January 14, 2024

Space Force is Changing the Way it Thinks About Spaceports (Source: Ars Technica)
A lot goes into a successful rocket launch. It's not just reliable engines, computers, and sophisticated guidance algorithms. There's also the launch pad, and perhaps even more of an afterthought to casual observers, the roads, bridges, pipelines, and electrical infrastructure required to keep a spaceport humming. Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, commander of the Space Force's Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, calls this the "non-sexy stuff that we can't launch without."

Much of the ground infrastructure at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the military's other launch range, is antiquated and needs upgrades or expansion. “Things like roads, bridges, even just the entry into the base, the gate, communications infrastructure, power, we’re looking at overhauling and modernizing all of that because we really haven’t done a tech refresh on all of that in a very long time, at least 20 years, if not more," said Col. James Horne, deputy director for the Space Force's assured access to space directorate.

Getting a congressional appropriation for new rocket or spacecraft development, research into advanced technology, or military pay raises has generally been easier than securing funds for military construction projects. Editor's Note: This is where Space Florida can apply its state-backed financing capability, especially with tax-exempt bonds. The agency is empowered to develop all sorts of spaceport infrastructure, and can apply lease-back terms to Space Force and NASA contractors to amortize the debt without federal construction appropriations. (1/12)

'We Don't Need Two Vertical Launch Spaceports': SaxaVord Spaceport Boss Questions Need for Sutherland Spaceport (Source: Northern Times)
A senior figure in the UK space industry has questioned the need for two spaceports in the far north of Scotland. Vertical rocket launches are due to start this year from both Sutherland Spaceport on the A’Mhoine peninsula and SaxaVord Spaceport on Unst, Shetland. But the deputy chief executive and operations director of SaxaVord Spaceport told a parliamentary committee this week that he did not think that two such facilities were required.

Scott Hammond said: "We have got to get away from this view that we have to have spaceports everywhere. I just do not think that is necessary.... I see no need for this dissipation of resources." (1/13)

They’re Not Aliens. That’s the Verdict From Peru Officials Who Seized 2 Doll-Like Figures (Source: AP)
Aliens they are not. That’s what forensic experts in Peru said Friday about two doll-like figures and an alleged three-fingered hand that customs authorities in the South American country seized last year from a shipment heading to Mexico. The forensic experts with Peru’s prosecutor’s office said the objects were made with paper, glue, metal and human and animal bones. The findings quash some people’s belief that the figures come from an “alien center or come from another planet, all of which is totally false,” said forensic archaeologist Flavio Estrada, who led the analysis. (1/12)

Lawmakers Investigating UAPs, or UFOs, Remain Frustrated After Closed-Door Briefing with Government Watchdog (Source: CBS)
House lawmakers emerging from a classified, closed-door briefing with an internal government watchdog on Friday said they remained frustrated in their attempts to get more information about explosive whistleblower claims made about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs. Thomas Monheim, the inspector general of the intelligence community, briefed members of the House Oversight Committee's national security subcommittee on Capitol Hill.

The meeting came months after the subcommittee held a high-profile public hearing that featured tantalizing testimony from a former military intelligence officer-turned-whistleblower named David Grusch. Several lawmakers who emerged from the briefing on Capitol Hill said they were frustrated by the lack of new information about Grusch's allegations. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, told reporters that lawmakers "haven't gotten the answers that we need." (1/12)

NASA Awards Another $100 Million for Private Space Stations (Source: Space.com)
Blue Origin received an additional $42 million on top of its original $130 million award to develop the Orbital Reef space station concept, which involves Sierra Space, Boeing, Amazon and a number of other companies. The increase includes additional milestones for subsystem design reviews and technology maturation, as well as work on the station’s life support systems, including water filtration and atmospheric monitoring, according to the statement.

Voyager Space, which is developing the Starlab orbiting complex with Nanoracks, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, received an additional $57.5 million to its original $160 million award. The new funding will be used for various development milestones focused on operations, assembly, integration and testing, as well as a rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration. (1/11)

Information Theory Can Help Us Search for Life on Alien Worlds (Source: Scientific American)
Few questions are more intriguing than the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. But since aliens are not visiting our planet, and we are not going to their faraway homes any time soon, indirect evidence for the existence of biology on distant worlds is our best bet for answers. if life exists at a global scale on a planet, it can leave signals in the atmosphere. Different kinds of biological activity will leave specific atmospheric imprints. We see this, for instance, with the abundance of oxygen in our atmosphere produced by photosynthesis. The challenge for us is to decipher the message life leaves on alien atmospheres. Click here. (1/12)

Jupiter-3 Enters Commercial Service (Source: Space News)
EchoStar’s giant Jupiter-3 broadband satellite is performing as expected with early customers getting download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps), according to an executive for the U.S. operator. Mark Wymer, senior vice president at EchoStar’s Hughes services subsidiary, said the world’s heaviest commercial communications satellite at more than nine metric tons successfully entered service Dec. 19, five months after launching on a Falcon Heavy. (1/12)

Why Landing on the Moon is Proving More Difficult Today Than 50 Years Ago (Source: The Guardian)
During the space race, NASA spent a staggering $25bn on Apollo. It still clocked up failure after failure before it reached the moon. It now has 70 years of institutional knowledge and a culture geared toward designing, building and testing spacecraft. Under its new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) scheme, however, the agency is looking to slash costs and stimulate the US space industry by paying private companies. Click here. (1/12) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/12/why-landing-on-the-moon-is-proving-more-difficult-today-than-50-years-ago

Experts Warn Against Strip Mining the Moon (Source: Futurism)
A stronomers raised alarm bells about the coming rush to mine the Moon as the NASA-funded Peregrine lander, sent out by the private spaceflight company Astrobotic, was slated to survey the lunar surface. Those experts make a straightforward point: the more development occurs on the Moon, be it for habitats or resources taken back to Earth, the less scientists can use our planet's natural satellite for study. "We are not trying to block the building of lunar bases," said astronomer Richard Green. "However, there are only a handful of promising sites there and some of these are incredibly precious scientifically." (1/12)

Mystery Solved! 1st Close-Up Images of Giant Star Explain its Bizarre Dimming (Source: Space.com)
Astronomers reported that RW Cephei, a hypergiant star in the constellation Cepheus about 16,000 light-years from Earth, has recently begun brightening after dimming "very dramatically" for the past two years, according to Narsireddy Anugu. The most promising explanation is that the star previously coughed up a gas cloud, which cooled as it moved further away and blocked the star's light from our view, causing it to appear as if it was growing fainter, Anugu said. (1/10)

Why Valves are a Spacecraft Engineer’s Worst Nightmare (Source: Tech Crunch)
Follow the space industry long enough and you’ll notice that an outsized number of catastrophic failures of satellites or launch vehicles can be traced to a physically small but ubiquitous part: valves. Valves play a critical role in the spacecraft’s architecture, regulating the flow of pressurents, like helium, and propellants. They can also be found on launch vehicles, and by number they are one of the most common subcomponents in these systems.

This reality came into sharp focus this week, when Astrobotic announced that its Peregrine lunar lander would not be able to attempt a soft landing on the moon due to a mission-ending propulsion leak — with likely origins in a valve that failed to reseal. But Astrobotic is far from the only space company to have a mission cut short by valve issues during testing or on orbit. Boeing faced major mission delays for the second orbital test flight of its Starliner crewed capsule due to valve issues, and back in 2019, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon exploded during a ground test due to a leaky valve in the propulsion system. (1/12)

Musk Says Starship Test Failed Because SpaceX Loaded It With Too Much Fuel (Source: WCCFtech)
After its representative shared new details about the third test flight of Starship earlier this week, SpaceX's chief Elon Musk revealed why SpaceX's second stage Starship exploded during its second test flight last month. Starship is the world's biggest rocket, and the December launch saw the second stage ship successfully hot-stage separate from the first stage and make its way to space. However, its mission was not a complete success, as the second stage did explode after successfully flying post stage separation for some time.

According to Musk, the explosion took place because SpaceX had to vent excess oxygen out of the ship. Testing new rockets typically sees companies use a mass simulator for a payload to simulate flight conditions, and Musk added that the explosion could have been avoided had SpaceX used an actual payload for orbital delivery. He outlined that during liftoff, SpaceX had fully filled the Starship's second stage with liquid oxygen and methane. Once the firm tried to vent this oxygen during flight, the Starship's second stage exploded. (1/12)

Manned Orbiting Laboratory: Crewed US Spy Satellite Never Sent to Space (Source: Business Insider)
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory was a US proposal to send a crewed spy satellite to space in the 1960s. It would obtain high-resolution photographic imagery of US adversaries, like the Soviet Union. The top-secret program was met with criticism amid a decade marred by the economic costs of war. Then-US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara publicly unveiled the program in December 1963, and President Lyndon B. Johnson formally approved the project in August 1965. Though the program was intended to give the US military a reconnaissance vantage point in space, it was portrayed as an operation to find what humans are capable of in space. (1/11)

This US-Indian Satellite Will Monitor Earth's Changing Frozen Regions (Source: NASA)
NISAR, the soon-to-launch radar satellite from NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), will measure some key Earth vital signs, from the health of wetlands to ground deformation by volcanoes to the dynamics of land and sea ice. This last capability will help researchers decipher how small-scale processes can cause monumental changes in the ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland, as well as on mountain glaciers and sea ice around the world. (1/10)

7 Greatest Cosmic Threats to Life on Earth (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Combining geological records of past catastrophes with the latest in astronomical research, here’s our ranking of the seven greatest cosmic threats to Earthly life. Click here. (1/12)