December 28, 2023

OHB Get Go-Head to Commence €90M ODIN’S EYE II Project (Source: European Spaceflight)
The European Commission has signed an agreement with OHB System AG to commence work on the €90 million ODIN’S EYE II space-based early warning system for ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

The multinatiOnal Development INitiative for a Space-based missilE earlY-warning architecturE (ODIN’S EYE) project was created by the European Commission with the aim of developing a sovereign space-based early missile warning capability. Once operational, the system would be responsible for the detection and tracking of ballistic missiles before handing them over to ground-based radars. (12/27)

Earth Has Unexpectedly Started Spinning Faster Now Than it Was 50 Years Ago, Scientists Warn (Source: Physics-Astronomy)
Recent measurements have shown that the Earth is currently spinning faster than it was 50 years ago. While the increase in rotation speed is relatively small, it is still significant enough to warrant further investigation by scientists. Several factors have been proposed to explain the increase in Earth’s rotation speed. Some of the possible causes include:

Redistribution of mass on Earth’s surface due to melting ice caps and rising sea levels, which affects the planet’s moment of inertia and leads to faster rotation. Gravitational interactions with the moon and other celestial bodies, which can cause slight changes in Earth’s rotation speed over time. Atmospheric and oceanic currents, which can transfer angular momentum and influence Earth’s rotation. (4/13)

Japan Sets Mid-February for H3 Launch (Source: Space News)
Japan has set a mid-February launch date for the second flight of its H3 rocket. The Japanese space agency JAXA said Wednesday that the launch is slated for no earlier than Feb. 14, carrying a test payload and two smallsat secondary payloads. The launch is scheduled for nearly a year after the first flight of the H3, which failed to place an Earth observation satellite into orbit when its second stage did not ignite. (12/28)

Japan's Axelspace Raises $44 Million for Earth Imaging Constellation (Source: Space News)
Japanese Earth observation company Axelspace has raised nearly $44 million. The company raised the Series D round last week from a group of Japanese investors. Axelspace plans to use the funding to both expand its fleet of five Earth imaging satellites as well as develop a new line of business building and operating smallsats for other customers. (12/28)

Rogers Looks to Trump to Undo Space Command's Colorado HQ Move (Source: Politico)
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee says he sees two ways to undo the Biden administration's decision to place the headquarters of Space Command in Colorado. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said in an interview that he will first see if the Pentagon's inspector general finds any evidence that the White House "politically manipulated" the decision to keep Space Command's headquarters in Colorado Springs rather than move it to Huntsville, Alabama. If that approach fails, he said he expects Donald Trump, if elected next year, will undo that decision. The Trump administration selected Huntsville in its final weeks. (12/28)

Juno Nears Jupiter Pass (Source: NASA)
NASA's Juno spacecraft will pass close to Jupiter's volcanic moon Io this weekend. Juno will pass just 1,500 kilograms from Io on Saturday, the closest approach by a spacecraft to that moon since the Galileo spacecraft in 2001. Scientists plan to use this flyby and another close flyby in February to study Io and its active volcanoes. (12/28)

Space Business: A Year of Milestones (Source: Quartz)
2023 was another record-breaking year for rocket launches. The year saw an all-time high of 207 successful orbital launches (as of Dec. 27). It also was a record year for the most people in space at the same time. Here’s a roundup of the year’s highlights. Click here. (12/28)

Space Travel Calculator Shows How Futile Interstellar Travel Really Is From Earth's POV (Source: Auto Evolution)
A space travel calculator lets you know how long it would take to reach five of the most famous known exoplanets, but also pretty much any other known place in this Universe you desire. The tool has been set up over on Omni Calculator. It provides users with a way of visualizing how long it would take to reach random places in the known Universe, but also gives you a taste of how much supplies one would need to survive: food, water, and even entertainment.

The Exoplanet Travel Planner Calculator (that is the thing's official name) has seven pre-set destinations, all of them selected based on objects of interest for the James Webb Space Telescope. We don't know the exact mechanics behind the calculator or how accurate the data it uses to crunch out the results is, but assuming everything is as it should, this tool really puts an emphasis on just how long and virtually impossible such a trip really is. (12/27)

Did the Sun Swallow a Black Hole? (Source: Astrobites)
Since black holes were first theorized, physicists, astronomers, and the general public alike have used their imaginations to envision them in a variety of (often catastrophic) black hole scenarios. One popular question concerns what would happen if a black hole swallowed a star, especially the Sun. The authors of today’s paper reverse the situation and ask what would happen if the Sun, or another star, captured a black hole. Click here. (12/26) https://astrobites.org/2023/12/26/did-the-sun-swallow-a-black-hole/

"Korolev Crater" on Mars Holds a 50-Mile-Wide Sheet of Solid Ice that is One Mile Thick (Source: Earth.com)
Imagine a vast expanse of untouched snow — an idyllic scene for winter enthusiasts. Now, picture this wintry dream not on Earth, but on Mars. This is what the Korolev crater offers. This immense Martian crater is a breathtaking feature on the Red Planet, captured in stunning detail by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express mission.

This perpetual ice cover is attributed to a fascinating phenomenon known as a ‘cold trap’. The crater’s depth, around two kilometers below its rim, plays a pivotal role. The deepest parts, holding the ice, create a natural cold trap. The air cooled by the ice sinks, forming a protective layer of cold air directly above it. This layer acts as a shield, maintaining the ice’s stability and preventing it from melting. Air’s poor heat conductivity enhances this effect, ensuring the crater remains permanently icy. (12/27)

China Warns Rocket Remnants to Hit South China Sea (Source: Reuters)
China warned that remnants of a rocket would hit an area in the South China Sea on Tuesday, following the sixth deployment of its most powerful launch vehicle eleven days ago. Rocket debris, which generally burns up in the atmosphere on re-entry, is expected to fall off the coast of China's island province of Hainan between 11:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) and noon (0400 GMT), said the China Maritime Safety Administration. (12/25)

Humanoid Robots in Space: the Next Frontier (Source: Nasdaq)
Standing at 6 feet 2 inches (188 centimeters) tall and weighing 300 pounds (136 kilograms), NASA's humanoid robot Valkyrie is an imposing figure. Valkyrie, named after a female figure in Norse mythology and being tested at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, is designed to operate in "degraded or damaged human-engineered environments," like areas hit by natural disasters, according to NASA. But robots like her could also one day operate in space.

NASA Dexterous Robotics Team Leader Shaun Azimi said humanoid robots in space could potentially handle risky tasks like cleaning solar panels or inspecting malfunctioning equipment outside the spacecraft so astronauts can prioritize exploration and discovery. "We're not trying to replace human crews, we're really just trying to take the dull, dirty and dangerous work off their plates to allow them to focus on those higher-level activities," Azimi said. (12/27)

Ascent Solar Achieves Critical Spaceflight Milestone with Vigoride-6 Mission (Source: Space Daily)
Ascent Solar Technologies marked a significant achievement in space technology. The company announced its successful attainment of spaceflight heritage for its space PV array products, which were part of the Momentus Vigoride-6 mission. The key component of this achievement was Ascent Solar's innovative Plug and Fly solar panels, which consist of thin-film modules. These modules were integrated into Momentus's Tape Spring Solar Array (TASSA) and have completed initial in-space testing. (12/22)

RIIS joins GEO, Expanding Africa's Role in World's Largest Space Partnership (Source: Space Daily)
The Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS) has recently marked a significant milestone by becoming a member of the GEO Group of Earth Observations Associate. GEO, esteemed as the world's largest earth observation (EO) partnership, brings together an impressive assembly of 115 governmental members globally, alongside over 150 participating international organizations. This inclusion of RIIS not only signifies a leap forward for the organization but also highlights the growing influence of African private sector companies in the global space arena.

As one of the few South African private entities in GEO, RIIS's formal endorsement at the 61st GEO Executive Committee, announced during the GEO Week and Ministerial Summit in Cape Town last month, cements its role in this expansive network. Within GEO, which currently counts 31 African government members, RIIS is poised to play a pivotal role in enhancing the continent's capacity in earth observation technologies. (12/21)

What if Earth Stopped Spinning? (Source: Business Insider)
Imagine you're walking down a sunny beach somewhere along the equator. The Earth beneath you is spinning eastward at 1,040 miles per hour (1,674 kilometers/hour). But since you, the sand, and everything else in your general vicinity are moving at the same speed, your stroll feels slow and leisurely. Then the world beneath you stops, and you get off. Rather, you get thrown off.

Thanks to Newton's first law of inertia, you initially go flying eastward at roughly 1,040 miles per hour. No matter where you land, be it ocean or ground, the force of impact would probably kill you. "Water, too, would feel this sudden acceleration," said Joseph Levy, associate professor of Earth and environmental geosciences at Colgate University. So you'd likely see the ocean sloshing around quite a bit before impact. (12/26)

Massive Planet Too Big For Its Own Sun Pushes Astronomers To Rethink Exoplanet Formation (Source: IFLScience)
Imagine you’re a farmer searching for eggs in the chicken coop – but instead of a chicken egg, you find an ostrich egg, much larger than anything a chicken could lay. That’s a little how our team of astronomers felt when we discovered a massive planet, more than 13 times heavier than Earth, around a cool, dim red star, nine times less massive than Earth’s Sun, earlier this year.

The smaller star, called an M star, is not only smaller than the Sun in Earth’s solar system, but it’s 100 times less luminous. Such a star should not have the necessary amount of material in its planet-forming disk to birth such a massive planet. Astronomers know, from discoveries made with Habitable Zone Planet Finder and other instruments, that giant planets in close-in orbits around the most massive M stars are at least 10 times rarer than those around Sunlike stars. And we know of no such massive planets in close orbits around the least massive M stars – until the discovery of LHS 3154b. (12/26)

Constraining the Dynamics of Rotating Black Holes Via the Gauge Symmetry Principle (Source: Phys.org)
Researchers recently set out to explain the dynamics of Kerr black holes, theoretically predicted black holes that rotate at a constant rate, using theory of massive high-spin particles. Their paper specifically proposes that the dynamics of these rotating black holes is constrained by the principle of gauge symmetry, which suggests that some changes of parameters of a physical system would have no measurable effect. (12/27)

Emergency Scramble Brings Crippled China Communications Satellite Under Control (Source: South China Morning Post)
Engineers scrambled to regain control of one of China’s largest communications satellites after a catastrophic engine failure sent it tumbling wildly in its orbit more than 36,000km (22,370 miles) away from Earth. State-owned China Satcom reported on Monday that “emergency response measures” were needed to bring the Zhongxing 6C satellite under control after it experienced an “attitude abnormality”. The satellite is now stable but cannot repaired, it said. (12/27)

Wild, Futuristic Space Plan Could Help Save the World. But Some Say it’s Too Far-Fetched (Source: CNN)
Ali Hajimiri has spent a decade researching how to put solar panels in space and beam the energy down to Earth. Yet when the Caltech electrical engineering professor talks about his work, people always have three questions, usually in this order: Why not just put solar panels on Earth? Are you going fry birds in the sky? Are you building a Death Star?

Hajmiri jokes he plans to have the answers printed on a card. “I’m going to have it in my wallet to show people,” he said. Originally a space solar skeptic, Hajimiri’s interest was piqued when he started looking more closely at the idea. “On average, you get about eight times more power in space” compared with solar on Earth, he told CNN. The beam won’t kill animals either. And as for the Death Star? The beam won’t be powerful enough to be weaponized, he added.

This year, Hajimiri and his team made a step towards making space-based solar a reality. In January, they launched Maple, a 30-centimeter-long space solar prototype equipped with flexible, lightweight transmitters. The aim was to harvest energy from the sun and transfer it wirelessly in space, which they did, managing to light up a pair of LEDs. (12/27)

China Launches Beidou NavSats, Boosters Falls on Inhabited Areas (Source: Space News)
China launched a pair of navigation satellites, with boosters from the rocket falling in an inhabited area. A Long March 3B lifted off Monday at 10:26 p.m. Eastern from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying two Beidou navigation satellites, placing them into medium Earth orbits. The spacecraft are the 57th and 58th Beidou satellites to be launched and will serve as on-orbit spares for the overall Beidou system.

Two of the side boosters from the rocket appear to have fallen near inhabited areas in Guangxi region, downrange of Xichang in Sichuan province, with wreckage from one spotted next to a home. It is one of many incidents of boosters falling near inhabited areas associated with Beidou satellite launches. (12/27)

Eutelsat Stock Dive Reduces Value of UK Stake in OneWeb (Source: The Telegraph)
The value of the U.K. government's stake in Eutelsat OneWeb has fallen by half. The U.K. government invested about $500 million into OneWeb as part of the effort to take the company out of bankruptcy in 2020. OneWeb has since merged with Eutelsat, but a sharp decline in Eutelsat's stock price means that the U.K. government's shares are now worth only about $250 million. Eutelsat is reportedly counting on a European Union satellite constellation project to help fund the next generation of the OneWeb constellation, but that could be complicated by the stake owned by the U.K., which is no longer part of the European Union. (12/27)

Axiom ISS Mission Rescheduled for NET Jan. 17 (Source: Axiom)
The launch of a private astronaut mission to the International Space Station has slipped more than a week. Axiom Space announced that the Ax-3 mission, previously scheduled to launch Jan. 9, has been rescheduled for no earlier than Jan. 17. The company did not give a reason for the delay, but noted that the launch will take place from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, a pad currently set up to support a Falcon Heavy launch later this week. It takes up to three weeks to convert the pad from Falcon Heavy to Falcon 9 launches. (12/27)

Management Shifts at Intuitive Machines, and Partnership with South Korea's Boryung (Source: Intuitive Machines)
Intuitive Machines announced leadership changes and a new strategic partnership Tuesday. The company said that its current CFO, Erik Sallee, is leaving the company effective Jan. 26 "for personal and family reasons and to pursue other business opportunities." He will be replaced on an interim basis by Steven Vontur, the company's current principal accounting officer. Peter McGrath, vice president of business development, will become senior vice president and chief operating officer effective Jan. 2.

Intuitive Machines also announced a strategic partnership with Boryung Corporation, a South Korean healthcare investment company. The companies plan to explore "critical infrastructure partnerships" in and around the moon. Boryung is also working with, and has invested in, commercial space station company Axiom Space; both Axiom and Intuitive Machines were co-founded by Kam Ghaffarian. (12/27)

Airport/Spaceport Territory Across River From Cape Canaveral Spaceport Readies for Space Industry Development (Source: Florida Today)
Construction is set to start next year on a large industrial park on Florida's Space Coast to support the growing space industry there. The Space Coast Innovation Park will initially feature three buildings spanning 60,000 square meters for space industry and other aerospace businesses. The facility will ultimately grow to five buildings and 100,000 square meters. The industrial park will be located adjacent to Space Coast Regional Airport, an FAA-licensed spaceport in Titusville. (12/27)

Falcon-9 Booster Tips Over on Drone Ship (Source: Florida Today)
Like long spaghetti strands, cables dangled from the mangled cylindrical base of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster into the waters of Port Canaveral as it floated home via a small watercraft flotilla following a Christmas mishap at sea. Identified as B1058, this bashed-up booster tipped over atop its drone ship early Monday morning amid rough seas and gusty winds, SpaceX announced. By 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, the three-legged space wreckage slowly motored along the port channel, where spectators shot photos and video. (12/26)

What's Ahead for the Space Coast Economy in 2024? (Source: WMFE)
One of the main missions to watch in 2024 is Artemis II, which will launch astronauts on a trip around the moon, according to Jim Gregory, because it will help set up a whole new lunar economy. Other missions to look out for launching from Space Coast next year include Vulcan Centaur by United Launch Alliance, SpaceX's Starlink Satellites, NASA's Europa Clipper, and Sierra Space'sDream Chaser. [And Boeing's DreamLiner.] Click here. (12/26)

What Was it Like When the First "Polluted" Stars Formed? (Source: Big Think)
The first stars to form were made of hydrogen and helium alone, but when they die, they rapidly fill the interstellar medium with recycled, enriched stellar material: full of heavy elements. When new stars then form from the ashes of the previous generation, they are no longer pristine, but polluted with the material arising from the corpses of their predecessors. Those new stars, the second (and subsequent) generations of stars, are fundamentally different from the pristine ones that came before. Here's the science of precisely how. (12/26)

30 Years and Still Sunbathing: SOHO Probe Continues Work as a Space Weatherman (Source: The Register)
SOHO, a joint ESA and NASA mission, is still going strong after almost thirty years since launch and at this point the craft is an essential part of space infrastructure. SOHO mission manager Luis Sánchez Duarte describes the spacecraft as being far from a "spring chicken," having dedicated decades to studying the Sun.

"It has its quirks," he tells The Register. "It actually has some single points of failure these days. For example, the battery. As long as we can maintain the orientation towards the Sun, everything's fine. But if there's a mishap and we lose the orientation, something bad may happen." That said, aside from a few degradations and the odd near-death experience, the spacecraft continues to perform admirably. It's a testament to its designers. (12/26)

NASA Launches Mission to Intercept 'God of Chaos' Asteroid as it Nears Earth's Orbit (Source: New York Post)
A NASA spacecraft that recently returned from deep space has been relaunched for a mission to study the “God of Chaos” asteroid as it begins to near Earth’s orbit. The agency’s spacecraft OSIRIS-REx — now named the OSIRIS-APEX — has been sent off to study the asteroid Apophis’ extremely close flyby of Earth in 2029, the likes of which “hasn’t happened since the dawn of recorded history,” NASA announced.

The spacecraft returned to Earth in September after spending seven years collecting samples from the space rock Bennu. Apophis, also known as the “God of Chaos,” is expected to fly by Earth on April 13, 2029, about only 20,000 miles away — closer than some manmade satellites — and could even be visible in the Eastern Hemisphere. The rock, which measures around 370 yards across, only comes this close to Earth every 7,500 years. (12/26)

Cerebus Among Bidders for ULA (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Private equity firm Cerebus is among the bidders for United Launch Alliance. A report Thursday said Cerebus is among the companies seeking to buy the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture that operates the Atlas, Delta and new Vulcan rockets. Others include Blue Origin, which provides the BE-4 engines for Vulcan and is developing its own large rocket, New Glenn, as well as aerospace and defense company Textron. It is unclear when, or even if, a deal can be closed. (12/26)

Chinese Rocket Launches Four Weather Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
A Chinese Kuaizhou-1A rocket launched four weather satellites Sunday. The rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 9 p.m. Eastern and placed four Tianmu-1 satellites into orbit. The satellites are part of a constellation to provide commercial weather services.
(12/26)

Russia Launches Military Satellite (Source: Russian Space Web)
Russia launched a military satellite Thursday.  A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 3:48 a.m. Eastern and placed its payload into its planned orbit, Russian officials said. The satellite is thought to be a version of a Bars-M spacecraft used for military cartographic imaging. (12/26)

Event Planned to Explore Lunar Navigation (Source: Inside GNSS)
As international space agencies work to develop lunar PNT capabilities, exploration efforts have become more diverse and collaborative than ever before. The Moon is now an international exploration priority, with GNSS critical to lunar PNT development. In January, Inside GNSS and Inside Unmanned Systems will present a groundbreaking webinar to explore how leading-edge PNT capabilities are being brought to the Moon, featuring updates from four leading lunar navigation experts.

The webinar, “Lunar Navigation Services: A Global View from the Next Frontier,” sponsored by Spirent, is set for January 17 at 11 a.m. EST. The panelists will offer in-depth presentations on early lunar communications and navigation architecture concepts, current lunar communications and navigation system proposals, signal reception in the GNSS Space Service Volume (SSV) and the current roadmap for lunar navigation services. (12/26)

Demand for Space Launches Drives a 48% Increase in the Number of Planned Spaceports Globally (Source: GSA)
Space begins at spaceports! The Space Report 2023 Q1 states, "Record activity in commercial space industries, contributing to records set for payloads sent to hashtag#orbit in 2022 and orbital launch attempts, continues to drive a global push for new spaceports to add launch capacity. The Space Report found a 48% increase in the number of proposed spaceports over four years, with nations around the world developing hashtag#spaceport policies and courting launch providers and other space industries with the intent of expanding their access to orbit." (12/26)

Astronaut Tim Peake Opens Up About the Secrets ‘Every Astronaut’ Keeps (Source: Supercar Blondie)
“Every astronaut has secrets, but they really are secrets. Secrets as to some of the things we get up to, some of the jokes, some of the pranks – and maybe some of the mistakes we make.” But he has spoken about one gaffe he made during a Japanese experiment. The pressure comes from the fact that “everything you touch on the space station is the culmination of years of people’s work, so you need it to be perfect.

“And then I mixed up an experiment. Thankfully it didn’t have a huge impact.” Take the toolkit that was dropped during a space walk last month by two astronauts working on the ISS. The tool bag is now orbiting Earth at 17,000 mph, which amateur astronomers were able to spot the bag using binoculars or a telescope. Or even the tomato that was lost and then, a long time later, found aboard ISS. (12/21)

12 Space Medicine Findings From 2023 That Could Help Astronauts Reach Mars (Source: Space.com)
Every day, scientists are working hard to make sure we reach the point when our species becomes interplanetary — the era during which we will literally "be" the aliens while exploring the Red Planet or floating alongside Jovian gravity. There's lots to consider. Engineers will need to develop next-generation rockets that can propel astronauts across massive distances in a reasonable time frame.

Mission planners will need to learn where on a planet or moon's surface an extraterrestrial society could thrive. Ethicists will need to consider how laws and moral codes would work beyond Earth. Policymakers will need to worry about funding these efforts. Physicists will need to consider how to insert capsules into the orbits of other worlds — orbits they're still just getting hang of. Click here. (12/27)

Army Applications Laboratory Selects Firehawk Aerospace as a Supplier for the Javelin, Stinger, and GMLR System (Source: Firehawk)
Solid rocket motor producer Firehawk Aerospace has secured a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract from the Army. This contract underscores Firehawk's advancements in rocket propulsion and its unique capability to address critical challenges in conventional SRM supply chains. The SBIR Phase III contract accelerates Firehawk's mission to reshape SRM propulsion, focusing on eliminating supply chain bottlenecks and bolstering system stability. (12/27)

Axelspace Raises $44 Million for Earth Observation and Other Smallsats (Source: Space News)
Japanese Earth observation company Axelspace has raised nearly $44 million to both expand its satellite constellation and provide smallsats for other applications. The Tokyo-based company announced Dec. 21 that it raised 6.24 billion yen ($43.9 million) in a Series D round from several Japanese companies and venture funds. The company, which last raised 2.58 billion yen in a Series C round in 2021, has brought in 14.3 billion yen since its founding in 2008. (12/27)

Is Rocket Lab Stock a Good SpaceX Investment Alternative? (Source: Motley Fool)
The space economy could be worth $1 trillion by 2030, according to analysts. In this video, I will talk about Rocket Lab (RKLB 1.77%), and why some people view this as the perfect SpaceX substitute investment. (12/26)

NASA Outlines Plan to Deploy Burrowing 'Cryobots' on Icy Moons of Saturn and Jupiter (Source: Space.com)
NASA is building a roadmap for robots that could visit ocean worlds through future space missions and crack the worlds' thick, icy shells to explore subsurface seas in search of life. The idea is to crack through the icy exteriors of solar system moons, like Jupiter's moon Europa or Saturn's moon Enceladus, and drop a probe within that can explore the underlying liquid ocean.

The cryobot concept explored is an alternative to simply drilling into a world, and involves using a cylindrical device dispatched from a mother unit at the surface of an icy ocean world that can melt ice and therefore slip down as water flows around it and refreezes. These probes, and this so-called "thermal drilling" technique, are currently commonly employed to investigate glaciers and ice caps on Earth. (12/27)

For Space, Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: 2023 in Review (Source: Breaking Defense)
If the past couple of years have been about planting the seeds of change for both national security space operations and governance of space activities writ large, 2023 has been all about the struggle to keep the new shoots alive. And, as with any annual garden, the results has been mixed. Click here. (12/26)

Russia’s Satellite Cluster to Grow 15 Times by 2036 (Source: TASS)
The introduction of assembly-line production of satellites and the involvement of private companies will allow for increasing Russia’s cluster of satellites 15 times by 2036, Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov said. As of December 1, Roscosmos said, there are 229 spacecraft in Russia’s orbital group, 163 of which are social and economic ones.

In Borisov's opinion, in order to solve this problem, it is necessary to promptly increase the orbital group and its characteristics, for which a new generation of satellites is to be commissioned. "If these plans are implemented successfully, the share of space information provided to the main government-run recipients will be at least 70%. The dependence of domestic consumers of space information and services on foreign operators will be eased," Roscosmos said. (12/26)