January 5, 2024

NASA Names 13 New Innovative Concept Studies [4 From Florida] (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected a new round advanced projects for early-stage studies. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program picked 13 proposals for grants worth up to $175,000 each for phase 1 studies of advanced technologies. The proposals range from a Venus sample return mission to a fleet of tiny spacecraft to travel to Proxima Centauri, the star closest to the sun. The studies will flesh out the concepts and develop long-term technology roadmaps for them.

Editor's Note: Four of the projects are Florida-based, including Miami-based City Labs' development of Autonomous Tritium Micropowered Sensors; the Alachua-based Foundation For Applied Molecular Evolution's project for Add-on to Large-Scale Water Mining Operations on Mars to Screen for Introduced and Alien Life; Miami-based Coflow Jet's development of a fixed-wing, electric vertical takeoff, and landing craft for Mars; and Titusville-based Space Initiatives Inc.'s development of a swarm of tiny spacecraft to travel to Proxima Centauri this century. (1/5)

Spaceport America Inks MOU with Globally-Recognized Economic Development Engine The Borderplex Alliance (Source: Spaceport America)
The Borderplex Alliance and Spaceport America today signed a Memorandum of Understanding, formalizing a new collaboration between the two organizations. This partnership will open up thrilling opportunities to propel the Borderplex region’s economy to new heights. (1/4)

Space Force Brings Launch Facilities Into Digital Age (Source: Space News)
SpaceWERX and the Assured Access to Space office seek proposals for the "digital spaceport of the future" initiative to modernize information systems at launch facilities. The project calls for digital transformation and hardware modernization, with companies required to submit proposals via the Small Business Innovation Research portal. Officials compare the current situation to running a modern business with a rotary phone. Spaceports should “reflect the operational efficiency and agility of the commercial companies it serves,” said the solicitation.

“Accustomed to fast-paced and responsive operations, commercial companies expect the spaceport to offer agile, reliable, and rapid services, a significant shift from the current response times that span weeks, months, or even years.” Click here. (1/4)

Space Force Eyes Satellite Refueling in Tabletop Exercise (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force recently conducted an exercise to examine the implications of satellite refueling. The tabletop exercise, called "Parallax Rising 2.2", tackled the potential impact of in-orbit refueling on the management of critical assets in geosynchronous Earth orbit. The exercise went beyond the technical aspects of refueling, delving into the policies and procedures necessary to ensure satellites receive timely logistical support, particularly in a contested space environment. That included looking at the implications of integrating commercial refueling systems with military ones, and lessons from the Air Force's and Navy's experience with refueling. (1/5)

NASA Prepares to Send Science Payloads to Moon on Commercial Landers (Source: Space News)
NASA is ready to send several science payloads to the moon on a commercial lander. Five NASA payloads are on Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, scheduled to launch on the first flight of ULA's Vulcan Centaur at 2:18 a.m. Eastern Monday from Cape Canaveral. Scientists said at a briefing Thursday that they expected the instruments to provide insights on how volatiles like water ice behave on the moon, among other topics. However, NASA noted that early commercial lander missions like this one lack the "specific science strategies" that will be incorporated on later missions once NASA is confident commercial spacecraft can land safely on the moon.

NASA officials also said they were aware of concerns raised by the Navajo Nation about the presence of cremated remains on the lander from two of Astrobotic's non-NASA customers, and that it planned a consultation with tribal leaders about it. (1/5)

China Completes Launch Facility for Commercial Launchers (Source: Space News)
China has completed a commercial launch pad that could be vital to plans to deploy a satellite constellation. The first of two launch pads at Hainan Commercial Launch Site was completed last week. The first launch from the pad is expected in the first half of 2024, with a Long March 8 rocket carrying the Queqiao-2 lunar relay satellite needed for China's Chang'e-6 lunar farside sample-return mission. The development will ease a bottleneck of access to launch facilities for both national and commercial launch service providers and allow Chinese entities to speed up plans to launch a range of constellations. (1/5)

Maxar to Provide 3D Maps and Models for NGA (Source: Space News)
Maxar won a contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for 3D maps and models. Maxar said Thursday it will provide NGA with a 3D data bundle covering 160,000 square kilometers within the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility. Those models are based on satellite imagery and other data. NGA also awarded Maxar a contract worth about $1.8 million last month for 3D data analytics tools. (1/5)

Japan's MMX Mars Mission Faces 2 Year Delay (Source: Space.com)
A Japanese Mars mission is facing a two-year delay. The Japanese space agency JAXA had planned to launch the Martian Moons eXploration, or MMX, mission in September to go to the Martian moon Phobos and collect samples for return to Earth. However, project officials say the launch has now slipped to the next launch window in 2026. The announcement did not give a reason for the delay but the spacecraft is launching on the H3 rocket, which failed on its first flight last March and is scheduled to make a second flight in February. (1/5)

More Than Just LEO: A Framework for SPD-8 and Space Critical Infrastructure (Source: Space News)
It is correct that those services are increasingly vital to ground activities, but novel space activities outside of LEO are going to require the same national unity of effort to secure and maintain — the current designation proposal would miss those assets and activities. A terrestrial critical infrastructure designation would by definition have to be scoped to those assets that have an impact on terrestrial assets or populations. Viewing space critical infrastructure exclusively through a terrestrial lens will add risk to our upcoming crewed missions and to any other space activities outside of LEO.

The terrestrial critical infrastructure model that governs the 16 critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, transportation, healthcare, and finance, is well-defined and broadly understood, making it tempting to plug space into the existing structure. According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, “The 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.” Click here. (1/3)

Public Can Weigh In on Spaceport America Master Plan in New Mexico (Source: KRQE)
On January 10, members of the public can weigh in on the future of Spaceport America. The public meeting will include a 30-minute presentation. Spaceport America seems to embody both the hopes of New Mexico’s efforts to modernize the economy. The project brought $138 million into New Mexico and created 800 jobs in 2022, according to a report from the Center for Border Economic Development and Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University. Yet recently, some lawmakers expressed concern over the future of the project’s business model. (1/3)

WCU Professor Collaborates with NASA Using $50M DIMPLE to Explore Moon Mysteries (Source: WLOS)
A Western Carolina University associate professor is once again taking her expertise to NASA. Amy Fagan is working on the organization's latest lunar land/rover instrument suite. Fagan and fellow scientists, along with leading principal investigator Scott Anderson from the Southwest Research Institute’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division, are part of a team working on NASA’s new DIMPLE instrument suite. (1/3)

SMFL Mirai, JAXA To Explore Satellite Leasing Business (Source: Aviation Week)
Japanese financing and leasing company SMFL Mirai and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plan to design business concepts for satellite leasing and reselling. The two entities believe they can spur the Japanese space industry to grow faster. (1/3)

1st Private Mission to Venus Will Search for Alien Life in Clouds of Sulfuric Acid (Source: Space.com)
Hellish Venus is blistering hot, not only temperature-wise. It's also a hot topic for scrutinizing whether or not the cloud-enveloped world might be a haven for high-altitude life. That prospect is fostering the first-ever private mission Venus to search for signs of life in its clouds by attempting to detect evidence of organic chemistry. The mission is planned for launch in January 2025 aboard Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, an entrepreneurial launch vehicle provider.

Sara Seager, professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is principal investigator for the Venus Life Finder, the first mission under a series of planned Morning Star Missions to Venus. Last year, Seager and colleagues, including her university son, authored a research paper with a tell-all title: "Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus' clouds." (1/3)

The Inside of a Dead Star Might Look Like a Gigantic Atomic Nucleus (Source: Space.com)
Scientists may be closer than ever to cracking the mystery of what lies deep beneath the surface of dead, ultradense stars called neutron stars. A new supercomputer analysis of neutron stars has revealed that there's between an 80% and 90% chance that these bodies have cores packed with free quarks, which are fundamental, subatomic particles usually only found bound together in other particles like protons and neutrons. (1/3)

Bumpy Road Ahead for Congress on Space Issues (Source: Space Policy Online)
The Senate returns for legislative business on Monday and the House on Tuesday. Under the “laddered” Continuing Resolution they passed in November, they have just two weeks to reach agreement on four of the regular FY2024 appropriations bills: Agriculture, Energy-Water, MilCon-VA and Transportation-HUD.  The only space-related entity in that set is the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which is in Transportation-HUD.  Congress must pass and the President sign either another CR or the bills themselves by January 19 or they will be out of money.

February 2 is the deadline for the other eight bills including Defense and the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill that funds NASA and NOAA. That’s not much time, especially since the House is scheduled to be in session only 8 days by January 19 and then another 4 days by February 2. The Senate will be in session throughout the weeks to February 2 except for January 15 (a federal holiday) and January 29.

Reaching agreement in such little time is a high hurdle especially in the House. Virtually all Democrats oppose the bills because the funding levels are below what then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act that is the law of the land. The bills also contain social policy provisions that are anathema to Democrats on topics including abortion, LGBTQ rights and diversity. (1/3)

SpaceX Files Long-Shot Lawsuit Claiming NLRB is Unconstitutional Entity (Source: Daily Beast)
Just a day after the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against SpaceX over what it alleges was the unlawful firing of eight workers who penned a 2022 open letter that condemned CEO Elon Musk for making light of allegations that he exposed himself and sexually propositioned an employee, the company countered on Thursday with a lawsuit of their own. It claimed that the National Labor Relations Board’s structure violates the “separation of powers” under the U.S. Constitution.

“The NLRB proceedings against SpaceX deprive it of its constitutional right to trial by jury,” the latest lawsuit reads, according to Bloomberg. The company claimed the open letter “caused significant distraction to SpaceX employees around the country” and that it justifiably terminated workers “for violating numerous company policies.” According to Bloomberg, NLRB lawsuits are sent to judges within the federal government agency, and, if appealed, the cases go to federal court. SpaceX asserted that because these agency judges have no presidential oversight, the lawsuit against them should be blocked. The NLRB has set a trial for the fired SpaceX workers case for March 2024. (1/4)

Intuitive Machines Gets New HQ at Houston Spaceport (Source: Burns & McDonnell)
Intuitive Machines is proud to showcase its new headquarters and operations center that'll help support its mission to the moon and space exploration! Burns & McDonnell designed, engineered and built the facility, which serves as a collaborative hub for Intuitive Machines' lunar program. Check out the time-lapse footage capturing the construction journey of the headquarters and operations center. Click here. (1/3)

Ingenuity Helicopter Successes Support Designs for Future Drones (Source: Space News)
As the Ingenuity helicopter continues its flights on Mars, NASA is incorporating lessons learned from it into future vehicles. JPL announced this week that Ingenuity performed its 70th flight on Mars last month, traveling 260 meters in a little more than two minutes. Ingenuity was sent to Mars with the Perseverance rover with the intent of conducting no more than five flights as a technology demonstrator, but its performance led NASA to continue operations, using it as a scout for Perseverance. The project manager for Ingenuity said last month that Ingenuity is providing data to improve aerodynamic and thermal modeling for use on similar helicopters planned for the Mars Sample Return program. (1/4)

AIAA Chief Stepping Down in 2024 (Source: AIAA)
The head of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) plans to step down later this year. The aerospace industry organization announced Wednesday that CEO Dan Dumbacher will retire from the organization at the end of September. Dumbacher joined AIAA in his current role, previously called executive director. He had worked at NASA for 30 years and later was a professor at Purdue University. The AIAA Board of Trustees has hired an executive search firm to help find Dumbacher's successor. (1/4)

Hydrogen Cyanide a Sign of Life on Enceladus? (Source: Science News)
A poisonous gas could be a sign of life on a moon of Saturn. Scientists said at a conference last month that the Cassini spacecraft detected traces of hydrogen cyanide in plumes emitted from the surface of the icy moon Enceladus. While cyanide is toxic for humans, it is also a key building block for complex organic compounds that are the building blocks of life. The finding bolsters the case that liquid water ocean under the icy surface of Enceladus could be inhabitable. (1/4)

SpaceX Launches Ovzon Swedish Satellite From Florida (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched a Swedish communications satellite Wednesday. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 6:04 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral and placed the Ovzon 3 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. Maxar built the 1,500-kilogram satellite, which will spend the next several months moving to its final position in geostationary orbit at 59.7 degrees west. Ovzon 3 is the first fully owned satellite for the company, founded in 2006 to provide mobile satellite terminals and which later expanded to connectivity services using capacity leased on other satellites. (1/4)

NLRB Takes Action Against SpaceX for Firing Personnel Critical of Musk's Social Media Activity (Source: Space News)
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a complaint against SpaceX regarding its firing of eight employees a year and a half ago. Those employees alleged they were fired after circulating an open letter within the company calling on it to distance itself from the social media activities of its CEO, Elon Musk, who they said was "a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us." The NLRB says that letter was an activity protected under the National Labor Relations Act. SpaceX has until Jan. 17 to formally respond to the complaint, with a hearing scheduled for early March. (1/4)

ULA Laid Off 75 Employees in California and Florida (Source: Bloomberg)
United Launch Alliance laid off 75 employees involved in launch operations last summer. Those layoffs affected 40% of its launch operations staff at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and 12% at Cape Canaveral. A company executive said at the time that "strategic business realignments" led to the layoffs, which the company had not previously disclosed. ULA is no longer launching Atlas or Delta rockets from Vandenberg as it transitions to the new Vulcan Centaur, set to make its debut as soon as Monday from Cape Canaveral. ULA currently has about 2,300 employees, less than a quarter the size of SpaceX and Blue Origin. (1/4)

Space Race Stocks: 3 Companies Shooting for the Stars (Source: Investor Place)
The space stock sector remains speculative but also highly interesting. Traditionally, space companies highly align with and are funded by the government. However, that is changing. These days, titans of the industry, including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, continue to funnel billions of dollars into the sector. The commercial space industry was valued at $546 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow by another 41% within 5 years. Click here. (1/4)

Space Business: Busy Year Ahead (Source: Quartz)
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the first rocket to reach space, and eight decades of advancements in rocketry that have extended our reach across the solar system, from low-Earth orbit to the edge of interstellar space. Building on last year’s momentum, 2024 also is shaping up to be another record year in spaceflight. The schedule already is packed with new launches and missions, including America’s return to the Moon. Here’s a look at a few things getting ready to fly in 2024. Click here. (1/4)