November 6, 2023

NASA Delays Artemis Lunar Rover Award by Four Months (Source: Space News)
NASA has delayed the award of contracts to develop a lunar rover for future Artemis missions by four months, raising concerns in industry about the future of the program. NASA had intended to make an award for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) services contract in November. In a final request for proposals issued May 26, NASA said it expected to make one or more awards on Nov. 27. At the time it issued the request for proposals, those proposals were due July 13, a date later shifted to July 26. However, in recent weeks NASA changed the expected contract award to March 31, 2024. (11/4)

China Offers Cash to Rocket Startups in Hunt for Its Own SpaceX (Source: Bloomberg)
As China pushes to challenge the US in outer space, President Xi Jinping is borrowing a page from the playbook NASA used for Elon Musk’s SpaceX by directly supporting local startups looking to take part. The China Manned Space Agency, which on Tuesday returned three astronauts to Earth who had been working since May on the Tiangong space station, wants to pay private-sector companies for future missions.

The CMSA has received proposals to use privately developed rockets for cargo transport trips to the Chinese space station, deputy director Lin Xiqiang said at a press briefing on Oct. 25, a day before the launch of Shenzhou 17, which sent a new three-astronaut team to Tiangong. “Through the open bidding, we are pleased to see that China’s private commercial space companies are developing rapidly and growing rapidly, and their enthusiasm to participate in manned space missions is also high,” he said. The CMSA hasn’t yet disclosed the size or value of contracts it could award to private-sector firms. (10/31)

Astronauts Reveal Key 'Advantages' of Working with SpaceX and Private Sector (Source: Fox News)
Commercial spaceflight companies like SpaceX have made space travel more accessible, and allow more research for future missions to the moon and Mars, astronauts said. Click here. (11/3)

Space Mining is Getting Closer to Becoming a reality, and Canada Could Play a Major Role (Source: CBC)
After more than 50 years of focusing on low-Earth orbit in terms of a human presence in space, with astronauts living aboard the International Space Station, things are changing. In 2025, humans will once again set foot on the moon as part of NASA's Artemis program, of which an additional 29 countries having signed, including Canada. There will also be a new space station orbiting the moon as part of the program, called the Lunar Gateway, which will also have a Canadian contribution: Canadarm3. The station's purpose is to eventually serve as a sort of jumping off point, to go to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

And Canada, with its history as one of the top mining countries in the world, could get a piece of the mining action. "Space mining is definitely going to happen. It is an inevitability, is not a possibility and it's going to happen in the very near-term," said Daniel Sax, co-founder and CEO at the Canadian Space Mining Corporation. "There's going to be space mining that occurs in the lunar environment within the next 10 years to make water and oxygen and other key consumables for space exploration." (11/4)

Astra Defaults on Loan (Source: Space World News)
Dwindling cash reserves caused launch vehicle and spacecraft propulsion company Astra Space to default on a loan at the end of October, adding to doubts about the company’s future. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after the markets closed Nov. 3, Astra disclosed that it had triggered a default on a $12.5 million loan it secured in August from an unnamed institutional investor when its cash on hand fell below minimums required by the loan agreement.

According to the filing, that loan required the company to have at least $15 million of cash and cash equivalents or else be in default of the agreement, but fell below that threshold on Oct. 11. The investor agreed to waive the default provide the company kept at least $10.5 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand and made a $2.1 million payment. The interest rate on the loan also went from 9% to 15%. However, Astra said it fell below that lower cash threshold on Oct. 30, which led to a default. Astra paid the investor $3.1 million on Nov. 1. It did not disclose how much cash it had remaining but said $8 million remains on the loan with that investor.  (11/4)

House Bill Would Fully Fund Mars Sample Return, Block Cooperation on ExoMars (Source: Space News)
House appropriators would fully fund NASA’s Mars Sample Return program despite its ongoing problems but halt the agency’s plans to cooperate with a European Mars mission.

House appropriators released this week the report accompanying the commerce, justice and science (CJS) spending bill for fiscal year 2024. That bill, which includes $25.366 billion for NASA, had been in limbo for more than three months, after an appropriations subcommittee marked up the bill in mid-July. The full appropriations committee did not take up the bill at the time nor public the report associated with it, which provides more details on spending levels and policy direction. (11/3)

Bill Would Address Mission Authorization and Situational Awareness Issues (Source: Space News)
Republican leaders of the House Science Committee have introduced a commercial space bill intended to address mission authorization and space situational awareness (SSA). The Commercial Space Act of 2023, introduced last week by Reps. Brian Babin (R-TX) and Frank Lucas (R-OK), would establish a "certification" system for commercial space activities not currently licensed by other agencies that would be managed by the Office of Space Commerce.

The system is intended to address the regulatory uncertainty for novel space activities, something the National Space Council has been studying since last year. The bill would also direct the Office of Space Commerce to select a consortium led by an academic institution or nonprofit for handling civil SSA activities, rather than have the office lead that work itself. The bill could be marked up by the House Science Committee as soon as this week. (11/6)

SpaceX Readies for Starship Launch, Pending FWS Review and Updated FAA License (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX says it is gearing up for a second integrated test flight of its Starship vehicle as soon as next week. SpaceX said Friday it anticipated being ready for a second Starship/Super Heavy launch from Boca Chica, Texas, in mid-November, pending regulatory approvals. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to review the environmental aspects of a new water deluge system at the pad, the last major regulatory hurdle before the FAA can issue an updated launch license. That agency has not stated when it expects its review to be complete. (11/6)

China Launches Experimental Commsat (Source: Xinhua)
China launched an experimental communications satellite Friday. A Long March 7 lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site at 10:54 a.m. Eastern and placed the TJSW-10 into orbit. The satellite is described as being used for testing multi-band and high-bandwidth communications. (11/6)

Sierra Space Completes Dream Chaser Assembly (Source: Space News)
Sierra Space has completed assembly of its first Dream Chaser vehicle. The company said last week the spaceplane is now ready to go to a NASA facility in Ohio for environmental testing before shipment to the launch site in Florida. Launch of that spacecraft, named Tenacity by the company, is planned for as soon as next spring on the second ULA Vulcan Centaur. (11/6)

Satellite Imagery Companies Offering Degraded Gaza Imagery (Source: Semafor)
Commercial remote sensing companies are said to be degrading or delaying imagery of Gaza. Customers of Planet said they have not been able to access timely imagery of the region since Israel's military entered the northern Gaza Strip, and that other imagery appeared to have degraded resolution. Maxar has also been delaying the release of high-resolution imagery of Gaza while Airbus has not released any. The companies did not give explanations for the changes, including whether they are doing so at the request of the U.S. government. (11/6)

ISRO Chief's Autobiography Critical of Predecessors (Source: The Hindu)
The head of the Indian space agency ISRO has canceled the release of an autobiography because of criticism it contains. The autobiography by S Somanath, chairman of ISRO, reportedly included passages critical of his predecessor, K Sivan, that appeared to suggest Sivan tried to prevent Somanath from becoming chairman. The book also criticized how ISRO handled the failed Chandrayaan-2 lunar landing in 2019. Somanath said there has been some "misinterpretation" about those passages in the book but decided to withhold publication of the book in light of the controversy. (11/6)

European Space Leaders Meet at Summit (Source: ESA)
At its Council meeting during the Space Summit on Nov. 6, ministers of ESA’s member states aim to make space an even more important instrument to manage climate change. At the same time, ESA will open a new era of modernizing the implementation of its programs, responding to growing commercialization and privatization of space activities, in particular in the fields of space transportation and space exploration. (11/6)

SpaceX Selling 'Starshield' Will be a Gamechanger (Source: We Are the Mighty)
Space Force and SpaceX announced that they've reached a deal for a brand-new military capability: Starshield. Is it a new laser defense shield against nuclear missiles? An Ultron for our time to destroy alien armadas? Or Starlink, but with new branding and (probably) a new fleet of satellites?

Yup, the last one. But with how clutch Starlink is in Ukraine, a military-controlled version of the network could change operations there. And it would dramatically improve U.S. and allied military communications in future conflicts. Now, the American military will lead military space-based communications with the start of Starshield. But expect allies to clamor aboard and other nations to try developing rival platforms. (11/3)

The Most Powerful Ion Engine Ever Built Passes the Test (Source: Universe Today)
NASA and aerospace company, Aerojet Rocketdyne, have successfully completed qualification testing of the Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS), which is a 12-kilowatt, solar electric propulsion (SEP) engine being built for use for long-term space missions to the Moon and beyond, and AEPS is being touted as the most powerful electric propulsion—also called ion propulsion—thruster currently being manufactured. For context, 12 kilowatts are enough to power more than 1,330 LED light bulbs, and the success of these qualification tests come after NASA announced the beginning of qualification testing in July. (11/4)

SpaceX Wants to Dump Treated Sewage Water into Texas’ South Bay Coastal Preserve (Source: WOOD)
The waters of South Bay range from a few inches to just algae-strewn muddy flats, depending if rain falls on this remote section of South Texas just miles from the Mexico border. Several endangered species of birds and sea turtles call South Bay home, a protected estuary located at the tip of the Lugana Madre overlooking South Padre Island. It’s a hyper-saline system, one of the few such bays in the world, and was named the state’s first coastal preserve nearly 40 years ago. (11/4)

Animated 3D Billboard Narrates NASA's History at KSC (Source: DesignBoom)
NASA’s decades-long history and missions are well documented on its various digital platforms. However, for avid fans of reels and short videos, studio Blunt Action has transformed the space agency’s lineage and chronicles into a 3D animation projected onto a towering 30-foot billboard display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The over six-minute video, with each frame comprising 6.1 million pixels, plays on a loop and features NASA’s rich history, ongoing endeavors, and future aspirations. This high-definition 3D presentation entertains passersby and visitors with moving images that seem to leap out of the giant screen. (11/4)

Returning Astronauts to the Moon is NASA's Biggest Challenge, But Not its Only One (Source: Space.com)
A major factor in the OIG report is the planned return of humans to the moon as part of the Artemis Program, and it also points to the forthcoming retirement of the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of the decade and the challenge this poses to NASA as it seeks to maintain an active human presence in low Earth orbit.

The report is broken down into seven different challenges that the OIG has identified as "top challenges" in relation to NASA's overall mission, NASA Inspector General Paul K. Martin wrote in the report. "These seven highlighted challenges are not the only significant issues that confront NASA, and identification of an issue as a top challenge does not denote a lack of attention on the Agency's part. Rather, most of these issues are long-standing, difficult challenges central to NASA's core missions and likely will remain top challenges for years to come." Click here. (11/3)

Last Gasp For Fossil Fuels: Space Solar Is Happening (Source: CleanTechnica)
The key issue for orbiting photovoltaic systems is the cost of the solar panels. The high tech solar panels used in space applications are costly, and launching them up into space is also costly. Those costs have to come down before orbiting photovoltaic arrays can compete with their Earth-bound counterparts. The cost barrier is beginning to fall as researchers develop new solar cells for space applications.

One new development is ultra-thin glass panels that can be deployed with a relatively uncomplicated “roll-out” maneuver. The study gathered five years of flight data for four prototype cells. The thinly layered cells showed no signs of peeling or delaminating throughout the 30,000-orbit flight, which was a key test. Electrical systems also held up well. “The results help to strengthen the argument for further development of this technology for space application,” the team concluded. (11/3)

NASA May Have Just Stumbled Upon the Mother of All Space Navigation Solutions (Source: AutoEvolution)
As it stands, NASA is using the Deep Space Network antennas to always know where its spacecraft are, and issue course corrections. Radio signals are used to calculate location, speed, and distance from Earth. But there's another solution on the table that could prove to essential to unlocking incredible, new space navigation opportunities. It's called GIANT, and it has already been put to the test during the recently returned OSIRIS-REx mission.

GIANT stands for Goddard Image Analysis and Navigation Tool, and it is basically an optical navigation software. That's right, it uses images snapped by cameras, lidar, and other sensors to find the best way forward, kind of like we humans do when we use our eyes to see where we're going. Simply put, GIANT only needs a picture of the target to be able to determine distance, the mass and center of a spinning object, and even identify landmarks on the surface of a celestial body. Three-dimensional maps of potential landing zones can also be generated, complete with potential hazards. (11/1)

NASA Apologizes for Not Supporting Your Plans to Visit Jupiter (Source: Gizmodo)
NASA issued an apology for a slightly shady post on X that questioned people’s ability to visit Jupiter. In a recent social media post, NASA wrote, “Is visiting Jupiter on your bucket list? Let’s face facts, it’s not going to happen.” The space agency then went on to encourage space fans to send their names on board the upcoming Europa Clipper mission instead, which is set to launch in October 2024 to study Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

Although NASA had good intentions, feelings were hurt. “NASA really out here telling kids to stop dreaming and instead engrave their name on a tiny plate,” an engineering intern at SpaceX, Nathan Commissariat, wrote on X, while others accused the space agency of being dismissive and discouraging explorers from aiming for the impossible. (11/2)

Bennu Asteroid Samples May 'Fundamentally' Shift Views of Life (Source: Gizmodo)
“The OSIRIS-REx samples could help us to find out, if besides the supposed delivery of water on the primordial Earth by comets, this could also be realized by asteroids,” said Jean-Pierre de Vera, an astrobiologist at the German Aerospace Center and President of the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA), in an email to Gizmodo. “The question still remains on the amount of organics in these rocks which could be delivered on Earth and might have served as the first building blocks of life.” (11/4)

Hundreds Of Stars Have Vanished Without A Trace. Where Did They Go? (Source: IFL Science)
Earlier this week we reported the story of three stars that back in July 1952 disappeared within an hour from the night sky forever, leaving behind a mystery with several possible explanations. But these are not the only stars that have gone missing, not by a long shot. In 2019, the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project attempted to catalog how many stars have disappeared from view in the last 70 years and found around 100 missing without a concrete explanation.

The VASCO project compared images taken by the US Naval Observatory from 1949 onwards with images from the Pan-STARRS sky survey between 2010 and 2014. The software used by the team came back with around 150,000 potential sources of light that had disappeared in the intervening years. They then cross-referenced with other datasets to narrow it down further. This process left them with 24,000 candidates, which they then manually went through to exclude camera malfunctions and other errors. At the end of it, they had around 100 promising candidates for real sources of light that disappeared from our view. (11/2)

James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Distances of Nearly 200 Deep-Space Galaxies (Source: Space.com)
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has helped astronomers determine the distance to nearly 200 galaxies and galaxy clusters formed in the universe's early days. One of the first publicly released images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb), released on July 11, 2022, captured at least 7,000 galaxies in a sparkling deep field view.

The image is a rich hunting ground for astronomers seeking to learn more about how galaxies change over time. A new Canadian-led study is the first to measure galactic distances in the image, showing huge collections of stars as far as 10 billion light-years away from Earth. (The universe itself is about 13.7 billion years old.) (11/3)

Take an Interstellar Tour: What Would You See if You Could Travel Around Our Galaxy? (Source: The Guardian)
Astronomy and cosmology can feel detached from everyday reality. But what if we could take a 23rd-century starship tour through the Milky Way and experience the cosmos like an Earth-bound tourist visiting exotic destinations? What would we see from our window? Although physicists enjoy speculating about warp drives, or using wormholes to jump between locations, there is no way to travel faster than light at present. So we’re assuming a fictional ability to do this – but beyond that, everything we will encounter on our voyage is based on best current theories. (11/4)