January 6, 2024

A Starring Role for NASA in Biden’s Push to End Cancer (Source: Politico)
Two hundred and fifty miles above Earth, astronauts on the International Space Station have embarked on an audacious mission: curing cancer. Because cells age faster in the absence of gravity, they’re using the atmosphere on board to conduct experiments that could speed development of treatments.

The efforts could aid President Joe Biden’s so-called cancer moonshot — a plan to cut the cancer death rate in half over 25 years, a goal that would be easier to hit with rapid development of new drugs. But supporters, including NASA, will need to persuade a cost-conscious Congress to back research by funding public-private partnerships and to help a transition to commercial space stations. (1/6)

Space Force on the Verge of Finalizing Long-Awaited Commercial Space Strategy (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force is on the verge of finalizing a key strategy document outlining how it will partner with the burgeoning commercial space industry. After months of refinement, Deputy Chief of Space Operations Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt announced Jan. 5 at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that the document is nearing completion. “We are just days away from signing off on the strategy,” Burt said. This blueprint will guide the Space Force’s integration of commercial satellite services into its routine operations, aiming to leverage private sector innovation to strengthen U.S. military space systems. (1/5)

FAA Rethinks its Return-to-Office Policy, Sets Lower In-Person Goal Than Previously Expected (Source: FNN)
The Federal Aviation Administration is bringing its employees back to the office more often later this month — but less often than it previously expected. The FAA expects telework-eligible employees with approved telework agreements will report in person to their official worksite for an average of four days each two-week pay period, starting Jan. 28.

The agency revised its return-to-office expectations, after getting pushback last summer from the unions that represent the FAA workforce. The FAA previously announced its employees would return to the office at least three days per week — or six days per pay period — starting on Oct. 9, 2023. (1/3)

Mapping the Unseen: How AI and Satellite Technology Reveal Offshore Activities (Source: Space Daily)
A newly published study in the journal Nature combines satellite images, vessel GPS data and artificial intelligence to reveal human industrial activities across the ocean over a five-year period. Researchers at Global Fishing Watch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing ocean governance through increased transparency of human activity at sea, led this study, in collaboration with me and our colleagues at Duke University, University of California, Santa Barbara and SkyTruth. (1/4)

Privatized Moon Landings: A New Era of Commercial Lunar Exploration (Source: Space Daily)
Two commercial spacecraft are scheduled to launch to the Moon early in 2024 under a NASA initiative called the Commercial Lunar Payload Service CLPS. This program is intended to kickstart a commercial transportation service that can deliver NASA experiments and other payloads to the lunar surface. If successful, these missions will represent the first landings on the Moon by spacecraft designed and flown by private companies. They could potentially open up a new era of commercial lunar exploration and science. Click here. (1/4)

The Challenge of Joint Space Operations (Source: Space Daily)
For the United States and its allies and partners, using space to obtain an information advantage is a key aspect of joint operations. The joint force uses space operations to understand the battlespace, exercise command and control (C2), and conduct joint integrated fires. For decades, the United States has enjoyed a significant operational advantage in space, but China is challenging that.

China has studied U.S. doctrine and tactics and has organized to counter U.S. space-based technology through a set of distributed capabilities. The United States still has the greatest global space operational capability. However, as illustrated in the 2026 scenario, China's use of space at a regional level to gain battlespace awareness, disrupt U.S. C2, and target U.S. forces is rapidly improving-as is its ability to disrupt and degrade space operations through terrestrial and space-based means. Click here. (1/4)

How Cowded Are the Oceans? New Satellite Maps Show What Flew Under the Radar Until Now (Source: The Verge)
Using satellite imagery and AI, researchers have mapped human activity at sea with more precision than ever before. The effort exposed a huge amount of industrial activity that previously flew under the radar, from suspicious fishing operations to an explosion of offshore energy development.

The maps were published today in the journal Nature. The research led by Google-backed nonprofit Global Fishing Watch revealed that a whopping three-quarters of the world’s industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked. Up to 30 percent of transport and energy vessels also escape public tracking. (1/3)

NASA Adjusts Agreements to Benefit Commercial Station Development (Source: NASA)
NASA has modified agreements for two funded commercial space station partners that are on track to develop low Earth orbit destinations for NASA and other customers as the International Space Station retires in 2030. The changes add new technical milestones and reallocate existing funding to allow the agency to accelerate efforts as part of NASA’s goal to foster a commercial low Earth orbit economy.

The changes are a result of a previously announced joining of Northrop Grumman and Starlab partners originally working under separate Space Act Agreements. NASA has transferred funding freed up from the withdrawal of Northrop Grumman from its agreement with NASA, as well as other program funding, to add new milestones to the existing agreements with Blue Origin and Starlab. (1/5)

Govt Allows Global Companies to Launch Satellite Communication Services in Pakistan (Source: Pakistan Today)
Under the National Space Policy, international companies including Starlink are allowed to launch satellite communication services in Pakistan after obtaining NOC from the Ministry of Defence. The caretaker government has given its approval to the National Space Policy, permitting private-sector companies to deploy low-earth orbit satellites for satellite communication services in Pakistan. The move is expected to address the estimated annual economic loss of $40 million attributed to the unregulated space sector, where a significant portion of resources remains untapped. (1/5)

2024 Set To Be a Big Year for Space Exploration (Source: Texas Standard)
2024 is well underway, and with every new year comes big plans for the future. Some people start their fitness journeys, others organize their reading lists… and some finalize plans for space travel. This year, NASA and other space agencies around the world are gearing up to explore the solar system. For a celestial breakdown of what to expect in 2024, click here. (1/5)

Are You Ready to Take This Crazy Ride to Space in an 8-Passenger Luxury Balloon? (Source: Fox News)
Space travel has long been the stuff of dreams, reserved for astronauts and elite scientists. However, a company called Space Perspective is changing the game with its groundbreaking spacecraft, Spaceship Neptune. Its goal is to make space accessible to everyone through its unique approach to space tourism. Recently, Space Perspective unveiled the first images of its completed test capsule structure, marking a significant milestone in its journey toward making space exploration a reality for tourists. Click here. (1/6)

No Gender Bias At ISRO, Only Talent Matters: Woman Behind Aditya L1 Mission (Source: NDTV)
Her disarming smile could even make the fiery Sun go tame. She is a worthy daughter of a mathematics graduate who turned to farming by choice, and is leading India's Aditya L-1 satellite. Nigar Shaji is a scientist at the UR Rao Satellite Centre, part of ISRO, in Bengaluru and is the project director for India's first space-based solar observatory. She is one of many women who have led teams at the Indian space agency to make complex satellite missions.

It has been an over four-month-long marathon in space where Aditya L1 traversed more than 3.7 million km in a circuitous path to finally be able to do a continuous "celestial surya namaskar" and study the Sun on an uninterrupted basis. Only a handful of countries have ventured to make space-based solar observatories, says Ms Shaji, so India joins a select club. Contrary to what many believe that there is a gender bias at the Department of Space, Ms Shaji told NDTV "there is no glass ceiling for women at ISRO". She says at ISRO, only talent matters, and gender plays no role. (1/6)

India Injects Aditya-L1 at La, Designed to Study Sun, in Halo Orbit (Source: Times of India)
India's space agency successfully delivered its Aditya-L1 solar probe into the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1), 1.5 million-km from Earth, from where it will study the Sun for an expected period of five years. The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors. (1/6)

Space Security in the Americas Can No Longer Go Overlooked (Source: Space News)
As the space security conversation advances, one region that continues to be largely overlooked is Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). However, space security should matter to the countries of the region — even to those for whom space is not a recognized priority today — and the United States should realize that with space security gaps mounting, there are important benefits to bringing the conversation closer to home.

A variety of space activities have proliferated in LAC as of late. In March, Brazil celebrated the first commercial space launch from its Alcântara space center, a central feature of the leading space program in the region. In September, Costa Rica hosted the first Central American Space Conference. Mexico’s first lunar exploration mission, the Colmena Project, will arrive onboard Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander in early 2024. Click here. (1/5)

The Early Universe Was Bananas (Source: New York Times)
According to an analysis of new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, baby galaxies were neither eggs nor discs. They were bananas. Or pickles, or cigars, or surfboards — choose your own metaphor. That is the tentative conclusion of a team of astronomers who re-examined images of some 4,000 newborn galaxies observed by Webb at the dawn of time. (1/5)

Gravitec Plans Launch Services at One or More Spaceports (Sources: Gravitec, SPACErePORT)
Orlando-based Gravitec is exploring access to one or more spaceports for their planned Rocket Launch Service. The company's president, Hector Serrano, indicated on LinkedIn that he will discuss with Space Florida the use of Launch Complex 46 for LEO launch operations, which are projected to begin in 2025. The company is developing a "propellantless propulsion" space drive that would be used aboard satellites to extend the orbital duration of ultra-low-orbit constellations. The company's website does not address its plans for a launch service, and it's unlikely that their in-space propulsion tech would form the basis of a launch vehicle. (1/5)

NASA Responds to Navajo Nation's Request to Delay Private Lunar Mission (Source: Space.com)
Tucked away on the Vulcan mission's manifest are sets of human DNA and remains, which are going up on memorial spaceflights offered by two different companies, Celestis and Elysium Space. Celestis will send one of its memorial payloads off into the final frontier of deep space on its Enterprise mission, while its Tranquility payload will ride to the moon on the Peregrine lander. Elysium Space will also place its own payload on the moon with Peregrine.

In response, the President of the Navajo Nation, Buu Nygren, has filed a formal objection with NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation over what he calls an act of desecration. "It is crucial to emphasize that the moon holds a sacred position in many Indigenous cultures, including ours," Nygren wrote in a letter dated Dec. 21. "The act of depositing human remains and other materials, which could be perceived as discards in any other location, on the moon is tantamount to desecration of this sacred space." Nygren has asked NASA to delay the mission until the Navajo Nation's objections are addressed.

NASA representatives addressed the controversy over the payloads containing human remains being included on the mission, noting that the mission is a private, commercial effort and that NASA has merely contracted for its scientific payloads to be transported to the moon. "We don't have the framework for telling them what they can and can't fly," said Chris Culbert, Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The approval process doesn't run through NASA for commercial missions." (1/4)

Space Stocks Rally After Selloff (Source: Market Watch)
Space stocks rallied in premarket trades Thursday after selling off in Wednesday’s session. Shares of Momentus Inc. MNTS, -0.70%, which provides satellite transportation and servicing, rose 3.3% in premarket trades Thursday after ending Wednesday’s session down 12.3%. Wednesday’s slide extended the shares’ losing streak to five days and was also the stock’s biggest single-day percentage decline since Dec. 6, 2023, when it fell 12.6%. Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc.’s SPCE, -0.43% stock also rallied Thursday, rising 2.2% in premarket trades after ending Wednesday’s session down 2.5%. Rocket Lab USA Inc. RKLB, -1.28% rose 1.6% premarket after falling 4% Wednesday. (1/4)

Satellite Observations Show Major Cities on US East Coast are Sinking (Source: Space.com)
Images collected by numerous satellites have shown that major cities and population centers across the U.S. East Coast are sinking. Land sinking, or "subsidence," as seen by these satellites, is dangerous because it can undermine the foundations of buildings, potentially causing collapse. It can also damaging roads as well as gas and water lines. When coupled with rising sea levels caused by human-driven climate change, subsidence in coastal regions can increase the risk of flooding and worsen subsequent damage.

Among the particularly hard-hit areas are New York City, Long Island, Baltimore, Virginia Beach, and Norfolk, which are experiencing areas of rapid subsidence next to slower-sinking regions and even stable patches of land. This poses a risk to infrastructure like roads, building foundations, pipelines, rail lines and even airport runways. (1/4)

The First Secret Asteroid Mission Won’t Be the Last (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Sometime in the coming year, a spacecraft from AstroForge, an American asteroid-mining firm, may be launched on a mission to a rocky object near Earth’s orbit. If successful, it will be the first wholly commercial deep-space mission beyond the moon. AstroForge, however, is keeping its target asteroid secret.

The secret space-rock mission is the latest in an emerging trend that astronomers and other experts do not welcome: commercial space missions conducted covertly. Such missions highlight gaps in the regulation of spaceflight as well as concerns about whether exploring the cosmos will continue to benefit all humankind.

“I’m very much not in favor of having stuff swirling around the inner solar system without anyone knowing where it is,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts. “It seems like a bad precedent to set.” But for AstroForge, the calculation is simple: If it reveals the destination, a competitor may grab the asteroid’s valuable metals for itself. (1/2)