November 3, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope's Tech Breakthroughs Are Already Impacting Science (Source: Space.com)
NASA's mighty James Webb Space Telescope, (JWST) has no shortage of accomplishments to its credit. From its vantage point in space, roughly 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth, the JWST has been snapping breathtaking images and generating insights about stars, planets and galaxies that were simply not possible by its predecessors. And back home, spinoff technologies in the telescope's  wake are benefitting everyday life, like new types of LASIK tech helping to aid human eyes. The latest update on the matter concerns significant improvements to simulation software, originally innovated by JWST scientists. Click here. (11/2)

America's New Stealth Bomber, B-21 Raider, Designed in Secret Space Coast Lab (Source: Florida Today)
Locked gray metal doors bar unauthorized visitors from approaching Northrop Grumman's Advanced Avionics Lab, where Melbourne engineers perform secret research developing America's B-21 Raider stealth bomber and other military programs. Here inside Northrop Grumman's sprawling Melbourne campus, engineers continue developing America's next-generation long-range stealth bomber. The B-21 Raider is expected to take its inaugural test flight by year's end.

he defense contractor's Melbourne Orlando International Airport campus off NASA Boulevard employs more than 5,000 workers across an array of programs, said Janice Zilch, vice president of multi-domain command and control. And the number of buildings has jumped from six to 17 the past eight years. (11/2)

Space Force Launch Strategy a Step in the Right Direction (Source: Space News)
The Space Force next year will select launch providers for Phase 3 of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. Industry proposals are due Dec. 15. This next phase of NSSL marks a significant evolution in how the Space Force approaches launch, leaning into the commercial market in a way that it had largely avoided in the past. The Space Force in this procurement is hedging against future uncertainty, trying to capitalize on commercial launch and build out for the future. The strategy for Phase 3, it is divided into two lanes.

The first is for more risk-tolerant missions, with upwards of 30 flights projected between 2025 and 2034. Any company with a launch vehicle that meets the minimum performance requirement and has either previously launched to orbit — or has a plan to launch within 12 months of the Dec. 15 proposal submission — is eligible for this lane. Companies like ABL Systems, Firefly Aerospace, and Rocket Lab are expected to bid for Lane 1’s indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, as are the large launch providers — SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and possibly Blue Origin.

Lane 2 is open to heavy lift launch providers capable of meeting all the NSSL requirements, including being able to deliver payloads to the government’s 12 reference orbits. To bid, providers must be certified or have an approved certification Plan. In addition to ULA and SpaceX, this new solicitation opens the door for Blue Origin to compete for this additional slot with its still-in-development New Glenn rocket. To qualify, Blue Origin must have a credible plan to achieve certification by October 2026. (11/1)

SpaceNews Icon Awards Honorees: Deal of the Year (Source: Space News)
This year saw some long-predicted industry consolidation finally come to pass as Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat acquired Starlink competitor OneWeb and Viasat merged with London-based Inmarsat to give the Americas-focused Viasat global coverage. SpaceNews journalists considers these among the most important deals of 2023. We polled past winners of the SpaceNews Awards for their input on Deal of the Year and five other award categories. Click here. (11/1)

Startup of the Year Finalists for the SpaceNews 2023 Icon Awards (Source: Space News)
The space industry has seen an unprecedented surge in startups recent years, each with their own vision for the future of space exploration and commercialization. As we approach the end of 2023, SpaceNews has been faced with the daunting task of selecting one startup to stand out as the Startup of the Year. This is no small feat, given the incredible talent and innovation flourishing in the space industry. Click here. (11/3)

Scorching, Seven-Planet System Revealed by Kepler (Source: Space Daily)
A system of seven sweltering planets has been revealed by continued study of data from NASA's retired Kepler space telescope: Each one is bathed in more radiant heat from their host star per area than any planet in our solar system. Also unlike any of our immediate neighbors, all seven planets in this system, named Kepler-385, are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. It is one of only a few planetary systems known to contain more than six verified planets or planet candidates. The Kepler-385 system is among the highlights of a new Kepler catalog that contains almost 4,400 planet candidates, including more than 700 multi-planet systems. (11/3)

NASA Completes Key Step in Aviation Safety Research (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's aeronautical innovators have completed a significant step in their pursuit of safer, more efficient aviation technologies that spot hazards before they occur. Through its System-Wide Safety project, NASA and its partners in government, industry, and academia are exploring new technologies and techniques to improve current aviation safety and potentially enable widespread use of new types of aircraft such as drones or air taxis.

The project recently completed Technical Challenge 1 (TC-1), Terminal Area Risk Management, the first step towards achieving what is known as an In-Time Aviation Safety Management System. This new type of aviation safety technology can effectively address potential hazards expected with the rise in demand for the number and types of aircraft flying in the National Airspace System. (11/2)

2023 Ozone Hole Ranks 16th Largest, NASA and NOAA Researchers Find (Source: Space Daily)
The 2023 Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum size on Sep. 21, according to annual satellite and balloon-based measurements made by NASA and NOAA. At 10 million square miles, or 26 million square kilometers, the hole ranked as the 12th largest single-day ozone hole since 1979. During the peak of the ozone depletion season from Sep. 7 to Oct. 13, the hole this year averaged 8.9 million square miles, approximately the size of North America, making it the 16th largest over this period. (11/3)

AWE Launching to Space Station to Study Atmospheric Waves Via Airglow (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, mission is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in November 2023, where it will make use of a natural, ethereal glow in Earth's sky to study waves in our planet's atmosphere. Built by Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory in North Logan, Utah, AWE will be mounted on the exterior of the space station. From this perch, AWE will stare down toward Earth, tracking undulations in the air known as atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs).

Primarily originating in the lowest level of the atmosphere, AGWs may be caused by strong weather events such as tornadoes, hurricanes, or even thunderstorms. These weather events can momentarily push pockets of high-density air upwards into the atmosphere before the air sinks back down. This up-and-down bobbing often leaves behind distinctive ripples patterns in the clouds. (10/30)

Space-Based Environmental Monitoring for Today’s Military (Source: Air & Space Forces)
Throughout the history of conflict, commanders who could harness weather insights reaped strategic advantages, while those who neglected to account for weather often fell victim to catastrophic campaign failures. Operation Eagle Claw, the special operations mission to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980, failed in part as a result of unforeseen dust storms. Eight service members were killed and the hostages remained captive for seven more months. The failure made clear the importance of environmental monitoring.

Successful environmental monitoring requires a broad range of sensors operating in the air, at sea, on land, and in space. Of these, space-based is arguably the most crucial, given its unique ability to rapidly and persistently surveil and measure a vast expanse of territory. In remote regions of the world, this ability to sense from a distance is particularly important. Space-based environmental monitoring (SBEM) satellites capture insights to model and predict cloud cover, surface wind speed and direction, wave heights, snow depth, soil moisture, and more—anywhere on the surface of the Earth. (11/2)

Rapid ‘Victus Nox’ Launch Is Like Yeager Breaking Sound Barrier (Source: Air & Space Forces)
Likening the record-breaking trek from order to launch of a satellite in September to Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in 1947, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said the 57-hour turn-around will have lasting implications for how quickly the Space Force can respond to future threats.

“Now the question is, how do we take advantage of that?” Saltzman said Oct. 18 at the Center for a New American Security. “Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier. Big deal, it’s one airplane, what are you going to do with it? [But actually,] it opens the door, it shows the capability, it shows what you can do, it shows how you do it.” (11/2)

Norway Inaugurates Andoya Spaceport, Advancing European Satellite Launch Capacity (Source: Alarabiya)
Norway on Thursday joined the race to launch satellites from the European continent by inaugurating a new spaceport on the island of Andoya, north of the Arctic Circle. Isar Aerospace said the “Andoya Spaceport” was to “become the first operational orbital spaceport in continental Europe to finalize the construction of the launch site.” It was inaugurated at a ceremony attended by Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon nine months after the inauguration of the Esrange spaceport in neighboring Sweden. (11/3)

Forget Rockets. NASA Is Launching a Free Streaming Service Next Week (Source: Robb Report)
The space agency is rolling out its first on-demand streaming service next week, in a bid to make information more accessible to the masses. Set to launch on Nov. 8, NASA+ will give you access to the agency’s award-winning live coverage, videos about past, present, and future space missions, and other original content. The service will be available on most major platforms via the NASA App. It can also be accessed via streaming players such as Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV. This means you can watch the agency’s content on your TV, smartphone, computer, or tablet any time you please. To top it off, NASA+ is free. (11/2)

Six at NASA Receive Presidential Rank Awards (Sources: FNN, SPACErePORT)
Hundreds of senior leaders in government are receiving recognition in this year’s Presidential Rank Awards, considered the most prestigious award for career civil servants. President Joe Biden named 232 Senior Executive Service (SES), Senior-Level (SL) and Scientific and Professional (ST) members across 31 agencies who will take home an award in recognition of their extensive contributions to public service. In 2021, Biden became the first president in about 15 years to publicly recognize the PRA winners.

Among the winners are six employees at the National Aeronautics And Space Administration: Karen E. Flynn, Paul Louis Hertz, John H. Honeycutt, Burton R. Summerfield, Edgar G. Waggoner, and Timmy Ray Wilson. Of these six, Summerfield serves as an Associate Director for Management at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The others are at NASA facilities in other states. Sixteen other NASA employees were also recognized for meritorious service. (11/2)

Viasat Cuts Staff After Inmarsat Merger (Source: Space News)
Viasat is laying off 10% of its workforce after completing its merger with Inmarsat. The layoffs, affecting about 800 employees, will affect people who had worked at both companies before the merger. Viasat said the workforce reduction will save $100 million in annual expenses beginning in its fiscal year 2025, which starts April 2025. Although Viasat expects to take a $45 million hit to rationalize roles across both businesses, the company said the move will help it reach a $1.4–1.5 billion spending target for fiscal year 2025. It also comes as the company deals with severe issues on two recently launched geostationary satellites: ViaSat-3 Americas and Inmarsat-6 F2. (11/3)

ISS Deorbit is Not Mandatory (Source: Space News)
A NASA official said it is "not mandatory" that it deorbit the International Space Station in 2030. Speaking at the Beyond Earth Symposium Thursday, Ken Bowersox, NASA associate administrator for space operations, said the transition from the ISS to commercial stations will be driven by both the development of commercial stations and the "maturity of the market" for them that includes non-NASA customers. While NASA and other ISS partners have agreed to operate the ISS to 2030, he said that timeline is flexible, and that a "badly managed transition" could affect NASA's ability to utilize those stations for its research. (11/3)

Space Force Takes Over Army Ground Stations (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has taken over operations from the Army of ground stations for missile-warning satellites. Four Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS) units based in Italy, South Korea, Japan and Qatar that for more than two decades had been run by the Army's 1st Space Brigade were transferred to the Space Force's Space Operations Command last month. The transfer is part of a larger effort to consolidate military satellites operations under the Space Force. A Space Force general said Thursday that the transfer makes management of the ground stations simpler. (11/3)

China's iSpace Tests Reusable Launcher (Source: Space News)
A Chinese company successfully launched and landed an experimental vehicle as part of efforts to develop a reusable rocket. Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., also known as iSpace, launched the Hyperbola-2Y single-stage hopper at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Thursday. The vehicle flew to a height of 178 meters before descending for a powered vertical landing to complete the 51-second flight. The test is part of work by iSpace to develop a medium-lift rocket whose first stage can land and be reused, similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9. (11/3)

Startup SpaceRake Wins $1.8 Million SBIR Contract for Satellite Laser Comm Terminals (Source: Space News)
A startup has won a Space Development Agency (SDA) contract to develop miniaturized laser terminals. SpaceRake won the $1.8 million SDA Small Business Innovation Research award, announced this week, to work on terminals to enable satellites as small as cubesats to transfer data through laser links with the SDA's Transport Layer communications constellation. SpaceRake is also working on laser communications technologies for what it calls a "wide range of space-based and terrestrial applications." (11/3)

Virgin Galactic Flies Researchers and Tourist on Suborbital Mission From Spaceport America (Source: Space News)
Virgin Galactic flew two researchers and a space tourist on its latest suborbital spaceflight Thursday. The Galactic 05 mission by its VSS Unity spaceplane took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at 11 a.m. Eastern, landing nearly an hour later after reaching a peak altitude of about 87.2 kilometers. On board were researchers Kellie Gerardi and Alan Stern, who conducted several experiments to demonstrate the ability to carry out research on commercial suborbital vehicles. The third customer was a space tourist, Ketty Pucci-Sisti Maisonrouge. The flight was the sixth for Unity in less than six months, and is the final one this year as the vehicle goes into an annual maintenance period before resuming flights in January. (11/3)

Tim Peake: ‘The Public Don’t Want to Watch Rich People Flying in Space for a Few Minutes’ (Source: iNews)
And what does he think about the kind of space tourism offered by extremely wealthy men like Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos? “I don’t think there is a public appetite to watch rich people flying in space for a few minutes without thinking about sustainability,” he says diplomatically. (11/3)

Starlink Breaks Even (Source: CNBC)
Elon Musk claims that SpaceX's Starlink constellation has achieved cash flow breakeven. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the social network also owned by Musk, he announced that Starlink had hit breakeven, but did not offer any specifics on cash generated and over what period of time. Starlink has more than two million subscribers worldwide, but SpaceX also has significant expenses in building out the satellite constellation and ground systems. (11/3)

Dragon Cargo Launch From Cape Canaveral Spaceport Slips to Nov. 8 (Source: NASA)
The next Dragon cargo mission to the ISS has been delayed. NASA said late Thursday that the CRS-29 cargo mission, whose launch had previously slipped from Nov. 5 to Nov. 7, had been pushed back again to Nov. 9 at 8:28 p.m. Eastern. The latest delay, NASA said, came after technicians found a propellant valve leak in a Draco thruster on the spacecraft. SpaceX is replacing the thruster. (11/3)

Chinese TSS Crew Land With Damaged Parachute (Source: Space.com)
A Chinese crewed spacecraft landed this week with a damaged parachute. Images of the descent of the Shenzhou-16 capsule that landed Monday showed a hole in the parachute canopy not seen in earlier Shenzhou landings. Chinese officials have not acknowledged any problems with the spacecraft, although the hole did not appear to affect the safety of the landing. (11/3)

Lucy Reveals Dinkinesh to be Binary (Source: NASA)
Images from NASA's Lucy spacecraft revealed the asteroid it just flew by is a binary. An image released Thursday from the flyby of the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh revealed a second, smaller asteroid behind it. Planetary scientists had speculated that Dinkinesh, about 790 meters across, might be a binary based on its changing brightness. The smaller object is about 220 meters across. The flyby was primarily a test for Lucy, and project officials said the spacecraft and its instruments worked well. (11/3)

Apollo's Ken Mattingly Passes (Source: CollectSpace)
Apollo and Space Shuttle astronaut Ken Mattingly has died. Mattingly, also known as "TK", was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1966 and originally assigned to be the command module pilot for Apollo 13. However, he was pulled from the mission days before launch because of potential exposure to rubella, or German measles. He instead flew on Apollo 16 and later commanded the STS-4 and STS-51C shuttle missions in 1982 and 1985, respectively. Mattingly was 87. (11/3)

Korea, US to Hold Joint Space Forum (Source: Korea Times)
Korea and the United States will co-host a space forum in Seoul early next week with a focus on ways to boost cooperation in space-related policies, diplomacy, security and other areas. The ROK-U.S. Space Forum, set for Monday through Tuesday, will bring together some 40 government officials and experts from both countries, including Chirag Parikh, executive secretary of the White House National Space Council; Gen. Lee Young-su, chief of staff for the Korean Air Force; and U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Philip Goldberg, among others. (11/3)

Babin, Lucas Introduce Commercial Space Bill (Source: Space Policy Online)
The two top Republicans on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee who oversee space activities introduced a long-awaited bill today addressing commercial space activities. Among the many provisions of the comprehensive legislation, the bill expands the responsibilities of the Office of Space Commerce in the Department of Commerce and extends a moratorium on the FAA promulating new commercial human spaceflight regulations. (11/2)

Investigation to Explore Brain Aging via the International Space Station National Lab (Source: CASIS)
To unlock insights into protecting our brains from cognitive decline, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego is turning to the ISS. The team’s investigation to probe the effects of space conditions on the human brain will inform potential applications for treating and preventing late-onset diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia.

The research team will leverage the unique space environment to study how microgravity, radiation, and other factors influence the brain's aging process at the molecular level. Employing brain organoids as surrogates, these miniature, lab-grown brain models derived from human stem cells will serve as windows into the human brain's response to space-related stressors. (11/2)

New Water System Could Aid Artemis Astronauts (Source: Space.com)
A new water-dispensing system on the ISS aims to test out technology that could help astronauts explore the moon. A new miniaturized potable water dispenser built by Leidos flew to the ISS in August as part upgrade, part lunar tech demonstration. (A previous generation of U.S. water dispenser was delivered to the ISS in 2008 and remains functional.) The new design "tackled some of the more significant Artemis mission challenges, including longer duration (water) stagnation periods and reducing limited life items," said Deborah Wells. (11/1)

Future Moon Astronauts May 3D-Print Their Supplies Using Lunar Minerals (Source: Space.com)
For over two decades, astronauts on the ISS have relied almost entirely on materials shipped from Earth for scientific research and daily life — an exception is water, which is recycled from wastewater on the station. Thanks to the growing commercial space industry and a global interest in long-term missions beyond the ISS, scientists are developing methods to manufacture supplies off-Earth.

The end results would help reduce flight costs during interplanetary travels to the moon, Mars and maybe beyond, advocates say. In a recent update on the topic, scientists are studying how 3D printing works in microgravity. Researchers found titanium dioxide foam, the material used to build 3D objects in this case, oozed out differently in microgravity compared to Earth's gravity and recorded those variations. This knowledge would be useful in pinning down how various parameters of the printer, like building speed and pressure, are likely to interact in microgravity.

Titanium was selected for several reasons. First off, it's  lightweight and more resistant to corrosion as compared to stainless steel, meaning it's a cost-effective choice for 3D-building objects in space. And second, the moon itself has minerals like titanium, which means future lunar explorers might be able to mine their 3D printing material straight from the ground. (11/1)

NASA’s Sandra Irish Wins 2023 Society of Women Engineers Award (Source: NASA)
Sandra Irish, mechanical systems lead structures engineer for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, has been selected to receive the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Resnik Challenger Medal Award for her visionary contributions to the development, testing, transport, and launch of NASA’s premier space telescope since 2006. The medal was awarded during the World’s Largest Conference for Women in Engineering and Technology or WE23, which took place Oct. 26-28 in Los Angeles. (11/1)

Remains of Planet That Formed the Moon May be Hiding Near Earth’s Core (Source: Ars Technica)
There have been many models of the giant collision between the early Earth and Theia—it's how we know it could have pushed enough material into orbit to form the Moon. But the team here took advantage of advances in computing power to perform these simulations at a higher resolution than those done previously and focused on the interior of the Earth. (They also used two different modeling methods to ensure any results weren't specific to one approach or another.)

These models showed that the post-collision melting of the Earth would extend over halfway through the mantle, but there would be a fraction of the deep mantle that remains solid. Above the melt line, any material from Theia would end up thoroughly mixed with bits of Earth. But fragments of Theia would also end up injected below the melt line and, therefore, remain largely intact. These wouldn't be large pieces, and they would be scattered throughout the Earth's interior, but they would maintain Theia-like properties despite residing in a different planet. (11/1)

Musk Calls Out His Struggling Aerospace Competitors (Source: The Street)
Responding to the news of Boeing's canceled plans for a V-Band satellite constellation , Elon Musk said: "Competing with SpaceX is tough." In November 2021, Boeing was granted an FCC license to operate a constellation of 147 internet satellites. The company then requested permission to expand this constellation to 5,000. But in September 2023, Boeing relinquished its license, paying the FCC a $2.2 million forfeiture fee. (11/1)

Stern Becomes Solstar Space Advisor (Source: Solstar Space)
Solstar Space (Solstar), the company making space Wi-Fi available, announces Dr. Alan Stern as an expert advisor to support the development of the company's forthcoming space-based internet connectivity systems. (10/31)