounted on a SpaceX rocket, while the North claims it has carried out successful tests of solid-fuel engines for a new intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). Seoul has hinted at growing geopolitics that have extended into orbit, noting its partnership with the United States would form a “space alliance” yielding military and economic security, as well as technological advancement.

Analysts also point to an uptick in military satellite launches in Asia, noting the spillover effect would be in the development of commercial space technologies that would drive domestic markets for the sector. Click here. (11/17)